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-02869

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 February 2024

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6F-02863

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 February 2024

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to prevent convicted sex offenders from changing their identity.

Question reference: S6F-02861

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 February 2024

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to reports that the number of people living in temporary accommodation in Glasgow has increased by 25%.

Question reference: S6F-02856

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 February 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-02857

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 February 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-25480

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what specific actions it is taking to reduce waiting times for ear, nose and throat treatment.

The Scottish Government commissioned Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is playing a central role in working with Health Boards to ensure that they are able to continually identify new ways to increase capacity, and to respond to demand through service innovation and redesign.

CfSD programmes have developed strong clinically-led Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG), including one for Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT), which promote multidisciplinary team working, and support local adoption of service improvement programmes. These groups are now well established and have supported several new and innovative pathway developments to free-up additional capacity in the NHS system, many of which are now being successfully scaled up across Scotland. For ENT this includes Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT), Discharge Patient Initiated Review (PIR) and Opt-In Pathways.

We know there is more to do but we are making progress; since the introduction of our long wait targets in July 2022, ENT waits over two years have reduced by 93% for new outpatient appointments and by 54% for inpatient and day-case patients.

Question reference: S6W-25498

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the reasons for the reported increased number of unattended funerals.

The Scottish Government does not hold information about the types or numbers of funeral services in Scotland and does not make an assessment of trends in funeral choices.

Unattended funerals are most often direct cremations where there is no funeral service at a crematorium. Sometimes these are arranged as a preference by the deceased or by their relatives who might arrange a separate wake or celebration of the deceased’s life.

According to the recent Sunlife Cost of Dying report published in January 2024, the cost of a basic funeral rose from £3,953 in 2022 to £4,141 in 2023, an increase of 4.7%. The report shows there has been an increase in direct cremations over the past five years with 3% of funerals described as a direct cremation in 2019, rising to 20% in 2023. Direct cremations are often seen as a more affordable option but according to the Sunlife report there are various other reasons for choosing this option; this is often requested by the deceased or chosen because it is simpler to organise.

Issues relating to pricing and consumer protection are reserved to the UK Government. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) publish an annual review of market outcomes in the UK funerals sector and the most recent is available at: Review of funerals sector - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . Officials continue to engage with the CMA as required in relation to their Funeral Markets Investigation and the upcoming regulations for inspection of the funeral industry and licensing of funeral directors being made under the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016.

Question reference: S6W-25458

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-03036 by Angela Constance on 31 January 2024, whether the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs is aware that the Scottish Prison Service reportedly plans to derecognise Community as HMP Kilmarnock’s recognised trade union, and what the Scottish Government's position is on such a decision.

The Scottish Government is aware of the Scottish Prison Service’s (SPS) intention to maintain existing trade union arrangements for public sector prisons and the transferring staffing group will be covered by those existing arrangements.

It is SPS’s view that their existing trade union relationships are working well and that to recognise a further trade union with collective bargaining rights for the same group of staff, i.e. prison officers, would unnecessarily complicate the trade union landscape.

Question reference: S6W-25456

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many tankers of liquified natural gas will be required each week at Troon harbour for vessels 801 and 802.

Question reference: S6W-25461

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the total anticipated costs associated with the transfer of HMP Kilmarnock into the public sector.

The anticipated spend on the HMP Kilmarnock transition project for 2023-24 is £1.5m.

In 2024-25, the total running costs of HMP Kilmarnock are anticipated around £18.6m, to accommodate around 600 people. This figure excludes the uplift for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 pay rise which is currently being processed. Final costs will depend on the date of any harmonisation of the existing staff group to SPS terms and conditions, and the actual spending within the financial year.

The price of the HMP Kilmarnock contract in the final year of the contract (year 25) is £19.5m for 596 prisoner places. This figure does not include the direct public sector costs of managing, monitoring and supporting the contract. There is no comparable price for private operation of HMP Kilmarnock in 2024-25 as the contract would have been retendered in this scenario using different pricing models. Hypothetically, if the existing terms of the contract went into a notional 26 th year, indexation of around 5.1% would have been applied.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

Chamber and committees

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