Seòmar agus comataidhean

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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 45918 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-02693

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what obligations relating to the installation of replacement boiler systems will be placed on users of gas-fired boiler systems from 2025.

The Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party: Shared Policy Programme sets out that we will phase out the need to install new or replacement fossil fuel boilers in off-gas grid homes from 2025 and in on-gas grid areas from 2030, subject to technological developments and decisions by the UK Government in reserved areas.

The Shared Policy Programme also commits to introducing primary legislation, subject to consultation and to limits on devolved competence, that provides a regulatory framework for zero emissions heating (and energy efficiency), and underpinning powers to support this transition and ambitious programme.

The exact operation of the proposed regulations, and any ensuing obligations on current users of gas boilers, is still to be determined but to ensure that the approach is fair, and to avoid unintended consequences, this will be subject to a detailed consultation in 2022.

Question reference: S6W-02610

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients returned with suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT) within 90 days of discharge following (a) orthopaedic and (b) any type of surgery in (i) 2010, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2020.

The following table presents the information requested.

Table 1 : Number of readmissions with a diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis readmitted within 90 days of discharge following an orthopaedic or any type of surgery.

Year	Number of readmissions after orthopaedic surgery	Number of readmissions after any surgery, including orthopaedic
2010	93	265
2015	87	243
2020	53	164

1. Year based on the date of admission when the surgery was carried out.

2. Surgeries have been defined as clinical procedures occurring in a surgical specialty excluding diagnosis imaging, testing and rehabilitation procedures. This may misclassify a few procedures, and there might be a slight overestimation of the number of procedures, as this leads to the inclusion of some procedures that may not be perceived to be ‘surgery’ – such as those not requiring anaesthetic or any incision.

3. A readmission has been counted when a patient has undergone a surgical procedure and within 90 days of discharge they have been re-admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis (DVT). A patient may have multiple ‘readmissions’ for any reason during the 90 day period following surgery but only the first readmission of the year for a patient has been counted. It is not possible to determine if the DVT was caused by the surgical procedure.

Source: Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6W-02532

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to designate care as a key growth sector and, if so, what the timeline is for this.

A well-functioning care sector will be vital in delivering a prosperous wellbeing economy for Scotland – one that is strong, fair and green.

The Scottish Government’s Economic Recovery Implementation Plan published in August 2020, acknowledged the care sector as key economic infrastructure and recognised that investment in care yields significant economic returns.

The Scottish Government has committed to delivering a 10 year National Strategy for Economic Transformation in Autumn 2021. This strategy will set out the steps we will take to deliver a stronger, fairer and greener economy.

Question reference: S6W-02533

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) ambulances and (b) patient transport vehicles have been available for deployment in each month since April 2019, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-02477

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the EIS and what was discussed.

Question reference: S6W-02502

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received a dementia diagnosis in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-02420

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to improve the early diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Question reference: S6W-02453

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many pregnancy screenings have taken place in each month since the start of 2019.

The Scottish Government does not hold national data for infectious diseases screening, antenatal haemoglobinopathies screening, or foetal anomaly ultrasound examinations within the pregnancy screening programme. These can be requested directly from individual NHS boards.

The following table shows the number of trisomy screens taken between January 2019 and June 2021.

It is important to note that the data provided below is management information and has not been subject to the necessary quality checks carried out for an official publication.

Trisomy Screening
Trisomy Screening
Year and Months	Total Trisomy screens
2019
January	3625
February	3043
March	3281
April	3142
May	3119
June	2732
July	3196
August	3135
September	2874
October	3319
November	2832
December	3088

2020
January	3556
February	2922
March	3179
April	3255
May	2932
June	2972
July	3045
August	2821
September	3008
October	3155
November	3099
December	3500

2021
January	3440
February	3292
March	3879
April	3445
May	3249
June	3294

Question reference: S6W-02933

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid by each local authority to arms-length external organisations in each year since 2007.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.

Question reference: S6W-02910

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what actions it (a) has taken to date and (b) plans to take to avoid the potential loss of 100 manufacturing jobs at CalaChem in Grangemouth.

The Scottish Government was deeply concerned to learn that CalaChem Ltd is entering into a consultation with its manufacturing services workforce in Grangemouth. Through Scottish Enterprise we have engaged with CalaChem Ltd, and will continue to work with them throughout its consultation period to explore all possible options to support the business and workforce.

In the unfortunate event that job losses should occur, the Scottish Government will provide support to all affected employees through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE). We have already contacted the company and have outlined the offer of PACE support for employees in the unfortunate event this may be needed.