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: S6O-02308

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is offering to people recently diagnosed with disabilities.

Question reference: S6O-02311

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce child poverty in Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley.

Question reference: S6O-02312

Asked by: Kaukab Stewart, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work to improve the lives of LGBT+ people in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-17909

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it assesses "offshore wind farm economic activity", as referenced in the publication, Scotland's Marine Economic Statistics 2020, and whether Marine Scotland has concluded its investigations into how to more accurately measure such economic activity, and, if it has not yet concluded this work, when it expects to do so.

The publication, Scotland's Marine Economic Statistics provides details on the sources and calculations used to produce the offshore wind turnover and employment information. It also provides some summary information on the uncertainty present within this data as well as a link to the source, the Office for National Statistics' Low carbon and renewable energy economy survey, data which provides more details on the quality and uncertainty of this data. The Scotland's Marine Economic Statistics publication is currently an experimental statistics publication, which means it is under development. The offshore wind data is one of the areas that will undergo further work as data sources expand.

We have finished our investigation into whether it is possible to more accurately measure the offshore wind farm economic activity. We have concluded that currently there is no more accurate way to measure using existing data sources, however this will be reassessed in future. The reasons for this conclusion are:

The main source for economic data for businesses is the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Business Survey. This uses Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes to classify businesses by main activity. There is a ‘Production of electricity’ SIC code, but the source of the electricity generation (e.g. offshore wind) is not separately identified within the SIC system.
It is currently not possible to accurately calculate the gross value added of offshore wind using existing data or collecting it directly due to business structures. This is why the current source for the offshore wind economic activity, the low carbon and renewable energy economy survey, only estimates turnover and employment.
Financial records at Companies House also use the same SIC codes as the ONS Annual Business Survey so it is difficult to identify relevant businesses. Even when identified their complex and interlinked business structures mean that is it not possible, using current sources, to separately calculate reliable gross value added associated specifically with offshore wind.

There is potential for future improvements in the measurement of the economic activity associated with renewables. As, for example, there is work ongoing led by the United Nations Statistics Division on a revision to the SIC codes, which were last updated in 2007. This planned update should better account for newer sectors such as renewables.

Question reference: S6W-17947

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 24 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the use of camera technology to tackle littering and fly-tipping.

Our 2022 consultation on a new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy included proposals to explore the role of technology to obtain better data, deter litter and flytipping and aid enforcement of offences. ‘Littercam’ technology is currently being trialled on part of the trunk road network in a targeted scheme for the purpose of monitoring litter levels. The final National Litter and Flytipping Strategy will be published this year.

Question reference: S6W-17857

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 24 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to monitor the resilience of the modular homes sector in Scotland, in light of the reported closure of UK modular housing factories by Legal & General, Swan Housing Association, Countryside, and Urban Splash House.

The Affordable Housing Supply Programme supports delivery of homes across various methods of construction, including modular, but the factories the member mentions are not part of that.

Modular construction is one of a range of offsite methods used to build new homes in Scotland. It has been used in the delivery of affordable and private homes across the country in urban, rural and island locations.

Question reference: S6W-17886

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the average wait time is for a patient to see a gastroenterologist.

The latest available information at national level relates to the position at 31 December 2022:

Ongoing waits: For those patients still waiting for a new outpatient appointment in Gastroenterology, the median wait was 130 days and 9 out of 10 waits (90th percentile) had lasted no longer than 382 days.

Completed waits: For those patients seen as an outpatient in Gastroenterology, the median wait was 58 days and 9 out of 10 waits were no longer than 509 days.

Question reference: S6W-17887

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many endoscopies were performed in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-17847

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding from the Scottish Budget 2023-24 has been allocated to the Flexible Workforce Development Fund.

Question reference: S6W-17863

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes in Scotland are currently heated by energy recovered from incineration plants.

Over 1,000 homes are currently heated by heat networks where a significant proportion of the heat provided is from an Energy from Waste plant.

Two further heat networks are currently being built to use heat from Energy from Waste plants which are already in operation or commissioning and situated in Midlothian and Aberdeen. These projects are expected to connect approximately 2,000 homes by 2026, with the capacity to heat significantly more with further extensions of these networks.

All the heat networks (existing or being developed) referred to above are, or will be, connected to existing Energy from Waste plant.

Across all heat sources, approximately 30,000 homes are connected to heat network(s) in Scotland, based on the 2018 Heat Network Metering and Billing Regulation data.

Financial Year	Endoscopy procedures
2017-18	298,348
2018-19	308,437
2019-20	300,078
2020-21	162,122
2021-22	240,119