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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: S5W-24151

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many failed inspections of poultry holdings with egg-laying hens there have been in each calendar year since 2012, and how many of these were due to breaches in relation to (a) egg marketing, (b) salmonella testing, (c) hygiene standards and (d) failings in welfare.

Inspections of poultry holdings, for statutory purposes, in Scotland are carried out by the Scottish Government Poultry Unit and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). The Scottish Government Poultry Unit inspects premises to ensure compliance with marketing standards for eggs; and APHA carry out health and welfare inspection of egg laying premises when alerted to potential issues.

(a) The Scottish Government poultry unit have since 2012 carried out 2984 egg marketing inspections at poultry holdings with egg laying hens which has resulted in 729 incidences of non-compliance or infringement at various levels being recorded.

(b) Salmonella inspections are carried out by APHA as part of a national programme. Figures supplied by APHA since 2014 show that no egg-laying poultry holdings tested by APHA in Scotland have tested positive for salmonella.

(c) The results of hygiene standard inspections are published yearly by Food Standards Scotland. Since 2012 Scottish Government Poultry Unit has carried out 310 inspections on behalf of the FSS which have resulted in 5 non-compliant inspections and 107 egg production enforcement actions being recorded.

(d) Scottish Government do not carry out welfare inspections at poultry holdings with egg laying hens. APHA carry out welfare inspection when intelligence has been passed to them regarding welfare issues. APHA figures show that since 2014, 144 inspections have been carried out at poultry holdings with egg laying hens which has resulted in 56 non-compliant inspections being recorded. These figures can include several inspections carried out at a single holding. Records are not readily available for 2012 and 2013.

Question reference: S5W-24146

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to prohibiting the use of enriched cages for laying hens on animal welfare grounds.

The Scottish Government is committed to upholding and seeing improvements to EU animal welfare legislation to benefit animal across the EU.

We considers that enriched colony cage systems designed and operated in compliance with current EU legislation can provide for the welfare needs of laying hens. The Scottish laying hen population has shown a consistent pattern with caged production reducing year on year, with all other systems increasing year by year.

Question reference: S5W-24069

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the installation of electric vehicle charging points for terraced streets.

The Scottish Government is committed to phasing out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032. To meet this target, much greater levels of investment will be needed over the coming decade, both in the provision of EV charging infrastructure, and in the electricity networks that support this infrastructure. We are working closely with commercial and public sector partners, including the energy network operators and the Scottish Futures Trust, to ensure we invest strategically and in an coordinated way.

In terms of the existing charging network, we currently have one of the most comprehensive EV charging networks in Europe with nearly 1,000 publicly available charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network. In addition, the average distance from any given location to the nearest public charge point is just 2.78 miles in Scotland - the lowest in Great Britain where the average is 4.09 miles. A fundamental element of our work and investment plans going forward is looking at residents that do not have the ability to charge at home. We are actively encouraging Local Authorities to install charging infrastructure to support these residents and are in discussions with industry about potential innovative solutions to address this issue.

Question reference: S5W-24456

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any risks that might be involved in using universal credit as a qualifying benefit for the Scottish Child Payment.

An assessment of the options which were considered for the Scottish Child Payment were set out in two publications, published at the time of the announcement and available on the Scottish Government’s website:

Scottish Child Payment Position Paper: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-position-paper-scottish-child-payment/
Income supplement Analysis of Options: https://www.gov.scot/publications/analysis-options-income-supplement/

As set out in the Position Paper, the chosen option was assessed on the basis of policy coherence, and ensuring we met the three objectives set for the Scottish Child Payment, and an assessment of delivery considerations, particularly technical requirements and speed of introduction. A key driver was the ability to utilise the capabilities that had already been developed within Social Security Scotland and the Social Security programme for the devolved benefits, and data which was more readily available to allow eligibility to be evidenced.

Recognising the ongoing uncertainty around full migration of Universal Credit, eligibility includes legacy benefits, ensuring no individual will be forced to migrate to Universal Credit early in order to receive the Scottish Child Payment. We have also ensured the Scottish Child Payment mitigates the worst aspects of welfare reform, where we have the powers to do so – for example, by having no cap on the number of children a household can claim for, and ensuring people can still receive the Scottish Child Payment where they are subject to sanctions in the UK system.

