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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: S5O-04715

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how the Scotland Loves Local campaign will support and encourage community shopping.

Question reference: S5W-32521

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on trades people’s ability to enter private homes, combined with loss of earnings, whether it will consider a one-year delay to the implementation of the amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Act (1987) that requires home owners to pay an average of £220 by February 2021 to comply with the new fire safety regulations.

Yes. Improving fire safety remains a key priority for the Scottish Government, and our intention is that everyone should benefit from the same level of protection, whether you own your home or rent from a social or private landlord. However, the Scottish Government recognises the challenges, due to COVID-19, that affect home owners and the work needed to meet the new safety standards for fire and smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. Therefore I intend to bring forward regulations shortly which, subject to Parliamentary approval, will amend the commencement date for new minimum standards to 1 February 2022.

Question reference: S5W-32111

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 26 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with Dumfries and Galloway Council with regard to the redevelopment of the East Pier in Stranraer.

Question reference: S5W-32109

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason, and based on what evidence, it changed its tourism guidance on 23 September 2020 to disallow two households with less than six adults from staying in self-catering accommodation.

The nation currently risks exponential growth of the coronavirus. This grave situation has necessitated tough decisions, including the single household restrictions being applied to self-catering premises in line with other private settings such as within homes. Evidence from Test and Protect has indicated that the mixing of different households in homes is one of the main ways the virus is spreading. The position is clear - we need to reduce the level of interaction in unregulated spaces to drive down transmission and suppress the virus. Improving public health will also help provide longer-term stability for the industry.

Question reference: S5O-04665

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding changes to infrastructure and consequent improvements to the region's arterial routes that will be required for the Port of Cairnryan after the Brexit transition period ends.

Question reference: S5T-02346

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 August 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on delayed discharge into care homes.

Question reference: S5W-31169

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 August 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 13 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation and use of the Safety Huddle Template in care homes across Scotland.

I can confirm that from 14 August 2020, the automated, web based Turas Care Management safety huddle tool will go live across Scotland. Data collection from the tool will commence from the week beginning 17 August 2020. I expect all care homes to be registered and using the automated safety huddle tool by 24 August.

The original Excel version of the safety huddle template was developed with the care home sector and other key stakeholders including representatives from the Care Inspectorate, Health and Social Care Partnerships, Scottish Care, Scottish Social Care Services Council, Scottish Government representatives from across Directorates, Scottish Executives Nurse Directors, Community Lead Nurses, Health Protection Scotland and NHS Board Public Health Directors. This has been used by care homes across Scotland, and we have continued to work with these stakeholders to ensure that the automated safety huddle is fit for purpose and meets the requirements of the staff who use it, both for the inputting of data at a care home level and on the reviewing of the data.

This work is incredibly important, not only now in our response to COVID-19 but beyond. This will enable more consistent national reporting of the data originally captured through the excel version of the safety huddle returns and will also help to reduce the data burden on our care homes, whilst supporting improved reporting and better analysis of the information on a local and national basis. It will also enable our Health and Social Care Partnerships, NHS Boards and oversight groups undertake their assurance roles which are so important at this time and to ensure that the necessary support is given to the care home sector when it is required.

The tool has been developed so that it is futureproofed, to allow for changes to be made in the future, post COVID-19. Suggestions for future additions to the tool include the addition of quality indicators, including number of complaints, critical incidents, falls, pressure sores, medication errors, no of initial referral discussions relating to adult support and protection etc, which would allow trend reporting for quality improvement. Furthermore, future amendments to the tool could also align with the data collected under the Care Inspectorate legislative framework through the e-form reporting and annual returns. The web based tool has the capacity to add links to the Care Inspectorate e-forms for ease of completion and the data from the safety huddle could be used to provide real time reporting for the Care Inspectorate going forward and support the delivery of evidence based in scrutiny visits.

Question reference: S5O-04487

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 August 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the South West Scotland Transport Study.

Question reference: S5O-04482

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 August 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to tourism businesses involved in the organising, planning and hosting of weddings in Dumfries and Galloway and other rural economies that are reliant on the wedding industry.

Question reference: S5W-30451

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 July 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 3 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on publishing validated statistics regarding hospital-onset COVID-19 cases in Scotland.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) this week, 1 July, published validated statistics on the number of nosocomial Covid-19 infections in Scotland, based on the agreed definitions of the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC).

Scotland is the only country in the UK to have published this data to date. The data provides a detailed picture of hospital associated infections.

The information is not directly comparable to previously published unvalidated management information. The validated statistics cover a longer time period, week ending 1 March to week ending 7 June. The new statistics also capture each individual laboratory confirmed case, rather than only those in a HAI infection cluster.

These statistics will be published weekly on the PHS website as part of the wider information already published. In addition, the National Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Unit within NHS National Services Scotland are working on a statistical process to produce further information relating to COVID-19 Healthcare Associated Infection deaths where possible.

The data and supporting methodology is available at: https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/population-health/covid-19/hospital-onset-covid-19-cases-in-scotland/