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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-28353

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) infants and (b) adults it expects to take up the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine in the first year of the new programme that was announced on 24 June 2024.

RSV is one of the leading causes of hospitalisation in the first year of life and can also cause severe complications for older adults which may require hospitalisation. Protecting infants by vaccinating pregnant women and birthing people, and the adult RSV vaccination programme are therefore expected to prevent a significant number of GP consultations, hospitalisations and ICU admissions per year.

While estimates of vaccine uptake are not currently available, the Scottish Government will continue to work with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and other key stakeholders to maximise uptake of the vaccine across both programmes, which will have a positive impact on winter pressures across the NHS. Health Boards collect data using local IT systems, which vary across Scotland, and PHS is currently working to collate data to record vaccination events.

Question reference: S6W-28356

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people received the seasonal flu vaccine in the winter 2023-24 programme.

As part of the 2023-24 COVID-19 and Flu winter vaccination programme the NHS in Scotland delivered over 3.57 million vaccines, including 1,647,596 adult flu vaccines and 538,580 child flu vaccines.

Vaccination uptake rates in the 65 years and over group reached 79.8%, which is above the World Health Organization’s target ambition of 75%.

A detailed breakdown of the seasonal flu vaccination 2023-24 uptake figures for each cohort can be found via the Public Health Scotland vaccination surveillance dashboard PHS Vaccination Surveillance (shinyapps.io) .

Question reference: S6W-28354

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has held with patient organisations to raise awareness of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, which will be made available on 1 August 2024.

The Scottish Government was only able to officially confirm and announce the programme after the completion of the tender process in early June therefore initial work has been limited to a small planning group comprising the Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Health Boards. As we are now able to confirm cohorts and launch plans, we are working closely with PHS to engage a range of partners to raise awareness of the programme and encourage those eligible to come forward. The Scottish Government, working in partnership with PHS, has engaged with a range of key stakeholders including Health Boards, NHS Education for Scotland (NES), National Services Scotland (NSS) and maternity services throughout this process. Promotion and engagement is also ongoing through charities such as Age UK.

Question reference: S6F-03239

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2024

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of any implications for its policy for economic development in Scotland of the findings of the Resolution Foundation’s recent report on the UK’s economic and trade performance.

Question reference: S6W-27632

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 31 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Poppyscotland’s Credit their Service campaign.

We welcomed Poppyscotland’s Credit Their Service campaign last summer and acknowledge the two primary areas of concern highlighted in it. The first of these, Pension Credits, is reserved to the UK Government and the Scottish Government is therefore unable to intervene on this issue. However, we are in regular discussions with the UK Government on a range of related topics and have made them aware of the issues raised by Poppyscotland. We understand that officials from The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) met with Royal British Legion, Poppyscotland's sister organisation to discuss this.

The benefits administered by Local Authorities that are referenced by the campaign are Council Tax Support, Discretionary Housing Payment and the Scottish Welfare Fund. The Scottish Government recently published an Action Plan outlining improvements to the Scottish Welfare Fund which will be delivered in partnership with Local Authorities. Officials are working to update the statutory guidance and improve the Fund’s administration, accessibility and experience.

Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) as a Local Authority benefit is administered by Local Authorities, who consider the circumstances of each individual case when dealing with applications. However, to receive DHP, an individual must be in receipt of either the housing element of Universal Credit or Housing Benefit. As both of these remain reserved to the UK Government, neither the Scottish Government nor Local Authorities have any powers over how they are administered.

With regards to Council Tax support, the Council Tax Reduction Regulations already instruct that Armed Forces independence payments should be fully disregarded as income in the calculation of council tax reduction in both the pension age and working age schemes. Therefore, all Local Authorities should disregard these payments as income in relation to applications for Council Tax reduction. The Scottish Government continues to keep the Council Tax Reduction regulations under review.

Question reference: S6W-27633

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 31 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is undertaking to ensure that any armed forces compensation is not included in means testing calculations in relation to Scottish social security benefits.

None of the benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland are directly means tested although some rely on a reserved UK benefit, such as Universal Credit as a qualifying benefit. In practice this means that armed forces compensation generally does not directly affect Scottish Government social security benefits. It may affect Funeral Support Payment. If the compensation payment has been issued to the deceased person it may be treated as funds that can cover or help towards funeral costs. This is to ensure that support goes to those who need it most.

Scottish Government officials do engage with The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on a range of subjects and in October 2023 raised the issue of war pensions being treated as income for pension credit. This engagement was prompted by Poppyscotland’s Credit their Service campaign. DWP made clear they had no plans to change their current policy, and as this is an area reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is unable to intervene on this issue any further.

Question reference: S6O-03295

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how its work on wildlife management can help address the reported threats to nature and biodiversity restoration posed by American mink.

Question reference: S6W-26264

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the draft Bioenergy Policy Statement will be published.

The Scottish Government is pleased to announce that today we will publish the draft Bioenergy Policy Statement for consultation.

The draft Bioenergy Policy Statement is seeking views on the priorities and principles that we have set out for the use of bioenergy, as well as views on the potential to scale up domestic production of biomass via planting of perennial energy crops.

The consultative draft of the Policy Statement will be available to view on the Scottish Government website at http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781835215074 and the consultation questions will be available on Citizen Space at https://consult.gov.scot/energy-and-climate-change-directorate/draft-bioenergy-policy-statement-consultation . The consultation will be live for 12 weeks from today until 12 June 2024.

Question reference: S6O-03257

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will consider stocking alcohol-free variants of spirits, wine and other alcoholic beverages in the Scottish Parliament gift shop.

Question reference: S6O-03240

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work that it is doing to support elected representatives to take parental leave.