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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-14248

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 31 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the war in Ukraine on human trafficking inflows in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with local authorities, third sector organisations and UK colleagues to assess and mitigate any safeguarding concerns, including the risk of human trafficking relating to displaced people from Ukraine.

This includes chairing a Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy Ukraine sub-group which comprises key operational partners and frontline support services and enables the sharing of trafficking specific information, assessment of ongoing risk and the elevation of any concerns to the Ukraine Safeguarding Strategy Group.

Police Scotland instigated Operation Escarpment to effectively manage and coordinate the required policing response in Scotland. This included human trafficking threat assessments for the Ukrainian diaspora and those arriving who may be vulnerable to exploitation. Potential trafficking and exploitation of displaced people from Ukraine continues to be actively monitored.

Question reference: S6W-14030

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many speeding tickets were issued to drivers on the A9 between Perth and Inverness in each year from 2012 up to and including 2022, broken down by whether they were related to (a) mobile safety cameras, (b) traffic police and (c) average speed cameras.

Question reference: S6W-14245

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many prosecutions of alleged perpetrators of modern slavery there have been in each of the last 10 years.

In terms of Criminal Proceedings statistics, there is no single crime of 'modern slavery'. However multiple types of crime involve, or can involve, 'slavery'. A list of these is provided below. Further information on slavery related activity is also available from the Anti-Slavery Commissioner, within their Annual Report .

Slavery or forced labour
Human organ offences
Immoral traffic
Procuration (excluding homosexual offences)
Procuration (homosexual offences)
Breach of trafficking and exploitation order

Most of these crime types fall under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015. This came into effect on 31 May 2016. Prior to the 2015 Act, there were a number of offences under which crimes of modern slavery could be prosecuted.

The latest available information on the number of people prosecuted for modern slavery related crimes, since 2011-12, is provided in the following table.

Number of people prosecuted for modern slavery related crimes (where main crime) in Scottish courts, 2011-12 to 2020-21.

		2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Immoral traffic	CRIMINAL JUSTICE (SCOTLAND) ACT 2003 SECTION 22(1)(A)(I)	4	-	1	2	1	-	-	-	-	-
	CRIMINAL JUSTICE (SCOTLAND)ACT 2003 SECTION 22(1)(A)(I)&(II)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
	CRIMINAL LAW (CONSOLIDATION) (SCOTLAND) ACT 1995 SECTION 11(1)(A)	-	-	1	-	1	-	2	1	-	-
	HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2015 SECTION 1(1)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-
Procuration (excluding homosexual acts)	CRIMINAL LAW (CONSOLIDATION) (SCOTLAND) ACT 1995 SECTION 7(1)(B)	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-
Procuration of homosexual acts	CRIMINAL LAW (CONSOLIDATION) (SCOTLAND) ACT 1995 SECTION 13(4) & 5(C)	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Slavery or Forced Labour	HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2015 SECTION 1(1)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	1
Slavery or Forced Labour	HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2015 SECTION 4(1)(B)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	-

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

Please note: Information for 2021-22 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2021-22 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published in Spring 2023.

Question reference: S6O-01860

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will conduct an independent review into the maternity model in Caithness.

Question reference: S6W-13682

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which estates within the Monadhliath Deer Management Group have received funding for peatland restoration in each of the last five years through the peatland restoration project funds administered by NatureScot (formerly Scottish Natural Heritage); how much each estate has received in each of the last five years, and who the owners were of each estate that received funding.

Organisation/Applicant	Paid ‎ 2018-19	Paid ‎ 2019-20	Paid ‎ 2020-21	Paid ‎ 2021-22	Paid 2022-23 ‎ (to 6 Jan 23)
Aberarder Estate	1,320.00	38,734.50	146,185.00	-	169,584.35
Alvie Estate	147,684.50	90,035.00	73,508.00	79,860.00	-
Balavil Estate	990.00	38,376.00	107,840.00	-	162,389.87
Braeroy Estate	96,408.10	166,112.90	172,174.70	160,257.00	107,378.61
Cluny Estate	-	-	17,110.00	24,540.00	-
Dalmigavie Estate	-	96,020.00	-	186,982.00	203,381.35
Dunachton Estate	990.00	-	104,756.00	97,680.00	69,811.93
Dunmaglass Estate (Conagleann Ltd)	3,300.00	129,895.00	6,600.00	150,995.71	132,976.36
Farr & Glen Kyllachy Estate (Newbie Salmon Fisheries Ltd)	188,609.60	238,260.00	238,037.00	143,356.50	58,263.00
Glenbanchor Estate	990.00	47,864.00	-	-	-
Glenmazeran (The Englefield Estate Trust Corporation)	227,466.24	188,189.28	212,035.61	-	64,663.46
Glenshero Estate (JAHAMA Highland Estates)	-	-	97,042.00	159,676.60	-
Kinrara Estate	-	-	-	202,109.60	262,525.90
Pitmain Estate	185,908.00	193,769.62	141,905.00	35,000.00	116,890.61
Monadliath Deer Management Group	31,656.00	46,409.36	43,575.00	42,999.40	38,078.40
Total	885,322	1,273,666	1,360,768	1,283,457	1,385,944

