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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: S6W-17248

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the £50 million investment in play parks and facilities will be distributed across all 32 local authorities.

The following table shows the remaining £50 million play park allocation for each local authority. This information can also be found on the Scottish Government website Renewing Scotland’s play parks - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Local Authority	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Aberdeen City Council	£373,000	£559,000	£932,000
Aberdeenshire Council	£616,000	£924,000	£1,539,000
Angus Council	£220,000	£330,000	£550,000
Argyll and Bute	£157,000	£235,000	£391,000
City of Edinburgh Council	£811,000	£1,216,000	£2,027,000
Clackmannanshire Council	£93,000	£139,000	£231,000
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Council	£62,000	£93,000	£156,000
Dumfries and Galloway Council	£291,000	£437,000	£728,000
Dundee City Council	£243,000	£365,000	£609,000
East Ayrshire Council	£224,000	£336,000	£561,000
East Dunbartonshire Council	£202,000	£303,000	£505,000
East Lothian Council	£218,000	£327,000	£545,000
East Renfrewshire Council	£204,000	£306,000	£509,000
Falkirk Council	£289,000	£434,000	£723,000
Fife Council	£681,000	£1,022,000	£1,703,000
Glasgow City Council	£1,028,000	£1,542,000	£2,570,000
Highland Council	£488,000	£732,000	£1,219,000
Inverclyde Council	£126,000	£189,000	£314,000
Midlothian Council	£197,000	£295,000	£492,000
Moray Council	£188,000	£282,000	£469,000
North Ayrshire Council	£231,000	£347,000	£578,000
North Lanarkshire Council	£635,000	£952,000	£1,586,000
Orkney Islands Council	£51,000	£77,000	£128,000
Perth and Kinross Council	£291,000	£437,000	£728,000
Renfrewshire Council	£307,000	£461,000	£768,000
Scottish Borders Council	£234,000	£352,000	£586,000
Shetland Islands Council	£61,000	£91,000	£151,000
South Ayrshire Council	£189,000	£283,000	£472,000
South Lanarkshire Council	£597,000	£896,000	£1,493,000
Stirling Council	£168,000	£253,000	£421,000
West Dunbartonshire Council	£157,000	£235,000	£392,000
West Lothian Council	£369,000	£553,000	£922,000
Total	£10,000,000	£15,000,000	£25,000,000

Question reference: S6W-17118

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its aim to eliminate hepatitis C in Scotland by 2024.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to achieving the elimination of Hepatitis C in Scotland by the end of the 2024/25 financial year.

Scotland already has a renowned approach for tackling Hepatitis C, with NHS Tayside eliminating it within the health board area, 11 years ahead of the World Health Organisation (WHO) target.

The last Public Health Scotland report (2022) demonstrated the major progress that has been made so far; for example, the prevalence of a chronic Hepatitis C infection amongst people who inject drugs has almost halved between 2015 and 2020 and there has been as much as a 70% reduction in some parts of Scotland. In addition 80% of individuals with a chronic hepatitis C infection have also been initiated onto treatment, exceeding the World Health Organisations treatment target.

However, we know that to achieve elimination and meet our target will take a concerted effort on a national scale. We will continue to proactively collaborate with the Hepatitis C Elimination Implementation Strategy Group to ascertain where our support is most required as we work towards our goal of elimination.

Question reference: S6W-16962

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide any data that it holds regarding response times by SafeDeposits Scotland to its customers.

SafeDeposits Scotland has a duty to provide a quarterly performance report of the scheme’s performance measured against the key performance indicators (KPIs) in the Schedule to the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 .

The latest quarterly performance report indicates all KPIs have been met, with the average call response time was 12 seconds and email response time was 8 minutes.

Question reference: S6W-17144

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the National Islands Plan Annual Report 2022, whether it can provide a (a) list of projects that have successfully applied to the Islands Heritage and Culture Project and (b) breakdown of how much funding has been allocated to each project.

To support delivery of the National Islands Plan, through the Islands Heritage and Culture Project the Scottish Government has supported the delivery of the following six projects:

The Orkney Digitisation Project, delivered by Orkney Islands Council;
The Angus Og Project, delivered by the Highland Archive Service and High Life Highland;
The Shetland Culture and Heritage Hub, delivered by Shetland Amenity Trust;
Outer Hebrides Heritage Trails, delivered by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar;
The Aspiring UNESCO Global Geopark, delivered by Arran Geopark; and
Opportunities for the Argyll Islands and Increased Visitor Footfall, Culture, Heritage and Arts Assembly

Each project received a grant allocation of £40,000 with the exception of the Orkney based project, which had a slight overspend, taking their allocation to £42,000.

