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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-05687

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 26 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it holds statistics on birth delivery methods in each NHS maternity ward for the last two years.

Data on birth delivery methods are not collected or held centrally. Public Health Scotland collects and publishes data on method of delivery at NHS Board level in its annual Birth in Scottish Hospitals report. The most recent report, for the year ending 31 March 2021, is available online and provides data on method of delivery by NHS Board of residence for live singleton births. The report is available via the following link: Births in Scottish hospitals - Year ending 31 March 2021 - Births in Scottish hospitals - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

Question reference: S6W-05686

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the criteria of qualifying recipients of the Scottish Child Payment and Bridging Payments so that children who are home-schooled are entitled to the equivalent level of welfare support benefit as children who attend school and receive free school meals.

The Scottish Child Payment commenced for children under the age of 6 in February 2021 and eligibility is based on receipt of qualifying benefits, with 106,000 children receiving the payment as of September 2021 based on the latest data available.

Children who are home-schooled are not excluded from this support which will be increased to £20 per week as of April 2022. The Scottish Government remain committed to delivering the Scottish Child Payment in full by the end of 2022, subject to receipt of the necessary data from the Department for Work and Pensions, at which point around 430,000 children under the age of 16 will be eligible.

Until such times as the necessary data is made available by the Department for Work and Pensions it is not possible to expand the reach of the Scottish Child Payment to older children, including those who are home-schooled.

Ahead of the full roll out of Scottish Child Payment, the Scottish Government is working in partnership with local councils to deliver Bridging Payments. This innovative solution, which makes use of data available to local authorities, is enabling immediate support worth £520 in both 2021 and 2022 to be provided to as many children as possible. The Bridging Payments are made automatically for children of school age who receive Free School Meals on the basis of low income, reaching in the region of 150,000 children backed by investment of around £78 million a year.

In addition the Scottish Government has made £25 million of funding available to local authorities, as part of the £41 million Winter Support Fund, in order to tackle financial insecurity in their local areas. Scottish Government guidance , published in December 2021, encourages local authorities to utilise this funding to provide proactive financial assistance to those who may face hardship, including those not eligible for other support.

Question reference: S6W-05166

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people with learning difficulties and autism have died in inpatient units in Scotland since 2015.

Question reference: S6W-05376

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether funding is available for businesses for any damage caused by Storm Arwen, which is not covered by their insurance.

The Scottish Government has not provided direct or specific funding for businesses damaged by Storm Arwen.

I appreciate that the aftermath of Storm Arwen will have created difficult operating conditions for affected businesses. Information on available business support offered by public sector organisations can be found at the Find Business Support website - https://findbusinesssupport.gov.scot/

Following Storm Arwen, the Scottish Government activated the Bellwin Scheme to provide additional revenue support to local authorities to assist with immediate and unforeseen costs that meet the scheme’s qualifying criteria.

Question reference: S6O-00629

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting the care inspectorate in its role of inspecting and assessing care homes.

Question reference: S6W-05291

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04732 by Maree Todd on 8 December 2021, whether it will provide details of the composition of the Burial Regulations Working Group; whether the group met on 9 December 2021, and, if so, where the minutes of this and other meetings are published.

The Scottish Government reconvened the Burial Regulations Working Group (first established in 2016) on 9 December 2021 to continue work to develop burial regulations, as provided for in the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016.

At that meeting the Group reassessed the remit and membership of the Group, progress to date and the approach to take going forward.

The membership of the Group includes both public and private burial authorities, third sector organisations, special interest organisations and funeral sector trade organisations, ensuring views from across the sector are represented.

The Group agreed that the membership be expanded to the wider funeral sector, and invitations to join the Group are being sent to the identified parties. It would not be appropriate to share members’ details until the membership is agreed.

The minutes of the previous meeting will be published on the Scottish Government website once they have been cleared by the Group.

Question reference: S6W-05041

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much tax revenue has been raised from photovoltaic electricity generators subject to the contractor's basis valuation referred to in the Scottish Assessors Association (SAA)/Valuation Office Agency (VOA) Rating Lists Cost Guide 2017, in each year since 2017-18.

Question reference: S6W-05039

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is considering making eligible green plant and machinery, such as solar panels, wind turbines and battery storage that is used with renewables, exempt from non-domestic rates.

The Scottish Government currently provides the most generous non-domestic rates regime for renewable energy generation in the UK. Under the Valuation for Rating (Plant and Machinery) (Scotland) Regulations 2000, solar panels, wind turbines and storage batteries are already exempt from rating where they are used for the generation, storage, transformation or transmission of power, where the power is mainly or exclusively ‘for distribution for sale to consumers’.

The Scottish Budget 2022-23 will expand the Business Growth Accelerator relief for property improvements to include the installation of solar panels as a qualifying improvement. The Business Growth Accelerator is unique in the UK and provides 100% relief on new builds for up to 12 months after first occupation and no rates increases for 12 months after a qualifying property improvement.

Question reference: S6W-05040

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much was raised in non-domestic rates revenue in (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21 as a result of the Scottish Assessors Association's Practice Note 3, Valuation of Photovoltaic Electricity Generators.

Non-domestic properties in Scotland are valued by independent Scottish Assessors based on the law. A property’s rateable values reflects the valuation of the lands, heritages and any rateable plant and machinery, but is not disaggregated by component. Therefore the Scottish Government could not disaggregate the liability associated with the installation of a solar panel from the total rateable value of the property.

Under the Valuation for Rating (Plant and Machinery) (Scotland) Regulations 2000, solar panels, wind turbines and storage batteries are already exempt from rating where they are used for the generation, storage, transformation or transmission of power, where the power is mainly or exclusively ‘for distribution for sale to consumers’.

The Scottish Budget 2022-23 will expand the Business Growth Accelerator relief for property improvements to include the installation of solar panels as a qualifying improvement. The Business Growth Accelerator provides 100% relief on new builds for up to 12 months after first occupation, and no rates increases for 12 months after a qualifying property improvement.

Question reference: S6W-04947

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to start recoding data by NHS board area to capture information on community first responders, in order to understand local resource requirements and assist in the allocation of resources in response to, for example, the recent pressure on ambulance services and major environmental events, such as Storm Arwen.

The Scottish Ambulance Service does not record data on use of community first responder schemes (CFRs) by health board area but is fully aware of the volunteer resources available throughout the country to support operational delivery.

CFRs are highly valued by the Service and are a dedicated, motivated and valuable asset to the communities they serve. CFRs form an integral part of the Service’s response, particularly with instances of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests. They do. however, work to a clinically assured scope of practice, which is supported by appropriate training to complement, but not replace, the emergency ambulance response in particular circumstances.

During times of crisis and major events, such as storm Arwen, CFR volunteers, as members of local communities, may provide assistance to the relief efforts but they would do so as individuals and not as representatives of the ambulance service.