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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-07447

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce legislation to sanction residential park owners who do not supply timely and fully completed written statements to their residents.

Question reference: S6W-07444

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, following disruptions to the energy supply as a result of recent storms, what discussions it has had with Ofgen regarding whether residents of residential park homes will be (a) included on the priority contact list and (b) allowed access to any compensation schemes in the event of environmental emergencies in light of recent reports that park owners did not fulfil these obligations on behalf of their residents.

Resilience of the Electricity Sector is reserved and therefore the responsibility of the UK Government.

Access to the Priority Services Register is available to anyone that meets the eligibility criteria and individuals can register by contacting their energy supplier or network operator.

The issue regarding compensation schemes is something that would also be best directed to Ofgem.

We will continue to press the UK Government, industry and the regulator for assurance that increased resilience of the electricity networks in Scotland is a priority.

Question reference: S6W-07311

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 24 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm if massage and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) services are included in the definition of independent commercial wellness services, for the purposes of determining eligibility criteria for close contact business support grants.

Businesses offering only massage and complementary and alternative medicine services were not within the scope of the Close Contact Services Fund. The Close Contact Fund was targeted at businesses impacted by the necessary public health restrictions introduced to reduce transmission of the Omicron variant. The eligibility criteria for the Close Contact Services fund, which has now closed to applications, is available on the Scottish Government website: Close Contact Services Fund (closed) - Coronavirus (COVID-19): funding for businesses affected by Omicron control measures - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Question reference: S6W-07170

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 21 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce legislation to ensure that electrical infrastructure in residential parks meets a 64-amp standard, which is approximately the present rate for a brick house, (a) in new sites and (b) when upgrading existing faulty cables on established sites, in order to ensure there is an adequate electrical supply to charge electric vehicles and power other household white goods.

Question reference: S6W-07140

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 21 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the work it is doing to ensure that doctors are equipped to identify the early signs and symptoms of an eating disorder.

During Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2022, we welcomed the training offer that Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity, has developed to ensure that our future workforce feels confident to support anyone who comes forward with concerns about disordered eating. We are pleased to see that all our medical schools in Scotland are in discussions with Beat to deliver eating disorder training, or are already delivering it.

We were also pleased to announce additional funding for Beat which includes Beyond the Symptoms Training for GPs and healthcare professionals, which will support them to identify when a patient has an eating disorder, and confidently intervene early. This training will be available from April.

Question reference: S6W-07085

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to stimulate demand for competition between broadband and fibre infrastructure providers in local authority areas where there are only single operators.

Telecoms is entirely reserved to the United Kingdom Government, which means that the Scottish Government does not have the powers to intervene in commercial matters. Therefore, in the absence of further action by the UK Government, it is ultimately up to suppliers themselves to decide how and where they choose to stimulate demand for connections and/or services. However, we do work closely with communications providers and encourage new entrants into Scotland’s fibre infrastructure market – for example, by extending non-domestic rates relief to fifteen years for newly laid and lit fibre, ten years more than the UK Government currently offers.

Question reference: S6W-07083

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme will be extended beyond the 31 March 2022 deadline.

Question reference: S6W-07084

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many vouchers have been received in each local authority area as part of the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

Figures for vouchers requested, vouchers issued and installations completed to date through the use of the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme are provided in the following table:

	INTERIM VOUCHER SCHEME			MAIN VOUCHER SCHEME
Local Authority	Vouchers Requested	Vouchers Issued	Installations Completed	Vouchers Requested	Vouchers Issued	Installations Completed
Aberdeen City			1		8	13
Aberdeenshire	3	41	75	12	175	271
Angus	4	1	8		103	39
Argyll & Bute		8	13		24	37
City of Edinburgh					14	12
Clackmannanshire	1	1	7		1	5
Dumfries & Galloway		7	110		28	23
Dundee City					17	1
East Ayrshire		1	16		6	7
East Dunbartonshire					2	1
East Lothian			3		15	7
East Renfrewshire	1		5		4	4
Falkirk		1	4	2	10	2
Fife		1	10	1	16	21
Glasgow City					9	9
Highland	1	7	45	1	161	196
Inverclyde			1			1
Midlothian			11		15	6
Moray	1	5	27	1	75	75
North Ayrshire			10		1	16
North Lanarkshire		1	7		18	11
Orkney Islands				5	60	9
Perth & Kinross	1	17	78	1	37	45
Renfrewshire			7		11	4
Scottish Borders	2	14	154		31	57
Shetland Islands
South Ayrshire			2		1	11
South Lanarkshire	1	3	39		6	21
Stirling		5	104	7	17	24
West Dunbartonshire			2
West Lothian			1			2
Western Isles
Blanks *
Total	15	113	740	30	865	930

Question reference: S6W-06966

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is a signatory to an Openreach Fibre Community Partnership programme, in light of its announcement of 14 December 2020 regarding the contract with Openreach worth £384 million for the R100 North of Scotland Lot.

The Scottish Government is not a signatory to Openreach’s Fibre Community Partnership programme. The Fibre Community Partnership is a commercial offering, and has no direct link to the £384 million R100 North contract. As a registered supplier for the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme, Openreach could choose to use the programme to deliver a solution for a community through aggregation of vouchers. However, I understand that they have currently paused registrations for the programme as a result of high demand.

Question reference: S6O-00912

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to help farmers make improvements to their farms.