- Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 3 March 2022
Question to be taken in Chamber.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 3 March 2022
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to ensure that children aged 12 to 15 who have not currently received their second dose of a COIVD-19 vaccine will be able to travel to European countries with their families during the February mid-term holidays, in light of some countries requiring this age group to be double vaccinated.
Answer
NHS Scotland is offering 2 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to all children and young people aged 12 to 17 years. The second dose will be offered from 12 weeks after the first dose. Children and young people aged 12 to 15 years have been sent second dose invitation letters. They can also attend drop-in clinics. More information on vaccinating children and young people is available at https://www.nhsinform.scot/covid-19-vaccine/the-vaccines/vaccinating-children-and-young-people-aged-12-to-17-years/
We cannot provide advice on the rules for other countries. Before travelling you should check the up to date entry requirements for the destination country.
- Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to installing defibrillators in all schools.
Answer
Decisions on whether to install defibrillators in schools are a matter for Local Authorities to consider at the local level.
Scottish Government recognises the important role of defibrillators in the chain of survival from Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA). We are a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) partnership, which published an updated strategy in March 2021: Out of hospital cardiac arrest: strategy 2021 to 2026 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . This includes the aim of increasing the percentage of OHCAs which have a defibrillator applied before the arrival of ambulance service from 8% to 20%.
To achieve this, the strategy’s focus is to ensure that defibrillators are publicly accessible, are registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) so they can be directed to in instances of OHCA, and that people feel empowered to use them. The strategy identifies a number of actions to take in order to achieve these goals.
It is important to support evidence based placement of defibrillators in areas where OHCAs are most likely to occur. To support the OHCA strategy, the Resuscitation Research Group at Edinburgh University are working to develop a tool to show where defibrillators are most likely to be required in order to support organisations and communities with optimal placement.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the current average time taken is to administer anti-viral medication to people with COVID-19 who are on the Highest Risk List.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally. However, patients are asked to contact their local Health Board single point of contact telephone number if they believe they are eligible for treatment. The phone lines are open seven days a week, including public holidays. Further information is available on NHS Inform .
Some COVID-19 positive individuals who meet the eligibility criteria will decide not to receive antiviral treatments, or may be unable to, for example due to other medications they are taking.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the amount of (a) waste incinerated and (b) electricity exported at each municipal waste incinerator in Scotland in each of the last three years.
Answer
Please see a breakdown of the available data for a) and b)
Waste Incinerated and electricity produced at MWIs 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021
1. Waste incinerated by site (Tonnes)
The following data is from Waste Data Returns. Please refer to attached table which notes that the data below is higher for some sites than incinerated tonnages in Annual Reports made under the Permit.
Site | Permit Number | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021* |
Lerwick Energy Recovery Plant | PPC/A/1003141 | 23,054 | 20,890 | 22,850 | 19,037 |
MVV Environment Baldovie | PPC/A/1003157 | 94,625 | 102,819 | 104,519 | 160,632 |
Viridor Dunbar ERF | PPC/A/1032878 | 41,284 | 262,138 | 324,762 | 320,373 |
Viridor GRREC | PPC/A/111002 | | 93,340 | 123,831 | 98,975 |
FCC Millerhill | PPC/A/1136072 | 16,460 | 142,490 | 156,654 | 159,481 |
Levenseat Renewable Energy Limited is still in commissioning - Site is reporting waste inputs and outputs but no incineration tonnages.
