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-01974

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will list the vessels in the CalMac fleet, broken down by those that are currently (a) in and (b) out of service.

The information available is in the following table (As of 11 August 2021)

Marine Vessels	In Service	Out of Service
ARGYLL FLYER		X
ALI CAT	X
ARGYLE	X
BUTE	X
CALEDONIAN ISLES	X
CARVORIA	X
CATRIONA	X
CHIEFTAIN	x
CLANSMAN	X
CORUISK	X
FINLAGGAN	X
HALLAIG	X
HEBRIDEAN ISLES	X
HEBRIDES	X
ISLE of ARRAN	X
ISLE of CUMBRAE	X
ISLE of LEWIS	X
ISLE of MULL	X
LOCH ALAINN	X
LOCH BHRUSDA	X
LOCH BUIE	X
LOCH DUNVEGAN	X
LOCH FYNE	X
LOCH LINNHE	X
LOCH PORTAIN	X
LOCH RANZA	X
LOCH RIDDON	X
LOCH SEAFORTH	X
LOCH SHIRA	X
LOCH STRIVEN	X
LOCH TARBERT	X
LOCHINVAR	X
LOCHNEVIS	X
LORD of the ISLES	X

Question reference: S6W-02032

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to provide governance and direction to local authorities to ensure that they are using the £500 million Bus Partnership Fund to promote bus use and support action on climate change.

Proposals to the Bus Partnership Fund are assessed against criteria which focus on the climate benefits of mode shift from private car to public transport. The criteria and weightings are as follows:

• Evidence of congestion and ideas to reduce congestion, through improved bus services (40%)

• How the proposal fits with the partnership area’s overall strategy for integrated transport, to encourage a modal shift from cars to more sustainable transport and reduce emissions (25%)

• Partnership strength and demonstrated commitment, which will include match in kind (20%)

• Deliverability: the ability of the lead local authority and its partners to deliver the proposed developments, including local political buy-in (15%)

Successful bidders to the fund are required to submit monthly progress reports to Transport Scotland. Each subsequent tranche of funding will be dependent upon their passing gateway reviews, which will provide further assurance that the funded infrastructure developments support action on climate change.

Question reference: S6W-01983

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when its Air Departure Tax (ADT) Highlands and Islands Working Group last met, and when it will next meet.

As agreed in the ADT Highlands and Islands Working Group terms of reference, the Group met three times. The last of these meetings took place on 4 February 2019

The Group offered external challenge to our consideration of options, and made a valuable contribution to the evidence base in support of maintaining the Highlands and Islands exemption, producing new analysis that underlined its importance to the region.

There are no current plans for the Group to meet again. Scottish Ministers will however continue to consider this on an ongoing basis, taking account of relevant developments.

More information on the Highlands and Islands Working Group can be found here:

https://www.gov.scot/groups/adt-highlands-and-islands-working-group/

Question reference: S6W-02033

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to provide funding for a further Transport Scotland exhaust retrofit scheme to support the bus sector in ensuring existing fleets can meet Low Emission Zone (LEZ) requirements.

The Bus Emissions Abatement Retrofit Programme (BEAR) Phases 1, 2 & 3 has made available £12.2 million funding to support the costs of retrofitting of 762 mid-life buses and coaches to Euro 6 standard in Scottish Air Quality Management Areas from 2018 to 2021. A further £5.7 million is being made available in Phase 4 of the scheme. This launched on the 31 st of July and closes for applications on the 26th of August 2021.

Question reference: S6W-01980

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have had their applications (a) approved and (b) declined for each level of subsidy in the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme, also broken down by local authority area.

As of 2 August 2021:(a) 1470 vouchers have been approved for the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS). We have defined this as instances where the connection has been delivered or where the voucher has been issued to a supplier but build has yet to complete. Of these, 333 vouchers have been approved through the Interim Voucher Scheme and 1137 vouchers have been approved through the Main Voucher Scheme.

Vouchers approved through the SBVS to date are broken down by local authority as follows:

Local Authority	Interim Vouchers Approved	Main Vouchers Approved	Total Vouchers Approved
Aberdeen City	0	11	11
Aberdeenshire	10	311	321
Angus	1	134	135
Argyll & Bute	5	38	43
City of Edinburgh	0	3	3
Clackmannanshire	6	4	10
Dumfries & Galloway	53	35	88
Dundee City	0	11	11
East Ayrshire	8	5	13
East Dunbartonshire	0	1	1
East Lothian	0	21	21
East Renfrewshire	2	3	5
Falkirk	3	2	5
Fife	7	19	26
Glasgow City	0	3	3
Highland	19	234	253
Inverclyde	0	0	0
Midlothian	5	2	7
Moray	7	83	90
North Ayrshire	7	7	14
North Lanarkshire	3	6	9
Orkney Islands	0	61	61
Perth & Kinross	10	57	67
Renfrewshire	4	2	6
Scottish Borders	98	55	153
Shetland Islands	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	2	3	5
South Lanarkshire	9	15	24
Stirling	71	11	82
West Dunbartonshire	2	0	2
West Lothian	1	0	1
Western Isles	0	0	0
Total	333	1137	1470

(b) 14 project pre-registered packages (applications for specific premises and can be for single or multiple premises) have been classified as rejected. As full beneficiary details relating to these project pre-registered packages is not available, it is not possible to break this information down further by level of subsidy or local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-01566

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that people are not being directed away from NHS A&E departments without a proper clinical assessment.

Question reference: S6W-01802

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its strategy is for the digitisation of people's medical records.

Our strategy is for all health records to be held electronically. The majority of people’s medical records are already digitised, following significant investment in GP IT systems in primary care and full implementation of the TrakCare patient management system in secondary care. We recognise, however, that paper-based records still exist within the service, particularly within individual clinical specialties, and that there remain a number of older records that have not been fully scanned or digitised. Health Boards continue to work through these challenges. Our forthcoming refreshed Digital Health & Care Strategy will set out further ambitions for greater patient access to their medical information.

Question reference: S6W-01792

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the NHS budget is spent on general practice costs.

Question reference: S6W-02011

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements it has made regarding its policy and practice for note-taking during its meetings to ensure that all details are recorded.

The Civil Service Code of Conduct (Scottish Government & Agencies 2010) clarifies that civil servants are responsible for keeping accurate official records relating to decisions and key conversations. These responsibilities are discharged through the relevant business unit, with chairpersons and secretariats having responsibility for capturing key decisions or actions in the minutes of meetings and ensuring these are saved as part of the corporate record.

Question reference: S6W-01563

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the alleged findings of the report, External Review – Culture and Governance, Emergency Department, Forth Valley Royal Hospital, what (a) action it is taking and (b) discussions it is having with NHS Forth Valley to ensure that people who had not been informed of mistakes in their patient care are now advised of these errors, and, to avoid the risk of a claim being time-barred, whether it will ensure that any subsequent legal or civil action can be dated from the date that the person was informed an error had taken place, and not the date of the error.