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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-12337

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its estimate is of the number of prison cells that have been taken permanently out of use in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S6W-12283

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost is to Forestry and Land Scotland for purchasing the Glenprosen estate in Angus.

Question reference: S6W-12282

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance was required to be complied with in relation to the change of use of Glenprosen estate, and whether any such guidance was fully complied with.

No change of use has yet taken place at Glenprosen. In due course Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) will require to have an approved Land Management Plan (LMP) in place for the area acquired at Glenprosen. That LMP will need to have been approved by Scottish Forestry (SF), following an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and full public consultation with all relevant statutory / local stakeholders, including the community.

Question reference: S6W-12290

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what Forestry and Land Scotland’s estimated costs are for its plans for woodland creation on the Glenprosen estate.

Question reference: S6W-12067

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support it is making available to help (a) GP and (b) dental practices cover any increases in energy bills as a result of higher prices.

The Scottish Government will be applying an uplift of 5.6% to the value of the GP contract later this year. This uplift will be backdated to 1 April 2022 and will include funding to cover a 4.5% increase in non-staff expenses. Scottish Government are also adding an extra 20% to all item of service claims made by NHS general dental practitioners in quarter three of this year (October to December), and 10% in quarter four (January to March). The Welsh Secretary and I have jointly written to the UK Government asking it to provide additional funding given that it is their actions that have caused record high inflation. A copy of the letter has been placed in SPICe, bib number 63796.

Question reference: S6W-12449

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £18 billion promised for health and social care in its 2022-23 budget, has now been withdrawn, re-profiled or cut from the budget.

Funding of £18 billion is provided for health and social care in 2022-23.

As set out in the Emergency Budget Review (2 November), in common with the overall Scottish Budget, the Health and Social Care budget is facing unpreceded challenges as a result of inflation and the ongoing impacts of Covid and Brexit.

It has therefore been essential to review health and social care spending, with £400 million reprioritised and fully retained within the Portfolio, to ensure that it is directed where it is needed most, including supporting enhanced pay offers.

Question reference: S6W-12327

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will clarify the role of Zero Waste Scotland in the governance structure of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation.

The Scottish Government has established the National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery Board to oversee the successful implementation of our economic strategy. As part of the Delivery Board’s work, it will engage with key delivery partners like Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) in driving a ‘Team Scotland’ approach to transforming the Scottish economy. A recent example is the involvement of ZWS in the Delivery Board’s Green Economy Jobs deep dive with delivery partners to explore what is being done to secure green jobs in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-12208

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that in Dumfries and Galloway some dentists have advised constituents that if parents/guardians register as private patients then their children will be registered as NHS patients in the same practice.

Question reference: S6W-12228

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on smoking cessation promotional campaigns via (a) media and (b) social media each year since 2017-18.

The Scottish Government publishes an annual report on marketing spend in each financial year, which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ .

The Scottish Government ran a smoking cessation campaign in 2017-2018. The costs for this campaign totalled £370,978.50. The total media spend for this campaign was £253,352.78 across TV, radio, digital and outdoor advertising. The digital advertising included £23,252 on Facebook advertising in support of the campaign. No other social media advertising was used as part of the campaign.

Question reference: S6W-12227

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on tobacco control overall in each year since 2017-18.

Local Authorities undertake tobacco control through tobacco sales enforcement and tobacco and electronic cigarette control.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on tobacco control, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government has increased local government funding by over £1 billion in 2022-23, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent, despite a 5.2 per cent real terms reduction in the overall Scottish Budget.