- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 8 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will respond to the recommendations in the Scottish Environment LINK report, Scotland’s environmental ambitions, From rhetoric to reality: revisited.
Answer
The Scottish Government published a report to Parliament on 29 March 2022, outlining progress in developing the new Environment Strategy for Scotland ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/environment-strategy-scotland-progress-report-parliament/ ). This report provided a summary of key areas of Scottish Government policy and action that are already contributing to the goals of the Environment Strategy and outlined some of the challenges and opportunities in realising the strategy's vision. The Scottish Government does not plan to publish an additional response to the 'From Rhetoric to Reality: Revisited' report, but remains in ongoing dialogue with Scottish Environment LINK as a valued stakeholder.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there has reportedly been a delay to the decision on whether to grant planning approval for Fetteresso Wind Farm, case reference WIN-110-1, and when a decision will be made.
Answer
Now that the Public Inquiry is complete Scottish Ministers are considering the terms of the report received on 18 February 2022 and should be in a position to make a decision in due course.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) hernia and (b) rectopexy mesh surgery procedures have been performed in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
In the period between 2012 and 2021 there have been 72,683 hernia mesh repairs. Rectopexy mesh analysis is not currently produced. Public Health Scotland are in the process of developing the correct codes to use for future analysis.
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06933 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 10 March 2022, whether it will provide an update on how many (a) laptops and (b) tablets (i) have been and (ii) are yet to be distributed to pupils in (A) South Ayrshire and (B) East Ayrshire.
Answer
Local authorities across Scotland have a range of approaches to the provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets.
The latest information we have from councils indicates that almost 280,000 devices have been, or are in the process of being, rolled out to learners across Scotland. This includes the 72,000 provided as a result of Scottish Government funding. We do not have additional information regarding device rollout in either South Ayrshire or East Ayrshire beyond that included in the answer to S6W-06933.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish all information that it (a) provided and (b) received in relation to the decision to set the maximum fee per km2 of seabed under the ScotWind leasing process at £100,000, as announced by Crown Estate Scotland on 24 March 2021.
Answer
Crown Estate Scotland (CES) is responsible for the ScotWind seabed leasing process and the management and collation of the information used to support its decision to review and, ultimately, change the option fee prices for seabed leasing. The Scottish Government has already released the advisory note procured from Strathclyde University ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200277291/ ) and did not provide any further information to CES.
CES also procured additional advice that the Scottish Government do hold but these have not been released due to the ongoing nature of ScotWind clearing process and applications.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 7 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-07714 by Maree Todd on 25 April 2022, when the final project reports referenced in the answer will be published on the Chief Scientist Office website.
Answer
Following an independent expert review process, 9 projects were funded through the CSO's Long-term effects of COVID-19 call Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)
CSO funded research project start dates are confirmed through submission by the corresponding host institution of a completed start certificate ( Form7-Start-Certificate.docx (live.com) )
The following table shows the confirmed start dates and derived end dates for the 9 projects funded through the Long-term effects of COVID-19 call
Project | Start Certificate | End Date |
COV-LTE-20-04 | 01-03-21 | 28-02-23 |
COV-LTE-20-06 | 01-02-21 | 31-01-23 |
COV-LTE-20-08 | 01-04-21 | 31-03-23 |
COV-LTE-20-10 | 01-02-21 | 31-01-23 |
COV-LTE-20-15 | 01-03-21 | 28-02-23 |
COV-LTE-20-26 | 01-04-21 | 31-03-23 |
COV-LTE-20-28 | 01-02-21 | 31-01-23 |
COV-LTE-20-29 | 01-05-21 | 30-04-23 |
COV-LTE-20-32 | 01-05-21 | 28-02-23 |
Final reports will be published on the CSO website upon completion of the projects.
Project final reports are the result of a collaborative effort between the individual project teams and members of the CSO Public Engagement Group who work together to ensure the reports are written in accessible language. There is therefore an inevitable short delay between the project end date and the publication of the final report on the CSO website.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will develop an incentive gap, that declines over time, for the amount of residual waste treatment as Scotland transitions towards a fully circular economy.
Answer
The recently published report of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy recommends that the Scottish Government should develop an indicative cap that declines over time for the amount of residual waste treatment needed as Scotland transitions towards a fully circular economy. We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report and will set out our initial response in June.
- Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 7 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that young people are offered the vaccination for HPV, and in which NHS boards HPV and any other boosters for teenagers have restarted.
Answer
The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) continue to work with Health Boards to support their planning and the safe delivery of immunisation services.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, HPV and teenage booster programmes were delayed due to school closures. Pupils who were not offered their vaccines or who missed the immunisation sessions at their school, were offered the vaccine during catch-up sessions arranged by their Health Board. Health Boards have confirmed that these catch-up sessions have now been fully completed.
Therefore, all Health Boards have returned to a routine vaccination schedule for HPV and teenage boosters for the 2021-22 academic year.
Public Health Scotland collate data on the HPV vaccination programme for the previous school year every autumn. Data for school year 2021-22 will be collated in autumn 2022 and published in December 2022.
The most recent PHS publications can be found online: Publications - Public Health Scotland
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to help local authorities ensure that they have a solution to waste management, in light of its plans to ban all non-household biodegradable waste from entering landfill by 2025.
Answer
Scottish Ministers have committed to ending the practice of landfilling biodegradable municipal waste by 2025. In the update to our Climate Change Plan, we also committed to extend the ban to include biodegradable non-municipal waste, subject to appropriate consultation and work to provide assurance around some specific waste streams..
The Scottish Government, working with Zero Waste Scotland and local government partners, is providing centrally co-ordinated procurement support for local authorities without a solution in place in preparation for the ban coming into force in 2025. As part of this collaborative procurement programme, we are funding the provision of expert procurement, legal and technical support to local authorities to enable them to secure alternative solutions for their residual waste.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with (a) industry and (b) local authorities regarding making data from waste, particularly for incineration, more transparent and accessible to stakeholders.
Answer
We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report on the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy, and will set out our initial response in June. This includes the recommendation that industry, local authorities and the Scottish Government should do more to make data around waste in general, and around incineration in particular, more transparent and accessible for all stakeholders.
