- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Aileen Campbell on 22 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether section 80(b) of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 requires the constitution of a community-owned group to state that the group must comprise 20 trustees; what the reasons are for such a requirement, and whether it has any plans to review any such requirement.
Answer
To make an asset transfer request for ownership, a Community Controlled Body must be incorporated as a company, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation or a BenCom (Community Benefit Company). The Body’s constitution, Articles of Association, or registered rules must include a minimum of 20 members and provision for transfer of its assets on winding up. This is in order to ensure that the remaining property is transferred to another body with similar structures and aims. There are no current plans to review this requirement which is set out in section 80 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.
To make an asset transfer request for lease or other rights (such as management) the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 does not require a community transfer body to be incorporated and it does not stipulate a minimum of 20 members. This is because the property remains in the ownership of the relevant authority.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 27 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what additional support is being provided to teachers to support pupils with additional needs.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 27 January 2021
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether police officers will be included on the priority list for COVID-19 vaccinations.
Answer
The Scottish Government are following the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Guidance in the planning of vaccine delivery. This evidence based guidance advises that the single greatest risk of mortality from COVID-19 is increasing age, and that the risk increases exponentially with age. Additionally the committee considers frontline health and social care workers who provide direct care to vulnerable people a high priority for vaccination.
Currently there is no sectoral prioritisation of any workers other than frontline health and social care workers. This is because we don’t know if the vaccine prevents spread, but it does reduce the harm to those most at risk should they catch the virus. Individual members of the police force as with other occupations will be called forward for vaccination according to their position on the priority list, if they are eligible within the JCVI Cohorts.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 20 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the information in its publication, Wildlife crime in Scotland: 2019 annual report, whether it will provide further information on (a) the outcome of the offence in relation to freshwater peal mussels during 2018-19 and (b) what measures and actions are being taken to protect freshwater pearl mussels in Scotland.
Answer
(a) This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government or Police Scotland.
(b) Freshwater pearl mussels are a UK wildlife crime priority species, with a dedicated sub-group within the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) Scotland. Their work includes projects to install cameras on freshwater pearl mussel colonies considered to be at high risk from criminal activity, deterrent signage at key locations and awareness-raising activities including joint river patrols between Police Scotland and local fishery boards.
In addition, Police Scotland have held training and awareness days for officers on threats to freshwater pearl mussels.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 13 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider removing casinos from the list of businesses required to close in areas subject to Level 2 COVID-19 restrictions.
Answer
The overall package of measures within each level of the Strategic Framework is designed to suppress the virus as far as possible whilst minimising broader harms. The Scottish Government will keep the protective measures in all levels under review to ensure that they remain necessary and proportionate to address the ongoing public health emergency. The new COVID-19 variant means the level of the virus overall is much higher than we need it to be and therefore restrictions have had to be strengthened.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has been made of electric vehicle charging installations that require upgrading; what its plans are to ensure that all electric vehicles will be compatible with the new second generation electric vehicle charging devices, and what assessment it has made to certify that all existing first generation electric vehicle chargers will be retrofitted to ensure compatibility and improve recharge speed.
Answer
The Scottish Government has invested over £32m in public charging infrastructure, throughout the country, to build a diverse vehicle charging network (ChargePlace Scotland); in close collaboration with Scotland’s Local Authorities. Scotland has one of the most comprehensive EV charging networks in Europe, with consumers benefiting from a variety of developments in charging technologies, including rapid chargers and contactless payments.
Funding is continuing to be made available to ensure the network is upgraded where appropriate and fit-for-purpose. We are also supporting innovation in the sector, through initiatives such as Project Pace, a joint project with Scottish Power networks to deliver state of the art electric vehicle charging in a way that also optimises investment in the electricity grid.
The electric vehicle market is evolving quickly, with increasing opportunities for commercial investors and new business models to support the deployment of emerging technologies, which we will continue to encourage alongside our own investments in ChargePlace Scotland.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 12 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities were chosen to participate in its Autism Strategy Evaluation; what the criteria were for choosing these local authorities, and whether unselected local authorities can request to be included in the evaluation.
Answer
The Scottish Government commissioned Blake Stevenson to carry out the independent evaluation of the Scottish Autism Strategy.
Blake Stevenson plan to hold workshops in local authorities to evaluate the impact of the strategy at local level. The local authority areas invited were proposed by Blake Stevenson’s independent research team though a desk-based review to include a balanced representation of geographical areas across Scotland.
Local authorities participating in the evaluation are as follows:
1. North Lanarkshire
2. Fife
3. Edinburgh
4. Highland
5. East Dunbartonshire
6. Midlothian
7. Dumfries & Galloway
8. Glasgow
9. Area yet to be confirmed.
If any unselected local authority wants to participate in the evaluation then they should contact Blake Stevenson, directly. The evaluation will be published in May 2021.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33586 by Joe FitzPatrick on 7 December 2020, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding how many people who have died as a result of COVID-19 since 1 September 2020 had a post mortem.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information.
Authorised post-mortem examinations are undertaken for deaths in hospitals by NHS Boards, where the cause of death is unknown, to establish the medical cause of death. Requests for information on hospital post-mortems should be made to NHS Boards.
Post mortems are also undertaken under the direction of the Procurator Fiscal (PF) for relevant cases as part of the investigation into death. This is a matter for the Lord Advocate. Requests for information on PF post-mortems should be made to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS)
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much additional funding care homes will receive to support them with plans for expanding COVID-19 testing for care home visitors, following the announcement on 25 November 2020 that testing for visitors will be introduced from 7 December, with a full roll-out planned for January 2021.
Answer
The Scottish Government will provide the necessary funding across health and care services to recognise the additional costs of responding to COVID-19, to support remobilisation of services, and to ensure that patient and staff safety remains the top priority at all times.
We have extending asymptomatic testing for designated visitors as an added measure alongside PPE and Infection Prevention Control. We are distributing testing kits, and associated training, to all care homes across Scotland.
In addition, we have allocated a total of £150 million this year to support care homes with the additional requirements of PPE, testing and safety reporting.
Our Winter Plan recognises that to ensure winter preparedness this year, that additional resources will be required and the Plan is being supported by further funding of up to £112 million. We are working with COSLA, and wider partners, immediately on effective allocation of this funding through mechanisms that promote additionality of services and value for money.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 30 November 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what measures are being taken to validate positive polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 tests with an initial value greater than 25, such as a retest after 48 hours and assuming a false positive if the cycle threshold is greater than the index sample.
Answer
NHS Scotland Laboratories have a protocol in place to carry out confirmation testing (or repeat testing) in certain circumstances to confirm whether low positive test results should be reported as positive or negative. NHS Scotland Labs have instigated a method for ensuring veracity of low positive results and can be found at the following link: -
https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/covid-19-guidance-for-sampling-and-laboratory-investigations
UK Government Laboratories (Lighthouse) also have similar quality procedure systems in place to minimise false positives but are unable to repeat test low positive results.