Table 1. Peatland Action grants allocated to the Monadliath Deer Management Group 2018-19 to present.

Question reference: S6W-13199

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made regarding the safety of specialist homecare medicines services.

As pharmacies, medicines homecare providers must demonstrate that they can meet the standards for registered pharmacies set by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). The standards are designed to create and maintain the right environment for the safe and effective practice of pharmacy and to improve the quality and safety of services provided to patients and the public. The GPhC inspect registered pharmacies to seek assurances that the standards are being met. Depending on the range of services provided, medicines homecare providers may also be registered with additional regulators such as the Care Inspectorate and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

To ensure compliance with regulatory standards, providers must have governance arrangements in place to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of patients and the public. This will include effective systems for risk management and the management of complaints and incident including root cause analysis of issues arising and implementing corrective and preventative actions.

Health Boards have contractual arrangements in place with Homecare Providers via either Service Level Agreements or Framework Agreements. These agreements detail responsibilities for service provision and define service requirements including governance and reporting.

Before arrangements are made to set-up a new service, Health Boards undertake risk assessments to assess the risks associated with supplying a particular medicine through a home delivery service. In addition, before a patient is on-boarded on to a service, checks are undertaken to help ensure that homecare is suitable for an individual patient.

Question reference: S6W-13198

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the number of any vacancies or shortages of (a) nurses and (b) pharmacists in the delivery of specialist homecare medicines services, and any impact these have on (i) performance and (ii) patient safety.

There were significant capacity constraints across the medicines homecare market in 2022. A key challenge has been recruitment of staff in a challenging labour market, with some providers more adversely affected than others. The situation is improving but continues to be closely monitored.

Certain homecare providers have highlighted issues with nursing capacity in recent months. Where this has been raised as an issue, there has been close working with providers to ensure that available staffing resource is used in a way that helps minimise disruption to service performance.

Homecare providers have not reported any recent issues with staffing within their pharmacy departments.

Several homecare providers have experienced staffing shortages within customer services departments, and this has been a major contributing factor to the capacity constraints experienced.

There have been a small number of instances where there have been delays to the delivery of medicines to patients, which has the potential to impact on patient safety. Medicines homecare providers and Health boards have processes in place to support managing and learning from any patient safety incidents that arise during service delivery.

Question reference: S6W-13407

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the dualling of the A96.

The current plan is to fully dual the A96 route between Inverness and Aberdeen; however, we are conducting a transparent, evidence-based review of the programme which is underway and the first part of the review, a report on the Public Consultation and the Initial Appraisal: The Case for Change was published on 22 December 2022. This is sensible good governance for major investment of this kind.

Transport Scotland is now pushing forward with the next phase of further detailed work to inform the remaining stages of the Review. These include a robust appraisal of the remaining options alongside a Climate Compatibility Assessment, with outcomes expected to be announced in the first half of 2023 for final public consultation, before a final decision can be reached.

Question reference: S6W-13409

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent communication it has had with Moray Council regarding the dualling of the A96.

Question reference: S6W-13406

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Minister for Transport will deliver her conclusions on the review into the dualling of the A96.

The transparent, evidence-based review of the A96 corridor has included a public consultation which received an unprecedented level of engagement, with approximately 4,600 responses, generating more than 11,000 suggestions and potential opportunities for the route.

Given the sheer volume of responses received and the high level of options generated, it has rightly taken Transport Scotland more time than originally anticipated to examine and appraise all these options. However, we have now reported on the Public Consultation and the Initial Appraisal, which were published on 22 December 2022.

Transport Scotland is now pushing forward with the next phase of further detailed work to inform the remaining stages of the Review. These include a robust appraisal of the retained options alongside a Climate Compatibility Assessment, with outcomes expected to be announced in the first half of 2023 for final public consultation, before a final decision on the route can be reached.