- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to reduce the revised budget of £10 million for sustainability payments for GP surgeries.
Answer
The Scottish Government has no plans to reduce the allocated £10m in sustainability payments to general practices.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on the implementation of the Interim Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital.
Answer
We launched the Interim Principles in Parliament on March 31 2022. They set out in more detail our ambition for a high integrity, values-led market for responsible investment in natural capital including our commitment that communities are engaged in, and benefit from, this market. We aim to strengthen and finalise the Interim principles during the course of this Parliament. For example, the Scottish Forestry Strategy Implementation Plan published in June 2022 includes a commitment to demonstrating the Interim Principles in the delivery of woodland creation. Also, the Investment Ready Nature Scotland grant fund launched in August 2022, and referred to in the preceding question, includes a requirement for projects to comply with the Interim Principles. We will also seek to strengthen the Principles through our policy programme such as our work on the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 10 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to any concerns raised by the Cross Party Group on Chronic Pain regarding 10 pain patient representatives, elected by other patients, reportedly not endorsing the draft framework for pain management service delivery or its subsequent implementation plan, due to the publications not providing key information such as staffing levels and investment, and independent patient volunteers being involved for just two meetings.
Answer
The Scottish Government published the Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery - Implementation Plan in July 2022.
Extensive engagement of people with lived experience was carried out at all stages to develop the Framework including members of the Cross Party Group on Chronic Pain. This includes through representation on the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain (NACCP) and a national survey of people with chronic pain and their carers. We also sought input from other stakeholder groups during the development of the Framework including NHS staff, service planners and third-sector partners. This included work to bring together the diverse clinical disciplines involved in pain management in order to inform and support activities to improve chronic pain services.
All members of the NACCP had the opportunity to freely share their views on the priorities for improving pain management support which were used to inform the development of the draft Framework. Committee members were provided with an advanced copy of the Framework and were encouraged to share their feedback on its content via a public consultation which had a high level of responses from people with chronic pain and other stakeholders. We are grateful for the views and ideas shared through the consultation which have been used to inform the Aims and Actions we have set out in the Plan. This includes actions to address issues raised by the Cross Party Group on Chronic Pain to drive delivery of sustainable services and support for people with chronic pain across Scotland.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether the Interim Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital will be permanently adopted, and, if this is the case, when.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13172 on 10 January 2023. 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 .
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether the future refit, maintenance and repair of the two Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) commissioned ferries under construction by Cemre Marin Endustri in Turkey will take place in (a) Scotland or (b) the wider UK.
Answer
Future maintenance and any refit work is the responsibility of CalMac. The maintenance contracts for these vessels will be undertaken in line with the wider contracts that the operator has in place at point they enter service.
Currently the majority of the CalMac Fleet (owned by CMAL) has repairs, maintenance and dry docking carried out in Scotland. Due to capacity constraints a small number of vessels are drydocked in Birkenhead, NW England.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 10 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12299 by Shona Robison on 1 December 2022, when it expects to publish its response to the final report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into Asylum Provision in Scotland.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question to S6W-12299 on 1 December 2022, the Scottish Government will publish its response to the Asylum Inquiry Scotland’s final report in due course.
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 .
- Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-20621 and S5W-26208 by Roseanna Cunningham on 8 January and 22 November 2019, whether it will make an assessment of the implications for its policies of the reported greater success rate of hen harrier nests on non-RSPB nature reserves compared to RSPB nature reserves.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not believe it is necessary to make a specific assessment of the implications of its policies of the reported greater success rate of hen harrier nests on non-RSPB nature reserves compared to RSPB nature reserves.
Hen harrier success rates are dependent on a number of different factors, as set out in the response to PQs S5W-20621 and S5W-26208. A significant reason for the lower productivity on RSPB reserves is because several are on Orkney where there is a high level of polygyny (males having 2-3 females). As males cannot provision up to 3 nests, failure of the 2nd & 3rd females is regular with fewer young raised (than a monogamous pair) even if they are successful.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 10 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether there has been a specific budget allocated to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to carry out fire safety checks as part of short-term let licensing applications.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not allocated funding to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to undertake fire safety checks, as part of the short-term let licence application process.
Licensing schemes are administered by licensing authorities on a cost recovery basis through the collection of application fees. Schedule 1, Paragraph 2 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 requires licensing authorities to send copies of licence applications to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
During this year the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has developed a fire safety checklist for licensing authorities and applicants to complete, which helps the Service to effectively target their resources using a risk based approach.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding will be allocated to the Climate Justice Fund in financial year 2023-24.
Answer
Final budget allocations have not yet been made for FY 23-24.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many people with "no fixed abode" have been discharged from hospital in each year since 1999.
Answer
Published figures on the most recent and historical numbers of patients that have been admitted to hospital can be found within the within the Annual Acute Activity publication, which was released on 27 September 2022. The publication can be found at the following link:
https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual-annual-year-ending-31-march-2022/
Published data is only available for a ten year period, from financial year 2012-13 to financial year 2021-22. Data on patient activity is presented in Table 2 – inpatient and day case activity, and the measure of interest can be found by selecting the NHS board of residence in the indicator drop down and either stays, episodes or patients within the measure drop down. Figures where ‘no fixed abode’ will then be listed in the table.
Below is an excerpt from the dataset, with the measure of interest highlighted in bold.
| Number of Patients |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Indicator | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22p |
All Scottish and Non-Scottish Residents | 708048 | 715744 | 722072 | 726088 | 713220 | 700659 | 708044 | 713681 | 499088 | 605340 |
Scottish Residents | 701698 | 709080 | 715576 | 719579 | 706764 | 694040 | 701307 | 706814 | 496478 | 600795 |
| | | | | | | | | | |
No Fixed Abode | 142 | 129 | 113 | 145 | 162 | 165 | 98 | 91 | 77 | 48 |
Resident from Outside the United Kingdom | 949 | 1016 | 1100 | 1287 | 1146 | 1290 | 1551 | 1592 | 166 | 262 |
Resident of the Rest of United Kingdom (Outside Scotland) | 4487 | 4658 | 4551 | 4307 | 4252 | 4128 | 4014 | 4053 | 1568 | 3300 |
Unknown Residency | 772 | 861 | 732 | 770 | 896 | 1036 | 1074 | 1131 | 799 | 935 |