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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-12454

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it considers just over a third of health and social care staff have taken up their COVID-19 winter booster and flu vaccinations to date, and what its position is on whether uptake should be higher.

Our aspiration is for uptake to be as high as possible across all groups, this includes health and social care workers.

Vaccination uptake for Frontline Health & Social Care workers is currently at 40% for Covid-19 vaccines. The uptake for Flu vaccines for all healthcare workers is currently at 49%.

We have been working closely with Health Boards to increase uptake in this group. Specific interventions include drop in clinics for workers, outreach vaccination teams visiting workplaces, tailored local and national communications to encourage uptake. We are also conducting surveys to gather insight on why some people are choosing not to get vaccinated this winter.

Question reference: S6W-12455

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received their winter (a) COVID-19 booster and (b) flu vaccination, broken down by age band.

COVID-19 and Flu vaccine uptake data is available from the Public Health Scotland dashboard . As of 23 November 2022 there has been a total of 1,625,091 Adult (18+) flu vaccinations and 1,653,929 COVID-19 vaccinations administered under the 2022 Winter Vaccination Programme. The data on the dashboard is updated every Wednesday and includes the latest headline figures by week and JCVI priority group.

Question reference: S6W-12473

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many doses of the Zostavax shingles vaccine have been ordered for this winter, and how many doses will be made available to each NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-12336

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider making a regulation in exercise of the power conferred by sections 17(2), (3) and (3ZA) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to test a 30 mph speed limit on the length of the M8 between Junction 22 and Junction 15, which is the area originally designated as the Glasgow Inner Ring Road, in order to assess its impact on traffic congestion and the reportedly dangerous levels of vehicle noise and emissions pollution in the inner urban area of Glasgow caused by both the current 50 mph limit and scale of the motorway infrastructure.

Question reference: S6W-12364

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that Transport Scotland may entrust the provision of Caledonian Sleeper passenger services to a company owned and controlled by the Scottish Ministers and make a direct award of a public service contract in that regard, and in light of Article 5 (2) or Article 5 (6) of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007, whether it will award the contract to operate the Caledonian Sleeper service to a company owned by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-12257

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it supports the reopening of the railway between Dumfries and Stranraer.

An option for reopening the rail line between Dumfries and Stranraer was assessed as part of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). The outcome of this was that this option did not form part of the strategic transport investment recommendations within STPR2.

Instead, recommendations set out in STPR2 for rail focus on the decarbonisation of the remainder of the network; measures to increase the amount of freight travelling by rail, including on the key routes in South West Scotland serving Stranraer and Dumfries; and on improving connectivity between our major cities.

However, there remains a path for regional or local rail projects to come forward, and Transport Scotland will consider these subject to a strong business case being developed in accordance with Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) and suitable funding being available.

Question reference: S6W-12274

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08565 by Humza Yousaf on 1 June 2022, which states that 124 affected families had been contacted directly by NHS Lothian and offered a retest by that point, how many (a) families had been contacted directly by NHS Lothian and offered a retest of their child, (b) affected children had had a retest of their hearing or other appropriate audiological intervention, (c) affected children had an appointment but had not been seen and (d) affected children had been found to have a previously unidentified or misidentified hearing impairment as a result of having had a retest of their hearing, by 1 November 2022.

Question reference: S6W-12138

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 11 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much was spent on the national marketing campaign for the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, broken down by type of marketing.

In addition to extensive stakeholder communications already undertaken, the national marketing campaign for the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme was launched in autumn 2022. This has helped to increase awareness and understanding of the scheme and encouraged more young people to apply.

The following table provides the national marketing spend (inclusive of VAT where applicable) broken down by type of marketing activity. This spend includes marketing and PR activity undertaken during COP26 between October and December 2021 in addition to the main campaign.

	Spend (as at 15 Nov 2022)
Advertisements TV, TV On Demand, Radio, Digital and Social Media, Outdoor	£581,508
Creative development and production Market research, production and supply, campaign evaluation, web development and maintenance, partnership marketing, etc.	£555,623
Total	£1,137,131

Question reference: S6W-12382

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 2 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding would potentially be released, which could be used to meet the goals of its Vision for Agriculture, in the event that current direct payments made through the Basic Payment Scheme and Greening payments to each Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) claimant were capped at (a) £5,000, (b) £10,000, (c) £15,000, (d) £20,000, (e) £25,000, (f) £30,000, (g) £35,000, (h) £40,000, (i) £45,000, (j) £50,000, (k) £75,000 and (l) £100,000 per year.

Question reference: S6W-12442

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 2 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £120 million allocated to the Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund in its 2022-23 budget has been (a) allocated and (b) spent to date, broken down by expenditure.

As set out in the Emergency Budget Review (EBR), published on 2 November, the Scottish Government’s mental health programme budget has been revised to £252 million. This has resulted in revisions to this year’s Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund budget line, which now stands at £104,754,000.

Actual expenditure will not be available until after the end of the financial year.

Following the EBR publication, we are engaging with those organisations which have been incurring spend in order to formally confirm the remainder of the 2022-23 funding allocations.