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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-15066

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has sought advice from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service regarding any implications of licensing muirburn.

Proposals to amend legislation relating to muirburn were included in our Wildlife Management in Scotland consultation. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service provided a full response to this consultation and their responses are being taken into account as the provisions for the Bill are developed.

I recently met with Bruce Farquharson, Deputy Assistant Chief Officer and Head of Training for SFRS to discuss their consultation response in more detail.

Question reference: S6W-15188

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a progress update on the National Speed Management Review, including the consideration of HGV speed limit policy, as outlined in the Road Safety Framework to 2030.

Transport Scotland is undertaking the National Speed Management Review to support a range of policy drivers including better road safety and health outcomes, promotion of active travel, climate change mitigation, place making and economic growth.

The review covers comprehensive analysis of all types of speed management policies including HGV speed limits as well as a review of what has been introduced in other countries throughout the world.

We will consult with stakeholders and the public this year to gather and consider their views on future changes to speed limit policies and speed management measures.

Question reference: S6W-14719

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to promote interoperable prescribing systems between the NHS providers and homecare medicines services providers.

Question reference: S6W-15280

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which businesses were consulted in developing Circularity Scotland's £22 million cashflow support package for the Deposit Return Scheme that was announced on 21 February 2023.

Circularity Scotland, as the scheme administrator for DRS, represents and provides services to its members including drinks producers, importers, wholesalers and retailers. Scottish Ministers, Scottish Government officials and Circularity Scotland regularly meet with stakeholders including representatives of small producers and that package of support was in direct response to concerns they have raised.

Question reference: S6W-14718

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made regarding the effect of staff vacancies on the performance and safety of homecare medicine services.

There were significant capacity constraints across the medicines homecare market in 2022. A key challenge has been recruitment of staff in a challenging labour market, with some providers more adversely affected than others. The situation is improving but continues to be closely monitored.

Certain homecare providers have highlighted issues with nursing capacity in recent months. Where this has been raised as an issue, there has been close working with providers to ensure that available staffing resource is used in a way that helps minimise disruption to service performance.

Homecare providers have not reported any recent issues with staffing within their pharmacy departments.

Several homecare providers have experienced staffing shortages within customer services departments, and this has been a major contributing factor to the capacity constraints experienced.

There have been a small number of instances where there have been delays to the delivery of medicines to patients, which has the potential to impact on patient safety. Medicines homecare providers and Health boards have processes in place to support managing and learning from any patient safety incidents that arise during service delivery.

Question reference: S6W-14716

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is (a) in the Scottish Borders and (b) nationally for rheumatology patients to receive treatment by homecare medicines services.

Question reference: S6W-14717

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve access to homecare medicines services.

National Procurement (NP), part of NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), with representation from Health Boards, have regular performance management meetings with homecare providers to review key performance metrics and to agree and track progress against recovery plans.

Where a particular provider is experiencing service disruption, Health Boards will seek to register patients, where feasible, with alternative providers to help reduce demand on the affected provider. A challenge over the past year has been that multiple providers have experienced staffing issues which has created market-wide capacity constraints.

Question reference: S6W-15071

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any potential impact on (a) biodiversity, (b) carbon sequestration and (c) future wildfire control of its decision to cease funding for muirburn in the 2023 Agri-Environment Climate Scheme application round.

Question reference: S6O-01997

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is, regarding the implications for the food and drink supply chain in Scotland, to the National Farmers Union’s petition on improving food security.

Question reference: S6W-15040

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much venison has been sold from estates managed by Forestry and Land Scotland to wholesalers, in each year since 2016.

Financial Year	Volume of Venison Sold (kg)
2016-17	720.1k
2017-18	837.6k
2018-19	786.1k
2019-20	791.9k
2020-21	714.6k
2021-22	884.8k