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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-33663

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it has given to (a) procurator fiscals, (b) GPs, (c) local authority burial or cremation departments and (d) registrars on extending their opening hours and availability over the Christmas and New Year period to ensure that funeral directors can continue to arrange and conduct funerals during the pandemic without the bereaved facing delays.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with all sectors involved in care and management of the deceased to identify potential problems and to minimise disruption and delays which could affect the ongoing provision of funeral services over the Christmas and New Year weekends.

The Lord Advocate is constitutionally responsible for the investigation of sudden, unexpected and unexplained deaths in Scotland. That is a function which he exercises independently of any other person, and one that is undertaken on his behalf by procurators fiscal employed within the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). It is accordingly not for the Scottish Government to give advice to procurators fiscal. COPFS is satisfied that appropriate arrangements are in place for the forthcoming holiday period to ensure that deaths reported to the procurator fiscal during this time will be considered as expeditiously as possible in order to minimise the impact of reporting on nearest relatives and funeral arrangements that are to be made.

The Scottish Government has not advised GPs to extend their opening hours and availability over the Christmas and New Year period. The normal festive contingencies will be in place with surgeries closed 25 and 28 December and 1 and 4 January. This is the normal period of closure.

It is for burial and cremation authorities to decide when their facilities will be open over the festive period. The Scottish Government and the Inspector of Cremation are working with burial and cremation authorities, funeral director representatives and Regional Resilience Partnerships to ensure the sector has the information it requires to plan appropriately for the festive period. The Scottish Government will continue to work with the sector throughout the festive period to monitor the impact on availability of funerals, as has been the case since the beginning of the pandemic.

The opening hours and configuration of local registrar services remains the responsibility of local authorities. Opening times of registrar offices and availability to register a death remotely are being arranged locally for the festive period, while existing provision for out of hours registration continues to be in place in each local authority area.

Question reference: S5F-04653

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 December 2020

To ask the First Minister how many staff are employed to answer calls to book COVID-19 tests in Scotland.

Question reference: S5O-04829

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it has met its climate change targets that were set during session 3 of the Parliament.

Question reference: S5F-04620

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 December 2020

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government plans to mitigate the impact of any reduction in services due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives and mental wellbeing of disabled people.

Question reference: S5W-33397

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government by what date (a) Pension Age Disability and (b) Winter Heating Assistance payments will begin.

As set out in my statement to Parliament of 17 November 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a major impact on the Scottish Government’s delivery partners, including the Department for Work and Pensions, whose support we need to transfer the relevant social security benefits. This is an on-going and complex exercise.

Earlier this month, I discussed the delivery of all remaining devolved benefits with the UK Minister of State for Disabled People, Work and Health. Now that our respective officials have the capacity to do so, we reaffirmed our commitment to taking forward the necessary detailed planning work on the benefits, having prioritised reaching an agreement on child and adult disability payments over the past few months. I will make announcements regarding individual benefits in due course.

Question reference: S5W-33040

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will continue to fund Scotland’s participation in the National Neonatal Audit Programme from March 2021, in light of its impact on the outcomes for babies requiring neonatal care and its alignment with the aims of its Best Start programme.

Scotland will continue to participate in the National Neonatal Audit Programme until the end of this current contract, which is 31 March 2021. The Scottish Government on behalf of NHS Scotland and other stakeholders have been working to try and identify a mutually agreeable legal and financial basis for continued participation in the National Neonatal Audit Programme, after the contract expires. We are confident that a way forward will be agreed and are keen to progress this as quickly as possible, given participation in the audit helps to drive improvements in clinical care in neonatal settings, helping to realise the vision set out in The Best Start.

Question reference: S5W-32900

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that reduced charitable funding due to COVID-19 for medical research in Scotland will have on the health of people in Scotland.

From data provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the Scottish Government has established that charities invested around £101 million into medical and health research at Scottish universities in 2018-19.

We also know, from information provided by the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), that some UK medical research charities project a 41% reduction in their research expenditure over the next year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mitigation measures, both at Scottish and UK level, have been put in place, including a £75 million support package for university research from the Scottish Government.

We are therefore not expecting that a short term reduction in charity funding for medical research will have a long term impact on the health of people in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-32349

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the work of its Rehabilitation Framework and the role this has had in responding to the COVID-19, what plans it has to expand and develop the allied health professional workforce, and what funding it will allocate to (a) local authorities, (b) NHS boards and (c) third sector service providers to assist with this.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-31349 on 1 September 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

In addition to this, I can confirm that when the National Advisory Board for Rehabilitation is operational in the new year it will be considering aspects of workforce delivery and system affordability for different models of care.

Question reference: S5O-04709

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when the First Minister first became aware of hospital patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 being discharged to care homes.

Question reference: S5W-31436

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 14 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when clear Type IIR masks will be available for use in health and social care settings.

Currently there are no commercially available transparent masks that are approved for use in medical settings in Scotland. The Scottish Government recognise the potential role of transparent masks in clinical settings and has been working to explore options for transparent masks and face coverings.

On 5 August the UK Government announced the procurement of 250,000 transparent face masks from the company ClearMask for use in health and social care. These masks will be trialled in England in specific circumstances and feedback will be sought from users before any decisions about future procurement are made. NHS National Services Scotland will be carrying out a clinical evaluation of the ClearMask through the relevant channels in due course to determine if these masks are suitable for use in health and social care.

Scottish Enterprise recently awarded £50,000 of funding from their Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund (PERF) to an Edinburgh-based company to expand its production of face coverings to include coverings with transparent panes, which facilitate lip-reading. This company is being supported by the National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland (NMIS) to upgrade these face coverings to type IIR masks which are suitable for use in clinical settings. The company are currently working towards submitting the masks for the relevant testing that will allow for the certification of the masks for use in clinical environments.