Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-33774

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of lost or stolen government-issued mobile phones have been reported in the last five years, and what actions were taken in response.

Question reference: S6F-03781

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the Court of Session’s decision regarding the Rosebank oil field and the Jackdaw gas field.

Question reference: S6W-33986

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to foster improved trust from distillers and small-scale spirits producers, in light of the reported issues with the Deposit Return Scheme.

Scotland’s DRS was due to launch in March 2024 and we would have been enjoying the benefits of a DRS now if the previous UK Government had agreed a full Internal Market Act exclusion to our scheme.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with businesses regarding Scotland’s Circular Economy and the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility schemes, including the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

In 2023, following a significant amount of engagement with businesses, including small-scale drinks producers, we amended DRS Regulations so that any product with fewer than 5,000 units on the market may be registered as a low volume product. As part of the development of the 3 nations scheme our officials shared the experience of developing the Scottish Scheme and due to this low volume products will be exempt from most of the requirements of the deposit return schemes across the UK.

Draft regulations recently notified to the WTO confirmed that glass will no longer be included in Scotland’s scheme. Because spirits are normally packaged in glass bottles, this means that the majority of distillers and small-scale spirits producers will be out of scope of DRS when it launches in October 2027.

Question reference: S6W-33987

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current regulations are for the (a) labelling and (b) marketing of Scotch whisky, and how these are enforced.

The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 set out requirements for the marketing and labelling of whisky alongside the Food Labelling (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1989 and The Spirit Drinks Regulations 2008. This is enforced by the relevant food authority in the UK or port health authority. The protection Scotch Whisky has under the GI scheme and associated legislation is certified and enforced by HMRC. The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 also sets out additional regulations on the display and promotion of alcohol, which are enforced by the relevant local authority.

Furthermore, retained EU Regulation 110/2008, amended by the Agricultural Products, Food and Drink (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 as well as Regulation 2019/787, amended by the Agricultural Products, Food and Drink (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1637) and the Agricultural Products, Food and Drink (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 continue to apply to the definition, description, presentation, labelling and the protection of GIs for spirit drinks.

Question reference: S6W-33731

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for the future of Glasgow Prestwick Airport.

I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.

Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.

The process is ongoing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.

Question reference: S6W-33729

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it remains committed to ensuring that all of the loans that it has made to Glasgow Prestwick Airport are repaid in full by the new owner, should the airport be sold.

I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.

Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.

The process is ongoing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.

Question reference: S6W-33689

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is improving awareness and uptake of community optometry services among rural populations.

Public Health Scotland publishes annual data on NHS eye examination on their website at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ophthalmic-workload-statistics/ophthalmic-workload-statistics-statistics-as-at-year-ending-31-march-2024/

Tables 6.1 and 6.2 provide data at Scotland, Health Board and Health and Social Care Partnership level outlining that, apart from the COVID-19 impacted years, increasing numbers of people are having a free NHS-funded eye examination.

In addition, the NHS Inform and Eyes.NHS.Scot websites have content relevant to the provision of NHS funded eye examinations in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-33727

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to mitigate against any fall in fuel revenue at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, and what effect it anticipates any fall in fuel revenue might have on the future viability of the airport.

Question reference: S6W-33626

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is progressing with its plans to establish a national pharmaceutical agency, and what impact it anticipates the agency would have on rural healthcare delivery.

Question reference: S6W-33672

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in ensuring equitable access to preventative health services, such as routine screenings and early intervention programmes, in rural areas.

The Scottish Government is pleased to note that The latest published statistics show that there are higher uptake rates for breast, bowel and cervical screening within health boards which have a higher proportion of rural or island populations. Nonetheless, we recognise the particular challenges people living in those communities may face in accessing preventative health services, and we are working hard to overcome these.

Initiatives supporting access to preventative health services in rural and island areas include:

a dedicated financial support scheme to cover travel costs for eligible patients and their authorised escorts, which focuses on those on low incomes or living in the highlands and islands. In addition, Health Boards also have the discretion to reimburse patient travel expenses where it is viewed to be an extension of treatment costs and deemed to be clinically necessary. This allows flexibility within the schemes for Boards to provide support to those who need it but would not otherwise qualify.
Funding for Scottish Ambulance Service mobile vaccination units. These are available to every Health Board across all vaccination programmes and can be used to reach those in rural areas.
21 mobile screening units deployed in the breast screening programme across Scotland to minimise travel for all patients.
Targeted outreach through Detect Cancer Early roadshows, which visited communities right across Scotland, including those in rural areas, in March 2024 to reinforce key preventative messages.

In addition, the National Equity in Screening Strategy, which was published in June 2023, is designed to address inequalities and ensure equitable access for all eligible screening participants. The Scottish Government is also looking to improve our understanding of the experience of people with cancer living in rural and island communities. Examples include an independent evaluation of their access to cancer care services, and a research programme on rural healthcare funded by the Chief Scientist Office.

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