- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 28 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many hours per week the Women's Health Champion is contracted to work in her role, and when her tenure is expected to end.
Answer
Professor Anna Glasier OBE was appointed as the first Women’s Health Champion for Scotland on 26 January 2023.
Professor Glasier has been contracted to work four days a month, with her tenure coming to an end in June 2024.
Professor Glasier recently published her first Women’s Health Champion update blog which can be found here: Health and Social Care My first update as Women's Health Champion - Health and Social Care (blogs.gov.scot)
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its forthcoming 10-year cancer strategy, whether it will commit to producing a supplementary tailored action plan for increasing the survival rates of each of the six less survivable cancers, which are pancreatic, lung, liver, brain, stomach and oesophageal cancers.
Answer
The forthcoming 10-year cancer strategy will be accompanied by a 3-year action plan aligning with the ambitions set out in our strategy. There will not be additional action plans for specific cancer types, however in both the strategy and plan we will continue to focus on those cancer types that are the largest burden and have poorer survival, in particular the less survivable cancers.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 28 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Cladding Stakeholder Group, on what dates the group has met, and on how many occasions its ministers have attended the group's meeting.
Answer
The Cladding Stakeholder Group is an official level meeting. Issues raised by stakeholders are fed back to Ministers and considered as part of the Cladding Remediation Programme. The group has met on the following occasions:
2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
30-06-2021 | 19-01-2022 | 08-02-2023 |
21-07-2021 | 16-02-2022 | 29-03-2023 |
19-08-2021 | 16-03-2022 | |
15-09-2021 | 20-04-2022 | |
20-10-2021 | 20-07-2022 | |
17-11-2021 | 17-08-2022 | |
15-12-2021 | 21-09-2022 | |
| | 19-10-2022 | |
| | 23-11-2022 | |
- Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government (a) whether and (b) when it will consider installing fixed speed cameras on the A75.
Answer
Across Scotland safety cameras are deployed through the Scottish Safety Camera Programme primarily where they have the greatest potential to reduce injury collisions and where there is evidence of both collisions and speeding. This is in accordance with criteria contained in the Scottish Safety Camera Programme Handbook.
There are a range of sites along the A75 where mobile safety camera resources are deployed.
An annual site prioritisation exercise is underway to assess the performance of all existing safety camera sites across Scotland and to identify locations which meet minimum criteria requirements. If new locations are identified on the A75 which meet minimum criteria requirements then consideration will be given to deploying additional camera resources on the route.
- Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when officials from Transport Scotland last met ferry operators at Cairnryan.
Answer
Transport Scotland officials regularly meet with the A77 Action group, to which representatives from the ferry operators are invited. Meeting invites to these meetings are sent to PO Ferries, Belfast Harbour and Stena Line.
The last meeting of this group was held on 3 February 2023, however, the last meeting attended by ferry operators was in September 2022.
Representatives from Transport Scotland’s operating company AMEY also meet the ferry operators on an ad hoc basis, as part of the consultation process around planned roadworks on the trunk road network.
- Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when it will next review the Scottish Safety Camera Programme Handbook in order to consider the health and wellbeing of roadside communities.
Answer
The Scottish Safety Camera Handbook is kept under continuous review by the Road Safety Strategic Partnership Board which provides strategic support and direction to the Scottish Safety Camera Programme. This acts to ensure safety camera resources continue to maximise their casualty reduction potential to communities across Scotland.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to prioritise (a) liver cancer and (b) other less survivable cancers in the 10-year cancer strategy, which is due to be published later in 2023.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s ambitious 10-year cancer strategy is nearing completion, with publication planned this Spring. The strategy will be under-pinned by action plans which will evolve with the changing cancer landscape. The strategy will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care.
It will encompass a new earlier cancer diagnosis vision for Scotland and will continue to focus on those cancer types that are the largest burden and have poorer survival, in particular the less survivable cancers, including liver cancer.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the forthcoming 10-year cancer strategy improves outcomes for people with (a) liver cancer and (b) other less survivable cancers.
Answer
Our ambitious 10-year cancer strategy is nearing completion, with publication planned this Spring. The strategy will be under-pinned by action plans which will evolve with the changing cancer landscape. The strategy will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care.
It will encompass a new earlier cancer diagnosis vision for Scotland and will continue to focus on those cancer types that are the largest burden and have poorer survival, in particular the less survivable cancers, including liver cancer.
- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 28 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas since their introduction, and what criteria are used to determine this.
Answer
The Scottish MPA Monitoring Strategy sets out the Scottish Government approach to MPA related survey and monitoring to meet the requirements of assessing and reporting under a number of legislative and policy drivers including the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. To meet these reporting and assessment obligations there is a need to gather appropriate evidence to assess the condition of the sites and determine whether any implemented management measures are proving effective. This information has contributed to reports such as Scotland's Marine Assessment 2020 and the 2018 Report to Parliament.
However, the features of MPAs are often slow growing and take time to recover, and therefore measuring noticeable change in condition and status will often take many years. The ongoing monitoring programme enables continued assessment of MPAs and development of the evidence base to determine whether individual MPAs are achieving their objectives. By the time of the next report to Parliament in 2024 we should hopefully have a better understanding if this is the case. This will focus on those sites that have had their full suite of management measures in place since 2016.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 28 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in developing interventions to address economic inactivity, and what metrics will be used to measure success.
Answer
Officials have been working across government portfolios to understand, in detail, the causes and drivers of economic inactivity in Scotland. Addressing the challenges around inactivity are complex and although there have been improvements in the rate in recent months we are focussed on rising to those challenges.
Work is ongoing to embed labour market participation as a key objective within existing policies across health, economy and education. For example we are looking at how our health system and employability services can better support people to stay healthy in work, and move in to good work from inactivity.
The Inactivity rate is measured through National Statistics sources including the Labour Force Survey, published monthly and the more robust Annual Population Survey, published quarterly is one metric which will be used to measure success.