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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: S5O-04088

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports small businesses in Coatbridge and Chryston.

Question reference: S5W-26887

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the arrangements for the management of clinical waste across NHS Scotland.

In December 2018, the company responsible for waste collection in NHS Scotland (Healthcare Environmental Services Limited) ceased trading and removed access to all healthcare waste treatment capacity in Scotland. Contingency plans were implemented for NHS Scotland on 7 December 2018 to ensure the continued storage, collection and disposal of waste in line with industry regulations until such time as services could be transferred to a new operator.

Following a national tendering exercise, on 1 February 2019 Tradebe Healthcare Limited (“Tradebe”) was announced as the preferred operator for health waste management services. Commencement of the new contract was originally scheduled for 1 April 2019, however this has been subject to a number of unavoidable delays arising from the process to obtain planning permission from North Lanarkshire Council for Tradebe’s processing site at Bellshill.

Planning permission was granted by North Lanarkshire Council in August 2019 and a further permitting process with SEPA was concluded in early October. Following this, waste was sent to the Bellshill site to allow testing of the facilities and this successfully concluded in November 2019. Elements of the new contract which did not require use of the Bellshill plan were transitioned to Tradebe from 2 August.

The implementation of the new contract with Tradebe is being managed by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) on behalf of NHS Scotland. NSS is working closely with all partners, including Tradebe and Board waste managers to finalise the detailed transition plan to support the transfer of services into fully contracted services as quickly and smoothly as possible. This will allow for waste management services to move to Tradebe on a phased basis by Spring 2020, and will follow all permit requirements being satisfied.

It is a condition of Tradebe’s permit to operate the Bellshill site that it must record details of waste accepted, and this requires NHS Boards to complete ‘Pre-Acceptance Audits’ of waste from hospital wards, GP surgeries, dental practices and all other healthcare waste producers. The completion of Pre-Acceptance Audits is a new regulatory requirement and we are working closely with all partners to develop plans and ensure that there is sufficient time for Boards to meet the new obligations. This work will be progressed in line with the overall project plan for transitioning of services to Tradebe.

Question reference: S5O-03935

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to encourage more housebuilding in heavily populated urban towns and areas, such as Coatbridge.

Question reference: S5O-03908

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the plans for a new, state-of-the-art, University Hospital Monklands.

Question reference: S5O-03860

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5O-03806

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce Scotland’s high prison population.

The Scottish Government is very conscious of the pressures facing Scotland’s prisons, in particular the high prison population.

I have established a Prisons Resilience Leadership Group of senior officials from a range of justice agencies to ensure a cross-agency understanding of the challenges of a rising prison population and to seek co-ordinated approaches in response.

The Group are looking at a range of actions including:

Increasing awareness of, access to and support for community sentences and alternatives to custody
Looking more widely at how bail law operates and at access to support and mentoring schemes in the community to make sure that it is only used when it is needed to protect the public.
Revisiting guidance for Home Detention Curfew (HDC) when we commence the parts of the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019 that provide for an expansion of electronic monitoring and make important improvements to temporary release and to HDC.

In addition, £24m on top of existing budget has already been made available this year to help the SPS meet a range of cost pressures and we will keep the budget position under review throughout the remainder of this year.

Earlier this year, we extended the presumption against short sentences which should ease pressure on Scotland’s prisons by reducing ‘churn’ and over time helping to reduce numbers in prison. We know from evidence that community interventions are more effective than short custodial sentences.

We are investing £9.5 million a year more on community justice services such as community sentences and electronic monitoring compared to 2015-16. This includes £4 million which was allocated to support community sentences and £1.5 million specifically to support preparations for the extended presumption. This additional support is being continued in 2019-20 and the impact of the extended presumption will be monitored closely.

Question reference: S5O-03760

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the impact of the UK Government’s Brexit deal on Scotland’s economy.

Question reference: S5O-03569

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many children will be taken out of poverty by the Scottish Child Payment.

Question reference: S5O-03542

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress NHS Lanarkshire has made with plans for a new-build Monklands Hospital, following the recommendations made by the independent review.

Question reference: S5W-24438

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recently published discussion paper by Barnardo’s Scotland, Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of education staff through professional supervision structures and its calls for (a) a national conversation about the support available for the mental health and wellbeing of teaching staff and (b) consideration of the use of supervision within education, which it considers is a process central to the work of other caring professions.

The Scottish Government acknowledges the recently published discussion paper by Barnardo’s Scotland and will be taking its recommendations into consideration as we further develop our policies on health and wellbeing for the teaching profession.

The Scottish Government is clear that no teacher should feel that their job adversely affects their mental health, and along with Local Authorities, we have already taken action to put in place additional support for teachers to tackle workload and improve recruitment and retention rates.

The recent pay agreement for teachers also commits the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers to addressing issues relating to teachers’ health and wellbeing. Our work with teachers and teacher organisations will continue to identify where there is action that we can take to improve the daily lives of teachers.