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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-14421

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of patients with diabetes suffered from hospital-acquired foot ulceration, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-14423

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of staff in each NHS board have (a) undertaken and (b) completed the CPR for Feet training modules.

Question reference: S6W-14073

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the effectiveness of Scottish Coast Guard Rescue Teams and related mental health support for their staff.

The Scottish Government has had no recent discussions with the UK Government on these issues; I have, however, recently met with the Maritime Coastguard Agency regarding all aspects of their operations in Scotland.

Coastguard operations are matters reserved to the UK Government and the responsibility of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency, reporting to the Secretary of State for Transport, are responsible for providing effective operations and the welfare of its workforce.

The Scottish Government expects the highest shipping safety and other regulatory standards around Scotland’s coasts and that coastguard staff welfare issues are afforded paramount importance in what is a sometimes hazardous line of employment.

Question reference: S6W-14299

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans Transport Scotland has to include any road traffic accidents that are caused by wild deer in its annual statistics.

Statistical information about injury road accidents is collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Government using the GB-wide "STATS 19" returns.

At the moment, the only information available from STATS-19 is accidents involving an animal in the carriageway and we cannot determine from the database, what type of animal.

Transport Scotland have no plans to seek to include accidents that are caused by deer in STATS-19. You may be interested to refer to the last review of the database here: Road accidents and safety statistics: user engagement - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .

Question reference: S6W-14499

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the total cost will be of closing any facilities managed by the National Museums of Scotland as a result of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023.

Question reference: S6W-14503

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to produce an equivalent for adults aged over 25 to its document, National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People: Principles and Standards of Care, published in 2021, which sets out the standards and availability of services that people aged up to 25 can expect.

The Scottish Government has been working with the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) regarding diagnosis and support, providing funding of £650,000 for adult neurodevelopmental pathway pilots with four Health Boards - Fife, Borders, Lanarkshire and Highland.

The pilots ran for 12 months, starting in January 2022. The formal aspect of the pilots has now concluded but the work locally continues. The results of this work, including a final report, will be available early this year.

The Scottish Government will consider the report and explore what steps are required to ensure that everyone with a Neurodevelopmental difference, including ADHD, can access the diagnosis and support they require.

Question reference: S6W-14100

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to reduce ScotRail's arrival and departure delays at (a) Ayr and (b) Girvan Station, in light of statistics showing the percentage of trains arriving on time in the period 11 December 2022 to 7 January 2023 was just 37.7% at Girvan and 67% at Ayr.

As the member is aware, ScotRail’s performance is measured using the industry standard Public Performance Measure (PPM) which combines reliability and punctuality into a single performance metric. To achieve PPM, a service must arrive/terminate at a station within 5 minutes of its booked arrival time.

PPM is a practical measurement of performance, which allows time for rail staff to assist passengers or hold trains for connections to be made when appropriate.

PPM figures at Ayr and Girvan in the latest reporting period (11 Dec 2022 – 7 Jan 2023) are 91.4% and 91.3% respectively, showing more than 9 out of 10 trains arriving at these stations met their performance target. Services at these stations showed better performance than the network as a whole.

Question reference: S6W-14312

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) estimated cost of repairing a pothole and (b) current total estimated pothole repair bill is.

Transport Scotland, through its Trunk Road Operating Companies and Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) Concessionaires, is responsible for the management and maintenance of the strategic trunk road network, including motorways. Repair of potholes on all other roads is the responsibility of the local authorities.

The Scottish Government fully funds the inspection and repair of all potholes that present, or could present, an immediate hazard to trunk road users. These are defined as Category 1 defects within the term maintenance contract, which also sets out strict timescales for their repair. Following identification of Category 1 pothole defects, the Operating Companies are required to make the defect safe by 6am the following morning, preferably by completing a permanent repair. Where this is not possible then a temporary repair is required within the same timescale with permanent repairs required 28 days. The repair of all Category 1 defects is funded from commercially sensitive rates and prices and cannot be provided.

Question reference: S6W-14180

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12923 by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023, which refers to "key areas of work completed to date", where information on these completed works is published, and whether it will provide the results of this work.

Question reference: S6W-14255

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the (a) number of deaths as a result of the recreational use of nitrous oxide in each year for which data is available, also broken down by age group and (b) cost to the NHS of treating patients as a result of harm or injuries sustained through the recreational use of nitrous oxide, and whether it will provide a breakdown of the types of injuries that have been sustained through the recreational use of nitrous oxide.

As Nitrous Oxide is not classed as a controlled substance under the reserved Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, it is not routinely screened for in toxicology testing.

The National Records of Scotland do publish ‘Accidental poisoning by and exposure to noxious substances’, but do not provide specific substance breakdowns.

Analysis of hospital admissions in relation to Nitrous Oxide would be limited by use of the ICD-10 diagnostic coding system. Nitrous Oxide use is coded within the ‘inhalant’ or ‘volatile substance’ category (F18), but this also contains other substances such as butane and glue, so it isn’t possible to narrow it down to the admissions specific to nitrous. There is also no mention of intentionality (i.e. recreational use) within these data.