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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-27177

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the First Minister's priority of prevention in health is being delivered.

Our prevention agenda has seen the implementation of various strategies, addressing the fundamental drivers of inequality; encouraging early intervention and support; and promoting environments that support healthy lifestyles.

This has included tackling some of the root socioeconomic drivers of heath inequalities with the allocation of around £3 billion a year to a range of actions to tackle poverty and mitigate the impacts of the cost-of-living-crisis. We are also delivering Community Link Workers and Welfare Rights Advisors to offer advice on housing, social security and employability issues within GP practices across our rural and deprived communities.

To support and encourage positive health behaviours SG has continued to take forward a range of actions. This includes the implementation and subsequent expansion of Minimum Alcohol Pricing to reduce drinking at harmful levels by setting a floor price for each unit of alcohol. We are tackling the adverse effects of smoking through our Tobacco and Vaping Framework. We continue work to ensure that everyone eats well and has a healthy diet through our Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, we are currently consulting on a set of proposed regulations to restrict promotions of less healthy food and drink.

The Scottish Government remains committed to our ambition to improve the health of our population and tackle health inequalities. We know that to achieve this we must focus on preventing illness and promoting wellbeing and tackling some of the wider determinants of health. Going forward, we will build on this progress and continue to prioritise prevention as a key component of our wider healthcare strategy.

Question reference: S6W-27093

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has spoken to the relevant authorities regarding plans to bolster public transport links between Ayr and Stranraer, in light of the reported ongoing disruption on the railway line from Ayr.

Officials from Transport Scotland are in regular dialogue with South Ayrshire Council, ScotRail and Network Rail regarding the ongoing disruption caused by the fire at the Ayr Station Hotel. Officials have separately kept the Regional Transport Partnership apprised of developments.

Feedback from ScotRail is that demand for the replacement bus service on the routes South of Ayr has been low.

Officials in Transport Scotland, and the rail industry, are working closely with South Ayrshire Council to ensure that every effort is made to complete the required safety related works affecting services as swiftly as possible to enable the restoration of rail services as soon as it is safe to do so.

Question reference: S6W-27091

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted an equality impact assessment regarding the number of any missed health appointments as a result of the reported ongoing disruption to the railway line from Stranraer to Ayr, in particular for women.

Lead responsibility for Ayr Station Hotel rests with South Ayrshire Council while Network Rail has lead responsibility for the railway station itself.

All parties are aware of the disruption to travel caused by the dreadful vandalism which set fire to the Station Hotel. Rather than conduct post-event impact assessments, the focus of all partners involved is on working collectively to restore services to normal as soon as it is safely possible to do so.

Until rail services can be restored, a replacement bus service is in place to enable passengers on the affected route to access work, leisure, education and any other personal matters, including medical appointments.

Question reference: S6W-27092

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted an economic impact assessment of any damage to the economy of Stranraer and the surrounding area due to the reported ongoing disruption on the railway line from Ayr.

Question reference: S6O-03442

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will next review the income threshold for free school meals for those pupils not in a year where provision is currently free.

Question reference: S6W-26977

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken to decrease the time that it takes for women to obtain an endometriosis diagnosis.

We know that diagnosis time for endometriosis is not acceptable and needs to improve. We recognise the time to diagnosis is not itself an effective measurement of improved health and well-being outcomes for those living with endometriosis. It is vital that we improve care and support throughout the whole diagnosis process.

To do this we have taken a number of actions including:

Supporting the Centre for Sustainable Delivery to raise awareness and implement the Endometriosis Care Pathway for Scotland which aims to provide a holistic approach and timely care for those with endometriosis and endometriosis-like symptoms.
Increasing education among healthcare practitioners by working with NHS Education for Scotland to deliver an endometriosis masterclass session for health care professionals, covering diagnosis, treatment and current research.
Developing information on NHS Inform and working with charities such as Endometriosis UK and Young Scot to ensure that women have access to information that can support them to recognise when their symptoms might not be a normal period and enable more informed conversations with clinicians.

Question reference: S6W-26925

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of safe walking routes to schools, broken down by local authority area.

Assessment of the safety of walking routes is a responsibility of local authorities under section 51 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980.

The Scottish Government expects local authorities to keep their criteria for providing school transport under review and be flexible enough to take into account factors relative to the nature of the route, which might affect pupil safety. These factors are set out in paragraph 18 of the - School Transport Guidance 2021 (www.gov.scot) .

Question reference: S6W-26926

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of how many children currently walk or cycle to school.

Question reference: S6W-26927

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many primary schools have physical education teachers based within them, broken down by local authority.

Primary Teachers are generalists; therefore, they deliver the totality of the Curriculum including PE. Specialist PE teachers are predominantly based in secondary schools.

The table shows the number of Primary schools in each authority with teachers listing Physical Education as their main subject. Head teachers are not included.

Individual teachers may have posts in more than one school. Note that in some local authorities physical education teachers that serve more than one school are recorded as centrally employed rather than allocated to individual schools. Teachers recorded in this way do not appear in the following table.

Primary schools with teachers in post with Physical Education as their main subject taught 2023 - Excludes head teachers.

	Primary Schools with PE teachers in post
Aberdeen City	13
Aberdeenshire	18
Angus	44
Argyll and Bute	9
City of Edinburgh	25
Clackmannanshire	15
Dumfries and Galloway	3
Dundee City	0
East Ayrshire	0
East Dunbartonshire	3
East Lothian	0
East Renfrewshire	1
Falkirk	0
Fife	2
Glasgow City	2
Highland	5
Inverclyde	0
Midlothian	1
Moray	8
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0
North Ayrshire	0
North Lanarkshire	0
Orkney Islands	18
Perth and Kinross	23
Renfrewshire	1
Scottish Borders	33
Shetland Islands	21
South Ayrshire	9
South Lanarkshire	1
Stirling	0
West Dunbartonshire	0
West Lothian	16
All local authorities	271
Grant Aided	1
Scotland	272

Question reference: S6W-26922

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is monitoring the effectiveness of the smoke-free perimeter around hospital buildings, and how many on-the-spot fines have been issued since the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016 came into force.