- Asked by: Evelyn Tweed, MSP for Stirling, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many schools have been built or refurbished since 2017, or are in the planning stage, in the Stirling local authority area.
Answer
Statistics on the number of schools that have been built or substantially refurbished since 2017 are available in tables 7.1 and 7.2 of the School Estate Statistics Supplementary Data, available here: https://www.gov.scot/collections/school-education-statistics/#schoolestatesstatistics .
Information on schools with confirmed investment plans is included in table 8 of the same publication. In 2021 there was one school in Stirling - Aberfoyle Primary School - with confirmed investment plans. Additionally, Callander Primary School is due to receive funding under phase 2 of the Scottish Government's Learning Estate Investment Programme.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported findings that 95% of cybersecurity issues can be attributed to human error, and what actions it is taking to improve digital literacy skills.
Answer
Cyber security issues can result from, or be exacerbated by, human error and it is increasingly important for everyone to be aware of the cyber risks and to be able to mitigate them.
The Scottish Government works closely with partners such as Education Scotland, Police Scotland, Lead Scotland, YouthLink Scotland and Young Scot to raise awareness of cyber risks and of the measures people can take to protect themselves, their families and their communities.
Cyber resilience and broader digital skills are embedded into the Curriculum for Excellence. In 2017, we refreshed the Technologies curriculum to ensure that young people are learning up-to-date computing, digital and cyber resilience skills from early years onwards.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people aged 19 and under were prescribed the antidepressant, fluoxetine, in 2019-20, and, of those, how many were prescribed other antidepressants, broken down by what these antidepressants were.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of elective surgeries were cancelled in each month since March 2020, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes monthly statistics relating to the number of cancelled planned operations at health board level, a summary of which is available the following link:
https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/
The latest statistics published cover the period up to 30 November 2021 and the percentage of planned operations that were cancelled each month from March 2020 onwards can be found within the tab ‘Publication table (%)’ in the table below
https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/11000/2022-01-11-cancellations.xlsx
These statistics are sourced from local theatre systems and only includes cancellations that were cancelled the day before, or on the day the patient was due to be treated. PHS does not collect information on cancellations that occur prior to this.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding estimates of the number of people in the Glasgow region who have been affected by an underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance.
Answer
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is reserved to the UK Government. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publishes an estimate of ESA and other income-related benefits every six months, at a UK-wide level only. The latest figures published (covering 2018-2019) show that 94% of the total amount of Income Support or Income-related ESA that could have been claimed was claimed. On 8 July 2021 the DWP published their final update on cases that were potentially affected by underpayments of Employment and Support Allowance on transition from Incapacity Benefit. This information is also at UK-wide level, and shows that the UK Government has paid £613 million to those affected by the move from Incapacity Benefit to ESA.
- Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the reserves that would be required for an independent Scottish central bank.
Answer
The Scottish Government will bring forward a prospectus for an independent Scotland, including the arrangements for a central bank, in good time before the independence referendum to allow people to make an informed choice over their future.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the current ratio is of people who need stoma care to specialist stoma nurses in NHS Scotland, and what assessment it has made of how this compares with the ratio in the NHS elsewhere in the UK.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold or collate this information.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is on track to apply its guidance on active carbon management to each City Region and Growth Deal.
Answer
We have been proactive in our approach to minimising carbon emissions associated with the City Region and Growth Deals programme, taking expert advice from industry on the latest national and international best practice. We have now rolled out our innovative carbon management guidance across all 12 Deals. This is an ongoing and proactive carbon management process, facilitated by our dedicated Deals Sustainable Development Manager. Support and training is being provided to all regional partners to ensure the guidance is correctly applied, and that carbon emissions are minimised in accordance with best practice.
- Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is the case that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Yellow card system, including the Genpact UK artificial intelligence tool, is used to monitor and process COVID-19 vaccine adverse drug reactions occurring in Scotland and, if it is not the case, what monitoring system is in use.
Answer
The safety of all vaccines and medicines is monitored by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on a UK-wide basis. This includes reports from the Yellow Card Scheme which allows health professionals and patients across the UK to flag up suspected adverse reactions to any vaccine or medicine, as well as reports from worldwide use and on-going scientific evidence.
The MHRA has a range of resources and technology to support the safety monitoring of the COVID-19 vaccination programme. The use of artificial intelligence is one element of that and helps to reduce the amount of manual coding for each report to the Yellow Card Scheme on COVID-19 vaccines, thereby saving resource in processing cases and ensuring they are more rapidly available for scientific analysis. The tool is not used for assessment of data, but to help ensure that all information from reports is well structured to support analysis and is subject to robust quality assessment.
Concerns over the safety of vaccines are not taken lightly. Please be assured that the MHRA keep the safety of all vaccines under close and continual review, and would take appropriate regulatory action if new evidence emerged which called into question the safety of any vaccines currently in use in Scotland.
- Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of HEPA filters in school classrooms.
Answer
Expert advice from bodies including SAGE and the Health and Safety Executive indicates that air cleaning/filtration devices, such as HEPA filters, are not a substitute for efforts to improve ventilation in order to mitigate against the risks of COVID. Our guidance for schools reflects this advice, and makes clear that air cleaning/filtration devices should not be used as a substitute for natural or mechanical ventilation (including the opening of windows and doors).
Our updated guidance for schools does, however, make clear that air cleaning/filtration devices may be used as a temporary mitigation in exceptional circumstances when no other mitigations are achievable, while working to achieve a more sustainable solution.
The Scottish Government keeps its guidance under regular review in light of the latest expert advice, and will consider any necessary updates as research and evidence evolve.
