- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 11 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will extend the deadline for claims to be lodged with the Scottish Government under the Community Led Local Development Programme (CLLD).
Answer
Answer expected on 11 March 2025
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action Social Security Scotland is taking to ensure that all requests for patient information that are sent to GP practices are received and actioned, in light of reports that questions to an NHS practice in Shetland were sent through the SCI Gateway system, which the surgery did not use.
Answer
Social Security Scotland has an established process for requesting information from GPs. The initial request will always be sent through the Scottish Care Information Gateway system, unless we are informed otherwise. If no response is received Social Security Scotland will contact the GP by telephone and send the request via letter if required.
Social Security Scotland recognise the complexity of using that system, and the challenges GPs and the wider health and social care sector face in responding to information requests. They are actively working on engagement to increase awareness of Social Security Scotland and to identify potential improvements in how they can gather supporting information to ensure applications are processed as quickly and effectively as possible.
This engagement activity has started, utilising in-house Health and Social Care Practitioners to offer discussions at the GP practice when they are in contact about one of their patients.
Social Security Scotland will continue to work with senior leaders in Health & Social Care Partnerships and Health Boards in 2025 to offer similar meetings to raise awareness and understand how we can improve communication.
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 December 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what options are available to any customers who are eligible for up to £5,000 from it through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS), but have been advised that the only registered suppliers available in their area are unable to provide them with a connection.
Answer
All homes and businesses across Scotland should be able to access, as a minimum, a superfast broadband connection through commercially available or publicly subsidised terrestrial or non-terrestrial services. This includes fixed broadband services such as full fibre and fixed wireless products, as well as 4G mobile and satellite solutions. The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme is available to support residents and business owners who cannot currently access, or are not in plans to receive, a fixed superfast broadband service. If there are issues pertaining to specific premises, please do highlight these to the R100 Team through our website at https://digitalconnectivity.campaign.gov.scot/.
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 December 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what contact it has had with the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) suppliers that are registered to provide a service in Shetland to ensure that they are able to deliver connections in the areas that they have advised.
Answer
When registering to deliver services through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme, suppliers are asked to provide evidence that they have already connected properties commercially. For Shetland, there are a number of registered suppliers who indicated that they were active in Shetland – Openreach, Converged Communication Solutions Ltd, Shetland Broadband LLP, Scotnet and BRDY. Shetland Broadband have already delivered connections using a fixed wireless solution, as have BRDY, using a satellite-based solution.
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 5 December 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31099 by Neil Gray on 15 November 2024, how much of its £30 million investment in planned care was allocated to NHS Grampian to support additional orthopaedic activity at Woodend Hospital.
Answer
As set out in my response to S6W-31527 on 2 December 2024, approximately £1.36 million was initially allocated to NHS Grampian to support 980 additional orthopaedic joint procedures at Woodend Hospital over a 9 month period. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, NHS Grampian were unable to commence activity in the timeline originally anticipated and currently expect to deliver 95 additional joints at Woodend by end of March 2025.
The remainder of the funding from the £1.36 million will be redirected to other priority areas, including orthopaedic capacity at the Golden Jubilee University National Hospital.
We are working with Health Boards, including NHS Grampian, to develop detailed annual delivery plans for 2025/26 to support waiting list reductions and improve productivity, and orthopaedics will be a key priority area.
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: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 2 December 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31099 by Neil Gray on 15 November 2024, which states that activity levels at Woodend Hospital will increase over the coming months, how long it anticipates it will take for the waiting list for elective surgery at the hospital to clear.
Answer
Approximately £1.36 million was initially allocated to NHS Grampian to support 980 additional orthopaedic joint procedures at Woodend Hospital over a 9 month period. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, NHS Grampian were unable to commence activity in the timeline originally anticipated and currently expect to deliver 95 additional joints at Woodend by end of March 2025.
The remainder of the funding from the £1.36 million will be redirected to other priority areas, including orthopaedic capacity at the Golden Jubilee University National Hospital.
We are working with Health Boards, including NHS Grampian, to develop detailed annual delivery plans for 2025/26 to support waiting list reductions and improve productivity, and orthopaedics will be a key priority area.
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the status of its work on the Scottish Good Practice Statement on ME-CFS, in light of the updated statement published in February 2023 stating that “This represents a first step in updating the Scottish Good Practice Statement", and that "Further work will be undertaken to more comprehensively review the guidance”.
Answer
We continue to explore how best to bring together cross-sector ME/CFS stakeholders, to ensure effective collaboration and engagement from all parties is considered in driving forward developments and recommendations regarding ME/CFS in Scotland.
The Health and Social Care Standards set out the expectation that care should be provided by health and social care professionals based on the most relevant evidence, guidance and best practice, as is appropriate to their profession and patient group. In July 2022 we wrote to health boards and GPs to raise awareness of the NICE guidelines and highlight key changes in practice, and these remain the most current national guidelines on the management of ME/CFS.
We are considering the potential to seek further clarity around the status and continued applicability of the Scottish Good Practice Statement on ME/CFS and its relationship to the existing NICE guideline.
In terms of our wider strategic work, a joined-up policy approach to long-term conditions is now being explored as the outcomes we seek are broadly the same regardless of condition including early identification and prevention, effective, safe and person-centred care and improved service delivery.
We are currently engaging with clinicians, patients, those who care for them and the third sector organisations who provide services to find out what matters to them. From this we will then have a full public consultation commencing in January 2025, following which a strategy will be developed and published later in 2025.
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how often cabins on sailings of the passenger Northern Isles Ferry Services between Aberdeen-Lerwick have reached full bookable capacity in each of the last five years.
Answer
The number of sailings where all cabins were fully booked on the Aberdeen – Lerwick passenger vessels for each Contract Year is displayed in the following table, which also includes the number of passenger vessel sailings each year.
| Total Sailings | Sailings With Fully Booked Cabin Capacity | |
| Northbound | Southbound | Northbound | Southbound | |
Jul 19 - Jun 20 | 306 | 306 | 41 | 41 | Covid Operating Period |
Jul 20 - Jun 21 | 334 | 334 | 0 | 0 | Covid Operating Period |
Jul 21 - Jun 22 | 346 | 346 | 0 | 1 | |
Jul 22 - Jun 23 | 338 | 337 | 72 | 81 | |
Jul 23 - Jun 24 | 332 | 333 | 63 | 75 | |
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government when it will fully implement the 2021 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline, NG206, Myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy)/chronic fatigue syndrome: diagnosis and management.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30903 on 11 November 2024. 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: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 19 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out an assessment of how agriculture in Scotland could be impacted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s recent announcement of changes to the inheritance tax system for farms from April 2026.
Answer
Our rural economies will be hit by the proposed changes to Inheritance Tax’s Agricultural Property Relief.
It is disappointing that there had been no prior indication of the change or engagement with the Scottish Government. Indeed, ahead of the election a Labour spokesperson had explicitly stated there was no intention of changing APR.
The Scottish Parliament recently debated this matter and agreed to call on the UK Government to reverse the changes –and urgently commit to undertake and publish impact assessments on the cumulative impact of its budget proposals on farmers and crofters in Scotland.
Given the lack of available data on the impact of this decision, there should now be an immediate review of this policy, informed by close engagement with the agricultural sector and devolved governments.
The Scottish Government want to see a tax system that supports – rather than hinders – orderly succession planning and the transfer of land to the next generation of custodians.