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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-19765

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the regulations governing the factoring of residential properties by private companies.

Scottish Ministers have a duty under the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 (the Act) to prepare, from time to time, a code of conduct setting out minimum standards of practice for registered property factors. The Code was introduced in October 2012 and is currently under review.

In accordance with the Act, Scottish Ministers have consulted on proposals to strengthen the Code. In addition, the consultation asked about the impact the Act had on improving the regulation of property factors. The findings of the consultation are published at: https://consult.gov.scot/housing-regeneration-and-welfare/code-of-conduct-for-registered-property-factors/ .

The findings are currently being used alongside other available evidence to inform whether changes to the Code and/or the Act should be brought forward to the Parliament for its consideration.

Question reference: S5O-02572

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Police Scotland regarding the reform of vetting procedures for recruitment to the police service.

Question reference: S5W-19373

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when the tumour profiling test for breast cancer patients, Oncotype DX, was made available for use by the NHS; which NHS boards offer this, and what information it has regarding the frequency of its use.

NHS Boards are responsible for providing services to meet the assessed needs of their resident populations, taking into account relevant frameworks and guidance and within their annual allocations. Limited data on the provision and frequency of Oncotype DX is held by Scottish Government, which is summarised in the following table.

Oncotype DX provision and frequency information by NHS Board held by Scottish Government

NHS Board	Date from which Oncotype DX was made available	Frequency of use
NHS Lothian	Unknown	33 patients up to end of 2017
NHS Fife	Since early 2017	Approximately 16 patients
NHS Borders	Unknown	No patients tested since it became available. This is due to patients who have met the criteria declining the test
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	From approximately 2015-2016	Unknown
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1 st April 2016	An average of 13 tests a month across all four west of Scotland health boards. A total of 409 tests between April 2016 and September 2018.
NHS Forth Valley	1 st April 2016
NHS Lanarkshire	1 st April 2016
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	1 st April 2016

Question reference: S5W-19550

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it expects to receive in Barnett consequentials from the reported £557 million that the UK Government is expected to raise from the auction of renewable energy licences, and how it will allocate this.

The UK Government confirmed on 11 th October 2018 that £557 million will be made available for less established renewable technologies to bid for in Contract for Difference (CfD) auctions. Developers will compete for this funding in CfD auctions to be held at regular 2 year intervals between Spring 2019 and 2025.

The CfD is funded through levies on electricity suppliers, and distributed to developers of renewable generators through competitive bids in to the CfD auction. It therefore does not generate any revenue for the UK Government that would then be redistributed via Barnett consequentials.

The CfD mechanism was introduced as part of the UK Government’s Electricity Market reform. It incentivises investment in low carbon generation by providing greater certainty and stability through reducing exposure to volatile wholesale prices, while protecting consumers from paying higher support costs when the electricity price is high. The UK Government recently announced that Remote Island Wind will be eligible to compete for CfDs in these auctions for the first time.

Generators who are successful at auction enter a contract with the Low Carbon Contracts Company Ltd (LCCC) – a private company, wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. Payments are then made either by LCCC to the generators, or vice versa, depending on whether the pre-agreed price for the electricity produced (the ‘strike price’) is greater or less than the average market price for electricity at the relevant point in time (the ‘reference price’).

Question reference: S5W-19549

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in (a) drama groups and (b) festivals in each local authority area in each of the last three years.

