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: S6T-00577

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that Ferguson Marine is competitive, in light of the reported decision to award the contract to build two new CalMac ferries to the Turkish ship builder, Cemre Marin Endustri.

Question reference: S6T-00575

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in light of reports of potential international food shortages and rising food prices.

Question reference: S6W-07025

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans to take to reduce waiting times for audiologist tests to obtain NHS hearing aids.

Excessively long waiting lists are not acceptable and we offer our sympathies to all patients waiting for treatment. Pausing of non-urgent activity has taken place across the health system and has inevitably led to a build-up of patients waiting for treatment, and the emergence of Omicron is continuing to have an impact on existing significant pressure.

Remaining covid restrictions and infection prevention control measures mean that Audiologists are working on reduced capacity and a reduced numbers of patients have access to the services.

Additionally, all services have seen a surge in referrals since restrictions have started to ease and GPs have become more accessible. Waiting lists have grown as a result and services have to balance ensuring that patients receive good quality, efficient and effective treatment with reducing waiting times.

We published an NHS Recovery Plan in August 2021 which sets out our plans for health and social care, including audiology services, over the next 5 years.

Backed by over £1 billion of funding, the Plan will support an increase in inpatient, daycase, and outpatient activity to address the backlogs of care, which will be supported by the implementation of sustainable improvements and new models of care.

Question reference: S6W-07058

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it encourages British National Overseas (BNO) passport holders from Hong Kong to resettle in Scotland, what information it has on how many have done so in the last five years, and how such numbers can be monitored.

Yes, Scotland is a welcoming nation and tose who decide to come to Scotland from Hong Kong and elsewhere will be welcomed for the positive contribution they will bring to our communities, economy and society. The Scottish Government have published a dedicated British National (Overseas) welcome pack, in both English and Cantonese, on our website and linked to the Moving to Scotland website.

The British National (Overseas) visa scheme was launched on 31 January 2021 and as of the end of December a total of 103,900 applications have been received. The Home Office have said it does not publish location data, have it in the immediate underlying data or collect intended locations for Hong Kong applicants. They have completed a small scale survey of British National (Overseas) visa holders which indicates 2% intend to settle in Scotland but due to the small sample size were unable to provide any further data. The Scottish Government will continue to press the UK Government for further information on numbers.

Question reference: S6W-07027

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the system under which council tax bandings are designated.

The valuation bands for council tax are part of the wider council tax system set out in the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and associated secondary legislation. We are committed to reforming council tax to make it fairer, working with the Scottish Green Party and COSLA to oversee the development of effective deliberative engagement on sources of local government funding, including Council Tax, that will culminate in a Citizens’ Assembly. This will be established and completed in this Parliament, with a response to its recommendations debated and agreed within 6 months of them being provided.

Question reference: S6W-06994

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the reopening criteria being used by the East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership is also being used by other health and social care partnerships to determine the status of hospitals or health facilities that are currently closed.

Question reference: S6W-07002

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to advising NHS boards to follow NICE guideline 158 on the diagnosis, management and secondary prevention of venous thromboembolism in adults, published in 2020, until SIGN guideline 122 is updated.

Clinical guideline implementation is the responsibility of NHS Boards. The ultimate decision about a particular clinical procedure or treatment will always depend on each individual patient’s condition, circumstances and wishes, and the clinical judgement of the healthcare team.

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines have primacy in Scotland however NHS Boards and Integration Authorities may also choose to consider National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines in the planning and delivering services. Where there is not a current SIGN guideline in place Boards are expected to use other guidelines, such as NICE.

The decision to create, update and/or replace any SIGN guideline is not made by Scottish Government, it is made independently by the Evidence Directorate Work Programme Committee in Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). Proposed guidelines under consideration can be found on the SIGN website: Our guidelines (sign.ac.uk) .

Question reference: S6W-06601

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it will allocate to Glasgow City Council for the refurbishment of play parks in the financial year 2022-23.

The Scottish Government will invest £60 million to renew play parks in Scotland, so children have access to high-quality outdoor play in their own communities. This funding is for public, free-to-access parks and will be distributed to local authorities over the course of this parliamentary term.

In 2021-22, Glasgow City Council received £525,000 funding. For the financial year 2022-23, the Scottish Government and COSLA have agreed an allocation of £514,000 to Glasgow City Council to support the renewal of play parks. We wrote to all local authorities to confirm their second allocation of funding on 24 February 2022.

Question reference: S6W-06355

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to the Education, Children and Young People Committee on 28 January 2022, what it means when it states that 2% to 4% of learning, teaching and play spaces have “so far” fallen into the problematic category; whether work is therefore still ongoing to establish whether there are more spaces that fall within this category, and whether it will provide an account of the margin for error.

Local authority feedback indicates that all learning, teaching and play spaces in Scottish schools and ELC settings have received CO2 assessments and, at a point in time (in the most part before the October holidays 2021), around 2-4% (around 2,000) of those spaces had been problematic. Problematic spaces are defined as those having consistently high CO2 readings (above 1500ppm) despite basic mitigation measures being implemented.

Following the assessment, local authorities will have then taken remedial action and therefore we would expect the issues in those problematic spaces to have been addressed.

However, ventilation is a complex issue requiring, among other things, ongoing monitoring and management. For example, changes in room use or weather conditions can result in assessments of air quality changing over time, requiring fresh remedial action.

Our guidance makes clear that all learning, teaching and play spaces should be assessed at least once per week. The Scottish Government has agreed formal reporting requirements regarding the number of remaining problematic spaces with local authorities. We will provide an update to the Education, Children and Young People Committee in due course, subject to receipt of local authority returns.

Question reference: S6W-06353

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to the Education, Children and Young People Committee on 28 January 2022, how many children and young people will be accommodated in the 2,000 learning, teaching and play spaces that fall into the “problematic category”, and how this compares with the number of children in the remaining 48,000 spaces.

The precise number of problematic spaces will be dependent on a range of factors over time, such as weather and occupancy levels, and many of the problematic spaces will already have been addressed. The Scottish Government has agreed formal reporting requirements regarding the number of remaining problematic spaces with local authorities. This information will be used to update the Education, Children and Young People’s Committee in due course, subject to receipt of local authority returns.