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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: S6O-03138

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on nursery-age childcare funding provision.

Question reference: S6O-03060

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of the reduction in funding for Highlands and Islands Enterprise on women in business.

Question reference: S6W-24524

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the Disabled Persons (Badges for Motor Vehicles) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2007, which give local authorities the discretion to charge a fee for the issue or re-issue of Blue Badges.

Question reference: S6W-24364

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to create specific funding schemes for brain tumour research.

The Scottish Government has no plans to create specific funding schemes for Brain Tumour research.

Within the Scottish Government, funding of Health and Care Research comes under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies (TCS) Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research (HIPS) Committee each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website.

https://www.cso.sc ot.nhs.uk/grant-funding/response-mode-funding-schemes/. Applications on Brain Tumour research are welcomed.

CSO provides funding support through NHS Research Scotland (NRS) for infrastructure to support the running of clinical trials in the NHS here. this includes the NRS Cancer Research Network whose role is to increase, support and sustain clinical trial activity in cancer care in Scotland https://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/research-areas/cancer

The NRS Cancer Research Network is currently supporting 13 Brain Tumour Clinical studies with over 190 patients recruited.

Through UK-wide funding agreements, researchers based in Scotland are able to access research funding programmes administered by the National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR). Within their individual remits, these programmes can consider applications for research in Brain Tumours. CSO is working with the health research community in Scotland to ensure awareness of these opportunities and to maximise the number of high quality applications from Scotland to the NIHR research funding programmes going forward.

Question reference: S6W-24366

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what recent steps it has taken to improve care for people with a brain tumour diagnosis.

In our cancer strategy published in June last year, the Scottish Government committed to focus on cancer types that are the largest burden and have worse outcomes. These include brain and the other cancers categorised as less-survivable such as oesophagus, pancreas, and stomach.

We are continuing to invest in 12 pilot single point of contact (SPOC) sites and will evaluate the impact of the programme and expand its reach. We are also rolling out our final Improving the Cancer Journey (ICJ) service, in partnership with Macmillan, giving everyone diagnosed with cancer in Scotland access to a key support worker.

Question reference: S6W-24365

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working to improve access to treatments for brain tumour patients.

Question reference: S6W-24082

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-07053 by Mairi McAllan on 18 March 2022, whether it will provide an update on its policy regarding unexploded ordnance disposal at sea.

The current licensing regime already encourages developers to use unexploded ordnance clearance methods which will produce the least underwater noise. The UK Government's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs is in the process of updating the existing Joint Interim Position Statement on UXO clearance which sets out an expectation that low noise methods will be prioritised by developers. The current statement is co-signed by the Scottish Government, other UK regulators, and Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies. Following updated advice to be received from NatureScot, we will determine whether Scotland will remain a co-signatory to any updated position statement, or produce our own unilateral statement.

Protecting Scotland's marine environment is of paramount importance to the Scottish Government. We are moving towards low order techniques being the default method for unexploded ordnance removal in Scottish waters, unless there are extenuating circumstances in which low order cannot be used.

Question reference: S6W-24367

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the UK Government regarding the potential impact in Scotland of any increased freight shipping costs resulting from the reported attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea areas.

The Scottish Government has discussed the Red Sea shipping crisis with the Department for Business and Trade and we will continue to monitor the situation, as it develops.

This is an international concern, and we're aware of the potential challenges Scottish businesses and consumers might face due to the delays and rising logistical and insurance costs. This is a direct outcome of the security threat and commercial decisions to reroute vessels from the Red Sea to a safer but longer route around the Cape of Good Hope.

We expect a short period of adjustment for supply chains, with potentially some delays due to additional sailing times, but there will still be very regular vessel arrivals, and continual supply of goods arriving into the UK and Scotland. Operators are working to mitigate any potential impact on consumers, and the shipping and supply chain sectors are well practiced at putting contingencies in place to continue to meet their customer needs.

The combination of additional costs to the operators and changed market conditions (e.g. capacity) is seeing rate rises for container pricing. To what extent these cost increases are absorbed or passed on is a commercial decision.

Question reference: S6W-23982

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have provided annual deer cull data to NatureScot in each of the past five years.

Question reference: S6W-23626

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22555 by Fiona Hyslop on 10 November 2023, whether it will provide an update on what date the Serco NorthLink Ferries booking system will open for bookings for dates beyond 31 March 2024.

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