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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-20637

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 8 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the review of credit card spending by the civil service, announced by the First Minister on 8 August 2023, what the terms of reference will be; who will lead the review; to whom it will report; how many civil servants will be assigned to work on the review; what the estimated budget is for the review, and how long it anticipates the review will last.

Scottish Government Internal Audit have initiated an independent review which will focus on the following areas:

1) Review of policy and compliance

2) Analysis of transactions to identify areas of non-compliance e.g. personal use, unauthorised expenditure.

Resource of 2 members of staff and budget for 15 days have been allocated for the review. This will be funded through standard arrangements for providing an internal audit service. A draft report on the review is anticipated to be provided to the Permanent Secretary and Director of Procurement and Property by 1 September, with interim findings on focused transactions review expected before then.

Question reference: S6O-02515

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it agreed the Investment Zones selection method with the UK Government.

Question reference: S6F-02323

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2023

To ask the First Minister, following the publication of NHS Tayside’s Due Diligence Review of Documentation Held Relating to Professor Eljamel, whether the Scottish Government will immediately approve an independent public inquiry.

Question reference: S6W-20347

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 11 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide the dates of all Open Government Partnership meetings in 2023, including those scheduled to take place.

The Open Government Partnership Steering Group meets at a minimum three times per year.

The Open Government Partnership Steering Group met on 17 May 2023. The following dates are confirmed for the Open Government Partnership Steering Group to next meet:

26 September 2023
6 December 2023

Scottish Government proactively publishes the minute of each meeting, which includes the date of the next scheduled meeting. This information can be found on the Open Government Partnership Steering Group page . This information is also shared via Scotland’s Open Government Network .

Question reference: S6W-20342

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what actions have been taken in accordance with the fiscal transparency programme since January 2023, including the development of an online fiscal portal.

The work of the fiscal transparency programme, including the development on an online fiscal portal is a key part of the Fiscal Openness and Transparency commitment in Scotland's third Open Government National Action Plan Scotland's Open Government action plan: 2021 to 2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Progress towards milestones in each commitment is regularly reported to the Open Government Steering Group in Scotland. These progress reports are published on the Scottish Government website: Commitment overview - Open Government action plan 2021 to 2025 - commitment 1: fiscal openness and transparency - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Highlighting action taken by the fiscal transparency programme to develop an online fiscal portal, in January 2023 a prototype portal was delivered, using existing data on infrastructure investment spending. This early pilot work has enabled the team to test the concept and understand better what it will take to develop it further. The programme team is now moving to the next phase of its work, with aim of delivering an internal product providing access to data on budget allocations, infrastructure spending and procurement data by the end of 2023. Following on from this it is the intention to turn the internal product into a public facing service, subject resource availability.

I am aware there is considerable interest in and support for this work from a range of users of Government data - including internally within Scottish Government, the wider public sector, Parliament, research and civil society organisations. It is the aim to follow the money through all aspects of the government’s systems and processes but it will take many years to deliver on this ambition. Following my predecessor's update on the progress of the portal (in correspondence to Convener of the Finance and Public Administration Committee on 20 March) on 10 May, officials presented a demonstration of the prototype portal for the Scottish Parliament's Finance and Public Administration Committee and Public Audit Committee clerks, the Scottish Parliament's Information Centre, Audit Scotland, the Fraser of Allander Institute, the Open Government Partnership, Equalities and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group, and the Scottish Human Rights Commission.

I have been pleased to see this engagement with stakeholders, from the initial Discovery project, through the co-creation and oversight of the fiscal openness and transparency commitment in Scotland’s third Open Government National Action Plan, to the recent engagement on the online portal development. The team will continue its stakeholder engagement through the next stages in the development of the online fiscal portal, which, where appropriate, will include opportunities to become involved in user testing.

Question reference: S6W-19832

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what actions have been taken by (a) the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, (b) the Scottish Government and (c) NHS Tayside to expedite waits for urogynaecology treatments in NHS Tayside.

The Scottish Government has commissioned the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to identify treatment options for patients across Scotland, including in NHS Tayside, who are currently on waiting lists for the following urogynaecology procedures:

Urethral Bulking
Laparoscopic Colposuspension
Fascial Sling

Working Collaboratively with clinical colleagues across NHS Scotland and CFSD we have agreed a plan that sets out how and when these patients will be treated by adopting a national approach to clear the waiting list. We aim to ensure all patients requiring a procedure is appointed and treated by late summer.

To provide future resilience, the national unit, based in CFSD, will support increased capacity for treatment within NHS Scotland and enable the development of training to build future sustainability within this highly specialist clinical area.

In terms of NHS Tayside, there are eleven patients waiting who required fascial sling surgery. These patients now have a treatment plan and will be seen by Spire Healthcare, Edinburgh. Spire Healthcare is expect to be able to treat all eleven patients by the end of August 2023.

Question reference: S6W-19834

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the agendas and minutes of all meetings involving the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, the Scottish Government and NHS Tayside regarding expediting waits for urogynaecology treatments in NHS Tayside.

Question reference: S6W-19833

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide (a) the dates of all meetings that have taken place involving the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, the Scottish Government and NHS Tayside regarding expediting waits for urogynaecology treatments in NHS Tayside and (b) a list of attendees at each meeting.

Scottish Government officials meet regularly with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to discuss a range of improvement programmes that support service innovation and redesign, including new pathways of care that are more efficient and provide sustainable solutions for the future.

The CfSD was first approached about urogynaecology waiting times on 19 May 2023 and a plan to identify treatment options for long waiting patients across Scotland, including NHS Tayside, was agreed on 5 June 2023.

As the information requested is personal data of a third party, disclosing the list of attendees at these meetings would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Professor Graham Ellis, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, met separately with Dr Pamela Johnston, Operational Medical Director of NHS Tayside, on 11 May 2023.

Question reference: S6W-19604

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what applications or notes of interest it received in the creation of Investment Zones in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-19605

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 18 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria were used to inform its discussions and decisions regarding the awarding of Investment Zones in Scotland; which of its (a) ministers and (b) departments were involved, and whether it will provide full details of the assessment process.