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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-12833

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it will determine which local government assets to transfer to the National Care Service.

Question reference: S6W-12840

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government who will be invited to participate in the process of co-design for the National Care Service.

To support the collaborative co-design we launched registration to Lived Experience Experts Panel and Stakeholder Register on 22 September 2022. Further information and registration details can be accessed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/design-the-national-care-service/

As of 7 December 2022, we had 421 applicants registered with the Lived Experience Experts Panel.

As of 7 December 2022, we had 210 organisations sign up for the Stakeholder Register.

The Panel and the Register are both being actively monitored for demographics, geographic spread and protected characteristics to ensure we encourage a true representation of the population. Targeted engagement will be undertaken to address any gaps and ensure robust information gathering and development Promotion of the opportunities to register will continue throughout the life time of the programme.

Question reference: S6W-12823

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, for what reasons it determined that the period of a strategic plan by the Scottish Ministers must not exceed three years, and how it arrived at that decision.

The National Care Service (Scotland) Bill requires Ministers to have a strategic plan if they are delivering, or arranging for the delivery of, national services.

In order to ensure that national services remain aligned with changing population need it is important that Ministers regularly review, with partners, stakeholders and people, the strategic plan.

We will continue to liaise with those who plan and deliver services to ensure that the Bill sets out appropriate national and local strategic planning requirements.

Question reference: S6W-12824

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of staff it expects to transfer from local authorities to the National Care Service, broken down by each local authority.

Question reference: S6W-12910

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been awarded to businesses in the South Scotland region from the Regional Food Fund, in each year since the Fund was established.

Question reference: S6O-01624

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it still plans to launch a National Care Service in the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6O-01569

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to expand rail infrastructure in the South Scotland region.

Question reference: S6W-11187

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints from (a) passengers and (b) staff have been received by ScotRail regarding train services in the South of Scotland in 2022, broken down by the (i) reason for the complaint and (ii) local authority area.

ScotRail does not record passenger complaints data by region or local authority area, but by rail route. The following table shows ScotRail’s complaints data for routes which serve the South Scotland region from 1 April 2022:

Complaint Type	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct
1st Class	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Assisted Travel	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Capacity	3	3	7	5	1	0	3
Environment	2	2	4	3	6	3	2
Information Provision	1	1	0	0	0	2	2
Policy And Product	6	5	2	0	3	2	1
Rail Replacement	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Safety & Security	2	0	0	1	0	0	1
Smartcard	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Staff	4	4	5	3	3	4	6
Station Facilities	2	0	0	0	0	1	0
Ticket Buying Facilities	1	0	0	0	2	1	1
Timetable	0	2	0	5	1	0	2
Train Service Performance	5	17	9	4	2	7	9
TOTAL	28	34	29	21	18	21	27

ScotRail has confirmed that the routes detailed below were included in this data. The member should note that the data reflects complaints which may have occurred at any point on the route:

Ayr - Glasgow
Barrhead - Glasgow
Carlisle - Glasgow
Dumfries - Glasgow / Edinburgh
Edinburgh - Dunbar
Edinburgh - North Berwick
Edinburgh - Tweedbank
Girvan - Glasgow / Edinburgh
Glasgow - Kilmarnock
Glasgow - Lanark
Glasgow - Stranraer
Kilmarnock - Carlisle
Kilmarnock - Dumfries

ScotRail does not record staff complaints and therefore the information is not available.

Question reference: S6W-11557

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Audit Scotland report, Self-directed support: 2017 progress report, which of the recommendations were (a) completed in full, (b) partly completed and (c) not completed.

Audit Scotland’s 2017 progress report made seven recommendations for the Scottish Government. Since then, two of the recommendations have been completed in full, four have been partially completed and one has not been completed.

The SDS Implementation Plan 2019-2021 built on the learning from the Audit Scotland report and incorporated the inputs of third sector organisations, COSLA and people with lived experience. The implementation of this plan was disrupted by the emergence of COVID19, and efforts to respond to this included publishing SDS pandemic guidance in July 2020.

The Scottish Government will issue a significant update of the SDS Statutory Guidance later this month, and is currently working with COSLA and a national group of stakeholders to develop an SDS improvement plan to drive improvements in SDS implementation covering the years leading up to the establishment of the National Care Service. This will take into account the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report of 2017 as well as from reports published since then, including the Feeley report of 2021.

Question reference: S6W-11189

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of public bridges that are closed in the South Scotland region, broken down by the number of years that they have been closed for.

The Scottish Government has not permanently closed any trunk road bridges in the South of Scotland regions. Decisions on the closure or re-opening of Local Authority bridges is a matter for the relevant Local Authority.

Following consultation, Local Authority colleagues have indicated the following local bridge closures:

Local Authority	Route Number	Location	Bridge	Closure
Dumfries and Galloway Council		Kirtle Water	Cove Footbridge	1 Year
Dumfries and Galloway Council		Over River Annan	Cuthbertson Memorial Footbridge	1 Year
Dumfries and Galloway Council		Over River Annan	Diamond Jubilee Footbridge	1 Year
Dumfries and Galloway Council	B725	Nithsdale)	Brow Well Road Bridge	3 Years
Scottish Borders Council		Kalemouth	Kalemouth Suspension Bridge	2 Years