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-06311

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how people who do not have access to online services and cannot access the NHS Scotland Covid Status app can obtain a paper copy of their vaccine certificate in advance of international travel.

Question reference: S6W-06320

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to ensure that children aged 12 to 15 who have not currently received their second dose of a COIVD-19 vaccine will be able to travel to European countries with their families during the February mid-term holidays, in light of some countries requiring this age group to be double vaccinated.

NHS Scotland is offering 2 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to all children and young people aged 12 to 17 years. The second dose will be offered from 12 weeks after the first dose. Children and young people aged 12 to 15 years have been sent second dose invitation letters. They can also attend drop-in clinics. More information on vaccinating children and young people is available at https://www.nhsinform.scot/covid-19-vaccine/the-vaccines/vaccinating-children-and-young-people-aged-12-to-17-years/

We cannot provide advice on the rules for other countries. Before travelling you should check the up to date entry requirements for the destination country.

Question reference: S6W-06291

Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to installing defibrillators in all schools.

Decisions on whether to install defibrillators in schools are a matter for Local Authorities to consider at the local level.

Scottish Government recognises the important role of defibrillators in the chain of survival from Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA). We are a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) partnership, which published an updated strategy in March 2021: Out of hospital cardiac arrest: strategy 2021 to 2026 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . This includes the aim of increasing the percentage of OHCAs which have a defibrillator applied before the arrival of ambulance service from 8% to 20%.

To achieve this, the strategy’s focus is to ensure that defibrillators are publicly accessible, are registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) so they can be directed to in instances of OHCA, and that people feel empowered to use them. The strategy identifies a number of actions to take in order to achieve these goals.

It is important to support evidence based placement of defibrillators in areas where OHCAs are most likely to occur. To support the OHCA strategy, the Resuscitation Research Group at Edinburgh University are working to develop a tool to show where defibrillators are most likely to be required in order to support organisations and communities with optimal placement.

Question reference: S6W-06211

Asked by: Paul McLennan, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to embed fair work practices across different industry sectors, in light of the CIPD survey report, Working Lives Scotland 2021, which states that 19% of employees say they have no voice channel at work at all.

The Scottish Government believes effective voice is key to fair work and welcomes the CIPD’s contribution to highlighting the need for and the promotion of worker voice. We note their Working Lives Scotland report states that 19% of employees say they have no voice channel at work. More positively, it also notes the significant improvement in managerial openness among large organisations and public sector employees. We will continue to promote effective voice for all workers as the best way to ensure fair and democratic workplaces across Scotland, working in partnership with our stakeholders, including the STUC, employers, and the CIPD.

The Scottish Government expects all workers in Scotland to be treated fairly. Without control over employment law, we are using all the levers available to us to drive high quality and fair work, including effective workers’ voice, across the labour market.

Our Fair Work policy is underpinned by the Fair Work Convention’s Framework, which recognises effective voice as a critical dimension of Fair Work. We are working with our trade union partners and other stakeholders to promote and encourage wider fair work practices, including effective voice in various sectors, such as retail and hospitality. We are also working with stakeholders to deliver on our commitment in The Fair Work Action Plan, published in 2019, to work with the STUC to achieve increased collective bargaining focusing initially on four key sectors: social care; early years & child care; hospitality and construction.

Through our flagship Fair Work First approach, we are applying fair work criteria to public sector funding - asking employers to commit to providing appropriate channels for effective voice, such as trade union recognition along with adopting other fair work principles. In line with the Bute House Agreement , and subject to limits on devolved competence, we will strengthen conditionality yet further. By Summer 2022, we will make it a requirement for the recipients of public sector grants to provide appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice, such as trade union recognition.

Question reference: S6W-06227

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what specific support will be offered to crofters to increase uptake of agri-environmental climate funding schemes.

The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) is open and available to crofters that are registered on the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Services website.

An important feature of the scheme is a scoring system designed to avoid discrimination against smaller businesses, including crofters. This aims to promote applications by small businesses by awarding points where the application value is less than £20,000 (1 additional point) and more for applications less than £10,000 (3 additional points).

Where an applicant’s business has less than 30 hectares, some beneficiaries are able to access small unit supplementary payments across many of the options over and above the income foregone payments for AECS options. This extends to allow some businesses of less than 30 hectares to access important socio-economic options like native breed cattle introduction and retention.

Question reference: S6W-06214

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to expedite a decision and position from the UK National Screening Committee on targeted lung cancer screening that could take place in Scotland, in light of this being under review since February 2020.

As we anticipate a decision from the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) in the coming months, we have no current plans to expedite this. This is a complex matter and it is important that time is taken to evaluate all available evidence. The Scottish Government has, however, provided funding to the University of Edinburgh to support an exploratory piece of research into the feasibility of the introduction of lung health checks within Scotland and it is hoped that the findings will support the evidence base being considered by the NSC.

Question reference: S6W-06213

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates the UK National Screening Committee will make a decision and confirm its position on targeted lung cancer screening that could take place in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-06198

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will launch its consultation on the domestic advertising of e-cigarettes.

Question reference: S6W-06897

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-06070

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish an updated deer management strategy to implement the recommendations in the Deer Working Group report.