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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: S5W-34588

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 22 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) bills, (b) regulations and (c) consultations it has postponed since March 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19, broken down by portfolio area.

In order to respond to the unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government has since March 2020 re-prioritised its legislative programme to ensure that Government resources and Parliamentary time could be freed up to respond to the implications for Scotland of the global pandemic.

As previously set out to Parliament, the re-prioritisation process led to the following Bills being postponed:

Name of Bill	Portfolio
Transient Visitor Levy	Finance
Good Food Nation	Rural Economy & Tourism
Circular Economy	Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform
Moveable Transactions	Justice
Gender Recognition	Social Security and Older People
Fox Hunting	Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform
Restricting Foods Promotions	Health & Sport

The programme of Government SSIs was also re-profiled during 2020 to free up Government and Parliamentary resources for the COVID-19 response. However, that re-profiling exercise has now been completed and all necessary SSIs have been brought forward.

Information on consultations that may have been postponed as a consequence of COVID-19 is not held centrally. The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S5W-34589

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 21 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the responses from local authority stakeholders to the consultation on short-term lets, whether it will provide grants or loans to councils to assist with the costs of setting up a licensing scheme, and how many have (a) requested and (b) indicated that they might require additional funding.

Local authorities will be able to charge fees to cover the cost of establishing and running their short-term lets licensing scheme. The Scottish Government has no plans to provide grants or loans to local authorities to do so.

A total of 23 local authorities responded to the Short Term Lets: Consultation on a licensing scheme and planning control areas in Scotland (14 September 2020); see www.gov.scot/publications/short-term-lets/ for the consultation paper and report. Three of those responses expressed the opinion that the Scottish Government should provide grant or loan funding to support the establishment of the licensing scheme. Outside of the consultation, no formal requests for additional funding have been received.

Question reference: S5O-04959

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the support being provided to businesses that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S5O-04916

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in tackling fly-tipping.

Question reference: S5O-04873

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on closing the attainment gap between pupils from the most and least deprived backgrounds.

Question reference: S5O-04854

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to the courts system to allow criminal jury trials to proceed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S5O-04759

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it is providing to the UK Government with its review of transport infrastructure.

Question reference: S5W-32967

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 11 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to extend free dental treatment to women for a year after the birth of their child, in light of the impact of COVID-19 on accessing treatment.

Question reference: S5W-32792

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether the system that is currently being used for the roll-out of the flu vaccination programme will also be used for the roll-out of a COVID-19 vaccine once one is available.

Eligibility and prioritisation decision will be based on clinical evidence and we will be guided by the JCVI which provides independent advice on immunisation, including on the efficacy and safety of vaccines and priority groups to be vaccinated.

We are taking a different approach for a COVID-19 programme, incorporating learning from this year's seasonal flu delivery. We are developing a national plan for COVID-19 where delivery models will be determined nationally, in consultation with Health Boards. In terms of systems for calling people in for appointments, we are investigating how we can use the digital infrastructure developed for contact tracing to support a more effective and efficient means of scheduling appointments.

Question reference: S5W-32229

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the scientific and medical evidence on which the most recent COVID-19 restrictions are based.