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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: S5W-15439

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it provides for non-emergency medical transportation for people who require it.

Individual NHS Boards are responsible for paying for or reimbursing the cost of patient travel, in accordance with their own patients’ travelling expenses scheme policies and within their overall baseline budgets which are increasing by 3.7% in 2018-19 for frontline Boards. In addition, in 2018-19, a new Neonatal Expenses Fund of £1.5 million will include support for travel and subsistence costs for families whose babies are born prematurely and require long term admission to a neonatal unit.

Question reference: S5W-15436

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to facilitate non-medical emergency transportation for people who require it.

As part of its core funding from the Scottish Government, the Scottish Ambulance Service delivers the Patient Transport Service for patients who have a need for assistance from skilled clinical staff during transport to healthcare appointments.

If the Scottish Ambulance Service feel that a patient does not have a clinical need for patient transport, they will be signposted to information regarding alternative transport providers, where applicable.

There are a number of community based initiatives to provide transport to patients and some Health and Social Care Partnerships will link with voluntary organisations or community groups who provide transport via volunteer drivers. Information on accessing these Services is often available to patients at their local GP practice.

Also, under the National Health Service (Travel Expenses and Remission of Charges) Regulations 2003, travel expenses incurred by patients to attend hospital appointments can be reimbursed for individuals who are on certain types of benefits or a low income. This is based on an assessment of each claimant's ability to pay in light of their financial circumstances at the time a claim is made or a charge was paid.

All of these services and systems are in place to support patients throughout Scotland in travelling to and from healthcare appointments.

Question reference: S5W-15437

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken regarding (a) the costs and (b) any social benefits of medical facilities partnering with ride-sharing companies to provide transportation to and from appointments.

The Scottish Government does not facilitate non emergency transport to healthcare facilities. This is a matter for individual frontline NHS Boards, in conjunction with the Scottish Ambulance Service and local authorities.

There are also a number of community based initiatives to provide hospital transport to patients throughout Scotland and it is a matter for individual operators to decide what types of services they offer.

Question reference: S5W-15455

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on hospital transportation, excluding ambulances, in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S5W-15456

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates it will spend in each of the next five years on non-emergency medical travel.

Question reference: S5W-15448

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people made claims for refunds of transportation costs to hospitals through the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme in 2017, and what the total value was of these claims.

Question reference: S5O-01885

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the resilience of the transport network to adverse winter weather.

Whilst we know severe weather will cause disruption, this Government has taken a wide range of steps to assess and improve our resilience to the challenges of winter, to mitigate its impacts and to recover our transport networks and get businesses and daily life back to normal as quickly as possible. This has been done in partnership with a broad range of public, private and third sector partners and has included new investment, development and innovation - all learning the lessons from recent winters.

Question reference: S5W-14847

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many trains on the ScotRail network will reach the end of their lease by August 2018; how many carriages will be taken out of service because of this, and what contingency measures it will introduce to mitigate any capacity reductions.

ScotRail is working to address all necessary technical issues to allow the introduction of class 385 Hitachi trains onto Edinburgh - Glasgow services in the coming months. In addition, four fully refurbished and longer High Speed Trains (HSTs) will gradually be introduced on the Aberdeen to Edinburgh inter-city route across the summer. This is part of the plan to expand the ScotRail fleet by more than 200 more carriages over the next 15 months.

Lease end dates of all rolling stock in the ScotRail fleet is contained within the publically available Franchise Agreement, and this is due to be updated through the regular Variation process to reflect revised lease end dates and newly acquired fleets. ScotRail continues to work hard to ensure that adequate capacity is provided between Edinburgh and Glasgow in light of Hitachi delays.

Question reference: S5W-14950

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5T-00950 by Humza Yousaf (Official Report, c. 7), what assessment it has made of ScotRail's contingency plans and risk analysis in the event that further carriages in its rolling stock reach the end of lease contracts while the delivery of replacement carriages is delayed; whether it is aware of any further leases that are coming to an end; what action it can take to replace the loss of any carriages with alternative rolling stock, and whether it will publish the contents of its spreadsheet, containing details of the end of contracts and leases on carriages.

ScotRail is obliged to provide rolling stock to deliver its service provision and has already adjusted leases of existing rolling stock to mitigate against project slippage, it has also agreed leases for more trains during this franchise term and will continue to keep other options for more rolling stock under review. ScotRail also regularly reports on progress with introduction of new fleets. The lease end dates of all rolling stock is contained in the publically available Franchise Agreement, this is due to be updated through the regular Variation process to reflect revised lease end dates. ScotRail continues to work hard to ensure that adequate capacity is provided between Edinburgh and Glasgow in light of Hitachi delays.

Question reference: S5W-14849

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 9 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on commissioning a new nuclear power station or nuclear power generation capability at the site of the current Hunterston B plant.

The Scottish Energy Strategy, published last December, restated the Scottish Government's continued opposition to new nuclear stations, under current technologies. With the costs of renewable and storage technologies falling, new nuclear capacity is not needed to meet Scotland's long term energy needs, nor, in our view, does it deliver good value for consumers.

This policy does not preclude extensions to the operating life of Scotland's existing nuclear stations.