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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-03645

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many Funeral Support Payments have been made since the scheme was launched.

Social Security Scotland routinely publish information as part of the quarterly Official Statistics release ‘Funeral Support Payment’. This includes information on the number and value of payments made since launch. In the most recent publication, which covered data up until the end of June 2021, 9,865 payments had been issued since the launch of Funeral Support Payment.

Information on Funeral Support Payment was last published on the 24 August 2021 and provided information up to the 30 June 2021. This publication is available from:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/funeral-support-payment-high-level-statistics-to-30-june-2021/

Question reference: S6W-02606

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce or reintroduce any empty homes grants that aim to bring properties back into the social rental sector.

Question reference: S6W-03644

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many holiday vouchers have been given to carers through the ScotSpirit Holiday Voucher Scheme since its launch, and what steps it has taken to promote uptake.

Since this Scheme to help low income families and unpaid carers take a break in Scotland, opened for sign-ups in mid-August we have already seen 35 families (including 73 children) on a break for the current October school holidays.

VisitScotland, working with charity partners (Family Holiday Association, Shared Care Scotland and Carer Centre Network), is managing the promotion and distribution of the scheme to families and carers through their existing channels, including social media.

The scheme has only recent launched to families and carers and recipients will have until December 2022 to redeem the vouchers.

Question reference: S6W-03637

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many cyberattacks have taken place on public bodies in each year since 1999.

In December 2017, the Scottish Government introduced a cyber incident reporting procedure to notify the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre of cyber incidents with the purpose of providing support to affected Scottish public sector bodies.

The Scottish Government cannot confirm the number of incidents prior to 2018 as there was no equivalent process in place encouraging Scottish public sector organisations to report cyber incidents to the Scottish Government.

Table 1. Number of incidents reported to the Scottish Government by the Scottish public sector bodies under the Notifiable Scottish Public Sector Cyber Incidents procedure since 2018

Year

2018

2019

2020

2021

up to 13 October

Number of incidents reported

Question reference: S6O-00282

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when work will commence to address congestion at the Sheriffhall roundabout.

Question reference: S6W-02961

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time has been for cleft pallet surgery for babies in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-03416

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when a new Public Dental Service contract will be delivered.

Question reference: S6W-03657

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many homeless people in each NHS board area have received a GP appointment in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-02956

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid out in legal fees by each NHS board in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-02932

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of current ambulance response times in the NHS Lothian area.

The Scottish Government regularly reviews performance data from the Scottish Ambulance Service which includes data on response times across the country.

This information is normally reviewed weekly, however, given the current pressures being experienced we are receiving twice daily sit reps from the Service on performance.

Like all areas of Scotland, and indeed throughout the UK, we are aware that some patients are experiencing delays in response times from the ambulance service. This is why we have already taken significant action both prior to and since the pandemic to input measures to ensure our Ambulance service has the full resources and range of support in place to deliver services.

We announced an additional package of support for the Service, backed by an additional £20 million of investment, which will help increase capacity and improve response times and staff wellbeing, including assistance from over 100 military personnel.

We have also previously taken action to help with the situation, including an additional investment of £20m as part of the £1bn NHS Recovery Plan. This investment comes from continued involvement with the SAS Demand and Capacity programme which this Government has been involved in since its inception in 2019. It will deliver almost 300 additional Ambulance Service staff by April 2022.

This breaks down as 69 staff in the North of Scotland, 139 in West of Scotland and 88 in the East of Scotland. The additional staff are a mixture of paramedics, newly qualified paramedics (NQPs) and technicians. Extra ambulances and vehicles will also be introduced over the coming months, including two in Edinburgh.