- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether allowance has been made in the calculation of the costs of the Deposit Return Scheme for the VAT that will be levied and, if this is the case, whether it can provide the details of how such costs have been incorporated into its calculation, and, if this is not the case, what the reasons are for its position on the matter.
Answer
The economic modelling in the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme does not account for any VAT being levied on deposits. That is in line with best practice as set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book ( https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938046/The_Green_Book_2020.pdf ) because VAT is considered to be a transfer payment that does not affect the output or consumption of resources.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to A Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland: Full Business and Regulatory Impact, published in July 2019, whether it will provide full details of the evidence base it used for its estimates for the number of (a) items in scope, which was estimated at 1.7 billion containers and (b) return points which was estimated at 14,386 manual and 3,021 automatic; whether these estimates were based on a consultants report, and, if so, whether it will publish that report and details of the evidence base used for that report.
Answer
The information presented in the version of the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) published in July 2019 has been superseded.
Please refer to the amended Final BRIA published in December 2021 which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/deposit-return-scheme-scotland-final-business-regulatory-impact-assessment/ .
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether, during the policy development period and leading up to the publication of the Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), published in December 2021, the proposed Deposit Return Scheme was referred for consideration to the Scottish Government Regulatory Review Group, and if this is not the case, what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
The centralised BRIA quality assurance services provided by the Better Regulation team has ceased, their last meeting was in February 2018.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its proposed Deposit Return Scheme, whether it will publish all (a) correspondence, (b) communication and (c) other documents between it and Circularity Scotland related to any conflict of opinion on the (i) detail of estimates of the number of (A) items to be recycled, (B) return locations and (C) Reverse Vending Machines required, and (ii) consideration of the wording and content of Annex F of the Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), published in December 2021.
Answer
The position taken by Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL) in respect of container and return point numbers, as I understand it, is set out at Annex F of the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) published in December 2021.
CSL’s position in respect of number of reverse vending machines is that they expect roughly 3,000 of these as set out in the Full Business Case for DRS.
CSL had no sight of the content of the amended BRIA in advance of publication.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of heart-related hospital admissions were repeat admissions, broken down by NHS board in each of the last five years.
Answer
Table 1: Number and percentage of heart-related repeat hospital admissions: Years ending 31 March 2017-2021
NHS Board | Number of repeat hospital admissions | Percentage of repeat hospital admissions |
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Ayrshire and Arran | 384 | 378 | 392 | 436 | 351 | 21.3 | 21.1 | 20.8 | 22.3 | 19.8 |
Borders | 52 | 62 | 69 | 81 | 50 | 14.0 | 16.3 | 17.1 | 19.0 | 11.8 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 68 | 84 | 107 | 81 | 87 | 13.2 | 15.2 | 17.9 | 13.5 | 14.1 |
Fife | 170 | 183 | 166 | 179 | 133 | 17.8 | 17.6 | 16.0 | 16.3 | 13.0 |
Forth Valley | 103 | 110 | 117 | 151 | 139 | 12.2 | 14.1 | 13.2 | 14.7 | 15.2 |
Golden Jubilee Hospital | 720 | 506 | 562 | 487 | 332 | 17.7 | 12.4 | 13.4 | 12.4 | 10.7 |
Grampian | 444 | 478 | 508 | 547 | 357 | 18.6 | 19.9 | 20.0 | 21.3 | 16.4 |
Greater Glasgow and Clyde | 571 | 547 | 522 | 660 | 448 | 14.7 | 14.2 | 13.4 | 15.3 | 12.4 |
Highland | 208 | 234 | 225 | 172 | 181 | 16.2 | 17.1 | 17.5 | 13.5 | 15.1 |
Lanarkshire | 653 | 576 | 623 | 610 | 526 | 19.6 | 17.5 | 17.9 | 17.7 | 17.0 |
Lothian | 627 | 544 | 649 | 661 | 508 | 15.9 | 13.6 | 16.3 | 15.9 | 14.2 |
Non-NHS Provider/Location | 3 | - | 4 | - | - | 13.6 | - | 28.6 | - | - |
Orkney | 17 | 10 | 12 | 3 | 23 | 21.8 | 14.3 | 20.0 | 4.3 | 25.0 |
Shetland | 8 | 14 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 12.9 | 18.9 | 8.6 | 7.0 | 12.5 |
Tayside | 503 | 440 | 396 | 472 | 319 | 23.9 | 20.0 | 19.0 | 23.1 | 17.3 |
Western Isles | 1 | 12 | 10 | 15 | 14 | 1.5 | 12.9 | 11.1 | 14.7 | 14.7 |
The data presented here show information on admissions for ischaemic heart disease (including angina and myocardial infarction; ICD10 codes I20-25) and heart failure (ICD-10 code I50). These are the most frequent heart-related diagnoses in hospital discharge data, and data are published annually in the PHS Scottish Heart Disease Statistics report ( https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/11607/2022-01-25-heart-disease-report.pdf ). Not included in these data are admissions for other heart-related conditions, such as problems with the heart valves, disorders of cardiac rhythm, congenital heart disease and infection or injury of the heart.
