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-13708

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to enable more accurate population-level estimates on the prevalence of neurological conditions.

Question reference: S6W-13575

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding Flamingo Land's Lomond Banks planning application, whether Transport Scotland completed a carbon impact assessment, or any other assessment, of the application's potential impact on Scottish Government climate and car kilometre reduction targets before submitting its response to the planning application to the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority.

The question relates to a live planning application, and remains subject to consideration by the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority at this time.

As a statutory consultee in the planning process, with a responsibility for the safe and efficient flow of traffic on the A82 trunk road, Transport Scotland was consulted on the second Flamingo Land's Lomond Banks planning application in May 2022.

In terms of national planning policy requirements when considering the potential transport impacts of the proposed development, Scottish Planning Policy, (2014) remains in force until such time as National Planning Framework 4 is adopted and published. SPP contains no requirement to consider potential carbon impacts on Scottish Government climate and vehicle reductions targets.

Transport Scotland did however undertake a comprehensive review of the applicant’s transportation assessment supporting the planning application. Transport Scotland was satisfied that the proposed development could be adequately served by, and connected to, active travel and public transport networks and would not therefore be wholly reliant on car travel.

The outcome from the review informed Transport Scotland’s formal consultation response to the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority.

Question reference: S6W-13530

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the health and social care workforce will grow by 1% over the next five years.

We remain committed to the increasing in the Health and Social Care workforce by 1% over the next 5 years, as outlined within the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care.

NHS Scotland official workforce statistics published on 06 December 2022 show that staffing levels have increased by over 2,800 permanent whole time equivalent in the last year (or 1.8% of the NHS Scotland workforce) – representing 10 consecutive years of staffing growth.

Question reference: S6W-13531

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have joined the health and social care workforce through national schemes, such as modern apprenticeships, in each year since 2007, broken down by (a) scheme and (b) NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-13448

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has introduced an annual survey of the general practice workforce.

Question reference: S6W-13922

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many buildings in Scotland have been included on Historic Environment Scotland’s Buildings at Risk register in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-13814

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to assist residents in Dumfries and Galloway who are experiencing any difficulties recycling single-use plastic medical blister packs.

The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is responsible for setting all packaging requirements for medicines. Blister packs are not easily recycled because of strict regulatory requirements for pharmaceutical packaging. The Scottish Government encourages businesses to take steps to increase the recycling rates for this packaging where these are compatible with the waste hierarchy and ensure the high-value recycling of materials.

We are taking action to reduce packaging waste and improve recycling in Scotland, including the £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund, which will make it easier for households to recycle, and work across the devolved administrations to introduce extended producer responsibility for packaging. These actions will help local authorities increase the types of materials they can recycle.

Question reference: S6W-13681

Asked by: Paul McLennan, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12681 by Màiri McAllan on 13 December 2022, whether detailed marine spatial plans, as opposed to broad spatial areas, will be provisionally set in the new National Marine Plan (NMP2), in line with section 11(2)(a)(ii) of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, unless and until superseded by regional plans agreed under the terms of that same Act.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12759 on 15 December 2022.

The purpose of Scotland’s National Marine Plan is to set out the strategic policies for the sustainable development of our marine resources. Regional marine plans are currently being developed for 3 out of the 11 Scottish Marine Regions (Orkney, Shetland and the Clyde) with preparatory work being undertaken by Local Coastal Partnerships in other regions.

The content of the new National Marine Plan (“NMP2”) is yet to be defined. As the process to replace the current National Marine Plan progresses, the content of NMP2 will be established and consideration will be taken as to whether NMP2 will include detailed spatial plans.

The Marine Scotland Directorate undertakes national marine planning activities in accordance with the requirements and conditions set out in the Marine Acts: Marine (Scotland) Act (2010) and the Marine and Coastal Access Act (2009). NMP2 will be developed in accordance with the policies, including the National Spatial Strategy, set out in the fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4)(once adopted).

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-13650

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the Rural Housing Fund in each year since its introduction.

The following table provides a breakdown of the spend from the main Rural and Islands Housing Fund in each year since the funds were launched in 2016-17, broken down by rural (mainland) and Islands. The Rural and Island Housing Fund plays an important role in offering support to community organisations and others while complementing the significant delivery through our mainstream programme by Councils and Registered Social Landlords in rural and island areas.

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m
Rural and Islands Housing Fund - Total	0.101	1.061	1.650	2.822	4.916	4.793	2.327
Rural	0.074	0.961	1.451	2.140	3.062	1.867	0.900
Islands	0.027	0.100	0.199	0.682	1.854	2.926	1.427
Note: 2022-23 spend is based on provisional programme management information to end December 2022 and could be subject to change.

Question reference: S6W-13542

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done with NHS Education for Scotland to improve mandatory equality, diversity and inclusion training for health and social care staff and ensure that this is up to date and relevant.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES), in partnership with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, produced an e-learning module for Non-Executive Board members on the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Equality Act. This was promoted to NHS Board Chairs in July 2022 and is a resource that all staff can access.

Equality is a theme running through the new Leading to Change programme aimed at developing future and current leaders in health and social care. NES is also working with a range of stakeholders to scope out current training and learning needs for staff on equality and diversity. This will inform work by NES to continue to develop up to date and relevant learning resources on equality and diversity for health and social care staff.

This will include a review and update of the NES essential learning module 'equality and human rights' which is available to the health and social care workforce.’