- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any assessment of the analysis reported by the NICE medical technologies advisory committee for England and Wales that states that a footwear device from AposHealth, to support people with osteoarthritis in their knee, may have the potential to save the NHS £1,958 per patient, with the cost of the footwear estimated at £875 per patient.
Answer
The Scottish Government are awaiting publication of the guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) before deciding their next steps in relation to whether we ask the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) to review and adapt the guidance for NHS Scotland. The draft guidance by NICE medical technologies has an expected publication date of March 2023.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) GP and (b) hospital appointments have been missed in each of the past five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
Part (a) The Scottish Government does not hold data on missed GP appointments. Individual GP practices are responsible for their own appointment arrangements.
Part (b) Information on consultant led new outpatient appointments where the patient did not attend is published within Public Health Scotland’s annual acute hospital activity and NHS beds publication. Information can be found in ‘Table 1 – outpatient activity (consultant led).xlsx’ which presents data by NHS Board of Treatment for 2012/13 to 2021/22 (available under the ‘Data files’ heading on this Public Health Scotland web page: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual-annual-year-ending-31-march-2022/ ).
In addition, monthly trend information from May 2015 to September 2022 on the number of planned operations typically carried out within an inpatient or day case setting in NHS Scotland, that were cancelled the day before or the day of treatment by NHS Board of treatment (including cancellation reason, cancelled by patient). This information is published within Public Health Scotland’s monthly cancelled planned operations publication (available under the ‘Data files’ heading on this Public Health Scotland web page:
https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/cancelled-planned-operations-month-ending-30-september-2022/ ).
The next Public Health Scotland’s monthly cancelled planned operations publication covering October 2022 is due to be published on 6 December.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many Ukrainian refugees, who were initially residing on the MS Victoria, have since been moved to long-term accommodation.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s priority is to ensure that displaced people from Ukraine are able to stay in appropriate temporary accommodation and get the right support ahead of moving into safe, sustainable longer-term accommodation.
We do not want people to spend any more time than absolutely necessary in temporary welcome accommodation. That is why, we are taking action to match those on board the ships to longer-term accommodation and private host homes, with matching teams operating on board both ships. We are also supporting guests to secure longer-term accommodation through other means, such as private rental.
At present, the MS Victoria I is accommodating around 1,250 displaced people from Ukraine, including families and children. Further to this, the ship has accommodated many more people over the past four months who have now been matched to longer-term accommodation or supported to make alternative decisions about where they would like to live. More detailed data on the number of people who have moved on from the MS Victoria I will be provided as part of our Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Scotland: statistics publication in due course.
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many times the Scottish Ministers have used their powers to make tree preservation orders in each year since 2011.
Answer
Both Scottish Ministers and the planning authority have a duty to ensure, whenever appropriate, that in granting permission for any development adequate provision is made for the preservation or planting of trees. In addition, a planning authority or the Scottish Ministers may make a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) if it appears to them to be expedient to do so and where relevant statutory tests are met.
The general principle under which the planning system operates in Scotland is that decisions should be taken at the most local administrative level unless there are compelling reasons for taking them at a higher level.
In line with this approach, Scottish Ministers will only use their powers with regards to tree preservation orders (TPOs) in exceptional circumstances where national issues of importance are raised. As such, we have no record of any TPOs made by Scottish Ministers since 2011.
More detail about tree preservation orders is available in Circular 1/2011: Tree Preservation Orders at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/01/28152314/0 .
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is the case that only 70% of the 2022-23 funding for the treatment of Long COVID has been made available to NHS boards, and, if this is the case, when it will provide the remaining 30%.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12234 on 5 December 2022. All Answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £574 million allocated to the NHS Territorial and National Boards Capital Investment in its 2022-23 budget, which was announced on 9 December 2021, has been (a) allocated and (b) spent to date, broken down by expenditure.
Answer
The capital budget of £574 million will be allocated in full to NHS Territorial and National Boards and it is expected that the budget by the year end will be fully invested and spent. This will cover basic maintenance, replacement of essential medical equipment, developing the National Treatment Centre Programme, delivering the Baird and ANCHOR centre in Aberdeen, the Parkhead Health and Social Care Centre in the East End of Glasgow and numerous other vital capital projects.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many working groups have been established by (a) the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and (b) supporting ministers, in each of the last five financial years, broken down by the (i) total costs incurred in running these bodies, including expenses and (ii) number that have (A) formally completed their work and ceased to exist and (B) not met in the last six months but still exist.
Answer
The breakdown of the information requested is not held centrally the collation of this information would incur disproportionate costs.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to introducing a Net-Zero Ports and Infrastructure Programme fund, which has been identified by Scottish Renewables as key for supporting strategic port infrastructure and developing offshore renewable projects.
Answer
We recognise the importance of strong port infrastructure to support our offshore renewable ambitions. One of the primary recommendations of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council’s (SOWEC) Strategic Infrastructure Assessment (SIA) for Offshore Wind was the creation of a Scottish Floating Offshore Wind Port Cluster. The SIA made clear that the sector must work collaboratively to help focus activity and investment in Scottish ports.
New ScotWind leaseholders have joined existing Scottish offshore wind developers in signing up to a Collaborative Framework Charter, agreeing to work jointly together to build a pipeline of supply chain work. 24 developers have agreed to work together in the development and delivery of this Collaborative Framework. Through this grouping, i ndustry, enterprise agencies, and Scottish Government are working together to develop a Strategic Investment Model (SIM) which will support the recommendations of the SIA.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) repossessed and (b) empty dwellings have an unoccupied exemption from council tax, and how many have had that exemption for (i) six months or more, (ii) 12 months or more and (iii) two years or more.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what criteria it provided to local authorities to determine the short-term let licensing scheme fees, and whether it can intervene if it considers fees are unreasonably high in particular local authority areas.
Answer
Licensing fees must not be set at a level greater than the amount necessary to recover establishment and running costs. Guidance to licensing authorities on setting licence fees is contained within Chapter 3 of our short-term lets licensing guidance part 2: Supporting documents - Short term lets - licensing scheme part 2: supplementary guidance for licensing authorities, letting agencies and platforms - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Guidance sets out that licensing authorities are expected to have regard to minimising licence fee costs. It also encourages licensing authorities to offer lower fees for home sharing and home letting licences than for secondary letting. However, the exact fee levels are a matter for licensing authorities, and will likely depend on a number of factors such as volume of short-term let activity in their area, approach to physical property inspections and geography.
Licensing authorities must review their fees from time to time to ensure that revenue from fees remains in line with the running costs of the licensing scheme, as required by Paragraph 15(2)(a) of schedule 1 to the 1982 Act, as inserted by the Licensing Order.