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-14380

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of people with type 1 diabetes have had access to flash glucose monitoring in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-14334

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Chief Dental Officer (CDO) advisory group, what work the group has undertaken, what the outcomes have been of this work, and whether the group has made any recommendations to the Scottish Government in relation to NHS Dental Services.

The CDO Advisory Group have met on four occasions from October 2022 to December 2022. The minutes from the Advisory Group workshops, and copies of all papers provided to the group, are publicly available and can be viewed online at: Updated 17/01 – CDO Advisory Group – Meeting Papers | Scottish Dental .

A working draft of a revised Determination I of the Statement of Dental Remuneration (NHS care and treatment items), which has been developed by the Scottish Government following the advice of Advisory Group members, is also available online at: Reform of NHS Dental Services – Determination I Working Draft | Scottish Dental .

Question reference: S6W-14345

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what guidelines it has given to local authorities regarding the welcoming of Ukrainian refugees into their education services.

All children and young people living in Scotland are entitled to an education whatever their immigration status. We are proud of the welcome that Scottish local authorities have given to displaced people from Ukraine, welcoming more than 3,000 children and young people into Scottish schools over the last year.

The Scottish Government set out in a joint letter with COSLA in August 2022 the sources of advice and support available to local authorities to help displaced children and young people from Ukraine.

We also established the Ukraine Education Partners Group, jointly chaired by the Scottish Government and COSLA, with representation from ADES, Education Scotland, the Scottish Refugee Council and individual local authorities, to help co-ordinate work on this issue.

Question reference: S6W-14339

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how (a) many (i) full- and (ii) part-time staff have been employed and (b) much it has spent on (A) travel costs, (B) accommodation costs, (C) research costs, (D) payments to organisations, (E) any other expenses and (F) its work in total, to support its membership of the Open Government Partnership in each year since it became a member.

Scotland has been a member of the Open Government Partnership since 2016. The Open Government team works collaboratively with civil society to promote transparency, participation, inclusivity and accountability across the Scottish Government and internationally. This includes sharing learning with governments around the world, and funding to promote participation and co-production work in Scotland. Scottish Government strongly supports these priorities and recognises the value of this work. We are currently delivering Scotland’s third Open Government Action Plan, which includes a focus on health and social care, climate change, fiscal transparency, improving participation, and data and digital.

It is not possible to accurately identify costs to support membership of the Open Government Partnership for the years 2016 - 2020. This is due to changes in the organisation of teams and categorisation of resources.

The number of staff working to support membership of the Open Government Partnership since 2016 is comparable to current numbers of staff.

You will also want to note that the costs of the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights’ attendance at the OGP Europe Regional Meeting in October 2022 were recently published in response to S6W-13376 on 17 January 2023.

Breakdown of Open Government team approximate spend, excluding staff costs

Financial year	Item	Approximate figures
2021-22	Grant funding	£84,000
	Action Plan co-creation process	£23,967.60
	External research	£30,825
	Publishing	£3,089.05
	Commissioned support	£12,138
TOTAL £154,019.65
2022-23 (as of 31 Jan 2023)	Grant funding	£84,000
	Independent evaluation	£9,450
	Travel and accommodation	£430.26
	Publishing	£938.54
TOTAL (as of 31 Jan 2023) £94,818.80

Open Government team staff costs and numbers

Year	Total staff costs	Staff numbers
2021-22	£201,389	3 FTE, with 1 FTE vacant for 4 months
2022-23	£222,704	3 FTE, with 1 FTE vacant for 2 months

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-14377

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of people with diabetes have been recorded as having attended structured education within six months of diagnosis in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-14315

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it permits the shooting of wildfowl from locations immediately next to public footpaths.

Question reference: S6W-14359

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what capacity to construct reverse vending machines it has identified in Scotland.

The Deposit Return Scheme is an industry-led scheme, delivered by industry, led by the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd. The Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations were laid in 2020 and businesses have now had three years to prepare for the launch of the scheme.

There are many companies providing these services in Scotland, and an assessment is not considered to be necessary or appropriate for Government to carry out.

Question reference: S6W-14065

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to co-ordinate a whole-government approach to tackling health inequalities, as referred to by the recent Health, Social Care and Sport Committee report, Tackling health inequalities in Scotland, and The Health Foundation report, The state of health and health inequalities in Scotland.

We recognise the need for a whole-government approach if we are to drive forward progress in reducing health inequalities.

The government is already involved in proactive, cross-portfolio discussions on what a ‘whole of government’ preventative approach might look like. Our Care and Wellbeing Portfolio is the principle strategic reform vehicle in Health and Social Care, which is being designed to promote a ‘health in all policies’ approach. The portfolio will shape and strengthen cross-government collaboration on key and critical issues that contribute to the goal of reducing health inequalities. As part of this, we have begun working with other programmes across the government including those relating to Child Poverty, the Promise, Economic Transformation, Climate Change and Net Zero.

Question reference: S6W-14311

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many potholes have been repaired in each of the last five years.

Transport Scotland, through its Trunk Road Operating Companies and Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) Concessionaires, is responsible for the management and maintenance of the strategic trunk road network, including motorways. Repair of potholes on all other roads is the responsibility of the local authorities.

The Scottish Government fully funds the inspection and repair of all potholes that present, or could present, an immediate hazard to trunk road users. These are defined as Category 1 defects within the term maintenance contract, which also sets out strict timescales for their repair. Following identification of Category 1 pothole defects, the Operating Companies are required to make the defect safe by 6am the following morning, preferably by completing a permanent repair. Where this is not possible then a temporary repair is required within the same timescale with permanent repairs required 28 days. The following table shows the number of Category 1 potholes identified and repaired in each of the last five whole years.

Financial Year	Number of Potholes
2017-2018	13,354
2018-2019	11,989
2019-2020	12,660
2020-2021	12,949
2021-2022	9,679

Question reference: S6W-14313

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13349 by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023, whether it is the case that it can now confirm how much funding will be allocated to the Climate Justice Fund in financial year 2023-24, and, if it is not the case, whether it will provide a draft figure, prior to final budget allocations being made, of how it expects to allocate for this purpose.