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-11704

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10649 by John Swinney on 2 September 2022, how much of the money that has been distributed in payments by Scotland's Redress Scheme to date has come from (a) taxpayer funds, (b) organisations on the official list of contributors and (c) NHS boards.

Applicants have six months from receipt of offer of payment to accept or decline the offer. As of 31 October 2022 payments totalling £8,570,168 have been made to survivors or their next of kin.

The most recently available data for payment breakdown, as of 30 September 2022, shows that redress payments of £3,464,900 have been attributed to organisations contributing to the scheme. The NHS boards contribution is included in this figure, however, for survivor data privacy reasons further breakdown of the data to the level of individual organisations would not be appropriate at this time.

There are 16 contributors, with potential contributions agreed reaching £122m. The live list has been published online since 8 December 2021.

Question reference: S6O-01517

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what additional strain excessive alcohol consumption is having on the NHS.

Question reference: S6W-11694

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will announce the successful bids for Green Freeport status, following the joint bidding process with the UK Government.

Question reference: S6W-11692

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce the number of (a) car and (b) catalytic converter thefts.

Measures to combat crimes of this nature are an operational matter for Police Scotland.

Since 2012-13, crimes of dishonesty, which includes theft of a motor vehicle, theft from a motor vehicle and a number of other kinds of theft and dishonesty have reduced by 32%. However, that should not detract from the seriousness of these incidents when they do occur.

Supporting Police Scotland to keep our communities safe remains a priority for the Scottish Government. Policing services have been maintained and improved and we have invested over £10 billion in policing since the creation of the single service in 2013.

We will continue supporting the vital work of Police Scotland in delivering effective and responsive policing across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-11334

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the drug, zanubrutinib, which can be used to treat people with Waldenström's macroglobulinaemia, which is a form of blood cancer and lymphoma, has reportedly been approved for use in England and Wales but not in Scotland, and whether approval of its use in Scotland will be reconsidered.

In Scotland, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) appraises the clinical and cost-effectiveness of newly-licensed medicines. Following a full submission for zanubrutinib (Brukinsa ® ) as monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with Waldenström’s macroglobulinaemia (WM) who have received at least one prior therapy, or in first line treatment for patients unsuitable for chemo-immunotherapy, the SMC issued ‘not recommended’ advice for routine use of this medicine in NHS Scotland on 12 September 2022. The advice detailed that a comparable drug is currently available for this indication, and the company did not present a sufficiently robust economic analysis to gain acceptance by the SMC.

However, the SMC has received a fast track resubmission which was reviewed at the SMC’s Committee meeting on 4 October 2022, and its advice will be published on 7 November 2022. In the meantime, you can access a summary of the current status of this resubmission on the SMC’s website here .

There are alternative routes of access available for a medicine that is not recommended by the SMC. A doctor can request access to licensed medicines for a patient on an individual ‘case-by-case’ basis through the Peer Approved Clinical System (PACS) Tier Two process, where a doctor considers there would be a clinical benefit for a patient.

The decision on whether to prescribe a medicine for a patient, and which medicine to prescribe, is entirely one for the clinician in charge of a patient’s care to make, having taken into account the patient’s clinical condition and the safety of the patient.

Question reference: S6W-11318

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will implement the fireworks licensing scheme.

The Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 was passed by the Scottish Parliament in June of this year and received Royal Assent on 10 August.

Work is underway to implement the measures within the Act. Firework licensing, Part 2 of the Act, requires secondary legislation and the development of an appropriate licensing system as part of implementation. The licensing system will therefore not be in place until late 2023/early 2024 at the earliest.

Question reference: S6W-11319

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the risk review group investigating failed assessments of the Level of Service/Case Management Inventory is due to report.

Since the Level of Service Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI) IT errors were identified three forms of review have been underway:

Open cases review
Risk Management Authority review
IT review

Letters have been submitted to the Criminal Justice Committee on 3 March 2022, 12 May 2022, 28 June 2022, and 27 September 2022, providing updates on these three review elements.

The Risk Management Authority review is not looking at “failed assessments”. They are exploring impact from the known system error in relation to risk and scoring. Part of that review is an assessment of possible material impact, as it is a feature of risk assessment that much more than one IT system output goes into the risk assessment process.

With the caveat that the review work has to be led by what is found at each phase, it is currently anticipated that phase 3 of this work will conclude in November 2022 and report thereafter.

Question reference: S6O-01479

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its engagement with stakeholders regarding its Covid Recovery Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-11317

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-11020

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 4 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Victim Centred Approach Fund.