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-03380

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to maintain the current NHS waiting time standards following the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and what assessment it has made of the waiting times for NHS operations.

We currently have no plans to amend the existing waiting times standards although recovering our NHS and improving waiting times for patients is a top priority for this Government.

In response to the pressures on NHS services caused by the pandemic the NHS Recovery Plan was launched on 25 August 2021. The Plan which is backed by more than £1 billion of investment, sets out the Scottish Government’s key headline ambitions and actions to be developed and delivered now and over the next 5 years. While recovery is the immediate task, the Plan is fundamentally about ensuring that the process of recovery focusses on alternative pathways of care that allow people to be treated sooner and closer to home .

Question reference: S6W-03530

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any broadband coverage reliability issues in rural communities in North Ayrshire.

Through the £463 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme we delivered fibre broadband to over 951,500 premises across Scotland with over 841,600 of those now capable of accessing superfast speeds of 30 Megabits per second (Mbps). Of these, over 27,000 fibre connections have been delivered in North Ayrshire.

Through the Reaching 100% (R100) programme we will build upon this by delivering universal access to superfast broadband, regardless of remoteness or rurality – including rural communities in North Ayrshire.

Through a combination of the £600 million R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) and continued commercial coverage we will ensure that anyone who wants a superfast connection of 30Mbps and above by the end of 2021 can have one.

Question reference: S6W-03450

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the economic value of re-use, and what information it has regarding (a) how many jobs are supported and (b) the quantity of material that is re-used by this activity each year.

The report Making Things Last: A Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland set out that the reuse economy in Scotland has a yearly turnover of at least £244 million, supports over 6,000 jobs, reuses 89,000 tonnes of material annually, and provides opportunities for individuals to obtain high quality products at considerably lower cost than new. This data came from a baseline report( https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/research-evidence/scottish-reuse-mapping-sector-analysis-report ) which was used to inform support for reuse.

Zero Waste Scotland operate the Revolve certification scheme for second hand stores and internal analysis by them indicates that, based upon totals reported by the Revolve Network, the weight reused has more than doubled between 2017-18 and 2019-20.

Question reference: S6W-03419

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many websites it operates.

Question reference: S6W-03529

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the average speed of broadband in homes in rural North Ayrshire.

Question reference: S6W-03438

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comment in its correspondence to the Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee in 2020 that Scotland’s enterprise sector was working with the Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board Analytical Unit to improve the measurement of performance of Scotland's enterprise agencies, whether it will provide an update on progress with this work.

The Strategic Board works with the enterprise and skills agencies to improve performance measurement in a number of ways:

The Board produces its Annual Analysis to coincide with its Strategy Day. This includes a comprehensive analysis of Scotland’s performance against relevant National Performance Framework indicators. Importantly the report also includes consideration of agencies contribution to the outcomes and detail on the agencies progress on delivery of the Board’s missions.
The Board ensure the agencies plans are aligned - with each other, with Scottish Government and Board strategic direction and with the National Performance Framework. Each of the agency operational plans now share a vision, one which supports the Strategic Board’s Plan and Scottish Government priorities. In addition, the agency operational plans now use common planning assumptions shaped by common economic analysis as well as making clear how agency activity supports the outcomes of the National Performance Framework.
Additionally, the Board has overseen specific analytical work to help improve performance measurement in relation to key areas of agency activity. The Board’s work on Innovation (working jointly with the Analytical Unit, Scottish Government and agencies) has identified a number of specific cross-agency actions to improve the monitoring and evaluation of activity – including developing consistent approaches and addressing data gaps.

Question reference: S6O-00281

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated for the upgrade of the A77 in its Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-2026.

Question reference: S6O-00270

Asked by: Neil Gray, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its policies and actions across government to support the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and how these have been impacted by the reported cross-sector labour shortages.

Question reference: S6O-00274

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring engagement across government with the public, private and third sectors to ensure that the experiences of people providing frontline support to the most vulnerable help shape the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6O-00288

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it can support Scottish food and drink producers, in light of reports of empty supermarket shelves.