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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2406 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-25797

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the £3.7 million additional investment being made in facilities and equipment at the current (a) Royal Hospital for Sick Children and (b) Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and which investments, broken down by cost, (i) replicate facilities or equipment already installed at the new site, (ii) can be transferred to the new site and (iii) will be written off as a one-year spend.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-25543 on 30 September 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

These costings are estimated and we are not in the position to provide that level of specificity at this point. As the position clarifies, I will update Members in due course.

Question reference: S5W-25558

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that there is an increased risk of death for people with epilepsy taking methadone, whether it has considered dispensing methadone and anti-epilepsy drugs at the same time.

All medicines are prescribed based on clinical need. Doctors and other prescribers should always discuss treatment options with individuals. Prescribing decisions are based on national clinical guidelines which outline recommendations for effective practice based on current evidence. All prescriptions should be reviewed regularly to ensure individuals continue achieve the best possible health outcomes. Where individuals are concerned about the effect their medicines are having on their general wellbeing they should discuss this with their GP, pharmacist or other relevant healthcare professional as soon as possible.

Question reference: S5O-03669

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the findings of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland publication, MHA monitoring report 2018-19.

Question reference: S5W-25600

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to concerns that, because it could lead to the price per millilitre of smaller alcohol-filled products increasing relative to that for larger items, having a universal flat-rate deposit fee might lead to consumers choosing to purchase larger products, resulting in increased alcohol consumption, and what analysis it has carried out of studies from Croatia, which suggest that, between 2008 and 2018, having such a flat-rate fee saw the consumption of smaller beer bottles fall by 80 million units while that for larger items increased.

The Scottish Government published “A Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland: Full Business Regulatory Impact Assessment” (BRIA) on 9 July 2019. That BRIA concluded that any impact on consumer choice, including a shift towards purchasing larger sized products, is likely to be small. The decision to pursue a scheme design which maximises consumer convenience and targets a high capture rate should help to mitigate this impact.

Where changes in consumer purchasing habits have taken place in other countries that operate deposit return, our analysis suggests that other policy interventions and consumer trends have often been a factor. In the case of Croatia, our understanding is that the most significant changes in demand for larger format containers occurred 5 years after the introduction of deposit return.

Question reference: S5W-25711

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to tackle the spread of (a) Himalayan balsam and (b) other invasive plants.

As one of the five main drivers of biodiversity loss, the Scottish Government has for many years taken the control of invasive non-native species seriously. While Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and other public bodies take an operational lead on supporting the control of invasive non-native plants in priority areas, the main responsibility for the management of invasive non-native species rests with landowners and developers.

In Scotland, there is a well-established approach to managing Himalayan balsam. It is listed as a species of Union concern under the EU Invasive Alien Species Regulation and the Scottish Parliament has recently passed legislation putting in place penalties and enforcement measures for breach of the Regulation.

Planting non-native plants in the wild is already an offence in Scotland, under section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is also an offence to help or cause non-native plants grow in the wild. Landowners and occupiers are required to take all reasonable steps and to exercise all due diligence to prevent invasive non-native plants from spreading into the wild.

In 2020, the Tweed Forum, who work to promote the sustainable land and water management of the Tweed catchment, will be trialling the effectiveness of a type of rust fungus in controlling Himalayan balsam for the first time in Scotland. This is one of the projects being funded under the Scottish Government’s Biodiversity Challenge Fund.

We are also working with SNH to develop an approach which prioritises the control of Himalayan balsam, giant hogweed and invasive knotweeds, which we plan to consult on this winter and publish in 2020. This document will set out landowners’ responsibilities for invasive plants on their land and identify which locations are a high priority for effort to control them.

The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy’s working group on invasive non-native species has identified five invasive plants on its Management Priorities List. These are invasive plants for which strategic control at landscape-scale is a cost-effective way of helping to restore degraded ecosystems and reduce the pressures on vulnerable priority species.

Question reference: S5W-25556

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 18 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered creating a Scotland-wide epilepsy register or database.

Question reference: S5W-25548

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 27 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 9 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19904 by Joe FitzPatrick on 22 November 2018, what progress it has made on implementing a national identification system to access defibrillators through the British Heart Foundation National Defibrillator Network project.

Scotland’s Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Strategy recognises the importance of Public Access Defibrillator’s (PADs) and aims to have effective arrangements in place to ensure they are mapped, maintained and accessible to the public.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) have worked in partnership to develop ‘The Circuit’ National Defibrillator Network and this is now live in Scotland.

The Circuit aims to integrate with ambulance dispatch and be able to map the location of PADs across the UK. It has integrated with the existing SAS PADs database linked to Call Handling that had already been in operation in Scotland. This enables SAS call handlers to direct a caller at the location of a cardiac arrest to a PAD when one is nearby. The SAS continues to work with partners on engagement and marketing campaigns to encourage PAD registration on The Circuit.

Question reference: S5W-25554

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 27 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether its work developing its draft Falls and Fractures Strategy was done in tandem with its National Transport Strategy in order to ensure a joined-up approach.

Question reference: S5F-03628

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 October 2019

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S5W-25528

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 4 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the introduction of large print ballot papers, and whether it will take action to ensure that all polling places will offer these.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting ideas that may reduce barriers to voting. Following the Electoral Reform public consultation, which took place in 2018, workshops with people with sight loss have taken place to explore how accessibility to elections can be improved. A number of ideas have emerged that are currently under active consideration.

Large print ballot papers are an option which could be taken forward. They do have the disadvantage of potentially jeopardising the secrecy of the vote but this would need to be more fully explored.

Under existing election rules, Returning Officers must equip polling stations with at least one enlarged sample copy of the ballot paper for display at the station and at least one enlarged hand-held sample copy of the ballot paper for the assistance of voters who are partially sighted. Returning Officers are also required to provide a device, the “tactile voting instrument”, which is designed to enable voters who are blind or partially-sighted to vote without any need for assistance from the presiding officer or any companion.

The Scottish Government will share plans for innovation to improve access to voting for those with sight loss once further engagement with stakeholders has taken place.