The Scottish Government recognises the pivotal role that culture and creativity plays in people’s lives across Scotland and, whilst it does not directly fund drama groups or festivals through local authorities, it provides funding to Creative Scotland to support Scotland’s largest cultural festivals and its theatres:

Over £21m since 2008 through the EXPO fund, with £6m of that in the past 3 years. Since last year the EXPO Fund has been opened to Celtic Connections in Glasgow.
In addition 2018-19 will be the first year of the Platform for Excellence programme (PLaCE) to support proposals for strategic development activity across Edinburgh’s festivals, which include looking at ways in which to widen the benefits and reach of the Edinburgh Festivals to the rest of Scotland. Scottish Government will contribute an additional £5 million over the next 5 years to PLaCE.
The Edinburgh Festival’s The Network Effect Report, published in July of this year, found that the Edinburgh Festivals create a ‘halo effect’ bringing global recognition of Scotland as a home for culture which gives both cultural organisations and audiences pride and confidence across the whole of the country.
Through Creative Scotland’s Regular Funding Network we have also provided over £22m in the past 3 years to theatres that support drama initiatives and encourage engagement in education, learning and outreach activities.
Creative Scotland and Event Scotland also support cultural festivals and festivals more generally.

The Scottish Government continues to support cultural activities across Scotland with an increase of almost 10% culture funding this year despite UK Government cuts.

Question reference: S5W-19377

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 12 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) support and (b) guidance it provides to (i) NHS boards, (ii) local authorities and (iii) health and social care partnerships that work with external partners to provide alcohol and drug addiction services.

The Scottish Government provides over £70 million funding per year, to support NHS Boards and Integrated Joint Boards, for use by Alcohol and Drug Partnerships that work with external partners to provide alcohol and drug services. The Scottish Government also provides data, evidence and performance indicators to support this work. This support includes regularly updated information and intelligence about problem alcohol and drug use and their consequences.

By way of guidance, the Scottish Government and CoSLA set out a framework in 2009 for local partnerships on alcohol and drugs. Further guidance is provided through Scotland’s alcohol and drug strategies.

Question reference: S5W-19376

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 12 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has contingency funding set aside to provide emergency support to alcohol and drug addiction service providers.

NHS Boards receive a baseline budget from the Scottish Government to provide health services for their local population. A proportion of this funding will be used to support alcohol and drug addiction services.

We have invested over £746 million to tackle problem drug and alcohol use since 2008. This financial year we have provided a further £20 million (per annum for the lifetime of this Parliament) to improve the provision and quality of services for those with substance misuse issues.

The total financial resource available to services in any given year will be significantly higher than the Scottish Government’s funding and includes contributions from NHS and other statutory partners across a range of provision.

Question reference: S5W-19551

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 2 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the consultation, Building Standards Compliance and Fire Safety, what plans it has to reduce the threshold whereby people need to notify neighbours of building work of £50,000 or less.

Neighbour notification is not a requirement of building standards legislation. As such the Building Standards Compliance and Fire Safety review consultation makes no reference to this.

Whilst neighbour notification is a requirement regarding applications for planning permission, there are no monetary thresholds in that regard. There are no plans at present for changes to the planning requirements for neighbour notification.

Question reference: S5W-19548

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 2 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the training of court reporters.

I assume the member is referring to child welfare reporters, appointed by the courts to report on the welfare of the child in cases under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 on matters such as parental responsibilities and rights, contact and residence. The Scottish Government has recently consulted on a review of the 1995 Act: https://consult.gov.scot/family-law/children-scotland-act/ Paragraphs 2.54 to 2.75 discussed Child Welfare Reporters, including training, and question 4 asked about the best future arrangements for child welfare reporters. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation, before deciding on next steps. Programme for Government 2018-19 confirmed that a Family Law Bill will be introduced in 2018-19: https://beta.gov.scot/programme-for-government/

Question reference: S5W-19386

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that seven NHS boards will change their chief executives in the next year, and how many boards currently (a) have a chief executive in post, (b) are recruiting a chief executive and (c) have an interim chief executive in post.

Appropriate leadership is in place in all 22 of our NHS Boards. Every Board currently has a chief executive, with two operating on an interim basis. The recruitment process for one of those posts is underway, whilst arrangements to recruit to the other post will begin early in 2019. There are a further five Boards that will be changing their chief executives in the next six months. Of these, two have already appointed successful candidates and the recruitment processes for the remaining three are underway.