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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-17195

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 28 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how much has been spent on tackling litter sinks at Loch Long in each of the last 10 years, and how much will be spent in 2023-24.

The bay at Arrochar was chosen as the location of a marine litter case study in Loch Long in 2017. Since then, a total of £183,827.78 has been spent on litter removal at the site. This includes the cost of heavy machinery contracting, haulage, and the disposal of the mixed debris. Costs have varied annually according the amount of material washed ashore requiring removal.

Date	Amount spent (£)
May 2018	£29,720.35
May 2019	£36,787.69
March 2020	£37,686.83
March 2021	£25,310.11
March 2022	£54,322.80

Funding of these clean-ups has been provided when available. There is currently no funding allocated for the same operation in the financial year of 2023-24. This work is eligible for funding through Marine Fund Scotland https://www.gov.scot/policies/marine-and-fisheries-grants/

Question reference: S6W-17197

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 28 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the pilot work to tackle litter sinks at the head of Loch Long at Arrochar.

Since the inception of work to better understand the Arrochar litter sink in 2017, we have determined that approximately half of the litter has originated from the River Clyde catchment, and half from the open sea. We are using this knowledge to focus efforts on tackling the source of the litter over which we can have most influence, that from the River Clyde.

As such, the recently updated Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland includes actions on riverine litter, to prevent it and to support its removal. Our key delivery partner Keep Scotland Beautiful and their Upstream Battle project enables communities, businesses, and schools on the River Clyde to develop local solutions to reduce littering, and also support its clean-up. This initiative also supports citizen science and the outputs will inform further riverine litter policy, aiming to reduce and intercept litter before it reaches our seas. In addition, we are also engaging with Glasgow City Council to consider more options to increase litter removal from the River Clyde.

Question reference: S6W-17196

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 28 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle marine litter.

The Scottish Government is tackling marine litter with actions detailed in our Marine Litter Strategy, which aims to address the amount of litter entering the marine environment, to achieve ecological, economic and social benefits. Our Strategy and action plan was refreshed in September 2022 and focuses on the most problematic types of marine litter including fishing and aquaculture gear, sewage-related debris, and plastic pellets. The Strategy will drive forward our work over the next five years and co-ordinate the efforts of our stakeholders and partners, working at a national and international level to help tackle this global problem.

The many actions include: improving the management of end of life fishing and aquaculture gear to reduce litter and improve recycling rates, contributing to our circular economy; working across the UK administrations to put an end to pollution caused by wet wipes containing plastic; and developing international solutions to prevent spills of plastic pellets (nurdles), which can be found on our beaches and risk the health of our marine wildlife. In addition to preventative actions, we are also supporting litter removal, whether off shore through the funding of KIMO’s Fishing for Litter scheme, or at our rivers, with Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Upstream Battle project.

Question reference: S6W-16943

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the forthcoming 10-year cancer strategy improves outcomes for people with (a) liver cancer and (b) other less survivable cancers.

Our ambitious 10-year cancer strategy is nearing completion, with publication planned this Spring. The strategy will be under-pinned by action plans which will evolve with the changing cancer landscape. The strategy will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care.

It will encompass a new earlier cancer diagnosis vision for Scotland and will continue to focus on those cancer types that are the largest burden and have poorer survival, in particular the less survivable cancers, including liver cancer.

Question reference: S6W-16944

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the timetable is for the national rollout of intelligent Liver Function Tests (iLFT), through the national Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS).

A consortium of 12 NHS Health Boards has procured a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for Scotland which is described as National LIMS.

NHS Fife will be the first Board to make use of the intelligent Liver Function Tests (iLFT) with the roll out of National LIMS in 2023. Roll out will then follow across the rest of the consortium over the next few years.

Whilst national LIMS implementation in Scotland is in its early stages, some NHS Boards already utilise iLFT and have this capability within their current LIMS.

Those Boards that are not part of the consortium can also procure the product should they wish to do so.

Question reference: S6W-17109

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether its new 10-year cancer strategy will include specific actions to address the survival rates of the six less survivable cancers, which are pancreatic, lung, liver, brain, stomach and oesophageal cancers.

Question reference: S6O-02173

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what financial assessment has been made of any impact on the capital budget of delays in delivering infrastructure projects.

Question reference: S6F-02053

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 April 2023

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to ensure that published NHS waiting times for treatment are accurate.

Question reference: S6W-16942

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to prioritise (a) alcohol harm and (b) obesity prevention in order to reduce the burden of liver disease.

The Scottish Government takes a whole population approach to tackling alcohol-related harms, in line with the World Health Organization’s focus on affordability, availability and attractiveness of alcohol. Our 2018 Alcohol Framework contains 20 actions to tackle alcohol related harm.

We want everyone in Scotland to eat well and have a healthy weight to help reduce the impact of a range of diet-related ill health conditions including liver disease. We continue to implement the wide-ranging actions set out in our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan . This includes our commitment to restrict less healthy food promotions and improving the availability of healthier options when eating out as outlined in our Out Of Home Action Plan .

We also continue to support NHS boards to deliver adult, children and young people’s weight management services in line with our Type 2 Diabetes Prevention, Early Detection and Intervention Framework and Public Health Scotland’s National Standards .

Question reference: S6W-16428

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to continue funding hybrid closed loop systems, beyond its support for the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) hybrid closed loop system national onboarding program and since the £14.6 million funding allocation was made in March 2022 to help NHS boards meet the Scottish Health Technologies Group's recommendations.

Our Diabetes Improvement Plan, published in 2021, contains a key commitment to further increase access to existing and emerging diabetes technologies. A link to the Plan can be found at link: Diabetes Care in Scotland (www.gov.scot) .

Our national policy is to increase access to these life changing diabetes therapies to everyone who would benefit, and we expect NHS Boards to provide technology to all clinically suitable children and adults.

We are supporting the ANIA collaborative as they work through the current proposal of a national onboarding programme. We are also working with wider stakeholders, including health finance colleagues, to determine what longer term developments would be required to support ongoing roll out of technologies.