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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: S6O-01897

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of the fire and rescue services, and what was discussed.

Question reference: S6O-01866

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will support the continuation of the Scottish Crisis Fund project, in order to support people with no recourse to public funds as its anti-destitution strategy moves into year two.

Since April 2022, the Scottish Government has provided up to £642,500 to support the Scottish Crisis Fund project, being delivered by the British Red Cross, through the Ending Destitution Together strategy.

This project provides crisis cash grants to people facing destitution who are experiencing barriers to accessing support and is inclusive of people subject to No Recourse to Public Funds.

Funding currently runs to 31 March 2023. The Scottish Government is currently working with the British Red Cross on future funding and delivery of the project in 2023-24.

The Scottish Government will continue to do all it can within devolved powers to protect communities and support people.

Question reference: S6O-01867

Asked by: Kaukab Stewart, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting Glasgow to improve its sustainable transport infrastructure.

The Scottish Government is currently supporting a range of sustainable transport projects and programmes across Glasgow and wider region.

This includes investment and development work on active travel infrastructure and behaviour change; bus priority measures to increase the attractiveness of using the bus over the private car; on the region’s rail network; on the subway and on developing the programme and business case for the multi-billion pound proposed Clyde Metro.

Question reference: S6W-14329

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it will make of any potential impact on salmon farming in Scotland of the decision by Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority to refuse planning permission for Scotland’s first semi-closed containment aquaculture project, at Beinn Reithe.

Planning authorities are required to determine planning applications in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise, including, for example, taking account of the socio and economic impacts of a proposed development.

It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on the terms and impacts of the planning decision by Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority.

Question reference: S6W-14289

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the stroke care guidelines were last updated.

I refer the member to the answers to question S6W-06004 on 10 February 2022, and question S6W-06005 on 8 February 2022. 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 .

The Royal College of Physicians Intercollegiate Stroke Working Party (ICSWP) is leading development of the 6th edition of the National Clinical Guideline for Stroke. The next edition of the guideline is expected to be published in April 2023.

Question reference: S6W-14156

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to develop communities of practice and learning networks, so that staff can share learning about the uses of technology within the health and care sector.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing digital skills for all staff across health and care, and ensuring that we embed digital leadership at all levels to enable digital service transformation. As part of our commitments in the Digital Health and Care Strategy’s Delivery Plan 2022-23 we are developing an Action Plan to articulate the range of learning and development opportunities more clearly, identify gaps and document outcomes. The Digital Health and Care Leadership Programme led by NHS Education for Scotland and sponsored by the Scottish Government supports staff to influence digital health and care in their organisations through strategic leadership, opportunities for learning, collaborating, and networking with others to maximise the use of technology to benefit service delivery within their organisations. The Programme is open to staff in NHS Scotland, social care, housing and the third sector, and will increase capacity in digital leadership, encouraging innovation in services and cross-organisation learning and development.

In addition, we actively contribute to sector events that facilitate information sharing, promote good practice, and encourage learning. For example, the DigiFest programme of events and conference is aimed specifically at those working to deliver digitally enabled services in health, housing, and social care. This year’s programme in October to November 2022 featured a range of sessions highlighting digital developments in health, social care and housing including a focus on available resources and learning networks supporting knowledge and learning among staff.

Question reference: S6W-14166

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to collaborate with and support small and medium-sized digital health and care enterprises to offer a clear product route from development to implementation at scale.

Question reference: S6W-14163

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in (a) the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) (b) Innovation Centres other than DHI, (c) The Scotland 5G Centre, (d) the cyber resilience sector, (e) the Centre for Sustainable Delivery and (f) Public Health Scotland to ensure that Scotland gets maximum benefit from digital health and care.

Our commitment in the Digital Health and Care Strategy is to work with these organisations, and others, to realise the potential of digital health and care, not necessarily to provide additional investment.

However, please see the below response in respect of funding that is provided, covering the period of April 2021 to December 2022:

Scottish Government invested £1,306,888 in support of the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI). To confirm, the aquaculture and construction innovation centres are not relevant to digital health and care investment. For Precision Medicine Scotland, there was no spend in 2021-22 and 2022-23 figures are not available due to the financial year not yet being complete. Scottish Innovation Centres is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), detail on SFC spending is available publicly on their website Funding announcements (sfc.ac.uk) . Given the various funding streams from across Scottish Government to Innovation Organisations it would not be possible to quantify those funds in support of digital health and care related work only.

Scottish Government funding to Public Health Scotland is set out in each year’s Scottish Budget which is publicly available on the Scottish Government’s website: Scottish Budget - gov.scot ( www.gov.scot ) Detail on PHS spending is set out within the organisation’s annual accounts which are publicly available on their website. Additionally, we directly provided £1,597,088 in support of various programmes of work relating to Digital Health and Care.

The Scottish Government has allocated £1,132,500 for its strategic work programme to build cyber resilience across sectors, as well as an initial spend during 2022/23 on setting up the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre.

Since 2021-22, we have provided £2.45 million funding to the Scotland 5G Centre which has contributed to the development and implementation of digital health and care 5G use cases.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) – In 2021-22 Golden Jubilee/CfSD received allocations from planned care of £5.4m - £3m in programme funding and £2.4m in staffing costs at CfSD. The 2022-23 figures are not available due to the financial year not yet being complete.

Question reference: S6W-14202

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of any trends in the number of suspected spiking-related incidents in the last 12 months.

Analysis of spiking incidents is undertaken by Police Scotland on a weekly basis to ensure national oversight is maintained and understanding evolves. The Scottish Government is kept informed about any changes in the prevalence of spiking.

Most recently, a report by Police Scotland from 7 December 2022 indicated that in mid-October 2021, Police Scotland noted a significant increase in the number of reported crimes relating to spiking. This pattern continued for an initial 8 week period, peaking at almost 60 in the first week of November 2021. After this initial period, reports of spiking decreased quickly and amounted to single figure weekly reporting by mid-December 2021. A slight increase was noted in the second half of January and into February 2022 however levels have since reduced, returning to an average of 6 reports per week since mid-December 2021 until 30 October 2022. The report showed that between 1 October 2021 and 30 October 2022, there were 601 recorded crimes relating to Spiking.

Question reference: S6W-14161

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff have used the Turas platform in each year since it was launched.