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: S6F-01132

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2022

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government is celebrating Scottish Bus Week.

Question reference: S6F-01127

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2022

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-08429

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) financial and (b) delivery guarantees, if any, Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd obtained from the Cemre Marin Endustri shipyard in relation to the two proposed vessels for Islay.

Cemre Marin Endustri shipyard has provided full refund guarantees for the two new Islay vessels and these have been lodged with CMAL’s nominated bank. The refund guarantees cover the full amount payable prior to the delivery of each vessel at which point CMAL pay the final 20% and take possession of the vessel. The Contract has defined delivery dates set for both vessels in November 2024 and February 2025.

Question reference: S6W-08449

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what actions it can take to improve outcomes for women with asthma, in light of analysis from Asthma + Lung UK showing that women are almost twice as likely to die from an asthma attack than men.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living with respiratory conditions, including asthma, receives the best possible care and treatment to enable them to live longer, healthier, and independent lives.

In March last year we published the first Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland, that sets out our priorities and commitments for driving improvement in prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment and support for people living with respiratory conditions such as asthma. One of the priorities for year one of the Plan is improving access to meaningful respiratory data. This will enable us to understand where people’s needs are not being met and inform service improvements, allowing us to better explore any areas of concern.

Asthma + Lung UK were involved in the development of the Plan and are members of our national advisory committee, the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee, that has been established to oversee the Plan implementation. We are working closely with them and other key stakeholders, including clinicians and our newly formed Lived Experience Network, to develop an implementation programme.

Women’s health is a key priority for this government. Our Women’s Health Plan, published in August 2021, underpins actions to address health inequalities by raising awareness around women’s health, to improve access to health care for women across their life course and to reduce inequalities in health outcomes for girls and women.

Question reference: S6W-08398

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in order to prepare for the forthcoming ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans, what plans it has to create more electric vehicle charging points in (a) general, (b) communities where drivers are least prepared for the change, (c) Ayrshire and (d) Dumfries and Galloway.

The Draft Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network published in January provides the guiding vision on how Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network will continue to grow across Scotland in a fair and inclusive way.

The Scottish Government’s £60m Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund, that aims to leverage at least half of this funding from private sector sources over the next 4 years, will target investment in growing the public charging network across all of Scotland in areas where commercial investment on its own is unviable. This year, Scottish Government funding has already been provided or is being made available to all of Scotland’s local authorities to develop public electric vehicle charge point strategies and expansion plans including the Ayrshire Councils as well as Dumfries and Galloway.

Question reference: S6W-08465

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many nursing roles have been amalgamated under the neurological care and support strategy.

Question reference: S6W-08466

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what training and support has been given to (a) clinicians, (b) nurses and (c) healthcare support workers, under the neurological care and support strategy, to increase and broaden knowledge and specialisms to ensure that adequate treatment and care is provided.

We recognise the importance of increasing knowledge to ensure that adequate treatment and care is provided for people with neurological conditions.

Over 5 years of implementing the Neurological Care and Support – National Framework for Action 2020-25 we will allocate £4.5 million in total to improve the care of people with neurological conditions. To date, £2.2 million funding has been awarded to 37 innovative projects across the statutory and third sectors, which seek to improve neurological care and support services. A significant number of these have involved providing support and training to healthcare professionals.

Activity delivered directly by Scottish Government includes a jointly-organised Anticipatory Care Planning (ACP) webinar with Healthcare Improvement Scotland in August 2021 on how the principles of good ACP can be adapted for neurological conditions. The webinar was attended by over 250 individuals, the majority clinical staff, including nurses, allied healthcare professionals and healthcare support workers.

We established a Redesign Project Group in January 2021, as a subgroup of the Scottish Government’s National Advisory Committee for Neurological Conditions. The group developed and published guidance for healthcare professionals working in neurology on the appropriate use of video, telephone and face to face outpatient appointments. This was accompanied by a webinar for healthcare professionals.

Question reference: S6W-08399

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the forthcoming ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans, what plans it has to (a) encourage all communities in Scotland to embrace the planned shift towards electric vehicles and (b) prepare areas, such as East Ayrshire, that were highlighted in a recent study by Moneyshake as being the least prepared for the planned shift, through direct intervention.

I also refer the member to the answer to S6W-08398 on 23 May 2022. In addition to the £60m that will be invested through the EV Infrastructure Fund, the Scottish Government has provided a wide range of incentives to support the early uptake of electric vehicles including more than £145m loan funding to support vehicle purchase (of which £3.5m has gone to households and business in East Ayrshire) and over £50m investment in the ChargePlace Scotland Network of public chargepoints. Electric vehicles now make up a significant proportion of monthly car sales highlighting a rapidly developing and competitive market. This will create further opportunities and incentives for people and businesses across all of Scotland to shift to an electric vehicle.

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-08447

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 23 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it records the number of (a) children and (b) children diagnosed with autism, who have been referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter annually, in light of reports of an increasing number of supervision orders being issued for autistic children in 2021.

The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) is responsible for the recording of data relating to children and young people in the Children’s Hearings System. Official Statistics, published annually, are available on the SCRA website https://www.scra.gov.uk/ , and include the number of children referred to SCRA each year, and the number of children on a compulsory supervision order.

Question reference: S6W-08434

Asked by: Siobhian Brown, MSP for Ayr, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to mitigate the reported shortage of (a) the product, Estradot, and (b) other hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products, and what specific measures are in place to help women in the (i) short and (ii) long term.

Supply issues with Estradot® patches in the UK are now resolved, with all strengths available.

Any disruption in the availability of HRT products will be concerning to those who have been prescribed them. We recommend anyone who is affected by the disruption and experiencing difficulties in obtaining their prescribed medication to discuss alternative treatment options with their doctor in the first instance. Shortages of medicines are not an uncommon occurrence and the NHS has robust systems in place to manage them when they arise. The supply and pricing of medicines is reserved to the UK Government and we continue to press them to seek a lasting resolution to HRT supply issues as quickly as possible.

Shortages of medicines are not an uncommon occurrence and the NHS has robust systems in place to manage them when they arise. There is regular monitoring of supply issues, escalating when necessary to a UK Medicine Shortages Response Group, which is clinically-led and provides advice to clinicians on alternative therapeutic options. The Scottish Government issued three UK wide Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) effective from Friday 29 April 2022 and due to expire on 29 July 2022. The SSPs will enable community pharmacists to supply patients with no more than three months’ supply of medicine helping preserve stock holdings and ensure more patients have access to their prescribed medicines. Three products covered by the SSPs are Oestrogel® pump pack; Ovestin® cream; Premique®.

In response to the recent disruptions in the supply of some HRT medicines and the creation of a new HRT Taskforce, The Minister for Public Health, Woman’s Health and Sport wrote to the Maria Caulfield MP, Minister for Patient Safety and Primary Care on 12 May 2022, seeking assurances that the UKG are taking all necessary action to resolve current supply issues and the HRT Task Force formed by DHSC will work constructively with the Scottish Government and other Devolved Administrations.