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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-06470

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how and (b) when the outcomes of the Scottish Ambulance Service's demand and capacity review will be implemented.

Since agreement of phased funding, SAS have been actively recruiting staff at pace and increasing vehicles on the ground on a transition basis into priority locations across the country. Seven additional satellite stations have already been established, with a further three still to be established, enabling resources to be spread across busy urban areas to better match patient demand.

Alongside this, the service having been working in partnership to design new rosters. SAS are expecting new rosters to be implemented in April 2022 for the majority of locations across the East and North Regions. The West Region full implementation is expected to be concluded by the end of July.

Recruitment for phase 3 of the review has commenced and will enable SAS to increase their establishment by a further 162 staff as well as further increase our station locations and vehicles on the ground.

Question reference: S6W-06502

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff hours have been lost in each NHS board due to staff absence, and what the total cost was of those staff absences, in each year since 2007.

The information requested is not centrally available.

NHS Education for Scotland publishes annual data on sickness absence rates and on bank and agency spend for Medical & Dental and Nursing & Midwifery staff. It should be noted that there are a variety of reasons Boards may choose to deploy bank and agency staff and this does not directly represent spending associated with staff absence.

The data can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics website:

NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Question reference: S6W-06528

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the £2 million from the Festivals Expo Fund will be distributed to festivals.

Since 2008 the annual Festivals Expo fund has invested over £30 million in the festivals to support innovation, collaboration and artist development. This year funding will also support festival resilience plans following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The recipients of this year’s £2 million Expo Fund were announced on 8th February 2022. The fund is managed by Creative Scotland who have noted that all eligible festivals should receive their contracts and first payments from this year’s fund, by mid-April 2022 in line with timescales from previous years.

Question reference: S6W-06503

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has spent on contracts for external management consultants, broken down by contract, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-06471

Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what capital investment plans are in place for the delivery of new health and social care centres in Gourock and Port Glasgow.

The Scottish Government does not create investment plans for specific healthcare facilities in particular health board areas. The creation and implementation of such plans is properly the role of the local health board, in this case NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The Scottish Government's NHS Capital Investment Group meets on a monthly basis to consider investment proposals submitted by health boards. The Scottish Government understands that Port Glasgow Health Centre is one of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's priorities for investment in community infrastructure. However, no proposals have been submitted to the Scottish Government to date. We will review any proposals which are submitted in due course. The member may wish to seek further information directly from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as regards its plans for the delivery of healthcare facilities in Gourock and Port Glasgow.

Question reference: S6W-06487

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05454 by Kevin Stewart on 27 January 2022, how many NHS boards are receiving "enhanced support" to meet the standard that 90% of children and young people begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

Question reference: S6W-06485

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the current percentage is of children and young people who are starting treatment from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) within 18 weeks of referral.

Question reference: S6W-06518

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has spent on external legal support in connection with service user complaints, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-06505

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has spent on contracts for external training and coaching consultancy, broken down by contract, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-06532

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government (a) what its position is on and (b) whether it is aware of the use of Hikvision cameras by (i) Police Scotland and (ii) private companies in Scotland, and whether it has any plans to prohibit or limit their use.

The Scottish Government published the National Strategy for Public Space CCTV in Scotland in March 2011. The Strategy was created to provide guidance and a common set of principles to operators of public space CCTV across Scotland. It did not impose requirements but sought to provide advice and clarity to support decisions on the development of CCTV systems.

A number of Police Scotland CCTV cameras within the estate will be Hikvision or will contain Hikvision components. We are aware that the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee last year recommended to the UK Government that equipment manufactured by Hikvision and other such companies should not be permitted to operate within the UK. The UK Government’s response, published in November 2021, outlined the steps that had been taken to address the situation and undertook to take further steps in the coming months. The Scottish Government will continue to keep in close touch with developments and act accordingly, including consulting with Police Scotland on what measures they might take in response to these next steps.