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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-22568

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity has had with ministerial colleagues regarding the potential impact of the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill on the Scottish Government's international development work.

Question reference: S6W-22320

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 14 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what mechanisms are available to support demonstrator projects for sustainable fibre production, and how much funding has been granted to such projects in the last five years, broken down by project.

Question reference: S6W-22615

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to adding blood cancer to the list of cancer types included in Public Health Scotland's data publications, to help facilitate comparison between blood cancers and solid tumours.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes incidence and mortality data on leukaemias, Hodgkin lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma annually.

PHS previously published survival data on these same cancers. However in the 2023 release, a different approach was taken to assess the short-term impact of COVID-19 on cancer survival for a select few cancers. It utilised a much smaller cohort than the usual methodology which meant an estimate of survival for rarer cancers could not be calculated. Some estimates for blood cancers are available for the 2016-2020 cohort upon request to PHS.

In future cancer survival publications, these same blood cancers will be included again, as survival publications will revert back to previous methodology.

Question reference: S6W-22613

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Scotland and other partners regarding introducing CAR T-cell therapy for children and young people.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium accepted tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah ® ) for routine use in NHS Scotland in February 2019 for the treatment of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is a very rare type of cancer of the white blood cells.

It is used to treat children and adults under 25 years-old, where the cancer has not responded to treatment (refractory); has come back after a transplant (relapsed); or has come back after treatment for the second time. National Services Division does not currently commission a paediatric CAR-T service in Scotland, but all eligible children and young people under 16 years of age have access via referral to a specialist unit in England.

Question reference: S6W-22626

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on the medium-term action to "Implement and raise awareness of current national guidelines on endometriosis and develop and implement further pathways for care where these don’t currently exist", as set out in its Women's Health Plan 2021-2024.

Question reference: S6W-22614

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many children and young people who are eligible for CAR T-cell therapy have had to travel to England for treatment, in each of the last six months for which data is available.

Question reference: S6W-22553

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 14 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what funding plans are in place to implement and begin construction of the Clyde Metro.

Clyde Metro will be transformational for the region. It is likely to be a programme which will be delivered over a number of years, with the scale and capital costs required making it one of the largest programme of works Scotland will have ever seen.

It is too early to comment on the longer term funding of Clyde Metro, however, it is envisaged that the funding model for implementation of Clyde Metro will be determined as part of the next stage of development.

Question reference: S6W-22282

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05058 by Lorna Slater on 21 December 2021, whether it will provide an updated list setting out the level of local authority readiness to comply with the delayed ban on waste to landfill.

Local authorities are responsible for the provision of local waste services and are, therefore, best placed to comment on their readiness to comply with the ban on sending biodegradable municipal waste to landfill in 2025.

We continue to provide procurement support to help local authorities that need it to secure contracts in preparation for the forthcoming ban. As part of this support, Zero Waste Scotland is working with local authorities to provide technical, legal and procurement advice on their contracts.

Through this support, we understand that 22 local authorities have contracts in place for 2025 that comply with the landfill ban, these are: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, City of Edinburgh, City of Glasgow, Dundee City, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Falkirk, Fife, Highland, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, Shetland, and South Lanarkshire.

Question reference: S6W-22557

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 14 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) which ministers have been issued a ministerial mobile phone since the ministerial reshuffle in March 2023.

Following the appointment of the First Minister and formation of government in March 2023, 12 Ministers accepted a government issued mobile device. Please see the following list.

Minister	Ministerial Role
Angela Constance MSP	Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs
Jenny Gilruth MSP	Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills
Siobhian Brown MSP	Minister for Victims and Community Safety
Natalie Don MSP	Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise
Richard Lochhead MSP	Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade
Fiona Hyslop MSP	Minister for Transport
Emma Roddick MSP	Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees
Graeme Dey MSP	Minister for Higher Education and Further Education (Min for Veterans)
Gillian Martin MSP	Minister for Energy and the Environment
Joe Fitzpatrick MSP	Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning
Jenni Minto MSP	Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health
Paul McLennan MSP	Minister for Housing

Question reference: S6W-22571

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 14 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any funds realised from the apprenticeship levy are used to fund the Flexible Workforce Development Fund, and, if so, what proportion of such funds are used in this way.

As noted earlier in the year in a similar parliamentary question , the UK Government Apprenticeship Levy is a reserved tax on employers which was implemented by the UK Government. Scotland receives a proportionate share of tax revenues via the block grant as per the Fiscal Framework agreement with UK Treasury.

On 14 November 2016, the UK Government announced the Scottish Government’s settlement from the UK Apprenticeship Levy based on a population share of projected revenue for the first three years only. From 2020-21, the normal operation of the Barnett Formula has applied. As a result, the Scottish Government has no direct control or responsibility for its operation and we have not had a breakdown of Levy funding for Scotland since 2020-21. This means that we cannot directly link funds realised from the apprenticeship levy to any funding stream, including the Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF).