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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: S5F-04649

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 December 2020

To ask the First Minister what support is being offered to food and drink businesses in Scotland to prepare for Brexit.

Question reference: S5O-04802

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting community organisations across Dumfries and Galloway to help the most vulnerable people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S5W-33074

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it last reviewed the role of clinical nurse specialists; what its findings were, and what future reviews it plans.

The role of the clinical nurse specialist was last reviewed in 2019-early 2020 under the Chief Nursing Officer Programme for Transforming Nursing roles, however this work was paused to allow us to focus on our response to the Covid 19 pandemic. We have recently restarted elements of this work and the Transforming Roles Specialist Nursing paper will be published as soon as we are in a position to do so.

Question reference: S5O-04795

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce in NHS Dumfries and Galloway an equivalent of the Highlands and Islands travel scheme, which allows patients to receive full, non-means tested reimbursement for travel for medical appointments over 30 miles.

Question reference: S5W-33244

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 November 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 16 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to NHS boards across Scotland to prioritise patients waiting for elective care.

Whilst we are working to maintain as much non COVID-19 healthcare activity as we safely can, that will inevitably be affected by the degree to which the virus is suppressed. Consequently, given our Strategic Framework approach and the differing levels of virus prevalence we are seeing across the country, we need to give our clinicians and Board flexibility to manage the demands on activity in this continuing emergency situation.

As outlined in the NHS Winter Preparedness Plan published on 28 October, I am today publishing the Framework for the Clinical Prioritisation of Elective Care: https://www.gov.scot/publications/supporting-elective-care-clinical-prioritisation-framework

The Framework provides NHS Boards with clear guidance for prioritising elective care ensuring appropriate COVID-19 safety and priority measures are in place.

NHS Boards will follow the Framework to categorise patients into four levels of urgency based on their particular clinical condition. This clinically based prioritisation will determine the timeframe within which patients will be seen and treated, ensuring that patients with the greatest clinical need are treated quickest.

The Framework sits alongside section 8(3) and (4) of the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 which continues to require NHS Boards to take all reasonably available steps to ensure they are compliant with the treatment time guarantee (TTG). These steps include appropriately prioritising the start of the patient's treatment taking account of their clinical needs, and the clinical needs of other eligible patients, in accordance with the treatment time guarantee.

Implementation of the Framework will ensure patients have a clear and realistic expectation of when they will receive their treatment that is clinically appropriate to their individual circumstances. This is especially important at the current time as the NHS manages the demand pressures of winter, responding to COVID-19 and delivering non COVID-19 healthcare. We will also take steps to ensure that patients receive clear and timely communication with respect to their planned procedure.

The Framework has been developed with senior clinical leadership from the Deputy Chief Medical Officer and senior clinical representation from across Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-32607

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports of some people waiting up to five days for COVID-19 test results from the Lighthouse Labs Network, what plans it has to provide access to faster test results, including through NHS Scotland laboratories, for (a) NHS and (b) other frontline staff in order to reduce the length of time that such staff are unable to work due to self-isolation.

The Scottish Government is aware that in recent weeks people have experienced a number of problems with the testing system, including being unable to book tests/obtain home testing kits; being offered testing slots far from their homes and/or experiencing delays in receiving the results of tests they have taken.

We are working to increase overall testing capacity in Scotland by:

Deploying additional mobile testing units.
Increasing the number of tests that can be carried out at regional testing centres.
Utilising additional NHS testing capacity, for example by activating additional drive-through facilities.
Establishing 22 new walk-through centres (Local Test Sites) across Scotland.

We are engaging closely with universities, health boards and local authorities to deliver these local test sites (LTSs), which are designed to meet the needs of people who do not have access to a car. 11 Local Testing Sites (in St Andrews, Glasgow city centre, west Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, West Dunbartonshire, Stirling, Dundee, Sighthill in west Edinburgh, Inverness and Inverclyde) are now operational.

We have made testing a priority for care home staff so we are currently migrating the routine testing of care home staff into NHS Scotland labs.

Three new regional hubs will open during November and December and when fully functional will provide at least an additional 22,000 tests per day for NHS Scotland. The hubs will be used in the first instance to process care home staff testing and provide capacity and resilience to health boards throughout the winter and beyond.

Question reference: S5W-32920

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 October 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to add new conditions to the shielding list as new evidence arises.

At the outset of the pandemic, the four Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) published a list of six groups where people would be considered to be at the highest clinical risk from COVID-19.

The initial approach was based on best evidence at the time. We are committed to following the evidence and we have refined the shielding criteria as new evidence emerges.

For this reason the 4 UK CMOs considered data from a new study recently published (QCOVID model - https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3731 ) and based on evidence agreed to include to the shielding list people aged 18 and over with Down’s Syndrome and patients with Chronic Kidney Disease stage 5.

Letters will be issued as soon as possible to those people affected to inform them that they will be added to the shielding list and to explain what it means for them.

Question reference: S5O-04715

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how the Scotland Loves Local campaign will support and encourage community shopping.

Question reference: S5W-32521

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on trades people’s ability to enter private homes, combined with loss of earnings, whether it will consider a one-year delay to the implementation of the amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Act (1987) that requires home owners to pay an average of £220 by February 2021 to comply with the new fire safety regulations.

Yes. Improving fire safety remains a key priority for the Scottish Government, and our intention is that everyone should benefit from the same level of protection, whether you own your home or rent from a social or private landlord. However, the Scottish Government recognises the challenges, due to COVID-19, that affect home owners and the work needed to meet the new safety standards for fire and smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. Therefore I intend to bring forward regulations shortly which, subject to Parliamentary approval, will amend the commencement date for new minimum standards to 1 February 2022.

Question reference: S5W-32109

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason, and based on what evidence, it changed its tourism guidance on 23 September 2020 to disallow two households with less than six adults from staying in self-catering accommodation.

The nation currently risks exponential growth of the coronavirus. This grave situation has necessitated tough decisions, including the single household restrictions being applied to self-catering premises in line with other private settings such as within homes. Evidence from Test and Protect has indicated that the mixing of different households in homes is one of the main ways the virus is spreading. The position is clear - we need to reduce the level of interaction in unregulated spaces to drive down transmission and suppress the virus. Improving public health will also help provide longer-term stability for the industry.