1. Electricity exported to grid (MWh)
Site | Permit Number | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Lerwick Energy Recovery Plant | PPC/A/1003141 | Nil - Note 1 | Nil - Note 1 | Nil - Note 1 | Nil - Note 1 |
MVV Environment Baldovie | PPC/A/1003157 | Note 2 | Note 2 | 33,800 Note 3 | Data is not yet available |
Viridor Dunbar ERF | PPC/A/1032878 | Note 2 | Note 2 | 224,848 | 237,524 |
Viridor GRREC | PPC/A/111002 | Note 2 | Note 2 | 46,668 | Data is not yet available |
FCC Millerhill | PPC/A/1136072 | Note 2 | Note 2 | 100,765 | 103,760 |
1. Heat recovery plant only.
2. No data held post cyber-attack.
3. Lower figures than 2019 due to operation without steam turbine from October 2021.
4. Levenseat Renewable Energy Limited is still in commissioning and are therefore not required to report this data.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02394 by Maree Todd on 15 September 2021, what action it is taking to address reported disparities in access to flash glucose monitors and insulin pumps in economically deprived and minority ethnic groups.
Answer
We are committed to improving outcomes for people living with diabetes across Scotland. Our Diabetes Improvement Plan contains specific commitments to support increased access to diabetes technologies, with significant focus on equity of access to care and services.
Our national policy is to further increase access to diabetes technologies for everyone who would benefit from these life changing therapies, and we expect NHS Boards to provide insulin pumps and flash glucose monitors to all clinically suitable children and adults.
We are aware that children and adults from the most deprived areas are less likely to use diabetes technologies and we are committed to understanding the reasons for this. We are working in partnership with Diabetes Scotland and the Alliance to ensure that the needs of people living with diabetes are fully understood. In December 2021 we launched a lived experience network through the Alliance, to ensure that the experiences of those living with diabetes are taken into account when shaping policy. We are working to ensure that to the membership of this panel is as diverse as possible.
We will take targeted action to ensure equity of access across Scotland and share progress of this using data from SCI-diabetes.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what additional funding is in place to support the roll-out of single hormone closed loop systems to eligible adults and children with type 1 diabetes.
Answer
Additional funding of £14.6 million was allocated to NHS Boards in January 2022 to support increased access to diabetes technologies, including closed loop systems.
The Scottish Government also provides baseline funding to NHS Boards and it is for individual Boards to determine how best to utilise this funding to meet the needs and priorities of their local populations. This includes offering closed loop system technologies to all those for whom they are deemed clinically appropriate.
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason licenced clubs are not eligible for the funding for businesses affected by measures to control the Omicron variant of COVID-19, and whether it will review the exclusion of licenced clubs from this funding.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognised the impact on businesses of measures to control Omicron including licensed clubs. As such they were eligible for hospitality funding including the Hospitality: December and January Business Support Top Up Fund and the Hospitality and Leisure: January Business Support Top Up Fund. These funds closed to applications on the 31 January 2022.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05517 by Lorna Slater on 24 January 2022, whether the 27% figure was calculated without accounting for landfill releasing less biogenic CO2 than incineration, and what its position is on this matter.
Answer
The treatment of biogenic carbon is detailed in Section 2.1 of the technical note to the report, which was carried out in line with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodology. Both the report and technical note are available on the Zero Waste Scotland website: The climate change impact of burning municipal waste in Scotland | Zero Waste Scotland .
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown for the most recent year for which data is available of direct CO2 emissions recorded through calibrated flow rates and calibrated CO2 continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) from each municipal waste incinerator in Scotland; what proportion of the CO2 was (a) fossil-based and (b) biogenic, and how this split was derived.
Answer
There is no requirement for the direct measurements of CO2 via calibrated flow meters and calibrated CO2 CEMS in SEPA permits for municipal waste incinerators (MWI) in Scotland. The requested information is therefore not available either in total, or as a breakdown by proportion derived from fossil fuel and proportion derived from biogenic sources.
Permit holders are however required to report their annual CO2 emissions via the Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI) and SEPA can therefore provide this data for the last reported year although this may include CO2 from additional sources to those from the incineration process eg. standby generators. This data can be found in SEPA’s SPRI data tool informatics.sepa.org.uk/SPRI/ . This is usually estimated using emission factors. There is no requirement in SPRI for MWIs to further breakdown their reported CO2 emission data into the proportions derived from fossil fuel or biogenic sources so this data is not available.
