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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: S5O-04566

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available to the agricultural shows and fairs that have had to cancel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rural communities and charities that rely on the income these generate.

Question reference: S5W-31328

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 28 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when (a) voice tuition and (b) professional and recreational activities involving singing will be allowed to recommence.

Scottish Government guidance for the safe re-opening of performing arts was published on 21 August and is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-the-performing-arts-and-venues-sector/pages/overview/. Although venues remain closed to the public for the time being, the guidance - including important steps to take on physical distancing and hygiene - can now be used by professionals, and by people training for associated professional careers, for a range of activities so long as they do not involve a public audience indoors. Non-professional singers should only sing in groups outdoors, not indoors. Outdoor activities, including rehearsals and seated live events, have been allowed to re-commence from 24 August in accordance with physical distancing and hygiene guidance for events – available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-events-sector-guidance/ . The remaining restrictions on groups’ indoor singing will be kept under review as the scientific evidence about the risks of virus transmission from singing is developed.

Question reference: S5O-04548

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the minister for older people has had with the health secretary regarding allowing more visitors and increasing social interaction for older people who are self-isolating.

Question reference: S5W-31181

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 24 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to extend the NHS Highland Lyme App Project to other NHS boards.

Question reference: S5W-31031

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 July 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 24 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many visits the NHS Lyme disease webpage has had since it was created; how traffic is monitored on the website to measure its effectiveness of use; how it measures the effectiveness of the NHS Lyme disease webpage, and what data it can provide to show how it monitors this.

NHS inform is Scotland's national health information service, which aims to provide the people in Scotland with accurate and relevant information to help them make informed decisions about their own health and the health of the people they care for. The website contains two pages related to Lyme disease.

As at 13 August 2020, the main Lyme Disease page has had 343,421 views since 1 January 2017. An additional page, 'Avoiding bugs and germs outdoors', which also contains information relating to Lyme Disease, has had 12,525 views since 15 June 2017.

Additionally, the current Health Protection Scotland Lyme Disease web page went live on the 21 March 2019. Since that date, there have been 8328 visits to the page.

Both NHS inform and the HPS website use Google Analytics to collect information about how visitors use the websites. The Google Analytics data is used for trend analysis of traffic to the website.

Question reference: S5O-04501

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 August 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to re-engaging with the UK Government on plans for the UK internal market.

Question reference: S5W-30611

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 July 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve stroke thrombectomy services, and whether it will adopt a similar approach to that taken by the Republic of Ireland, which has reportedly devised a clear means of measuring their effectiveness, which is believed to be easily understood by the general public.

The Scottish Government is committed to introducing a thrombectomy service and recognises that thrombectomy procedures can significantly improve outcomes and quality of life for some people who have suffered an ischaemic stroke by avoiding or reducing the level of disability.

That is why the Programme for Government 2019/20 commits to ensuring that a national planning framework is in place for a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service.

Directors of Planning are currently developing a national framework for thrombectomy through the Thrombectomy Advisory Group, which the Scottish Government supports.

In order to support the work of the Thrombectomy Advisory Group and help deliver a thrombectomy service in Scotland, the Scottish Government has awarded over £800,000, including funding for the development of the necessary training programme in NHS Tayside. Investment will continue to be made available as the service is developed. We expect a thrombectomy service to be available in the North of Scotland region by Autumn 2020, with thrombectomy services based in Edinburgh from 2021, and rolling-out across Scotland from 2022.

Performance monitoring, data collection and measurement will be part of the Scottish Stroke Care Audit.

Question reference: S5W-30462

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 July 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider allowing beauty, spa and wellness services to reopen alongside hairdressers.

Question reference: S5W-30463

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 July 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide clarity to those in the beauty, spa and wellness sector on when they will be allowed to reopen their businesses.

Question reference: S5W-30545

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 July 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Education Scotland has not reportedly inspected over 34% of Aberdeenshire Council primary schools in the last 10 years or more; on what basis a school is selected to be inspected, and when the remaining 53 schools that have not been inspected will be timetabled.

In Scotland, overall responsibility for the quality of education and securing continuous improvement sits with the local authority. There is a three-level approach to evaluating and improving education: schools have a responsibility to evaluate their performance; local authorities have responsibility for the quality of education in their area; and the third level is external scrutiny activity carried out by HM Inspectors of Education.

Schools are selected for inspection each year on a proportionate basis, using a sampling approach and predetermined set criteria rather than a cyclical approach.

The sampling criteria takes account of the context and characteristics of the school; the type of school; deprivation; and balance across local authorities. Other factors including local circumstances as well as the length of time since the last inspection are also considered.

The timing of inspections of the remaining 53 schools within Aberdeenshire Council will be considered in line with the sampling approach that is used to determine which schools will be inspected in Scotland.

Education Scotland has significantly strengthened its scrutiny functions and increased the number of school inspections it carries out. In the academic year 2018-19 Education Scotland completed 252 school inspections, an increase of over 30% on the previous year. It has considerably increased the number of primary school inspections carried out in an academic year in the last five years, as shown below.

Academic Year	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Number of primary school inspections	97	100	120	142	201

Source: Education Scotland

In academic year 2019-20, Education Scotland had committed to carrying out in excess of 250 school inspections. This was on track to be achieved. However, the inspection programme was paused on 13 March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant that the programme for this academic year could not be completed as planned.