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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-18531

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17312 by Kevin Stewart on 25 April 2023, whether it will consider opening Serco NorthLink Ferries for rolling bookings beyond 30 September 2023 now, and highlighting to travellers that the fares are not fixed and may increase, with payment taken at a later date.

Question reference: S6W-18527

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when freight rates on Serco NorthLink Ferries, for dates beyond 30 September 2023, will be made available.

Question reference: S6W-18529

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has in place to ensure sufficient freight capacity on Serco NorthLink Ferries during the autumn 2023 livestock sales season.

The contract for operating services to the Northern Isles lies with Serco NorthLink Ferries (SNF). The responsibility and expertise for operational decisions rightly sits with them. As has been the case in previous years, SNF, is currently forecasting requirements in advance of this year’s livestock sales season. Working with key stakeholders, including those in the farming and aquaculture sectors, the operator expects to manage capacity by introducing the peak freight timetable earlier than usual and by fully utilising available capacity on the freight and passenger vessels to manage traffic during this busy period.

Question reference: S6W-18516

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are currently on the waiting list for a cataract operation within NHS Shetland.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) uses the national waiting times warehouse to collect electronic patient records. This data source can be used routinely to identify the specialty of treatment. However, although the records are designed to collect coded information on the procedure that is planned for the patient, this information is often either incomplete, lacking in essential detail and/or its accuracy cannot be assured. In addition, for patients who have completed their wait the procedure(s) that was planned may not always reflect that performed after they were admitted for treatment. The latter is not captured through the warehouse, and as such we would be unable to report accurately on ongoing waits to this level of detail.

Public Health Scotland publishes quarterly statistics relating to the number of ongoing waits, by specialty and health Board of treatment. The latest statistics for Ophthalmology in NHS Shetland are published up to 31 st March 2023, and for new outpatients, this information can be found under Table 1.1 using the link below:

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/19970/newop_may23.xlsx .

Question reference: S6W-18517

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what communication it has had with NHS Shetland regarding the reported backlog of ophthalmic surgery, including cataract operations, for patients resident in Shetland, and what steps are being taken to reduce waiting times.

The Scottish Government are in regular contact with NHS Shetland to identify short term options and sustainable long-term solutions to support ophthalmic surgery, including cataract operations, across the North of Scotland.

We are working with all NHS Boards including NHS Shetland to reduce long waiting times. This includes targets announced in July 2022 to address the backlog of long waits and the delivery of the £1 billion NHS Recovery Plan to support sustainable improvements and new models of care, such as the National Treatment Centre Programme.

Question reference: S6O-02359

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding Levelling Up funding for Scotland's islands.

Question reference: S6W-17944

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the investigation by the BBC programme, Panorama, into pregnancy advice centres outside the NHS giving misleading information about abortion, which found that more than a third of these services gave misleading medical information or unethical advice, and sometimes both, what its response is to Stanton Healthcare East of Scotland obtaining charitable status to operate a pregnancy advice centre in Scotland.

The Scottish Government believes all women in Scotland should be able to access timely abortion care without judgment, should they require it. We would encourage all women wanting advice on an abortion or considering options for their pregnancy to contact their NHS Board, who can help offer advice or signpost them to other appropriate services.

The Scottish Government respects the fact that many individuals and organisations do not support abortion and may wish to discuss alternatives with patients, where patients request this. However, we expect all organisations to provide clear information for clients about the nature of the services they provide.

Decisions on the registration of charities in Scotland are a matter for the Scottish Charities Regulator OSCR, which is independent of the Scottish Government. Concerns about the actions of a charity should be raised with the charity trustees in the first instance and then with OSCR. If there is any evidence to suggest that Stanton Healthcare East of Scotland has provided any misleading or unethical advice, the Scottish Government would be happy to discuss this and, if appropriate, share any relevant evidence with OSCR.

Question reference: S6W-17943

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what evidence it used in relation to its decision not to reinstate shared cabins on the Aberdeen-Kirkwall-Lerwick NorthLink ferry route following the lifting of all of its COVID-19 restrictions and the statement by the World Health Organization that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency.

Question reference: S6W-17622

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many children leave secondary school without having received swimming lessons in the previous two years of their learning.

Question reference: S6W-17647

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-12519 and S6W12628 by Ivan McKee on 5 December 2022, as part of its role in ensuring that submarine cables are protected and in engaging with affected stakeholders, what assessment it has made of the reported claim that the major communications outage in Shetland on 20 October 2022 may have been deliberately caused by a Russian vessel, rather than being the result of accidental damage by a UK registered fishing vessel.

Telecommunications is reserved to the UK Government. Security and resilience of sub sea telecommunication cables, as well as the whole network, is therefore UKG responsibility. UKG are aware of the incident and the cause. As noted in the responses to your previous questions S6W-12519 and S6W-12628, The Scottish Government received confirmation from the UK Government’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency that a UK registered fishing vessel was the cause of damage to the subsea cable affecting telecommunications on Shetland.