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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.

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Question reference: S6W-33823

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with (a) the college sector and (b) Ayrshire College regarding its draft budget 2025-26.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with the college sector on a range of issues, including the 2025-26 budget, via Colleges Scotland.

The Scottish Government has had no direct engagement with Ayrshire College on the 2025-26 budget.

With the publication of the 2025-26 budget, it is now the role of the Scottish Funding Council to engage closely with colleges to identify the best split of available resources, taking into account Government priorities and the needs of the college sector.

Question reference: S6W-33963

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients were on waiting lists for cardiology (a) in total and (b) for over a year, in each of the last five years.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes statistics on the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case in the Stage of Treatment (SoT) publication. The latest publication release contains data up to quarter ending 30 September 2024.

Statistics relating to the total number of ongoing waits and the number of waits with a wait length over 52 weeks by specialty from 31 December 2019 can be found in the ‘Waits over 52 weeks’ data table in sheets ‘Table 3.1.1’ for new outpatient appointments, and ‘Table 3.2.1’ for inpatient or day case admissions.

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/30453/waits_over_52_weeks_nov24.xlsx

Longer trend information can be found in the following tables:

New outpatient appointments (‘1.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/30080/newop_nov24.xlsx

Inpatient or day case admission (‘2.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/30452/ipdc_nov24.xlsx

Question reference: S6W-33928

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to encourage more people to participate in recreational fishing.

The Scottish Government supports participation in recreational fishing in several ways.

For example, £17,000 was awarded in 2020 through the Marine Scotland Fund to Fisheries Management Scotland for the creation of the Scottish Angling National Development Structure (SANDS), which aimed to promote angling for all demographics. Further information is available via the following web link:

https://fms.scot/projects/sands/

Question reference: S6W-33976

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress has been made with its scheme, Percentage for the Arts.

Question reference: S6W-34029

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) plastic, (b) paper, (c) metal and (d) glass straws it has procured in each of the last 10 years, and what the average cost was.

Question reference: S6W-33999

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support local authorities dealing with specialist planning applications, such as those involving quarrying or mining where no identifiable expertise exists within the local authority planning department.

The Scottish Government is working with stakeholders, on a package of actions to strengthen a range of planning skills across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has established the Hydrogen Planning Hub and the Housing Emergency Hub in response to concerns about capacity and skills. We are currently considering the further role that Hubs can play in supporting planning authorities to address the skills and capacity issues they are facing.

In our Planning and Housing Emergency Delivery Plan, published in November 2024, we have committed to the roll out of a co-ordinated skills and recruitment drive through a coherent National Planning Skills Campaign. We will announce this work soon and deliver it over the coming months.

Question reference: S6W-33979

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32906 by Alasdair Allan on 16 January 2025, whether it has asked the UK Government to introduce a compensatory scheme for people who have installed spray foam insulation in lofts under the EC04 scheme.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any examples of spray foam insulation being installed in lofts in Scottish properties as part of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) scheme. Delivery guidance published by Ofgem indicates that spray foam insulation in lofts would not have been eligible for ECO4 finance.

We have asked the UK Government to advise Scottish Ministers further about any concerns raised about the quality of retrofit work undertaken in Scotland as part of these schemes.

Question reference: S6W-33826

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what procedures are in place to ensure that funding for the further education sector is tailored to suit the regional needs of colleges.

Question reference: S6W-33411

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32613 by Angus Robertson on 14 January 2025, what tangible benefits are delivered by its international network, and how these benefits are (a) measured and (b) reported.

The International Network annual report 2023-24, published on 18 November 2024, demonstrates how our network delivers tangible benefits across the three main pillars of work set out in the International Strategy. The International Network annual report is available at the following URL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-international-network-annual-report-2023-24/

We are committed to a process that ensures our work is measurable, transparent and available to the public. We will publish the 2024-25 annual report later in the year.

Question reference: S6W-33830

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding has been allocated to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in 2024-25 to utilise capsule sponge technologies; how much will be allocated in 2025-26, and how many people it expects will be able to access these technologies.

From 2024-25, Boards have started to transition to business as usual for these tests and a small amount of funding was provided to support this transition. For NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde this equated to £36,450.

The Budget we set out on 4 December 2024 will throw the weight of the government behind performance improvements with almost £200 million to reduce waiting lists and help support reduction of delayed discharge. By March 2026, we expect no one to be waiting longer than 12 months for a new outpatient, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.