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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-02566

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 15 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the local government financial settlement on public services.

In 2018-19 councils will receive funding through the local government finance settlement of £10.7 billion. This provides a real terms increase in both revenue and capital funding for public services.

The impact of the settlement on public services will depend on how local authorities have allocated the total resources available to them and the level of service they then provide. While local authorities are responsible for setting their own budgets, the total funding they have available has increased by almost £342 million in 2018-19.

Question reference: S5W-19218

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much compensation in excess of £500,000 has been paid by the NHS to settle (a) catastrophic personal injury and (b) medical negligence claims in each year since 2012-13.

The following table sets out the total value of claims where the award payment was in excess of £500,000.

Financial year settled	Total Award (including Compensation Recovery Unit)
2012-2013	£ 17,690,954
2013-2014	£ 23,453,130
2014-2015	£ 25,923,402
2015-2016	£ 26,585,941
2016-2017	£ 7,144,768
2017-2018	£ 10,564,114
2018-2019	£ 6,798,383

All but one claim relates to clinical negligence. This claim cannot be set out individually as in doing so it may be possible to identify the claimant.

In addition, data held centrally under NHS Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS) does not distinguish as to whether there is catastrophic personal injury and as such this information cannot be set out separately.

The NHS CNORIS annual report provides details of the scheme along with summary details of the number and value of claims made during the financial year and historical values. The annual reports are published online at: https://clo.scot.nhs.uk/our-services/cnoris/frequently-asked-questions.aspx

Question reference: S5W-19219

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much compensation in excess of £500,000 has been paid by (a) it and (b) its agencies to settle (a) catastrophic personal injury claims in each year since 2012-13.

Question reference: S5W-19214

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many compensation claims against (a) it, (b) its agencies, (c) the NHS and (d) local authorities for catastrophic personal injury have been settled using (i) periodical payment orders since 28 March 2017 and (ii) the discount rate in each year since 2012-13.

There have been no such claims settled against the Scottish Government and its agencies.

Since March 2017, there have been two cases settled by periodical payment order under the NHS Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS). Where a settlement is agreed as a one-off payment, data held centrally under CNORIS does not distinguish as to whether there is catastrophic personal injury, future care costs or if the discount rate has been applied. As such, the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost by manual review of all hardcopy and electronic case files.

Local Authorities are independent corporate entities and separate from the Scottish Government. As such, information on claims made against Local Authorities is not held centrally by the Scottish Government and the information requested would require to be obtained from each Local Authority.

Question reference: S5W-19220

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much compensation claims against (a) it, (b) its agencies, (c) the NHS and (d) local authorities will increase by following the decision to set the discount rate at -0.75%, effective from 28 March 2017; how much will be required to be set aside to meet these claims, and what additional funding it will provide to assist with payment.

On Local Authorities, the Scottish Government and its agencies, I refer the member to the answers to questions S5W-19214 and S5W-19218 on 8 November 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

NHS board payments and provisions relating to the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme are set out in board accounts and in the Scottish Government consolidated accounts which are publicly available online on the boards’ and Scottish Government websites, respectively.

Question reference: S5O-02460

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action the health secretary is taking to support those most vulnerable to the effects of winter weather.

Question reference: S5O-02448

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 4 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with local authorities in the Highlands and Islands in advance of setting council budgets for the coming year.

Question reference: S5W-18412

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 24 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications were made to the New Entrants Capital Grants scheme in each year since its introduction, also broken down by local authority, and how this compared with the number of (a) spaces available and (b) successful applications.

With regards ‘spaces available’ I refer to my reply to S5W-18409 on 24 September 2018.

In relation to comparing the number of applications made with the number that were successful, no direct correlation can be made as some applications made in one FY may not complete the assessment process until the following FY. What can be said is, over the course of the programme (to date), 882 have been made, 772 have been processed and a decision issued to the applicant and, of these, 597 were approved contracts. This means the rate for applications to the scheme failing to realise an approved contract sits at 22.7%.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-18410

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 24 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications were received for support under the New Entrants Capital Grants scheme in each year since its introduction, also broken down by local authority.

Please see the following table with the requested information. Note these details are

held by Area Office, not by Local Authority, and
held by financial year, not by calendar year.

	Year
Area Office	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018 to July ‘18
Ayr	36	40	1	18
Benbecula	0	2	43	0
Dumfries	35	28	6	17
Elgin	7	3	22	0
Galashiels	24	14	2	10
Golspie	10	0	19	3
Hamilton	15	18	27	8
Inverness	25	20	17	15
Inverurie	29	16	23	6
Kirkwall	22	25	50	19
Lerwick	0	1	2	0
Oban	15	22	5	2
Perth	28	21	16	7
Portree	0	1	8	3
Stornoway	0	0	0	0
Thurso	9	22	27	18

Question reference: S5W-18406

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 24 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what total budget was available for the New Entrants Capital Grant Scheme in each year since its introduction.

The New Entrants Capital Grant Scheme (NECGS) is part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme 2014-20, which originally assumed £20 million of support for Young Farmer New Entrants and New Entrants more generally across the programme life. This included an indicative budget for the NECGS of £12 million and £8 million of support for Young Farmer and New Entrant business start-ups.

In 2017, the Scottish Government increased the total Young Farmer/New Entrant package to £22 million and revised the indicative scheme budgets (£8 million for NECGS and £14 million for business start-ups) to reflect the importance attached to helping young people in particular enter the agricultural sector.

The additional funding put into the schemes has enabled support to be provided to over 250 new businesses and at least 600 capital projects.