Question reference: S6W-16963

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15794 by Patrick Harvie on 22 March 2023, what information it holds on the number of SafeDeposits Scotland customers who were impacted by the “teething issues” with the new system.

Question reference: S6W-17159

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to reduce the number of disposable nappies that are sent to landfill.

To encourage families to consider the use of reusable alternatives to disposable nappies, a Nappy Voucher is included within the Baby Box which can be used to redeem 1 waterproof nappy wrap, with 5 stay dry nappy pads.

The Nappy Voucher also signposts families to our ParentClub website which highlights the benefits of using reusable nappies as well as signposting families on where to seek advice and support with using them. Ready Steady Baby , which is given out at antenatal appointments, also highlights the benefits of reusable nappies.

The total amount of waste going to landfill in Scotland has dropped by nearly a third over the past decade. We are working to accelerate progress which includes introducing a ban on landfilling of biodegradable municipal waste. Additionally, we are supporting local authorities in improving recycling infrastructure through our Recycling Improvement Fund. This fund provides scope for local authorities to improve collection of problematic materials.

Question reference: S6W-16381

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have been removed from NHS waiting lists without receiving treatment since 1 January 2022.

Between 1 January and 31 December 2022, 360,525 new outpatients were removed from NHS waiting lists, for reasons ‘referred back to GP’, ‘transferred’, ‘treatment no longer required’, and ‘other reasons’. Similarly, for inpatients and day cases, 53,585 patients were removed for these reasons. Please see Table 1 for a description of the reasons for removal.

Table 1. Removal reasons for reasons other than ‘patient seen’ and their associated description.

Removal Reason	Description
Referred back to GP	Under Waiting Times guidance, patients can be referred back to their GP for a number of reasons. These include cancelling two previously accepted appointments; failing to attend an appointment without giving notice; failing to respond to an offer of appointment; refusing reasonable offers of appointments; continuing medical or patient advised unavailability; or because the referral to hospital was inappropriate.
Transferred	These are patients whose management has been transferred from one waiting list to another. This can mean a change of specialty, location, or health board. Unless these patients have been transferred outwith NHS Scotland, they should also appear as an addition to the new waiting list and a subsequent removal where appropriate.
Treatment no longer required	This is the number of patients who have been removed from the waiting list because they no longer require treatment.
Other reasons	Other reasons for removal from list comprise of 'Died' and 'inappropriate addition to list'.

Please note that although we refer to the number of 'patients' waiting, individuals may be counted more than once if they are waiting to attend more than one clinic as a new outpatient or more than one treatment as an inpatient or day case, or a combination of outpatient and inpatient or day case care.

Question reference: S6W-16504

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are being considered to provide additional support to higher education institutions to prevent their modern languages departments from being reduced or closed.

Scotland has universities that are not only world leaders in education and research but also key drivers of the Scottish economy and we recognise as part of that modern language provision plays an important role

Scottish universities are autonomous institutions and as such the Scottish Government does not intervene in internal institutional matters. With the exception of controlled subjects, the Scottish Government does not direct individual universities on the number of funded places made available for eligible Scottish and EU domicile students. Universities are allocated a finite amount of money. It is then for the universities themselves to decide: how to distribute these places between faculties; the courses they offer; and how many of the total funded places will be available on each course. When looking at modern language provision it is important to recognise that the university sector is not homogeneous, with different institutions providing different types of courses addressing different learner needs.

The 2023-24 Budget allocated nearly £2 billion to Scotland’s universities and colleges through the Scottish Funding Council, demonstrating our commitment to supporting our learners and institutions.

Question reference: S6W-16539

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is considering including alcohol-free drinks in its proposals to restrict alcohol advertising.

Our recent consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion set out a range of potential options to restrict alcohol advertising and promotion. This included a question on whether low or no alcohol products should fall within the scope of any restrictions, where these products feature similar branding as stronger alcoholic drinks.

The consultation closed on 9 March. An independent contractor will comprehensively analyse the responses and a report will be published later this year. We will then further consider possible restrictions.

Question reference: S6W-17302

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many women are currently living with endometriosis in the NHS Ayrshire and Arran area.