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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-07415

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Dogs Trust's recommendation that the number of pet animals able to travel under the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) should be reduced from five to three per vehicle, and what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the potential impact in Scotland of the recommendation.

The Scottish Government continue to engage with our stakeholders to improve animal welfare and this is an issue we would be open to considering.

The Scottish Government would be content with this suggested change if the UK Government were minded to amend the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill [1] , which is currently at Report Stage in the UK Parliament. The Scottish Government also agreed with the Legislative Consent Motion in relation to the Bill. However, it should be noted that the Bill, should it come into effect, will reduce the number of animals to five per vehicle , as opposed to five per traveller, which will be a significant improvement on the present situation.

Scotland does not have any Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) routes [2] for vehicles entering Scotland directly, but the Scottish Government would wish to retain a consistent GB-wide approach where possible.

[1] Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament

[2] Pet travel: sea and rail routes and companies you can use - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Question reference: S6W-07286

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether parking for (a) staff and (b) customers at retail outlets is included in the Workplace Parking Levy.

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 provides local authorities with a discretionary power to set up workplace parking licensing (WPL) schemes. Section 71 of the 2019 Act defines what constitutes a workplace parking place. Customer parking at retail outlets (except parking for business customers) is not included in the definition of workplace parking and therefore those places could not be included in any local authorities’ WPL scheme.

It will be for local authorities to decide whether they wish to implement WPL locally and to shape proposals to suit local circumstances. Parking places provided for employees and business customers are included in the definition of workplace parking set out in the 2019 Act. Accordingly, employers will be liable for workplace parking for staff within the context of proposals set out by local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-07132

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether allowance has been made in the calculation of the costs of the Deposit Return Scheme for the VAT that will be levied and, if this is the case, whether it can provide the details of how such costs have been incorporated into its calculation, and, if this is not the case, what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

The economic modelling in the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme does not account for any VAT being levied on deposits. That is in line with best practice as set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book ( https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938046/The_Green_Book_2020.pdf ) because VAT is considered to be a transfer payment that does not affect the output or consumption of resources.

Question reference: S6W-07128

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to A Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland: Full Business and Regulatory Impact, published in July 2019, whether it will provide full details of the evidence base it used for its estimates for the number of (a) items in scope, which was estimated at 1.7 billion containers and (b) return points which was estimated at 14,386 manual and 3,021 automatic; whether these estimates were based on a consultants report, and, if so, whether it will publish that report and details of the evidence base used for that report.

Question reference: S6W-07133

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether, during the policy development period and leading up to the publication of the Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), published in December 2021, the proposed Deposit Return Scheme was referred for consideration to the Scottish Government Regulatory Review Group, and if this is not the case, what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S6W-07131

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its proposed Deposit Return Scheme, whether it will publish all (a) correspondence, (b) communication and (c) other documents between it and Circularity Scotland related to any conflict of opinion on the (i) detail of estimates of the number of (A) items to be recycled, (B) return locations and (C) Reverse Vending Machines required, and (ii) consideration of the wording and content of Annex F of the Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), published in December 2021.

The position taken by Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL) in respect of container and return point numbers, as I understand it, is set out at Annex F of the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) published in December 2021.

CSL’s position in respect of number of reverse vending machines is that they expect roughly 3,000 of these as set out in the Full Business Case for DRS.

CSL had no sight of the content of the amended BRIA in advance of publication.

Question reference: S6W-07249

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of heart-related hospital admissions were repeat admissions, broken down by NHS board in each of the last five years.

Table 1: Number and percentage of heart-related repeat hospital admissions: Years ending 31 March 2017-2021

NHS Board	Number of repeat hospital admissions					Percentage of repeat hospital admissions
	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021		2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Ayrshire and Arran	384	378	392	436	351		21.3	21.1	20.8	22.3	19.8
Borders	52	62	69	81	50		14.0	16.3	17.1	19.0	11.8
Dumfries and Galloway	68	84	107	81	87		13.2	15.2	17.9	13.5	14.1
Fife	170	183	166	179	133		17.8	17.6	16.0	16.3	13.0
Forth Valley	103	110	117	151	139		12.2	14.1	13.2	14.7	15.2
Golden Jubilee Hospital	720	506	562	487	332		17.7	12.4	13.4	12.4	10.7
Grampian	444	478	508	547	357		18.6	19.9	20.0	21.3	16.4
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	571	547	522	660	448		14.7	14.2	13.4	15.3	12.4
Highland	208	234	225	172	181		16.2	17.1	17.5	13.5	15.1
Lanarkshire	653	576	623	610	526		19.6	17.5	17.9	17.7	17.0
Lothian	627	544	649	661	508		15.9	13.6	16.3	15.9	14.2
Non-NHS Provider/Location	3	-	4	-	-		13.6	-	28.6	-	-
Orkney	17	10	12	3	23		21.8	14.3	20.0	4.3	25.0
Shetland	8	14	5	4	8		12.9	18.9	8.6	7.0	12.5
Tayside	503	440	396	472	319		23.9	20.0	19.0	23.1	17.3
Western Isles	1	12	10	15	14		1.5	12.9	11.1	14.7	14.7

The data presented here show information on admissions for ischaemic heart disease (including angina and myocardial infarction; ICD10 codes I20-25) and heart failure (ICD-10 code I50). These are the most frequent heart-related diagnoses in hospital discharge data, and data are published annually in the PHS Scottish Heart Disease Statistics report ( https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/11607/2022-01-25-heart-disease-report.pdf ). Not included in these data are admissions for other heart-related conditions, such as problems with the heart valves, disorders of cardiac rhythm, congenital heart disease and infection or injury of the heart.

Source: SMR01, Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6W-07248

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of alcohol-related hospital admissions were repeat admissions, broken down by NHS board in each of the last five years.

Table 1: Percentage of repeat alcohol-related hospital admissions by NHS board and financial year.

NHS Boards	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	33.9	34.9	34.5	32.9	31.1
NHS Borders	30.0	28.2	31.0	35.1	36.4
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	30.8	28.5	25.3	26.2	30.2
NHS Fife	29.9	28.7	32.0	31.4	34.0
NHS Forth Valley	30.3	30.3	31.2	35.5	36.1
NHS Grampian	30.0	34.1	33.0	35.0	33.9
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	37.4	38.1	37.5	36.9	37.2
NHS Highland	29.5	33.2	31.4	29.6	31.9
NHS Lanarkshire	34.9	34.3	34.8	36.2	36.2
NHS Lothian	36.5	34.0	33.1	33.4	35.5
NHS Orkney	31.8	38.8	32.5	31.6	47.6
NHS Shetland	22.9	33.1	23.8	28.8	26.2
NHS Tayside	34.5	34.3	33.9	35.6	36.8
NHS Western Isles	31.5	25.5	30.2	30.0	30.0

1. The definition of an alcohol-related admission aligns with the PHS annual publication definition. Further information is available in the Alcohol related hospital statistics website .

2. Hospital admissions include acute general and psychiatric hospitals.

3. ‘Repeat admissions’ figures include the second and subsequent hospital stays of an individual patient during a financial year.

4. Figures are presented by NHS board of treatment.

1. Information on inpatient and day case data completeness can be found on the Hospital records Data webpage

Source: Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6F-00984

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 March 2022

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will provide an update on what the £10 million Long COVID Support Fund has been allocated for and how much has been spent.

Question reference: S6F-00968

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 March 2022

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government anticipates the impact will be of the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land, which will launch on 1 April.