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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-02626

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support it has provided to former residents of Hong Kong who have moved to Scotland under the UK Government's British National (overseas) visa.

Scotland has a long history of welcoming people of all nationalities, including those from Hong Kong. We recognise the positive contribution of people who choose to make Scotland their home. They are assets to our society and communities: sharing their culture, building businesses, working in our public services, volunteering their skills and making friendships. We have recently published a British National (Overseas) Welcome Pack to support people in their integration into our communities.

The Chinese Government’s decision to implement the National Security Law in Hong Kong is of deep concern to the Scottish Government. This action seriously undermines the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, which guarantees Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, and will irreversibly diminish the rights and freedoms of its people.

We support the UK Government’s commitment to providing a bespoke pathway to citizenship for British National (Overseas) citizens from Hong Kong and their dependants and we welcome those who have chosen to move to Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-02624

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for what reasons the Tesla Model 3 has been identified as the most suitable fully-electric vehicles to meet the needs of the Government Car Service.

The reasons why the Tesla Model 3 Long Range was chosen were:-

1. The vehicles have capacity to transport up to 4 passengers, with sufficient interior space to allow business to be conducted effectively whilst traveling between engagements.

2. The vehicles are fully electric; ensuring that the Scottish Government continues to honour its commitment to decarbonisation.

3. The vehicles, at the time of purchase, had the highest geographical range in the market sector, offering overall value for money.

Question reference: S6W-02019

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on what types of tree have been planted in Scotland since 2018, broken down by how many of each type has been planted.

Under the current Forestry Grant Scheme, in the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2021, Scottish Forestry has calculated that approximately 81.7 million conifers have been planted. Of this, Sitka spruce forms the majority species with 51 million trees. Other major conifers species planted include Douglas fir, Norway spruce and Scots pine are 21 million; minor conifers including cedars, other pines, other firs and other spruces is 9.7 million.

Similarly approximately 29.9 million broadleaves have been planted. These are normally planted at a lower density per hectare than conifers hence the lower number. For the majority of grant options, Scottish Forestry requires that native species are used; these species typically include oak, alder, ash, birch, hazel and hawthorn. Native species make up c.80% of the total broadleaves planted.

On Scotland’s national forests and land, managed by Forestry and Land Scotland data for conifer trees planted in the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2021 is 33.9 million trees planted; of this Sitka spruce forms the majority species with 22.4 million, with Scots Pine, Norway Spruce, Douglas Fir, Lodgepole Pine, other minor conifers totalling 11.5 million.

Similarly for broadleaves planted on Scotland’s national forests and land in the same time period data is 6.3 million trees planted; with 5.9 million native broadleaves and 0.4 million non-native broadleaves.

Question reference: S6O-00152

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the positive destinations of school leavers.

Question reference: S6O-00084

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the future of farm support payments.

Question reference: S6W-01714

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what Scotland-wide campaigns there are for schoolchildren regarding littering.

On 31 May, Zero Waste Scotland in partnership with Scottish Government and Keep Scotland Beautiful launched the second phase of the anti-littering campaign, Scotland is Stunning, which targeted families and young people enjoying the outdoors.

Zero Waste Scotland has also developed a number of behaviour change initiatives and education resources aimed at school children, including the #GetLitterLiterate campaign which aims to teach students about the harmful effects of littering and mobilise them to influence their local and online communities.

Work has begun to refresh the National Litter Strategy, which has come to the end of its five year lifespan, as a National Litter and Flytipping Strategy. This refreshed strategy will be published in early 2022. Recognising the important role of education in litter prevention, communications and behaviour change has been identified as one of the four key themes which will be the focus of this refreshed strategy.

Question reference: S6W-01584

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were waiting for routine surgery from NHS Scotland, as of 1 July 2021.

Data published by Public Health Scotland shows that at 31 March 2021, the number of patients waiting for treatment as an inpatient or day case was 94,781. The number of patients waiting over 12 weeks at 31 March 2021 was 61,901 (65.3%).

Further breakdown of this data can be accessed on page 28 of the full report at NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Quarter ending 31 March 2021 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Data showing the number of patients waiting to be admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case at 30 June 2021 will be published by Public Health Scotland on 24 August 2021.

Question reference: S6W-01551

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of cancer have been diagnosed at stage (a) 1, (b) 2, (c) 3 and (d) 4 in each year since 2018, broken down by the type of cancer.

At present, we only collect Detect Cancer Early data for breast, colorectal and lung cancers. Information on patients diagnosed with breast, colorectal or lung cancer during the two-year period 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019 by cancer stage is available in the Detect Cancer Early Staging publication at

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/detect-cancer-early-staging-data/detect-cancer-early-staging-data-year-8-1-january-2018-to-31-december-2019/

Information for the two-year period 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020 is due to be released on 19 October 2021. This information will be broken down by quarter.

Public Health Scotland are currently developing a dashboard to include provisional monthly and quarterly data for 2020 compared with both 2019 and the average of 2017-2019 for the three cancer sites (breast, colorectal and lung). It is expected that this will be released over August as part of the Covid-19 wider impacts dashboard .

Question reference: S6W-01353

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether people who received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine can find out whether their dose was manufactured in India.

The Serum Institute of India (SII) manufactures both Vaxzevria and Covishield, both branded vaccines are exactly the same COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine. All SII-made doses approved by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and administered in the UK were those branded as the ’COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca’ which is now known commercially as ‘Vaxzeria’. The MHRA has not approved doses branded as ‘Covishield’ and none were in administered in the UK.

All AstraZeneca vaccines given in the UK are the same product and appear on the NHS Vaccination status letter as Vaxzevria. The European Medicines Agency has authorised this vaccine and we are confident travel will not be affected.

Individuals can access the batch number of the vaccine they received in Scotland via a Subject Access Request from their GP.

Question reference: S6W-01802

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its strategy is for the digitisation of people's medical records.

Our strategy is for all health records to be held electronically. The majority of people’s medical records are already digitised, following significant investment in GP IT systems in primary care and full implementation of the TrakCare patient management system in secondary care. We recognise, however, that paper-based records still exist within the service, particularly within individual clinical specialties, and that there remain a number of older records that have not been fully scanned or digitised. Health Boards continue to work through these challenges. Our forthcoming refreshed Digital Health & Care Strategy will set out further ambitions for greater patient access to their medical information.