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-19796

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the merits of introducing national guidance on liver disease to address the specific epidemiology of liver disease in Scotland.

Scottish Government has made no recent assessment of the merits of introducing national guidance on liver disease to address the specific epidemiology of liver disease in Scotland.

However, there are policy initiatives to address the main risk factors associated with chronic liver disease, such as alcohol use, obesity and hepatitis C.

These policy initiatives include Minimum Unit Price for alcohol, Scotland’s diet and healthy weight delivery plan to address obesity and effective elimination of hepatitis C by 2024.

Question reference: S6W-19695

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of students graded by the SQA are being assessed based on "alternative evidence" in the academic year 2022-23, also broken down by subject.

Question reference: S6W-19818

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether third sector organisations are still able to receive funding through the National Drugs Mission.

Question reference: S6W-19794

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the view in the fourth Deposit Return Scheme gateway review that “to conduct a launch with minimal performance issues, many months will be required to understand, design and then implement a complete end-end testing capacity and, this would first require a whole system governance structure that does not exist”.

Following the March 2023 gateway review we established an expanded governance framework with representation from all key stakeholders. This includes a Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group, which sits above the already established Executive Oversight Group and Sector Specific Working Groups.

I refer the member to my answer to S6W-18538 on 15 June 2023 that noted end to end testing was planned as part of CSL’s Programme Delivery activity to ensure successful completion of agreed outcomes. The testing was planned prior to the UK Government’s decision on 26 May 2023 not to agree a full exclusion, removing glass and imposing unworkable conditions on Scotland’s scheme, leaving the Scottish Government with no other option than to delay launch until October 2025 at the earliest. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-19800

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) practices and (b) dentists have (i) established new, (ii) expanded and (iii) purchased existing dental practices through the Scottish Dental Access Initiative since it was launched.

For the period 2007 to 2020 our records show the number of Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) Grants made by NHS Boards as follows:

	Practice
Established a new practice	68
Expanded a practice	63
Purchased an existing practice	30

We are in the process of updating our records for the period following the interruption of the pandemic and will provide updated figures as soon as possible. There have been a number of practices interested in SDAI in recent weeks with applications expected to be submitted by Health Boards shortly.

Question reference: S6W-19801

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 31 July 2023

Information on the number of dental students expected to graduate is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Scottish Government makes a recommendation on intake targets each year for Scottish dental schools but we do not hold information on students’ progress towards graduation. However, dentistry generally has a high completion rate and NHS Education for Scotland forecast data predicts around 160 graduates will enter into dental vocational training in 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-19779

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it plans to have with the UK Government regarding consideration of the licensing of Androfeme or similar testosterone treatments for menopause for use in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-20024

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools have been substantially refurbished, from 2016-17 to date, (a) in total and (b) broken down by local authority.

A total of 255 substantial refurbishment projects were completed between 2016-17 and 2021-22. These figures do not include new-build schools. Figures for 2022-23 are not yet available.

Table 1 shows the breakdown by local authority. Only refurbishments with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special are included. School extensions meeting the cost thresholds are counted as substantial refurbishments.

A breakdown by individual year is available from Table 7.2 in the school estate statistics supplementary data tables https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-estate-statistics-2022/documents/ .

Table 1: Substantial refurbishments by local authority between 2016-17 and 2021-22.

Local Authority	Substantial refurbishments
Aberdeen City	11
Aberdeenshire	18
Angus	1
Argyll and Bute	2
City of Edinburgh	8
Clackmannanshire	2
Dumfries and Galloway	12
Dundee City	0
East Ayrshire	2
East Dunbartonshire	1
East Lothian	5
East Renfrewshire	4
Falkirk	6
Fife	17
Glasgow City	73
Highland	35
Inverclyde	4
Midlothian	2
Moray	11
Na h-Eileanan Siar	2
North Ayrshire	6
North Lanarkshire	1
Orkney Islands	2
Perth and Kinross	5
Renfrewshire	2
Scottish Borders	1
Shetland Islands	2
South Ayrshire	6
South Lanarkshire	10
Stirling	2
West Dunbartonshire	0
West Lothian	2
Total	255

Question reference: S6W-19687

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any risk posed to the effective operation of public services by any future disruption caused by (a) managing and (b) removing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, and how any disruption will be minimised for (i) children and young people learning in school, (ii) patients undergoing treatment and (iii) other groups of people using public services.

It is the statutory duty of local authorities, the NHS and other public service providers to manage and maintain their estate. We have been in close contact with local authorities, the NHS and others and expect contingency plans to be in place to minimise any potential disruption to services. We will continue to engage across sectors to direct public and private sector organisations towards guidance and good practice with regards to identifying, assessing and managing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

Question reference: S6W-19675

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has issued to (a) local authorities, (b) NHS boards and (c) other public sector bodies regarding reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

The Scottish Government has issued guidance on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) to Local Authorities via the Scottish Heads of Property Services and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland.

NHS Scotland Assure, which is leading the national RAAC survey programme of the NHS estate on behalf of Scottish Government, issued a Safety Action Notice to Health Boards in February 2023 on the risk of catastrophic structural failure of RAAC planks in building roofing, walls, and flooring. This guidance note included recommendations on identification, risk management, monitoring and replacement of RAAC planks where necessary.