Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-04633

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to continue the discussions and networking established by the Glasgow Climate Dialogues beyond COP26, and whether it will use its role as Co-chair of the Under2 Coalition of sub-states, cities and regions to promote a similar dialogue among all the Under2 Coalition members.

The Scottish Government will continue to build on the discussion and networking that was in place before and was developed through the Glasgow Climate Dialogues at COP26. This includes hearing directly from partners in the Global South and working in collaboration on shared issues.

As European co-chair, Scotland is committed to promoting values of justice and inclusivity within the Under2 Coalition. This includes championing dialogue with and response to the interests of members from the Global South.

The Just Transition Alliance the Scottish Government established at COP26 will act as a vehicle for discussion, knowledge sharing and action across Coalition members on issues of voice, inclusion and fairness.

Question reference: S6W-04611

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to extend access to legal aid.

The scope of legal aid will be considered as part of the development of a Bill, and I refer to my response to S6W-04609 on 8 December 2021 which provides information on the Scottish Government’s plans to reform legal aid. The Scottish Government has previously committed, in its response to the Independent Review on Legal Aid by Martyn Evan, that legal aid will continue to be available for a wide range of cases and proceedings.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-04591

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring is carried out by (a) GP practices and (b) pharmacists regarding cases of suspected addiction to painkillers.

GP practice records show lists of acute and repeat prescribed medication lists during consultations with quantities of medication prescribed. Over ordering of repeat medication (or repeated consultations for acute prescriptions) are therefore visible on the acute and repeat prescribing sections of the medical records. It is therefore possible to add minimum days before reordering of monthly repeat medications to help prevent medication being ordered early or alert future prescribers to the potential for suspected addiction. ‘Special notes’ can be added or alerts to the patient record in daytime practice to inform prescribers of previous medication seeking behaviour or suspected addiction to pain medication. This information can be added to the patients ‘Special notes’ to be visible to Out of Hours services. Scottish Government is developing tools to accurately display prescribing habits to clinicians during consultations in order to help identify medication (including analgesic) over/under use.

Question reference: S6W-04632

Asked by: Dr Alasdair Allan, MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what areas of activity of David MacBrayne Ltd and CalMac Ferries would typically be considered appropriate for an Island Communities Impact Assessment under the duties of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018.

Question reference: S6W-04542

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the (a) sexual orientation and (b) gender identity of people accessing mental health services is routinely recorded.

This information is not routinely recorded at present. The Scottish Government has commissioned Directors of eHealth in NHS Boards, working with others, including Public Health Scotland (PHS), to work to improve the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) digital infrastructure. This will enable the recording and extraction of the full CAMHS and Psychological Therapies (PT) National Dataset (CAPTND), which contains equalities characteristics of patients accessing these services.

Question reference: S6W-04413

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what additional resources it will provide to Edinburgh City Council to address the reported social care issues in the city.

Question reference: S6W-04619

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what recent estimate it has made of the number of small and medium-sized enterprises that have closed in the Central Scotland region, broken down by month since June 2020.

Business births, deaths and survival rates - based on VAT/PAYE registrations and de-registrations - are produced by the Office for National Statistics within their Business Demography publications. Data are not published for parliamentary regions, however data are available by local authority area. Data are not available on a monthly basis, only on a calendar year basis. Tables 2.1(a), (b) and (c) at the link below provide the business deaths by local authority areas, in Scotland, for 2015 to 2020.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/datasets/businessdemographyreferencetable

Question reference: S6W-04720

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04529 by Mairi Gougeon on 26 November 2021, how many hectares of peatland will be restored under the scheme as a result of the 251 successful applications, and how many hectares in total were the subject of the 49 unsuccessful applications.

Question reference: S6W-04675

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been diagnosed with (a) malnutrition and (b) conditions associated with malnutrition in the last year.

Question reference: S6W-04663

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that chronic pain patients receive pain relief injections when they are scheduled to do so.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04313 on 3 December 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Further to this answer, I can update that the public consultation on the draft Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery is now available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/draft-framework-chronic-pain-service-delivery .