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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-25913

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of the proposed ban on single-use vapes on the illicit vaping market.

A number of impact assessments including a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) are being prepared and will be published prior to the regulations being finalised and placed before the Scottish Parliament.

Scottish Government officials have been engaging closely with Trading Standards colleagues on the draft legislation, with a focus on enforcement and tackling the illicit market. Through the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), we continue to support strong national and local alliances to tackle the availability and sale of illicit tobacco and vapes.

UK-wide regulations are in place to ensure minimum standards for the safety and quality of e-cigarettes, including bans on certain ingredients. All e-cigarettes containing nicotine must be notified to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency before they can be sold in the UK.

If the public have concerns about illicit products, they can check a product has been successfully notified to the MHRA on their publication home page, and notify their local Trading Standards officer.

Question reference: S6W-25906

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 12 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how much has been spent on taxi journeys for pupils travelling to school in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-25912

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the number of non-compliant vapes currently being sold in Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data centrally, it is up to individual Local Authorities to enforce legislation around non-compliant nicotine vapour products through Local Trading Standards Officers.

To support the enforcement of the legislation around the sale and purchase of Nicotine Vapour Products (vapes), Local Authorities receive an additional £1.34m. Each Local Authority decides how these funds are spent locally.

Officials meet regularly with The Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS) and receive regular updates on any actions taken by trading standards, including enforcement for a failure to comply with legislation around the sale and purchase of these products.

We also meet regularly with HMRC, who work alongside Border Force to take action to tackle the import of illicit vaping products at the border.

Question reference: S6W-25914

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it will allocate to each local authority for its trading standards department to enforce the proposed (a) ban on single-use vapes and (b) raising of the tobacco age of sale, and whether it plans to propose a ministerial statement on these issues.

Government officials have been engaging closely with Trading Standards to receive their feedback on the draft legislation for the proposed ban on single-use vapes. Officials are carrying out a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment to understand the potential impacts including costs on businesses and public bodies.

On raising the age of sale for tobacco, a UK-wide impact assessment has been undertaken which considers the costs of enforcement for local authorities. We engage regularly with the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS) on the enforcement of existing legislation and will continue to engage with them through implementation of the Bill.

A ministerial statement on the smoke free generation and tackling youth vaping policy measures will take place following the introduction of legislation to UK Parliament.

Question reference: S6O-03199

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to bring empty properties back into use for housing.

Question reference: S6W-25630

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authority wards have a population of over 15,500 residents, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) population.

I have asked Janet Egdell, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

Of the 355 wards in Scotland, 162 had a population over 15,500 as at 30 June 2021. The following table shows the number of electoral wards with a population over 15,500, by local authority.

Number of electoral wards with a population over 15,500, by local authority, as at 30 June 2021

Local authority	Number of wards with over 15,500 residents	Number of wards with up to 15,500 residents	Total number of wards
Scotland	162	193	355
Aberdeen City	11	2	13
Aberdeenshire	6	13	19
Angus	4	4	8
Argyll and Bute	0	11	11
City of Edinburgh	17	0	17
Clackmannanshire	0	5	5
Dumfries and Galloway	0	12	12
Dundee City	8	0	8
East Ayrshire	2	7	9
East Dunbartonshire	3	4	7
East Lothian	5	1	6
East Renfrewshire	5	0	5
Falkirk	8	1	9
Fife	15	7	22
Glasgow City	23	0	23
Highland	1	20	21
Inverclyde	0	7	7
Midlothian	3	3	6
Moray	1	7	8
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	11	11
North Ayrshire	4	5	9
North Lanarkshire	12	9	21
Orkney Islands	0	6	6
Perth and Kinross	3	9	12
Renfrewshire	6	6	12
Scottish Borders	0	11	11
Shetland Islands	0	7	7
South Ayrshire	2	6	8
South Lanarkshire	10	10	20
Stirling	2	5	7
West Dunbartonshire	2	4	6
West Lothian	9	0	9

Source: Electoral Ward Population Estimates, published by National Records of Scotland.

The population of each ward is published in ‘Electoral Ward Population Estimates’,

on the National Records of Scotland website: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/population/population-estimates/2011-based-special-area-population-estimates/electoral-ward-population-estimates

Question reference: S6W-25730

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking now to plan and prepare for maintaining hepatitis C elimination once it has been achieved, in light of the acknowledgement in its recent Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan of the importance of working to maintain elimination once it has been achieved.

Public Health Scotland is responsible for ongoing surveillance of hepatitis C and will monitor achievement and maintenance of the elimination target in Scotland. This intelligence, combined with expert advice such as through the Scottish Health Protection Network’s Viral Hepatitis Group, will be used to inform an effective, flexible and evidence-based approach to maintaining elimination. It should also be noted that some of the key interventions for hepatitis C elimination, such as such as injecting equipment provision, will continue to be important for preventing other blood borne viruses and health outcomes.

Question reference: S6W-25631

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to provide resources to GP link workers to refer patients requesting support for forced adoption to peer support groups.

The Scottish Government has funded Health in Mind to deliver a historic forced adoption peer support service and implement a comprehensive communication strategy to help raise awareness of this support. As part of this, Health In Mind has contacted all health boards in Scotland and asked them to share information about the service with their GP practices.

Health In Mind has also shared details of the service with adoption related organisations, social work departments, third sector organisations and a variety of community spaces such as libraries and churches, as well as on social media platforms. Further details of the peer support service are available online: https://health-in-mind.org.uk/how-we-can-help/national-services/historic-adoption-trauma-support-service/

Question reference: S6W-25629

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to expand the Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Service to cover all of Scotland.

As reflected in Scotland’s Cancer Strategy for Scotland, published June 2023, we are committed to “expanding and evaluating Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services to ensure population-based coverage”.

The University of Strathclyde published a final evaluation report on 29 February 2024 reflecting on the first two years of RCDSs operating in NHS Scotland. This work was commissioned to inform roll-out, including optimal components and highlighting its success. Following its release, we’ll work with Boards across Scotland to consider the findings and ensure learning is embedded.

Question reference: S6W-25628

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have been referred to the Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Service in each NHS board that it is operational in, in each of the last three years.

A final two year report of Scotland’s early adopter sites, was published by the University of Strathclyde on Thursday 29 th February highlighting its success, a summary of which is available at rapid-cancer-diagnostic-services-evaluation-summary-february-2024.pdf (nhscfsd.co.uk)

The report found that 3,616 RCDS referrals were received and 2,489 (~69%) accepted. The remainder of referrals were largely either redirected to site-specific cancer pathways (~15%) or did not progress onto the RCDS pathway as they didn’t meet referral criteria (~12%).

This data covers the time period from when RCDSs were activated up to October 2023. Work is continuing with PHS to establish a national data collection for RCDSs.