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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6F-02575

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 November 2023

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-22179

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 27 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether Scottish Prison Service guidelines on the management of trans prisoners are compliant with its policy of gender self-identification that is open to every person over the age of 16 with a Scottish birth register entry or who is ordinarily resident in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-23020

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22357 by Gillian Martin on 2 November 2023, whether it will provide a breakdown of how the funding will be allocated.

Our recent announcement of up to £500 million in commercial and grant investment will support market certainty, helping to create a highly productive, competitive economy, providing thousands of new jobs, embedding innovation and boosting skills. We are working closely with our partners in the Enterprise Agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank to develop an approach that will allow us to respond at pace to market needs.

Decisions on spending for 2024-25 and future years are subject to the outcome of the Scottish Budget process and associated approval by the Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-22971

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the launch of Pancreatic Cancer UK’s report, Faster. Fairer. Funded., what assessment it has made of the merits of implementing an optimal care pathway for pancreatic cancer.

The Scottish Government awarded the Scottish HepatoPancreatoBiliary Network funding of £653,000 over two years to redesign the pancreatic and liver cancer pathways. The Pathway Improvement Project is now live across all health boards.

This pilot is the first of its kind across the UK. It aims to provide a nationally more efficient, standardised patient centred pathway for cancer patients, with earlier diagnosis, referral and management decisions following a Realistic Medicine approach.

The funding comes to an end in March 2024 and an evaluation of the pilot’s achievements against these aims will be completed to inform decisions about future funding.

Through the Detect Cancer Earlier (DCE) Programme, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) continue to design and support the implementation of optimal cancer diagnostic pathways. As reflected in the Cancer Strategy, lung, head and neck and colorectal cancer have been identified as the first tranche, following an extensive evidence review with clinical experts. Once developed, this exercise will be repeated to determine the next optimal cancer pathways to be developed for NHS Scotland.

In the meantime, work continues to establish Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) across NHS Scotland – interim evaluation shows that HPB is one of the most common cancers being diagnosed through the new fast-track diagnostic pathways. There are currently five RCDSs in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-22982

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken, since March 2023, to review the current law on abortion.

The 2023 Programme for Government set out that the Scottish Government will begin a review of abortion law, within specified limits, following the Scottish Parliament’s consideration of the legislation on safe access zones.

The review will aim to identify potential proposals, by the end of this parliamentary term, for reforms to ensure that abortion services are first and foremost a healthcare matter. In addition, initial scoping work to prepare for this review has started.

The Scottish Government has, since March 2023, been supporting Gillian Mackay MSP on her Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill which was introduced into Parliament on 5 October 2023.

Question reference: S6W-22882

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 27 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask SEPA to provide advice to local authorities on the screening criteria for air quality impact assessments in relation to any whisky storage facility planning applications, in light of the final report, Review of the Human Health and Environmental Impacts of Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Malt Whisky Maturation in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-22894

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 27 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the National Marine Plan 2 will include spatial plans for all activities, including fisheries, for all appropriate locations in inshore waters.

The National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2) will be developed with stakeholders to achieve sustainable management of our seas, support coastal communities, safeguarding of existing sectors and protection of the marine environment.

The NMP2 is in the early stages of development. It will continue to provide the overarching planning framework for coordinating sustainable development out to 200 nautical miles. Options for spatial planning policies in NMP2 will be considered with stakeholders, and will be developed in accordance with the National Spatial Strategy, set out in Scotland’s fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) (2023)

Question reference: S6W-22885

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22502 by Jenny Gilruth on 8 November 2023, whether it will provide the information requested regarding what the total cost has been to date of its development of a national digital academy, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer.

Further to the response to question S6W-22502 on 8 November 2023, I would clarify that there have been no costs incurred to date on the development of a National Digital Academy.

As set out, Scottish Government are currently developing options for a National Digital Academy. Once developed, these will include an estimate of future potential costs.

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-22950

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work is currently being undertaken to assess the possibility of making medicinal cannabis available on the NHS for those with chronic pain.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a clinical guideline on the prescribing of Cannabis Based Products for Medicinal use (CBPMs) for people with intractable nausea and vomiting, chronic pain, spasticity and severe treatment resistant epilepsy on 11 November 2019, which was updated in October 2022. The guideline states that nabilone, dronabinol, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or a combination of cannabidiol (CBD) with THC should not be offered to manage chronic pain in adults. Clinicians working in Scotland are expected to have regard to NICE guidance on CBPMs.

The Scottish Government and SIGN will both shortly be updating their chronic pain prescribing guides that will consider the evidence around the best and most effective treatments for chronic pain.

Question reference: S6W-22879

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 27 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to introduce legislation to make changes to the Victim Notification Scheme, in light of the publication of the report of the review of the scheme in May 2023.

The Scottish Government commissioned an independent review of the VNS in Spring 2022 to ensure that the scheme was working well for victims. The review published its report and an easy read summary in May this year. It made 22 recommendations for change of the scheme, including in relation to data, evidence and reporting, the information available and communications.

Since May we have been considering the report in collaboration with a range of stakeholders, including criminal justice agencies and victim support organisations, to inform our formal response to the report.

As part of this work, we have been considering how the review’s recommendations could be delivered. This involves a range of possibilities, including primary or secondary legislation, as well as administrative and operational delivery. Where review recommendations may require primary legislation to deliver, we are carefully considering the options available to us for doing this.