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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-11523

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many times NHS boards have funded private dental treatment for NHS patients due to a lack of available NHS services in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022 to date, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6O-01418

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve the resilience of island communities.

Question reference: S6W-10970

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been (a) budgeted for and (b) distributed from the Fuel Insecurity Fund in each year of its operation.

The Fuel Insecurity Fund was first established in the winter of 2020, as part of the wider Winter Support Fund, to help households struggling with their energy costs who were at risk of severely rationing, or self-disconnecting entirely because they could not afford their energy costs.

Fuel Insecurity Fund
Year	Budgeted	Distributed
2020-21	£7m	£3.595m
2021-22	£10m	£10m
2022-23	£10m	£4.1m*

In financial year 2020-21, £3.595m was spent by our partners.

As set out in our Programme for Government this year we have committed to using the Emergency Budget Review to double our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million, to provide further support for the many households across Scotland who are already struggling to pay their bills and heat their homes.

* Full current 2022-23 budget of £10 million has been allocated across our third sector partner organisations, which they have the flexibility to drawdown in the financial year to best support and target customer needs up to the end March 2023.

Question reference: S6W-10715

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the findings from the 2021 Scottish House Condition Survey.

The Scottish Government intends to publish the key findings from the 2021 Scottish House Condition Survey in February 2023. This was communicated to users through a ScotStat email and is published on forthcoming publications and Scottish Household Survey webpages on the Scottish Government website.

Any changes to this date will be communicated to users, in line with the code of practice for statistics .

Question reference: S6W-10955

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the First Minister’s statement to the Parliament on the Programme for Government, on 6 September 2022, that a proposed Housing Bill would "implement key policies on short-term lets", whether this refers to enacted or new regulations on the matter.

Question reference: S6W-10793

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many recorded incidents of bicycle theft there have been in each year since 2017, and, of those, how many resulted in a conviction.

The following table details the number of recorded crimes of theft of a pedal cycle for the March year end data for reporting years 2016-17 to 2021-22.

Table: Number of theft of a pedal cycle crimes recorded by the police, Scotland, 2016-17 to 2021-22

Reporting Year	Crimes
2016-17	5,430
2017-18	6,069
2018-19	5,093
2019-20	4,600
2020-21	5,484
2021-22	4,441

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics dataset

Information on the number of people convicted for bicycle theft isn’t held centrally as crimes of bicycle theft are reported under the charge of ‘other theft’ and a further breakdown by article(s) stolen is not available.

Question reference: S6W-10437

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the consequences will be for any local authority that does not have its short-term lets licensing scheme established by 1 October 2022.

Question reference: S6W-10436

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether any local authority has requested an extension to the deadline for establishing a short-term lets licensing scheme by 1 October 2022, and what consideration has been given to any such request.

Question reference: S6W-10498

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government which minister signed off the Island Communities Impact Assessment carried out as part of its consultation on proposals for the regulation of short-term lets, published on 10 December 2020.

Question reference: S6W-10903

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether any resources have been allocated (a) within its Health and Social Care directorate and (b) to NHS boards to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer in children.

The Scottish Government allocates funding to the Managed Service Network (MSN) for Children and Young People with Cancer on an annual basis for both children and teenagers and young adults services. This funding provides support for administrative and strategic roles within the MSN, and some clinical posts within NHS Boards to ensure that all children and young people in Scotland receive the right diagnosis, aligned with the right treatment, delivered by the right team in the right place.

The MSN works in partnership with charities and third sector organisations to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer in children and young adults. Examples include working with Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group on the Childhood Cancer Diagnosis Study and spearheading the Headsmart campaign with The Brain Tumour Charity.