Source: SMR01, Public Health Scotland
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of alcohol-related hospital admissions were repeat admissions, broken down by NHS board in each of the last five years.
Answer
Table 1: Percentage of repeat alcohol-related hospital admissions by NHS board and financial year.
NHS Boards | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 |
NHS Ayrshire and Arran | 33.9 | 34.9 | 34.5 | 32.9 | 31.1 |
NHS Borders | 30.0 | 28.2 | 31.0 | 35.1 | 36.4 |
NHS Dumfries and Galloway | 30.8 | 28.5 | 25.3 | 26.2 | 30.2 |
NHS Fife | 29.9 | 28.7 | 32.0 | 31.4 | 34.0 |
NHS Forth Valley | 30.3 | 30.3 | 31.2 | 35.5 | 36.1 |
NHS Grampian | 30.0 | 34.1 | 33.0 | 35.0 | 33.9 |
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde | 37.4 | 38.1 | 37.5 | 36.9 | 37.2 |
NHS Highland | 29.5 | 33.2 | 31.4 | 29.6 | 31.9 |
NHS Lanarkshire | 34.9 | 34.3 | 34.8 | 36.2 | 36.2 |
NHS Lothian | 36.5 | 34.0 | 33.1 | 33.4 | 35.5 |
NHS Orkney | 31.8 | 38.8 | 32.5 | 31.6 | 47.6 |
NHS Shetland | 22.9 | 33.1 | 23.8 | 28.8 | 26.2 |
NHS Tayside | 34.5 | 34.3 | 33.9 | 35.6 | 36.8 |
NHS Western Isles | 31.5 | 25.5 | 30.2 | 30.0 | 30.0 |
1. The definition of an alcohol-related admission aligns with the PHS annual publication definition. Further information is available in the Alcohol related hospital statistics website .
2. Hospital admissions include acute general and psychiatric hospitals.
3. ‘Repeat admissions’ figures include the second and subsequent hospital stays of an individual patient during a financial year.
4. Figures are presented by NHS board of treatment.
1. Information on inpatient and day case data completeness can be found on the Hospital records Data webpage
Source: Public Health Scotland
- Asked by: Paul McLennan, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 29 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any plans to include multiple sclerosis (MS) in NHS Scotland’s, NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026, given reports of the high demand for services in Scotland where MS prevalence rates are higher than the rest of the UK.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and person-centred.
While the NHS Recovery Plan is not condition specific, the aim is to effect whole system recovery and support prioritisation and planning. In that respect we would expect this to directly affect neurology services and the experience and outcomes for people with neurological condition, including MS.
There is a commitment to update on the progress of the plan on an annual basis and to review the strategic plan. Work on the first annual review will commence shortly and is expected to be published in the summer of 2022.
In 2019, we published a Neurological Care and Support – National Framework for Action . The aims include improving the provision of co-ordinated health and social care services, developing sustainable workforce models and ensuring high standards of person-centred care for people with neurological conditions.
Through implementation of the framework, we have awarded £1.4m since October 2020 to fund innovative projects working to achieve better outcomes for people living with neurological conditions. Over £300,000 of this has been committed to projects which improve the health and wellbeing of people with MS in Scotland.
- Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 29 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Dogs Trust's recommendation that the number of pet animals able to travel under the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) should be reduced from five to three per vehicle, and what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the potential impact in Scotland of the recommendation.
Answer
The Scottish Government continue to engage with our stakeholders to improve animal welfare and this is an issue we would be open to considering.
The Scottish Government would be content with this suggested change if the UK Government were minded to amend the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill [1] , which is currently at Report Stage in the UK Parliament. The Scottish Government also agreed with the Legislative Consent Motion in relation to the Bill. However, it should be noted that the Bill, should it come into effect, will reduce the number of animals to five per vehicle , as opposed to five per traveller, which will be a significant improvement on the present situation.
Scotland does not have any Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) routes [2] for vehicles entering Scotland directly, but the Scottish Government would wish to retain a consistent GB-wide approach where possible.
[1] Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament
[2] Pet travel: sea and rail routes and companies you can use - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 29 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights and the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity have had with other ministers regarding revaluation of council tax bands.
Answer
I have frequent discussions with Ministerial colleagues on a range of matters. We are committed to reforming council tax to make it fairer, working with the Scottish Green Party and COSLA to oversee the development of effective deliberative engagement on sources of local government funding. including Council Tax, that will culminate in a Citizens' Assembly.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 29 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much debt per citizen each local authority currently has.
Answer
Data on local authority debt are published as part of the annual Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics (SLGFS). The latest available data is from SLGFS 2020-21 which was published on 22 March 2022. Figures on General Fund debt by local authority at 31 March 2021, including figures per person, are provided in Table F of the 'Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics (SLGFS) 2020-21 - Additional Analysis - Capital' supporting excel file which can be downloaded at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2020-21/documents/ .