Seòmar agus comataidhean

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

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 4000 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-35223

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on administering COVID-19 vaccinations to hospital inpatients to avoid them missing their scheduled vaccination in the community.

Based on the current guidelines issued by the Chief Medical Officer on 5 February ( CMO(2021)03 - COVID-19 vaccination programme: bringing forward priority cohorts (scot.nhs.uk) , and wherever practical health boards should seek to vaccinate patients in the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority group who are in hospital prior to their discharge.

The recommendation for patients admitted to hospital for non-COVID illness, is not to give a vaccine until the patient recovers from their acute illness. The Chief Medical Officer advises that patients should be only vaccinated once they have recovered, so any side effects are not confused with symptoms of the disease they were admitted to hospital for. This is a standard recommendation in the Green Book for all vaccines and applied across all UK countries.

Question reference: S5W-35303

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether Police Scotland plans to increase the number of patrols around schools when pupils return to ensure that social distancing is maintained among adults congregating at drop-off and pick-up times and, if so, whether it will provide additional funding to support this.

Question reference: S5W-34862

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the budget allocation was for the Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland prior to the Scottish Budget 2021-22 being published.

Question reference: S5W-34957

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have requested patient transport services in the NHS Lothian area in each year since 2007.

The following table lists the number of requests made for the Patient Transport Service (provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service) in the NHS Lothian area from 2011. The Scottish Ambulance Service does not have this data for before 2011.

Calendar Year	Number of people requesting patient transport	Number of journeys requested
2011	17117	126445
2012	16214	124312
2013	16504	147666
2014	16117	137784
2015	15266	113880
2016	14014	96929
2017	14527	93780
2018	15073	87937
2019	15687	87029
2020	15403	67683

Question reference: S5W-35153

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether students who are British citizens and who experienced care in a non-UK country will be eligible for its Care Experienced Bursary.

The Care Experienced Bursary (CEB) is available to eligible full-time further education students and higher education students studying at undergraduate level.

To be eligible to claim the CEB, students must have been looked after by a Local Authority in the UK, before the age of 18.

At this time, students who have experienced care outside of the UK do not meet the eligibility to access this particular bursary.

There are no current plans to change the eligibility criteria for the CEB, however, as with all student support policies I will keep this under close review.

Question reference: S5W-34954

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many referrals have been made to the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion from each NHS board area in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S5O-05081

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 February 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the finance secretary will include funding for a replacement Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in its Budget for 2021-22.

Question reference: S5W-34793

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 24 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when frontline NHS workers will receive their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Question reference: S5W-35498

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by David Stewart MSP (on behalf of the SPCB) on 24 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will provide information about the rationale for reaching its decisions in relation to the publication of evidence submitted to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints.

The Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints wrote to the Corporate Body on the evening of 17 February 2021 seeking an urgent decision by the SPCB, as the publisher of parliamentary material, on whether the submission on the Ministerial Code phase of its inquiry made to it by the former First Minister Alex Salmond could be published. The Committee had decided earlier that day by a majority that it could not publish the submission due to legal restrictions imposed by the Lord Justice Clerk at the High Court of Justiciary under the Contempt of Court Act 1981 in the case of HMA v Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond dated 10 March 2020 (as varied on 11 February 2021). As the Committee’s decision not to publish was not unanimous, it agreed – also by majority – to refer the matter to the SPCB for consideration.

The SPCB discussed the matter at its meeting on the morning of Thursday 18 February and reconvened that afternoon to give it further consideration. Having considered advice received from officials the SPCB reached a collective decision on the matter, Andy Wightman MSP having recused himself from the afternoon meeting and the decision given his membership of the Committee. In doing so, the SPCB was fully aware of its legal obligations to abide by the terms of the court order and, after careful consideration of all factors, the SPCB decided on balance that it was possible for the submission to be published. It then referred the matter back to the Committee for publication in line with its written statement on handling of information and evidence.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, noting press coverage of the SPCB’s decision, wrote to the SPCB on 22 February reminding the SPCB of the terms of the court order recognising that decisions on publication are a matter for it. On the publication of the submission by the Committee on the evening of Monday 22 February, the COPFS again wrote to the SPCB. In response, the Presiding Officer called an urgent meeting of the SPCB for the following morning to consider the terms of that letter. Clarification on that letter was sought from COPFS and received and was available for the SPCB’s consideration at its meeting on Tuesday 23 February.

The SPCB is unable to publish that letter or its contents as the Crown Office requested it be treated as confidential. The SPCB respects that request given the sensitivity of the contents and the terms of the order. After due consideration of its contents and mindful of the balance of judgements it had undertaken in relation to its earlier decision, the SPCB decided that, while the submission could still be published, some of the content of the former First Minister’s submission required to be redacted. Andy Wightman again recused himself from this decision. The submission was immediately removed from the Committee’s webpages and a redacted version was posted in its place.

The SPCB takes it duty to support parliamentary scrutiny and to promote public transparency very seriously indeed but is acutely conscious of the need to act lawfully in all circumstances. These obligations do not always necessarily sit comfortably together. The SPCB, which is a six-member committee with representation from nearly all the parties in the Parliament, recognises that this is a matter of some complexity and also of great concern to fellow Members and others. It has sought to undertake its responsibilities with care and diligence throughout its handling of this very challenging issue, at the heart of which is the protection of the identity of the complainants.

Each decision of the SPCB in relation to this matter has been taken collectively and with great care.

Question reference: S5W-34891

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when the National Digital Platform will be rolled out, and what training will be provided on its use for health and social care staff.

The National Digital Platform is not a single system but a range of products and tools that are becoming available over time, with development led by NHS Education for Scotland (NES). Its main purpose is to provide the underpinning technologies that make available appropriate health and care information whenever and wherever it is needed. Core components such as a secure cloud environment, user authentication and access controls, data repositories and integration capabilities are now largely in place. The platform is currently being used to support our Covid 19 response, for example by holding the national Vaccination Record and hosting the Protect Scotland App. A number of products are in development that will use and enhance platform capability, including the OpenEyes Electronic Patient Record (EPR) for eyecare services in Scotland, the ReSPECT emergency anticipatory care planning tool and the development of Cancer Treatment Summaries.

NES also lead on overall workforce development for digital health & care, and are ensuring that all staff will be suitably digitally skilled, with training and support in place for the introduction of any new tools and services.