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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: S6O-00893

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of calls from Audit Scotland to establish a clear plan to increase transparency around spending on drug and alcohol services.

I welcome Audit Scotland’s review into drug and alcohol services and their recommendations. We agree that more can be done to improve the accessibility and transparency of funding and how it is used.

Currently information on funding allocation is available through various publications including published budgets and I also report to Parliament regularly outlining our progress and funding decisions. We have also recently agreed on eight recommendations with COSLA to implement the Partnership Delivery Framework which underpins the governance of Alcohol and Drug Partnerships, this includes a recommendation requiring Health and Social Care Partnership Chief Finance Officers to be represented at the ADP and provide assurance regarding funding for alcohol and drug services including clear financial reporting. In addition, Public Health Scotland have been tasked with introducing new monitoring to track both the number of and investment in residential rehab placements by ADPs.

Question reference: S6O-00915

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is putting in place to attract younger people into the farming sector.

Question reference: S6O-00856

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (On Behalf of the SPCB) on 10 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what assessment has been made of the new car park barrier system.

The new vehicle entry system was one of several security enhancements to upgrade the security of the Service Yard. These enhancements were identified in the Police Scotland review commissioned by the SPCB in 2017, following the tragic attacks on Westminster Bridge in London.

The main aim of the Service Yard project was to improve the security of the area by addressing vulnerabilities with the layout and replace ageing technology with a state-of-the-art hostile vehicle mitigation system.

There have been several assessments throughout the Service Yard project in relation to users’ safety. These have included a review of the flow of vehicle traffic, the safety of the gates and barriers and an overall health and safety review of the arrangements in the Service Yard.

The results of these assessments are that the project to improve the Service Yard has delivered the desired outcomes of significantly improving safety and security at the vehicle entrance area.

Question reference: S6T-00534

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what measures have been put in place to recruit a new Chief Executive Officer of the Scottish National Investment Bank following the resignation of Eilidh Mactaggart.

Question reference: S6O-00763

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what plans it has to introduce legislation to support veterans during this parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6O-00724

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received free personal care, under Frank’s Law, since it came into effect in 2019.

Question reference: S6W-05759

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of elective surgeries were cancelled in each month since March 2020, broken down by NHS board.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes monthly statistics relating to the number of cancelled planned operations at health board level, a summary of which is available the following link:

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/

The latest statistics published cover the period up to 30 November 2021 and the percentage of planned operations that were cancelled each month from March 2020 onwards can be found within the tab ‘Publication table (%)’ in the table below

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/11000/2022-01-11-cancellations.xlsx

These statistics are sourced from local theatre systems and only includes cancellations that were cancelled the day before, or on the day the patient was due to be treated. PHS does not collect information on cancellations that occur prior to this.

Question reference: S6W-05225

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 27 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when Scottish Ministers were first made aware that there had been a potential breach of state aid rules in relation to its contract with Tata Steel UK Ltd.

Question reference: S6O-00719

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions ministers have had with the outdoor education sector since December 2021.

Question reference: S6W-05180

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 13 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates will be raised by the higher property rate in 2022-23, broken down by industry sector, and how many properties in each industry sector will be liable for the supplement.

Table 1 presents the estimated number of properties with a Higher Property Rate (HPR) liability in 2022-23, and the gross additional non-domestic rates income estimated to be raised in 2022-23 through the HPR, by property class.

Table 1 shows gross amounts and does not take account of reductions in liability due to reliefs awarded in 2022-23. This is in part due to the application of a £27,500 cap per ratepayer on retail, hospitality and leisure relief in 2022-23 which means that it is not possible to robustly estimate the breakdown of these figures by property class at this time.

Figures in Table 1 are broken down by property class as the Scottish Government does not hold data property-level on industry sectors. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and may not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

Table 1: Estimated number of properties subject to the Higher Property Rate, and gross HPR income, by property class in 2022-23

Property class	Number of properties with a HPR liability	Gross HPR income by class (£)
Shops	2,970	23,559,000
Public Houses	200	836,000
Offices	1,820	14,237,000
Hotels	570	5,109,000
Industrial Subjects	2,470	18,803,000
Leisure, Entertainment, Caravans etc.	520	3,956,000
Garages and Petrol Stations	150	766,000
Cultural	80	955,000
Sporting Subjects	20	239,000
Education and Training	1,340	12,592,000
Public Service Subjects	520	5,880,000
Communications	80	531,000
Quarries, Mines, etc.	40	222,000
Petrochemical	70	2,931,000
Religious	30	92,000
Health and Medical	310	4,685,000
Other	210	2,316,000
Care Facilities	340	1,363,000
Advertising	10	72,000
Statutory Undertaking	340	23,934,000
All	12,090	123,081,000

Source: Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll as at 1 October 2021.
‎ Figures may not sum due to rounding. The number of properties is rounded to the nearest 10, income rounded to the nearest £1,000.