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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-04316

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports of increased waiting times at A&E in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

As with other parts of Scotland, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has faced unprecedented pressures over recent weeks. This has brought many unexpected challenges which are resulting in some patients waiting longer than necessary.

To help alleviate these pressures, we announced a substantial new investment of over £300 million in hospital and community care to support the NHS and social care system over winter. The will support a range of measures to maximise capacity in our hospitals and primary care, reduce delayed discharges, improve pay for social care staff, and ensure those in the community who need support receive effective and responsive care.

As part of our work to maximise capacity for winter, we are investing £10 million to support two new specialist programmes – Interface Care and Discharge without Delay - to support improved processes that ensure patients are discharged as soon as they are medically fit, avoiding unnecessary delays in hospital and ensure alternatives to admission.

Additionally, earlier this month I announced an additional £10 million winter funding which aims to ease pressures in A&E departments and minimise delays that patients are currently experiencing when they need urgent care. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde received £2.1 million of this funding.

We continue to meet regularly with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to discuss their local improvement plan.

Question reference: S6W-04306

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many recorded incidents of bicycle theft there have been in the Inverclyde Council area in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S6W-04290

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much will be distributed to victims groups from the next round of funding applications to the Victim Surcharge Fund.

Question reference: S6W-04317

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports of increased waiting times at A&E in NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

The NHS is under extreme pressure due to the pandemic and NHS Ayrshire and Arran, like all Health Boards, is experiencing significant issues, including workforce challenges and high levels of delayed discharge.

To minimise pressures, last month I announced an additional £300 million package of measures to support health and care services. Over and above this and to maximise capacity during winter, we have invested £10 million in two new specialist programmes which aim to provide alternatives to admission and improve processes to ensure timely discharge.

Earlier this month I also announced further funding of £10 million to support Health Boards maintain resilience throughout winter by putting in place a range of measures including ensuring appropriate levels of staffing are in place across the system to facilitate efficient and effective patient care; enhancing front door teams to undertake assessments and avoid admissions, as well as enhancing pharmacists to rapidly respond to referrals and prepare timely discharge medications. NHS Ayrshire and Arran received £715,000 of this funding.

Myself and my senior officials have been meeting regularly with the Executive team at NHS Ayrshire and Arran to agree the immediate actions that will support improvements and minimise delays for patients. We have agreed with the Board a series of actions including a Short Life Working Group which specifically focuses on reducing the number of long delays and the length of time people spend in hospital.

Question reference: S6W-04435

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many instances of sheep worrying have been recorded in North Ayrshire in each year since 2019.

Information on cases of sheep worrying is not held centrally in the format requested.

Information is available on the number of offences recorded by Police Scotland under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 – which relates to dogs worrying livestock on agricultural land (table below). However, as this legislation applies to all forms of livestock, these figures are not available for specific types of animal.

Table 1: Offences of Protection of Livestock from Dogs, North Ayrshire, 2018-19 to 2020-21.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
North Ayrshire	3	3	7

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2020-21.

Question reference: S6W-04436

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on repairs to the entire CalMac fleet in each calendar year since 2018.

We recognise the key role that ferry services play in supporting the economic, social and cultural development of island and remote mainland communities. We continue to invest in maintenance of the current ferry fleet, alongside our programme of new build and port investments.

The maintenance costs for the CalMac fleet in the period of the request are as follows.

Contract Year	1	2	3	4	5
	Oct 16-Sept 17	Oct 17-Sept 18	Oct 18-Sept 19	Oct 19-Sept 20	Oct 20-Sept 21
	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
TOTAL	14,063	18,254	15,723	18,359	17,262

The figures include all maintenance and repair costs including costs of annual dry-docks from the year 2018.

Question reference: S6W-04253

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its current estimate is of the number of people who have been trafficked into Scotland or are being held against their will through acts of modern slavery.

Human trafficking is a hidden and often complex crime. Accurately assessing the scale of the problem in Scotland and beyond is challenging, although a range of estimates exist around the prevalence of the issue, both in the UK and globally.

Data on the number of trafficking victims in Scotland is drawn from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The NRM is the UK-wide framework for identifying potential victims of trafficking and ensuring they receive appropriate support and assistance.

Information from the NRM is released by the Home Office Single Competent Authority quarterly and in an end of year summary. Data relating to 2020 and 2021 can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-referral-mechanism-statistics .

Question reference: S6F-00519

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 November 2021

To ask the First Minister what discussions have taken place between the Scottish Government and the postal and banking sectors regarding the continued access to everyday services, particularly for rural, digitally excluded and vulnerable consumers.

Question reference: S6W-04342

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people it estimates are awaiting dental treatment as a result of the reported backlog in (a) North Ayrshire and (b) Inverclyde.

Question reference: S6W-04245

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many solicitors it and its directorates directly employ, and what the average salary is for those roles, broken down by bandings related to seniority or other factors.

The Scottish Government currently directly employs the following number of solicitors, set out below by pay band/grade. SCS - Director is the most senior grade with legal trainees being the most junior grade. It should be noted that there are other individuals who may be qualified solicitors employed in non-legal roles in policy/operational directorates across the Scottish Government but that information is not centrally known or held.

Directorate for Legal Services

Grade	Total Headcount
SCS - Director	1
SCS - Deputy Director	12
C3	4
C2	52
C1	142
Legal Trainee	13
Total	223

Parliamentary Counsel Office

Grade	Total Headcount
SCS - Director	1
SCS - Deputy Director	8
C3	2
C2	3
C1	9
Total	23

The Scottish Government average annual salaries (full time equivalent) for 2021 – 22, for each pay band, are shown in the following table:

Grade	Annual average salary (full time equivalent) per band
SCS - Director	£102,980
SCS - Deputy Director	£81,259
C3	£76,060
C2	£69,044
C1	£55,181
Legal Trainee	£27,704

Financial year	Number of crimes
2016-17	26
2017-18	21
2018-19	6
2019-20	19
2020-21	15