- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much it expects the referral to the Supreme Court of whether the question for a referendum on Scottish independence contained in the proposed referendum Bill relates to reserved matters to cost.
Answer
Litigation is ongoing and external costs will be published on a regular basis. We will publish initial data on spending in September, and on a quarterly basis thereafter, until the conclusion of the litigation.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any (a) primary and (b) secondary schools that have exclusively gender-neutral toilets for children.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any new (a) primary and (b) secondary schools being built with exclusively gender-neutral toilets for children.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Police Scotland regarding police officers being stationed in schools through the use of pupil equity funding.
Answer
The Scottish Government has had no specific discussions with Police Scotland about this issue.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by George Adam on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many written parliamentary questions were answered (a) within and (b) after the due date, in each month since July 2021.
Answer
The Government produces quarterly statistics, available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, which show how many parliamentary questions were cleared after the substantive date and those still outstanding at the time of audit.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02451 by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021, whether it will provide an update on how many cervical cancer screenings have taken place in each month since the start of 2019.
Answer
Further to the answer to question S6W-02451 which provided information on the number of samples collected within the cervical screening programme from January 2019 to August 2021. 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 The following table provides information for each of the months that followed from September 2021 to June 2022.
Cervical Smears collected |
Month/Year | 2021 | 2022 |
Jan | | 25990 |
Feb | | 26873 |
March | | 29722 |
April | | 24461 |
May | | 28919 |
June | | 27959 |
July | | |
August | | |
September | 22562 | |
October | 22545 | |
November | 27967 | |
December | 19175 | |
However, it is important to note that the Scottish Government does not routinely publish this information as it is only held as management data and is not subject to the standard quality control checks required for official publication. During the acute phase of COVID-19 management, the data was provided in light of the increased interest in screening performance. However, a report is produced annually providing fully checked information and statistics, and I now refer to the most recently published report which can be found here: Scottish cervical screening programme statistics - Annual update to 31 March 2021 - Scottish cervical screening programme statistics - Publications - Public Health Scotland.
- Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, following the implementation of the Young Person’s Guarantee and Kickstart Scheme in 2020, how many funded apprenticeship places have been (a) offered to and (b) taken up by deaf school leavers, including school leavers with mild or moderate hearing impairments.
Answer
Official statistics from our national skills agency, Skills Development Scotland show that there were 26 Modern Apprentice (MA) Starts, in the 16-19 age grouping, who were recorded as having a hearing impairment and were recorded as being school pupils prior to commencing their apprenticeship. This data covers MA starts from 1 September 2020 to 31 March 2022 and further apprenticeship data will be available when the Quarter 1 2022-23 report is published, which is expected in August 2022. These figures are on the basis of self-declaration and therefore may be higher than this.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09142 by Mairi Gougeon on 6 July 2022, for what reasons it has taken over one year for the report on bird stomach contents to be finalised and published.
Answer
The project commenced in 2019 however further field work and laboratory analysis scheduled during 2020 were affected by COVID-19 restrictions. This had a knock on effect, delaying the remaining stages of the project, including quality control of the data and writing the report. The report is now finalised and will be published soon.
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that the specific needs of children and young people from armed forces and veterans' families are included in future versions of The Strategy For Our Veterans.
Answer
We will engage with a wide range of stakeholders, such as the Armed Forces Families Federations, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, Forces Children Scotland and the Napier University’s Centre for Military Research, Education and Public Engagement, as well as schools and local authorities to ensure that the views and needs of children and young people from Armed Forces and veterans families are taken into account in development of future versions of the UK-wide Strategy For Our Veterans as well as our own Veterans Strategy Action Plan. We intend to publish imminently our latest Strategy Action Plan, during the development of which we engaged with the Families Federations.
Approaches to address the specific needs of the children of serving families are currently being considered through the work being undertaken jointly by the UK Government, Devolved Administrations and third sector on the development and implementation of the Ministry of Defence’s Families Strategy.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards ensuring that island NHS boards have specialist menopause services, and how are those living in island communities being supported to access specialist menopause services.
Answer
Through the Women’s Health Plan, we want all women to have timely access to menopause support and services. For those who need specialist support beyond primary care, there is now a specialist menopause service in every mainland NHS Board.
For women living in the areas of Island health boards there is a “buddy” system in place. This system allows Island GPs and health practitioners to seek advice from one of the mainland menopause specialist services to support their more complex patients. Alternatively, they can refer patients to one of the mainland services, if they meet the referral criteria. Consultations take the form of a discussion, usually by phone or video, meaning patients do not routinely need to travel to the mainland.
The National Menopause Specialists Network complements this service and meets regularly to provide consistent advice and peer support to health care professionals across Scotland.