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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-13289

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have died of sudden cardiac death in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-13290

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to tackle sudden cardiac death amongst young people.

We continue to implement our Heart Disease Action Plan which seeks to ensure that everyone with suspected heart disease has timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment and care.

The Network for Inherited Cardiac Conditions Scotland (NICCS) is a National Managed Clinical Network which supports improvements in the diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of people with inherited cardiac conditions (ICC).

Scottish Government are key partners in the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership who are working to deliver the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Strategy 2021 to 2026 . A key aim of this strategy is to increase survival from OHCA to 15% in Scotland by 2026.

Question reference: S6W-13291

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many trees it has planted in each year since 2007 in the South Scotland region, broken down by local authority area.

Within the South Region of Forestry and Land Scotland, since 2007, the following estimated number of trees (based on normal planting densities per hectare), have been planted by Forestry and Land Scotland in each Local Authority Area:

Scottish Borders	No. of Trees Planted	South Lanarkshire	No. of Trees Planted	North Ayrshire	No. of Trees Planted
2007	1,263,113	2007	142,344	2007	199,217
2008	1,107,308	2008		2008	356,578
2009	1,391,434	2009		2009	141,193
2010	687,070	2010		2010	254,097
2011	717,403	2011		2011	125,032
2012	774,533	2012	9,936	2012	105,779
2013	637,738	2013	26,699	2013	99,325
2014	1,005,445	2014		2014	185,231
2015	1,193,279	2015		2015	476,017
2016	701,855	2016		2016	150,978
2017	873,600	2017		2017	122,612
2018	838,340	2018	178,341	2018	83,411
2019	768,066	2019	1,008	2019	294,932
2020	455,598	2020		2020	148,106
2021	1,157,782	2021	42,980	2021	342,218
2022	544,822	2022		2022	157,814

East Ayrshire	No. of Trees Planted	South Ayrshire	No. of Trees Planted	Dumfries & Galloway	No. of Trees Planted
2007	448,107	2007	860,077	2007	3,093,047
2008	334,423	2008	370,150	2008	4,213,935
2009	261,780	2009	800,877	2009	2,259,055
2010	165,419	2010	884,785	2010	1,239,415
2011	215,800	2011	992,981	2011	2,141,067
2012	173,615	2012	503,617	2012	2,578,568
2013	299,377	2013	150,491	2013	2,366,007
2014	477,905	2014	589,832	2014	4,209,176
2015	321,599	2015	718,060	2015	3,577,244
2016	221,424	2016	844,655	2016	3,275,512
2017	509,369	2017	736,736	2017	3,977,518
2018	343,805	2018	471,202	2018	4,383,059
2019	378,773	2019	705,146	2019	3,293,569
2020	540,186	2020	462,090	2020	1,103,535
2021	551,095	2021	349,343	2021	2,862,130
2022	525,248	2022	429,242	2022	2,618,842

Question reference: S6W-13108

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported views expressed by Scotland Versus Arthritis in its briefing on the Scottish Government's implementation plan for chronic pain services that (a) the plan lacks the necessary ambition, (b) the approach to change is too slow and (c) there is no identifiable funding for delivery.

We are grateful to Scotland Versus Arthritis for their support in developing the draft Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery as members of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain.

The Implementation Plan sets out, for the first time, an ambitious national direction for improvement including 18 Actions which reflect the priorities of people with chronic pain to improve the care and services they need.

This includes taking a whole-system approach to address long-standing, complex issues including improving the quality of national resources such as NHS Inform, reviewing referrals and pathways of care, investing in comprehensive national data on chronic pain and its impact, and developing a national knowledge and skills framework to drive recognition, earlier intervention and improve quality of care for people with chronic pain.

We have also redesigned our Governance structure to ensure that we can deliver these Actions at pace. This includes investing in a new Third-Sector Network in direct response to requests from charity organisations including Scotland Versus Arthritis to better support their involvement in implementing the Framework. We will continue to monitor delivery of the Implementation Plan to ensure there is rapid progress and to identify further opportunities to improve pain services.

In addition to our investment in these challenges, we have recognised the impact of arthritis, and are providing £400m to develop a network of National Treatment Centres which will provide additional capacity for hip and knee surgeries which are a significant contributor to chronic musculoskeletal pain.

As stated by Scotland Versus Arthritis in their recent briefing to MSPs, the majority of people with chronic pain are seen in primary care services. That is why we are also providing increased funding of £170 million this year to support primary care services to expand multi-disciplinary teams and provide additional pharmacists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists who can support people to better manage chronic pain and its impact. We welcome the continued input of Scotland Versus Arthritis and other third-sector partners in our shared goal of improving care and services for people with chronic pain.

Question reference: S6W-13088

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the new housing bill that it proposed to deliver the actions of the New Deal for Tenants, the proposed Homelessness Prevention Duties and other aspects of the Housing to 2040 vision, and whether there is an expected date for when the bill will be introduced.

Question reference: S6W-13093

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10596 by Shona Robison 20 September 2022, how this information compares with insolvencies since 2007-08.

Question reference: S6W-13041

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether there will be an opportunity for UK suppliers to supply into the contract for two ferries awarded to Cemre Marin Endustri in Turkey by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), or whether the shipbuilder will determine the supply chain.

Question reference: S6W-13043

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) assesses social value during tendering for shipbuilding contracts.

Question reference: S6W-12923

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reference to its announcement of an additional £200 million of funding to improve capacity, connectivity, performance and journey times for passengers and freight between Aberdeen and the Central Belt, as set out on page 11 of the Scotland's Railway July 2022 publication, Enhancements Delivery Plan, on what date the additional £200 million of funding was announced; how much has been spent to date; on what it has been spent, and whether it will provide details of any improvements to connectivity, performance and/or journey times that have been achieved.

The additional £200m of funding was first announced by Keith Brown MSP on 28 January 2016.

Network Rail advise that the cost of work done to date on the project is £6.5m (as of 12 November 2022).

Key areas of work completed to date include:

The development of a concept timetable that meets the projects stated output specification.
Design and development of infrastructure interventions that are required to deliver the proposed timetable.
Survey, site and ground investigations at the locations where each of the interventions is being developed.
Environmental assessment to support development of Environmental Screening for the project
Development of an Outline Business Case for the project, drawing on the information generated from each of the above activities

There has already been a number of improvements in recent years to the capability of the Aberdeen to Central Belt route, including signalling alterations in the Aberdeen area to create additional capacity.

Question reference: S6F-01697

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 January 2023

To ask the First Minister, in light of the extension of bus fare caps in England, whether the Scottish Government supports capping bus fares in Scotland for those aged between 22 and 60.