- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much it spent on policy implementation for (a) cancer, (b) stroke, (c) heart disease, (d) diabetes, (e) dementia and (f) respiratory care, in each year since 2021.
Answer
Answer expected on 8 January 2025
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 8 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time equivalent civil servants currently work within its (a) cancer policy unit, (b) long-term conditions policy unit, broken down by condition, and (c) long-term conditions strategy unit.
Answer
Answer expected on 8 January 2025
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 October 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, in light the commitment set out in its document, Stroke Improvement Plan 2023, to set up a forum “for regular engagement between stroke services from every NHS board”, whether it will confirm whether this forum has been established and, if so, (a) on what date it first met, (b) whether it will provide the names of each person nominated by each NHS board to serve on it and (c) what progress it is making towards improving the delivery of stroke services, and how this progress is being measured.
Answer
The Stroke Engagement Forum met for the first time on 2 October 2024. The agenda included items on acute stroke care and research involvement and involved the sharing of local practices and approaches to shared challenges. The next meeting of the group will be in early 2025.
The membership of the Stroke Engagement Forum comprises stroke clinicians, stroke managers, Scottish Government officials and third sector representatives. Members are invited as a representative of their NHS Board or organisation. Members are expected to consult with their professional groups, networks and other stakeholders as appropriate. This forum is to facilitate operational improvement and the sharing of best practice. It is not a public forum and the Scottish Government will not be publishing the names of the attendees.
Stroke service delivery continues to be measured via the Scottish Stroke Care Audit and the Board reviews conducted as part of the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme.
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 18 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on what level of certainty would be required that essential infrastructure would remain operational for a significant period of time in order for its protection from flooding to be considered an imperative reason of overriding importance for the purpose of the Habitats Regulations, and whether it will provide the reasons for its position on this matter.
Answer
Flood protection schemes are an effective way to improve flood resilience for the design flood, they are not an absolute guarantee that flooding will not occur. Events beyond the design flood are possible and a residual risk will always remain. It is up to individual local authorities to determine what level of protection they deem appropriate considering the impacts of climate change and wider environmental factors in the area of the flood protection works.
Operational matters are ultimately the responsibility of the infrastructure owner, including how their operations may be impacted in the event of a flood.
Where a flood protection development may have a significant impact on a European site, then under the Habitats Regulations an appropriate assessment must be carried out by the Local Authority to determine whether an impact on the integrity of the designated site is likely. Should the appropriate assessment conclude an adverse impact on integrity then the Local Authority must apply for a derogation from Scottish Ministers to allow the development to proceed. One of the three tests which must be satisfied under the Habitats Regulations before a derogation is granted is that the development is of imperative reasons of over-riding public interest.
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 18 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported need for rapid transition from fossil fuels, what its position is on whether the defence of petrochemical infrastructure from flooding could be considered an imperative reason of overriding public interest for the purposes of the Habitats Regulations, and whether it will provide the reasons for its position on this matter.
Answer
Individual local authorities have responsibility for the development and delivery of flood protection schemes. Every location at risk is unique and therefore the business case for improving flood resilience will reflect this.
Where a flood protection development may have a significant impact on a European site, then under the Habitats Regulations an appropriate assessment must be carried out by the Local Authority to determine whether an impact on the integrity of the designated site is likely. Should the appropriate assessment conclude an adverse impact on integrity then the Local Authority must apply for a derogation from Scottish Ministers to allow the development to proceed. One of the three tests which must be satisfied under the Habitats Regulations before a derogation is granted is that the development is of imperative reasons of over-riding public interest.
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 August 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 10 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration and support has been given to ensure that all reasonable upstream flood alleviation measures have been taken to reduce flood risk at Grangemouth
Answer
It is the responsibility of Local Authorities to plan, develop and deliver flood protection schemes and other flood resilience actions.
It is best practice for options development to be carried out by local authorities using an appraisal framework. The options should go through a robust and transparent appraisal of costs and benefits, and positive and adverse impacts in order to deliver best use of public money taking full account of economic, environmental and social priorities
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 August 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 10 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had to ensure that the use of natural flood management measures is prioritised as part of any flood defence scheme at Grangemouth.
Answer
It is the responsibility of Local Authorities to plan, develop and deliver flood protection schemes and other flood resilience actions.
Local authorities carry out appraisals of flood protection schemes. It is expected that every scheme, which is delivered by a local authority, is developed with consideration of catchment processes and characteristics, making reasonable and practical efforts to enhance the landscape’s natural ability to slow and store flood water.
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 10 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how the requirements of the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) Policy 3 pertaining to biodiversity enhancement will be integrated into the proposals for Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme.
Answer
It is the responsibility of Local Authorities to plan, develop and deliver flood protection schemes and other flood resilience actions.
Policy 3 of the National Planning Framework requires that development proposals contribute to the enhancement of biodiversity and that any potential adverse impacts will be minimised through careful planning and design. We would expect all schemes progressed by local authorities to include appropriate measures to conserve, restore and enhance biodiversity
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 9 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported failure to meet national standards of stroke care, as outlined in the most recent Scottish Stroke Improvement Plan annual report, and what its plan is to ensure that people who experience a stroke are able to get access to appropriate and evidence-based care to improve their outcomes.
Answer
The Scottish Stroke Care Standards are designed to drive effective service delivery and improve patient outcomes. Monitoring of performance against stroke standards through the Scottish Stroke Care Audit allows us to identify where challenges are being faced in the delivery of high-quality stroke care and implement quality improvements.
We recognise the standards are challenging and continue to expect Health Boards to identify aspects of their stroke services which do not meet these standards and to work to improve their standards of care locally.
We continually assess the delivery of evidence-based stroke care, as recommended in the Progressive Stroke Pathway, via the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Board review process. This allows for an evaluation of Board performance, identification of areas of challenge and the formulation of local action plans to improve the delivery of stroke care.
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 13 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the outcome of the 2022 review, Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury - incineration in the waste hierarchy, what its position is regarding the 12 incinerators that were approved, or were in the process of construction, prior
to the decision to stop all new applications for incinerators; by what date a
decision will be announced regarding the proposed capacity cap on incineration, and
whether it will ask the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to
pause all new permits on incineration while the indicative cap is being
developed.
Answer
The Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in Scotland’s Waste Hierarchy recommended that no further planning permission is awarded to incineration facilities, beyond those for which planning permission has already been granted, with some limited exceptions. This analysis took into account the need to develop some additional capacity to ensure that Scotland can manage its own waste and implement the ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste by 2025, as recommended by the Climate Change Committee. We addressed this recommendation through National Planning Framework 4.
Our Circular Economy and Waste Route Map consultation, published January 18, set out further detail and proposed provisional associated timescales on the steps we will take to minimise the environmental and climate impacts of waste, including the development of an indicative capacity cap as part of our Residual Waste Plan to 2045, with a provisional publication date in 2025-26.
The Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) regulations 2012 (“the PPC regulations”) require that SEPA make impartial assessments of all PPC Permit applications and make decisions relating to environmental permits in accordance with these regulations. While Scottish Ministers do have the ability to intervene in the PPC process by way of a direction, SEPA is Scotland’s independent environmental regulator and intervening in the PPC process needs careful consideration and typically would not be appropriate in the absence of exceptional circumstances.
Further information on these developments can be found here: Circular economy and waste route map to 2030: consultation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