Question reference: S5W-24153

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 26 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to carry out a review of cancer screening programmes.

The Scottish Government commissioned a Review of Screening in 2017 to examine the management and overall delivery of the six national screening programmes in Scotland. The Review recognises the scale and complexity of the challenges around national screening programmes, and made a total of 23 recommendations. Ministers have accepted the Review in full and work is underway to develop an implementation plan for these recommendations.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport has approved a fundamental review of the Breast Screening programme. The review will be carried out by National Services Division who commission and project manage the breast screening programme. The review is expected to take around a year to complete and will make recommendations on the future delivery and policy direction of the breast screening programme in Scotland.

The Review of Screening report is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) reference 60693.

Question reference: S5W-24147

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many supermarkets have made a commitment to phase out eggs from caged hens by 2025 in (a) boxed eggs, (b) their own branded products and (c) any other egg-containing products.

Question reference: S5W-24148

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many egg producers have made a commitment to phase out production from hens in enriched cages by 2025.

Question reference: S5W-24149

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 15 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether food containing eggs from enriched cages is served (a) in any of the catering services on its own premises and (b) at its functions in venues outwith its premises.

Question reference: S5W-23423

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-22282 by Mairi Gougeon on 3 April 2019, how many animals were licenced to be killed, broken down by species for which licences were issued in 2018.

The following table provides a breakdown of the number of licences issued by Scottish Natural Heritage in 2018.

Species	Unit Description	Number of Licences Issued that Form the Total
Barnacle Goose	Birds	38
Blackbird	Birds	3
Blackbird	Birds	3
Black-headed Gull	Birds	1
Blue Tit	Birds	1
Buzzard	Birds	1
Buzzard	Birds	6
Canada Goose	Birds	2
Carrion crow	Birds	2
Chaffinch	Birds	1
Collared Dove	Birds	1
Common Gull	Birds	5
Common Teal	Birds	1
Cormorant	Birds	35
Cormorant	Birds	1
Feral pigeon	Birds	2
Golden Plover	Birds	1
Goosander	Birds	28
Greater Black-backed Gull	Birds	1
Grey Heron	Birds	2
Grey Heron	Birds	2
Grey Partridge	Birds	2
Greylag Goose	Birds	128
Greylag Goose	Birds	1
Herring Gull	Birds	1
House Martin	Birds	1
House Sparrow	Birds	6
House Sparrow	Birds	2
Lesser Black-backed Gull	Birds	1
Magpie	Birds	2
Magpie	Birds	1
Meadow Pipit	Birds	1
Mute Swan	Birds	1
Oystercatcher	Birds	1
Pheasant	Birds	1
Pheasant	Birds	3
Pied Wagtail	Birds	1
Pink-footed Goose	Birds	39
Pink-footed Goose	Birds	3
Raven	Birds	138
Red-breasted Merganser	Birds	13
Ringed Plover	Birds	1
Robin	Birds	6
Robin	Birds	2
Rook	Birds	1
Skylark	Birds	1
Skylark	Birds	1
Song Thrush	Birds	1
Sparrowhawk	Birds	1
Starling	Birds	10
Starling	Birds	3
Swallow	Birds	3
Swallow	Birds	3
Swift	Birds	3
Woodpigeon	Birds	2
Brown Hare	Individuals	22
Brown Hare	Individuals	2
Mountain Hare	Individuals	10
Common Lizard	Individuals	1
Powan	Individuals	1
Deer (Night Shooting)	Individuals	330
Deer (Out of Season)	Individuals	248
Deer Out of Season (Females only)	Individuals	1
Deer (General)	Individuals	1

Where more than one entry for a species of bird is listed in the table it is to distinguish between a licence which has been issued that restricts how many birds can be killed and a licence which enables the licensee to take as many birds as is necessary.

The two licences for brown hares that were issued for “As many as required” were related to airport safety.

The licences that were issued for powan and common lizard were for the purpose of science, research and education.

Question reference: S5O-03432

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the number of empty homes.