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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-23808

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12781 by Patrick Harvie on 14 December 2022, whether it still plans to introduce a system of national rent controls by the end of 2025.

Question reference: S6W-23809

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the policy intention for a national system of permanent rent controls, when introduced, is for rents to be stabilised in real terms or to be reduced where appropriate.

Question reference: S6W-24034

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what objectives it set for any funding that it provided to Early Years Scotland in 2022.

The Scottish Government set the following outcomes for the funding provided to Early Years Scotland in 2021-22 and 2022-23 through the Children, Young People & Families Early Intervention Fund and Adult Learning & Empowering Communities Fund:

1. Children have improved quality of life.

2. More Early Years Professionals benefit from dedicated EYS membership support.

3. More Early Years Professionals have improved skills and knowledge.

4. Policy makers and practitioners have better understanding of the needs of children, families and the ELC community overall.

5. We will take steps to promote, respect, protect and fulfil the rights of children and young people and increase awareness of the UNCRC amongst our staff and stakeholders. We will also promote the UNCRC throughout the creation and development of our programmes, projects, policies and procedures in relation to this funding.

Question reference: S6W-23850

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many eye patients in NHS (a) Lothian, (b) Borders and (c) Fife have had to receive treatment in Glasgow due to a reported lack of theatre capacity at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh.

This information is not held centrally. We do not hold the information that would allow us to identify the reason for an ophthalmology patient to receive treatment in Glasgow.

The table below provides information on the number of inpatient and daycase hospital admissions to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for patients residents in NHS Lothian, NHS Borders and NHS Fife and for the specialty of ophthalmology only, for the past three financial years.

Table 1: Number of inpatient and daycase hospital admissions to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for patients residents in NHS Lothian, NHS Borders and NHS Fife and for the specialty of ophthalmology only, from April 2020 to March 2023.

Health Board of Residence	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
NHS Borders*	17
NHS Fife	11	14	15
NHS Lothian	20	22	18

Source: SMR01, Public Health Scotland, extract: 15 December 2023.

These figures are based solely on admissions to hospital for acute care as an inpatient or day case. Figures related to ophthalmology treatments carried out in other healthcare settings, such as accident and emergency department, out of hours, outpatient or general practice services, are not included here.

Please note that figures include the period of Scotland going into emergency measures due to COVID-19. During this pandemic, NHS boards, hospitals and healthcare providers have been required to change their normal way of working to allow them to focus their efforts locally on their COVID-19 response. As such, this is directly impacting on the volume of hospital activity and trends observed over the past three years.

Data included in this table are provisional as NHS Boards update their current and historical data monthly. This may result in changes in the recent data, and, on a much smaller scale, in older years data. For details on known data issues please refer to the Data Issues and Completeness document:

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/22221/data-issues-and-completeness-sep23.pdf

*Please note that NHS Borders figures for the three financial years have been aggregated to protect patient confidentiality, in accordance with our PHS Statistical Disclosure Protocol

Question reference: S6W-23971

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it last engaged with South Lanarkshire Council regarding the proposed introduction of a speed limit of 20 mph on most urban roads.

Question reference: S6W-23982

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have provided annual deer cull data to NatureScot in each of the past five years.

Question reference: S6W-23861

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it (a) monitors passenger numbers on local bus services and (b) assesses whether any local bus service routes are at risk due to low passenger numbers, particularly in light of any changes in passenger numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department for Transport publishes data and statistics about the local bus sector in Great Britain, which includes passenger journey numbers. This is used in the Scottish Transport Statistics publication, and the Scottish Government currently has no plans for further monitoring of passenger numbers.

The Scottish Government does not assess the commercial viability of individual bus service routes, Local authorities have a duty to identify where there is a social need for particular bus services and can seek additional information from bus operators to support that identification in cases where services have been varied or withdrawn.

Question reference: S6W-23833

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-23098 by Mairi McAllan on 8 December 2023, how many awards of each type of grant have been issued by each local authority to date.

Local Authority	Grant Type	No. of Applications approved by Local Authority
Angus	Community Recovery Grant (£1500)	175
Angus	Business Recovery Grant (£3000)	31
Dundee	Community Recovery Grant (£1500)	56
Dundee	Business Recovery Grant (£3000)	4
Aberdeenshire	Community Recovery Grant (£1500)	5
Aberdeenshire	Business Recovery Grant (£3000)	6
Perth and Kinross	Community Recovery Grant (£1500)	9
Perth and Kinross	Business Recovery Grant (£3000)	0

The promotion and distribution of the Recovery Grants is the responsibility of the Local Authorities.

Local authorities are still working to promote these grants and are providing Scottish Government with regular updates.

The above figures were provided by the Local Authorities to Scottish Government (8 January 2024).

Question reference: S6W-24099

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the role of counsellors and psychotherapists in delivering its Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

As set out in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Workforce Action Plan, we recognise that counsellors and psychotherapists are part of the core mental health and wellbeing workforce and play a critical role in delivering the Strategy.

Throughout the development of the Strategy, associated Delivery Plan and Workforce Action Plan, we engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including directly with representatives of the workforce.

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland (COSCA) and the British Psychological Society participated in the consultation processes.

We will continue to engage with them and other representatives of the mental health and wellbeing workforce on the implementation of the Strategy’s Delivery and Workforce Action Plans.

Question reference: S6W-24101

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the delayed opening of Uig Harbour, what action it is taking to ensure that the Uig-Tarbert/Lochmaddy ferry service resumes as a matter of priority.

2018-2019	2707
2019-2020	2286
2020-2021	2523
2021-2022	2627
2022-2023	2448