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-23102

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the development of the proposed new homelessness prevention duties.

In the Programme for Government 2023 to 2024 , the Scottish Government confirmed the Housing (Scotland) Bill will be brought forward as part of the year three legislative programme. This Bill will introduce new duties aimed at the prevention of homelessness.

We continue to engage with stakeholders, including COSLA and organisations from across the homelessness sector, on the development of the duties in order that we get our approach right.

The Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group convened a Task and Finish Group to set out recommendations on how best to prepare for the duties. We are considering the report which was published on 30 th August 2023 and will respond in due course.

Question reference: S6W-23106

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what share of the £350,000 funding to accelerate the distribution of Closed Loop Systems for people with type 1 diabetes was received by each NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-23139

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to support those experiencing chronic kidney disease (CKD), in light of the Kidney Disease UK finding that many of the 607,000 patients living with CKD feel “misunderstood and overlooked”.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living with kidney disease in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

We expect all NHS healthcare workers in Scotland to follow best practice when providing care for people with kidney disease and we continue to raise awareness of the symptoms, causes, diagnosis and prevention of kidney disease by providing and promoting information on chronic kidney disease for patients and their families on NHS Inform .

We also continue to support the work of the Scottish Renal Registry which promotes excellence in renal care in Scotland including audits on the delivery of renal replacement therapy. The most recent report from registry was published by Public Health Scotland in October 2023 and provides vital information for Health Boards, service managers and individual clinicians to help improve care and standards for people with chronic kidney disease.

Question reference: S6W-22929

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans to take in light of reports of suspected links between the state of Iran and the Al-Mahdi Islamic Centre of Glasgow, including in relation to the £200,000 funding reportedly granted to it by the Scottish Government.

The Al-Mahdi Foundation received £372k of Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) grant funding for 2 projects between 2014-2020 to support awareness raising of climate change issues amongst disadvantaged and ethnic minority communities and to make their community building more energy efficient.

The CCF was delivered by Keep Scotland Beautiful who were responsible for assessing all applications. Grant applications were subject to the relevant due diligence checks. Projects were monitored to ensure they delivered against their objectives and grants were paid out based on incurred expenditure.

National Security is a reserved matter. If there is any evidence of alleged criminality this should be reported to Police Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-23008

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people experiencing a stroke were transported to an A&E department by the Scottish Ambulance Service in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022 and (e) 2023 to date.

Question reference: S6W-23095

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12254 by Keith Brown on 29 November 2022, how many directors, managers or partners of corporate bodies were found guilty of offences under regulation 67 of the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012 in 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-23094

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12255 by Keith Brown on 29 November 2022, how many people were found guilty of offences under section 40(1) of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 in 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-23099

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm the costs associated with the (a) production and (b) publication of the paper, An independent Scotland in the EU.

The external costs associated with the production and publication of the Building a New Scotland paper, ‘An independent Scotland in the EU’, are set out in the following table:

Costs
Task	VAT %	VAT	Net Price
Formatting and Online Publication	20	1,197.35	5,986.77
Summary Document	20	66.82	334.10
Summary Document – Easy Read Version	20	193.42	967.10
Summary Document – Language Translations	20	1,530.04	7,650.22
Summary Document – BSL Translation	20	206.60	1,033.00
Summary Document – Audio Translation	20	31.92	159.61
Additional Document – PDF Only	20	44.52	222.61
Printed Copies	0	0	3,068.05

Total		£3,270.67	£19,421.46

Total (including VAT)			£22,692.13

Papers in the Building a New Scotland prospectus series are available at the following link: www.gov.scot/newscotland .

Question reference: S6W-23091

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider reclassifying environmental offences from "Miscellaneous offences" to their own distinct category of offences in its annual Recorded crime in Scotland publications.

During 2019 and 2021 the Scottish Crime Recording Board consulted users on Recorded Crime National Statistics. This included gathering their views on suggested changes to how crimes and offences were grouped within the statistics, and in the way findings are presented within the bulletin. The Recorded crime and police activity statistics consultation: summary of responses was published in March 2022.

As a result of this consultation, the previously named Miscellaneous offences group was split into two groups – Antisocial offences and Miscellaneous offences. The splitting of this group allowed for more detail at the crime category level, including the introduction of an Environmental offences crime category. Since June 2022, recorded crime statistics have been published at both crime group and crime category level, on a quarterly basis.

The Scottish Government do not have any current plans to consult further on the way we present this data, however we would be happy to provide more detailed data on specific crime or offence categories on request.

Question reference: S6W-23088

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15178 by Lorna Slater on 16 March 2023, whether it will provide an update on the work of its Serious & Organised Crime Taskforce in relation to Serious Organised Criminal Gangs (SOCG) activity in waste crime.

Environmental Waste Crime is a priority for the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce (SOCT), which has established an Environmental Waste Crime Working Group to take forward appropriate activity to disrupt the impact of organised crime groups in this sector and reduce the harm they cause to communities. Membership of the Working Group includes SEPA, COPFS, HMRC, NCA, Office of the Traffic Commissioner, Police Scotland and Resource Management Association Scotland.

The SOCT has recently published its Progress Report. The report offers case studies on some of the activity including environmental waste crime, undertaken by the SOCT and partners since March 2020.

Serious Organised Crime Taskforce Progress Report 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)