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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-07798

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the delivery of community access to allotments through the Community Wealth Building strategy.

The Scottish Government has embraced the Community Wealth Building (CWB) approach to economic development as it is geared to helping local businesses and communities own a greater stake in how their local economy functions. The CWB model involves local authorities and their community planning partners ensuring that collective investment decisions focus on how local economies can be helped to grow and flourish. Practical benefits can include more local, good quality jobs; improved access to public contracts for local businesses; more land being placed in community ownership or developed for the benefit of the community; and support being offered to new businesses exploring employee ownership or other innovative models.

We are working with local authorities to help them frame strategic CWB action plans and have committed to introducing CWB legislation during this session of the Scottish Parliament. Our objective is to embed the CWB approach as a strategic economic development policy. Many actions taken across the policy spectrum will contribute to CWB and creation of a national economy striving for prosperity and societal wellbeing in equal measure. Community access to allotments can play a part in this collective effort.

Allotments and their provision are the responsibility of local authorities. That is set out in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. However, since 2012, the Scottish Government has allocated more than £1.4 million to directly support and increase the land that is available for community growing.

Question reference: S6W-07721

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what advice and guidance has been given to SEPA following the data breach in December 2020.

Question reference: S6W-08089

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when a (a) Women's Health Champion and (b) Women’s Health Lead in every NHS board will be appointed, as stated in its Women's Health Plan.

We published the Women’s Health Plan in August 2021. The actions in the Plan are divided into short term (one year), medium term (one to three years) and long term (three years or more) timescales.

As set out in the Plan we will be appointing a national Women’s Health Champion. In addition, a Women's Health Lead will be established in every NHS board to drive change and share best practice and innovation. These are medium term actions but scoping work is underway and further announcements will be made in due course.

Question reference: S6W-08066

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards the SNP manifesto commitment to create a fund for public artwork, and when it anticipates that this will be in place.

This Government is committed to broadening the range of people represented in Scotland’s public places, reflecting in particular the contribution of women and ethnic minorities. A specific fund is being considered in the context of the Scottish Government’s longer term spending plans and we will discuss how such a fund might be best deployed with Creative Scotland, whose remit includes public art.

Question reference: S6W-07997

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with medical research charities and researchers they fund in Scotland to support the creation of spin-out companies from their research.

Charities are a major funder of medical research and development in Scotland, with investment estimated to be worth £122m in 2018 (Fraser of Allander report 2022). Scotland is a global centre of excellence for clinical research and there are a number of organisations in Scotland supporting those charities and their researchers.

The Association of Medical Research Charities works to maximise the potential for research and innovation in the NHS to ensure the investment from medical research charities has the greatest impact for patients. Medical Research Scotland supports individuals through the award of doctoral studentships and through other training initiatives to companies. Scottish Health Innovation Ltd also support clinical research and work closely with NHS Research Scotland, in partnership of Scottish NHS Boards and the Chief Scientist Office (CSO), to innovate and commercialise products and services. The Scottish Funding Council offer a number of funding programmes, which are administered by Interface, to offset the cost for collaborations to support innovation and research.

To further support research and development the Programme for Government has committed £100m to R&D over the next 5 years.

Question reference: S6W-07975

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to tackle health inequalities, and whether it has an overarching strategy to address both health inequalities and their underlying causes.

The Scottish Government’s approach to tackling health inequalities focusses on three key aspects of health inequality: mitigating against the socio-economic drivers of inequalities; ensuring fair opportunities for health improvement for all individuals; and ensuring health services are accessible to all.

Our COVID-19 Recovery Strategy sets out our vision for how we will address the systemic inequalities that lead to health inequalities. This includes making progress towards a wellbeing economy and accelerating inclusive person-centred public services. We are committing £4 billion in social security and welfare payments over the next financial year, including £197 million to double the Scottish Child Payment and extend it to under 16s.

Equity and inclusivity will be at the heart of our place-based approach to health, where we are looking at what more we can do to create the right conditions for health and wellbeing within local communities. In addition to community-led initiatives we’re committed to providing £9 million a year for smoking cessation services and £5.7 million for weight management services.

Additionally, the Scottish Government is taking robust action to address racialised health inequalities. We have published the Race Equality Immediate Priorities (IPP), which includes a range of commitments focused on pursuing health equity for minority ethnic people.

Question reference: S6W-07895

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government to ensure that Ukrainian refugees seeking to come to Scotland and who apply for a visa through the Ukraine Family Scheme can access up-to-date information about the status of their visa application.

We have repeatedly called for the UK Government to waive all visa requirements but, in the absence of this, what we now need is for the Home Office to give people visas quickly and efficiently.

I have held several meetings with Lord Harrington, Minister for Refugees, on the UK response and how our governments work collaboratively. I recently met with Kevin Foster, Minister for Safe and Legal Migration, and raised my many concerns about the significant administrative issues, complex application processes, and unacceptable delays for individuals who have been forced to flee their homeland.

To alleviate confusion with the process, the UK Government should immediately implement automatic status updating for applications (on all routes) that have been outstanding for more than 5 days and an escalation process for applications that have been outstanding for more than one week.

Question reference: S6W-07847

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review access to pre-eclampsia testing for expectant mothers.

The Scottish Government expects women to receive high quality, safe care including in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of pre-eclampsia.

We are working with the Scottish Perinatal Network to examine the adoption of PlGF testing for pre-eclampsia in Scotland. This will include consideration of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on PlGF (DG23) that is currently out for consultation and expected to be published in July 2022.

Question reference: S6W-07804

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress on the commitment in its Programme for Government to provide an extra £150 million for flood risk management over the next five years.

Confirmation of the additional £150 million for flood risk management was provided to COSLA by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in her letter of 4 February 2021. The indicative annual capital allocations, as set out in the letter, are provided in the attached table. The initial £10 million tranche was distributed to local authorities in the 2021-2022 financial year. Discussions are ongoing with COSLA on the arrangements for distribution of the remaining £140 million.

	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Allocation (£m)	10	19	21	46.5	53.5

Question reference: S6F-01063

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2022

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to support the return of disability sport in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.