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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-01214

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of cattery and kennel businesses to discuss support and restart measures.

The last year has been extremely difficult for many of Scotland’s businesses and we have engaged widely with businesses and representative organisations throughout this crisis to ensure we understood all the impacts and how best to support businesses.

It has not been possible to meet directly with every sector impacted by the pandemic and whilst we have not met directly with their representative organisations, we have engaged extensively with the cattery and kennels sector through correspondence.

Additionally, a regular programme of engagement continues with organisations that represent businesses including the Confederation of British Industry, Federation of Small Businesses, the Institute of Directors, Scottish Chambers of Commerce, SCDI, Scottish Financial Enterprise, Scottish Retail Consortium, Scottish Tourism Alliance and Scotland Food and Drink to discuss a range of priority issues, including economic recovery as restrictions are lifted and business support.

Question reference: S6W-01215

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates providing targeted support to cattery and kennel businesses would cost.

Question reference: S6W-01213

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-35747 by Kate Forbes on 17 March 2021, how many cattery and kennel businesses have (a) applied for and (b) secured local authority discretionary funding support.

The use of the local authority discretionary funding was entirely at the discretion of local authorities and we do not currently hold data on applications by or allocations to individual type of business.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes statistics and management information relating to its Covid-19 business grants on its website which can be found at Coronavirus (COVID-19): business support funding statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Question reference: S6W-01019

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will develop a Scottish equivalent of United Kingdom Government Investments (UKGI).

Question reference: S6W-00844

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the efficacy is of each of the COVID-19 vaccines that are in use in Scotland, broken down by (a) first and (b) second dose.

Due to the presence of new and emerging COVID-19 variants of concern, vaccine efficacy is continuously monitored and assessed. Public Health England (PHE) monitors the efficacy of COVID 19 vaccinations currently approved for use in the UK.

On 14 June PHE published its most recent analysis on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against hospital admission with the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant, first identified in India. The analysis suggests the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective against hospitalisation after 2 doses and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 92% effective against hospitalisation after 2 doses.
‎ Note: These data remain subject to peer review.

Table 1: Estimated vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation

		Alpha			Delta
Vaccination status		OR vs symptomatic disease	HR vs hospitalisation	VE vs hospitalisation	OR vs symptomatic disease	HR vs hospitalisation	VE vs hospitalisation
Any vaccine
	Dose 1	0.51 (0.48-0.55)	0.44 (0.28-0.70)	78% (65-86)	0.69 (0.64-0.75)	0.37 (0.22-0.63)	75% (57-85)
	Dose 2	0.13 (0.1-0.15)	0.64 (0.24-1.72)	92% (78-97)	0.20 (0.18-0.23)	0.29 (0.11-0.72)	94% (85-98)

Pfizer
	Dose 1	0.53 (0.47-0.58)	0.32 (0.14-0.73)	83% (62-93)	0.64 (0.54-0.77)	0.10 (0.01-0.76)	94% (46-99)
	Dose 2	0.06 (0.05-0.08)	0.88 (0.21-3.77)	95% (78-99)	0.12 (0.1-0.15)	0.34 (0.10-1.18)	96% (86-99)

Astrazenica
	Dose 1	0.51 (0.48-0.55)	0.48 (0.30-0.77)	76% (61-85)	0.70 (0.65-0.76)	0.41 (0.24-0.70)	71% (51-83)
	Dose 2	0.26 (0.21-0.32)	0.53 (0.15-1.80)	86% (53-96)	0.33 (0.28-0.39)	0.25 (0.08-0.78)	92% (75-97)

OR =odds ratio. HR = hazards ratio. VE = vaccine effectiveness. OR vs symptomatic disease. HR and VE vs hospitalisation adjusted for age, clinically extremely vulnerable groups, ethnicity and test week

These findings indicate very high levels of protection against hospitalisation with the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant with 1 or 2 doses of either vaccine.

PHE has previously published analysis showing that one dose is 17% less effective at preventing symptomatic illness from the Delta variant, compared to the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant, first identified in the UK. However, there is only a small difference after 2 doses.

For further information and data on this analysis please see:

Individuals who received the Moderna vaccine were not included in this efficacy analysis on the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant, as this was a very small number.

In clinical trials with a Phase 3 placebo controlled testing in over 30,000 volunteers, the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine showed a vaccine efficacy of 94.1% (95% CI: 89.3-96.8%). Efficacy was similar in those over 65 years. Vaccine efficacy against severe COVID-19 was 100% (95% CI: 87.0-100%). Note: Trial data do not reflect efficacy against variants as Table 1. For further information on trial-based efficacy for other vaccines currently available in Scotland please refer to COVID-19: the green book, chapter 14a - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Question reference: S6W-00868

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) hernia and (b) rectopexy mesh surgeries have been performed in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-01280

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many of CalMac’s 34 ferries are more than 25 years old.

Question reference: S6W-01168

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that the time chartering of ferries for publicly subsidised routes is consistent with the commitment made in the Fair Work: action plan to increase the number of workers covered by collective bargaining.

Question reference: S6W-01235

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date universal free meals in primary schools will be fully implemented, and what progress has been made to date regarding the delivery of this.

Free school meals are a vital support to thousands of children and young people across the country - ensuring that children have access to a free, healthy and nutritious meal on every day they are in school and are ready to engage in learning.

The Scottish Government and our local authority partners have reached agreement to introduce universal free school lunches, during school term-time, for children in primaries 4 and 5 during the course of the current financial year. Universal provision for all children in primary 4 will begin in August 2021, whilst universal provision for all children in primary 5 will begin in January 2022.

We are providing local authorities with £28 million in this financial year to deliver this commitment, which will see around 90,000 additional children become newly entitled to receive free school lunches during the course of the forthcoming school year.

We will continue to work with our partners in local authorities over the coming months to ensure that our commitment to expanding the universal provision of free school lunches to include all primary school children, during term-time, is delivered by August 2022.

Question reference: S6W-01171

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the owner of Pentland Ferries, regarding the Fair Work Framework.