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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: S5W-04486

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 17 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage the use of (a) soil analytical technology and (b) other similar approaches in order to protect the (i) land and (ii) environment.

The Scottish Government announced the introduction of compulsory soil testing in June 2015 and we have been working on the detail with a range of scientific, environmental and industry stakeholders. We are considering options for compulsory soil testing to be part of the package of measures to reduce emissions from agriculture in the Climate Change Plan, the third report on policies and proposals, which will be published in draft in January next year.

The Knowledge Transfer Innovation Fund (KTIF), is also taking forward a number of projects, for example, the Soil Association Scotland's 'Future Farming Scotland' and 'Farming with Nature' initiatives (as well as a future project 'Farming for the Future'), and Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society's (SAOS) Precision Farming project which enable co-ops to provide farmers with open and transparent data and analytical services, with the benefit of collective investment and risk sharing.

The Farm Advisory Service (FAS) will be taking forward and is responsible for the delivery of the Soil Nutrient Network in relation to soil management.

Through the recently relaunched Scotland's Soils Website (http://soils.environment.gov.scot/) soils data is made publicly available, supporting informed decisions about the management of Scotland's soils and the benefits they provide.

Question reference: S5W-04487

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to farmers with fallen stock and what plans it has to review this.

The Scottish Government does not provide direct support to farmers to help with their fallen stock. Unfortunately dealing with fallen stock is a consequence of keeping livestock, and the disposal costs are therefore one part of the production costs for livestock businesses.

However, in the past, Scottish Government have taken a number of measures to assist farmers with mitigating the costs of collection and disposal and we continue to work with them to keep the situation under review.

Question reference: S5O-00348

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to resolve the reported backlog of cases in the Scottish courts.

Question reference: S5W-04017

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it promotes healthy lifestyles among children in order to tackle obesity, and what action it takes to encourage them to maintain such lifestyles in adulthood.

The Scottish Government is taking a wide range of actions to ensure children and as importantly their families have the knowledge and skills necessary for healthy living across the life course. This begins with the Government’s Improving Maternal and Infant Nutrition: A framework for Action and such advice continues for young families with programmes such as Eat Better Feel Better our social marketing campaign. For Schools Health and Wellbeing is one of the eight curricular areas in the Curriculum for Excellence. In addition to PE children and young people should experience daily opportunities for sport and physical activity. This is supported by the Active Schools programme which provides opportunities for children and young people to participate in sport and physical activity before, during and after school which is further supported through the Government’ support of Community Sport Hubs to date 155 are in place, 50% based in schools with 45 more to come by 2020.

For this outcome to be effective the Government is tackling the obesogenic environment through such work as Supporting Healthy Choices Framework to ensure all are able to be more active, eat less and eat better.

Question reference: S5O-00314

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle the threat to woodland from invasive rhododendron.

Question reference: S5W-03639

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 31 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages young people to consider working in the agriculture sector.

Agriculture is amongst the most diverse, dynamic and rewarding sectors in Scotland. Through, in particular, our funding of Lantra we promote the sector as a positive career choice by raising the awareness and understanding of the range of rewarding careers available. This includes engaging with school pupils, careers influencers, distributing promotional material alongside Royal Highland Education Trust, Crofting Connections and other key partners. Also, my statement of 5 October 2016 to Parliament confirmed further funding of £20,000 to the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs to encourage working in the sector.

In addition a fundamental purpose of the education system is to provide children and young people with a range of learning experiences which meet their individual needs and aspirations and prepare them for learning, life and work. The Developing the Young workforce programme builds on the key aims of Curriculum for Excellence to ensure that children and young people have this wide range of learning experiences by encouraging education and employers to work in partnerships.

Question reference: S5O-00270

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to make roads in South Scotland safer.

The Scottish Government is committed to achieving safer road travel on our roads through a vision of challenging casualty reduction targets, as set out in ‘Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020’. Road casualty figures for 2015 released last week are at their lowest level since records began, with a 42% reduction in fatalities since the 2004-08 baseline. However one accident is one too many and we will not be complacent.

Question reference: S5W-03638

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much support it has provided to agricultural organisations in each of the last five years to teach school pupils about the agriculture sector, broken down by organisation.

The Scottish Government has given the following funding to the Soil Association Scotland’s Crofting Connections project to help teach young people about crofting past, present and future through Curriculum for Excellence:

2012-13 £52,000

2013-14 £30,000

2014-15 £30,000

2015-16 £10,000

2016-17 £79,980

Total £201,980

The Scottish Government has also given the Royal Highland Education Trust the following funding to carry out its Food and Farming Event Programme to run a series of hands-on, interactive, engaging sessions for school children focusing on food and farming:

2012-13 £58,284

2013-14 £51,846

2014-15 £52,446

2015-16 £44,700

2016-17 £79,034

Total £286,310

In addition, the Scottish Government is investing £423,000 per annum in Lantra (the Sector Skills Council for Scotland’s land-based, aquaculture and environmental conservation industries). Lantra’s work includes promoting the sector as a positive career choice and approximately 22% of this funding helps to teach school pupils about agriculture and the wider rural sector:

2012-13 £423,000 (£93,060)

2013-14 £423,000 (£93,060)

2014-15 £423,000 (£93,060)

2015-16 £423,000 (£93,060)

2016-17 £423,000 (£93,060)

Total £2,115,000 (£465,300)

Question reference: S5O-00220

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 September 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when the estimated completion date is for the new East Lothian Community Hospital.

Question reference: S5W-02569

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages testing for arial fibrillation.

The Scottish Government’s Heart Disease Improvement Plan (HDIP) was published in 2014 and identified six priorities, one of which is Arrhythmias. Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is a related condition and can cause events such as heart attacks and strokes; it may produce few or no symptoms so people do not seek medical advice or investigation. NHS Boards are expected to treat those with AF in line with the guidance in Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Guideline 94 ‘Cardiac Arrhythmias in Coronary Heart Disease’. The expectation is that AF should generally be managed in primary care and a simple pulse check can identify if someone is at risk.