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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.

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Question reference: S6W-22410

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Kidney Care UK publication, Home Dialysis Energy Reimbursement in Scotland, whether it will undertake an assessment of the equity of patient access to home dialysis reimbursement schemes for chronic kidney disease across NHS boards.

We are acutely aware that energy consumers, and especially consumers that receive treatment at home, are feeling the impacts of recent price hikes in the cost of electricity. We are aware of a variation in practice surrounding reimbursement policies for electricity costs relating to home dialysis. We are working with health boards to understand how best to achieve national consistency so that patients undergoing home dialysis are protected from the impact of high electricity prices, wherever they live.

Question reference: S6W-22468

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of concerns about the quality of auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing outlined in the report of the Independent Review of Audiology in Scotland, what action it has taken to conduct a wider audit of the assessment of infant ABR cases referred from the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening programme.

Question reference: S6W-22538

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the additional £100 million of funding for arts and culture includes, and, in particular, whether it includes an explicit increase to the national performing companies annual budget line for the next five years.

On 17 October the First Minister announced plans that will see Scottish Government investment in arts and culture more than double, so that in five years investment will be £100 million higher than it is now. Ministers will take decisions about where the funding is allocated in 2024-25 and future years subject to the outcome of the Scottish Budget process and associated approval by the Scottish Parliament. The draft budget will be published later this year and will be the subject of Parliamentary scrutiny in early 2024. The Scottish Government intends to present the Draft Budget 2024-25 to Parliament on 19 December 2023.

Question reference: S6W-22471

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken to support and assist children and their families who may have been adversely affected by any poor-quality infant auditory brainstem response (ABR) assessment, as described in the report of the Independent Review of Audiology in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-22535

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many overseas trips its ministers and officials have taken to attend Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) meetings since the group was formed on 28 November 2018, and what the total cost of these trips has been.

Since the launch of the Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) in December 2018, the group have engaged mainly through online events. Two in-person policy lab events have been held in Scotland with officials attending from WEGo member governments - in Edinburgh on 1-2 May 2019 and in Glasgow on 21 November 2022.

Two Scottish Government officials took part in a short WEGo meeting with officials from other governments in Reykjavik, Iceland on 15 June 2023 whilst attending the Wellbeing Economy Forum held by the Icelandic Government. The cost of the officials attending the Forum was £2,415.02. I spoke to the Forum on 14 June 2023 in my role as Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, but did not attend the WEGo meeting. My expenses for the visit are published here: Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts: June 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Question reference: S6W-22470

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of concerns about the lack of external peer review of auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing outlined in the report of the Independent Review of Audiology in Scotland, what action it has taken to establish a national external peer review scheme for audiologists who conduct ABR assessment of infants.

Question reference: S6W-22420

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports of the funding issue for the St Andrews rail link being resolved, when it anticipates that this project will be completed.

The Scottish Government is providing £220,000 of support to the St Andrews Rail Link (StARLink) project through the Local Rail Development Fund (LRDF).

Responsibility for the management and delivery of the project sits with the StARLink Campaign which is required to provide a detailed options appraisal, to the Scottish Government, by the end of March 2024.

To inform the next stages of the project, this appraisal will then be considered against the Scottish Government’s investment priorities for the strategic transport network, a robust business case, affordability and other competing proposals.

Question reference: S6W-22441

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action has been taken to support people with (a) chest, heart and stroke conditions and (b) long COVID.

Care and support for people with chest, heart and stroke conditions or long COVID is being provided across the full range of services being delivered by our NHS. This includes local primary care teams, community-based rehabilitation services and referrals for further investigation delivered in secondary care settings where needed.

The Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee identified three initial priorities for implementation of the Respiratory Care Action Plan (2021) which were; child to adult transitions, access to data and pulmonary rehabilitation. The child to adult transitions sub-group has produced recommendations which will be shared shortly. We have recently commissioned Public Health Scotland to begin scoping work to develop a respiratory audit programme, and we are working closely with services across Scotland to deliver improvements in pulmonary rehab.

We are making progress on delivery of our Heart Disease Action Plan (2021) and have recently completed a scoping exercise with cardiac rehabilitation services to identify priority areas for improvement.

Since publication of the Stroke Improvement Plan in June, the Scottish Government has appointed a Consultant Stroke Physician as Clinical Lead for Stroke to lead on its implementation. We are developing a bundle of rehabilitation measures for inclusion in the Scottish Stroke Care Audit and are also developing measures of patient experience of rehabilitation.

We have established a £10 million long COVID Support Fund to support NHS boards to increase the capacity of existing services, develop these into more clearly defined local pathways and provide a more co-ordinated experience for people living with long COVID. We made an initial £3 million available from the fund over 2022-23, and a further £3 million is being made available from the fund over this financial year.

Question reference: S6W-22456

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many passengers boarded trains at stations in (a) Inverclyde and (b) North Ayrshire local authority areas from 1 January 2022 to 1 January 2023, broken down by (i) station and (ii) calendar month.

Question reference: S6W-22405

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what objectives it set for the funding it provided to the British Allergy Foundation in 2022.