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: S6F-00343

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 October 2021

To ask the First Minister, in light of this being Libraries Week, what the Scottish Government’s response is to reports that some libraries remain closed.

Question reference: S6F-00341

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 October 2021

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the announcement that the SQA has entered a two-year agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to improve equalities practices after the Commission established that the SQA was not routinely assessing the impact of its policies and practices against the three needs of the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Question reference: S6F-00327

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 October 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-00326

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 October 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-03309

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many visitors it anticipates there will be to Glasgow for COP26.

Question reference: S6W-03284

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the roll-out of the new digital platform to support group treatments and therapies for patients experiencing mental ill health.

The Scottish Government recognises that the lack of a national platform for group therapy has been challenging for services, that is why we have been working with the software developers, Attend Anywhere, to develop their platform Near Me as suitable solution to undertake patient facing group video consultations. Developers are currently testing the Alpha version of the Near Me group platform and it is anticipated that a Beta version (testing by clinicians) of the system will be available for testing with patients in November with full release shortly thereafter.

Meantime, we have issued guidance for NHS Scotland on the use of video consultation for group therapy using existing platforms, available from the Technology Enabled Care Scotland webpage. Use of Video Consulting in Group Settings for Mental Health Guidance | TEC Scotland

Question reference: S6W-03001

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comments by the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport on 9 September 2021 that “I hope that all those members of the Scottish Parliament from the north-east will get behind the Acorn project”, whether all its ministers, including those in the Scottish Green Party and those representing the north-east, share this view.

The Scottish Government supports the development of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) as an industrial scale decarbonisation system which has the potential to make a big impact on achieving Scotland’s emissions targets. The advice from the Climate Change Committee describes CCUS as a “necessity, not an option” to achieve net zero emissions.

The Scottish Government is supportive of the Acorn project at St Fergus, Aberdeenshire, considered the UK’s most advanced CCS project; we have worked closely with the Acorn project team from inception and provided policy support and funding through its feasibility and development phases. We believe that the Acorn CCS project is uniquely placed to be the least-cost and most deliverable opportunity to deploy a full chain CCS project in the UK, providing opportunities to repurpose existing legacy oil and gas pipeline infrastructure, and close access to vast offshore CO2 storage sites.

Acorn is leading the Scottish bid into UK Government’s cluster sequencing process to allow CCS to be deployed by the mid-2020s, and we are supportive of this bid. It is critical that the UK Government’s cluster sequencing process recognises Acorn CCS as one of the first two projects to commercialise in the 2020s.

The August 2021 agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party recognises that CCUS technologies will play a part in a just transition , and that ( t)he Scottish Government remains supportive of these technologies as part of the energy transition and in particular it remains committed to supporting the delivery of the Acorn project.

Question reference: S6W-03152

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 September 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many times each local authority has paid (a) Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) and (b) the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) when purchasing off-the-shelf properties in each year since it was introduced, also broken down by the value of LBTT or ADS revenue collected.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Revenue Scotland, in its role as Scotland’s fully devolved tax collection and management authority, regularly publishes data on its website regarding the number of transactions subject to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), including the Additional Dwelling Supplement. The LBTT tax return does not however allow for capture of the information requested.

Question reference: S6W-03173

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a University of Aberdeen study that suggested that there was evidence of potential for an opioid problem associated with the influence of COVID-19 on elective orthopaedic services to emerge.

The decision about which treatment to prescribe is a clinical decision made by the prescriber in discussion with the patient, taking into account the individual’s condition and medical history.

Guidance is available to assist prescribers and Scottish Government is in the process of reviewing its “Quality Prescribing for Chronic Pain – A Guide for Improvement” which will include information on addressing the issue of over-treatment with a focus on self-management and non-pharmaceutical treatment of long-term conditions, highlighting the issue of high strength opioid medicines misuse and encouraging clinicians to discuss concerns openly with patients.

Over the period covered by the University of Aberdeen study, steroid injections (a commonly used therapeutic option for Osteoarthritis awaiting surgery) were reduced on advice from Royal College of Rheumatology due to the risk of activation of latent Covid 19 and risk of immunosuppression and susceptibility to the virus, this could have led to an increase in opioid pain medication prescriptions to compensate. Analysis from Public Health Scotland (PHS) shows a marked reduction in the number of corticosteroid injections between March 2020 and April 2021 before returning to previous levels. Analysis from PHS, however, does not indicate an overall increase in opioid pain medication prescriptions over the same period.

Question reference: S6W-03195

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what options it is considering to ensure that glass does not exit closed-loop recycling, if the forthcoming deposit return scheme does not include a re-melt target.

Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, as amended by the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012, requires any person who manages controlled waste to apply the Waste Hierarchy set out in Article 4(1) of Directive 2009/98/EC (the “Waste Framework Directive”) and to take reasonable steps to increase the quantity and quality of recyclable materials, with the desired outcome being closed-loop recycling.

The scheme administrator for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme will therefore have to ensure glass is sorted and processed in a way that maintains the recyclate in a high-value state.