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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: S6T-00385

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will explain its decision to increase peak and off-peak regulated rail fares by 3.8%.

Question reference: S6T-00382

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address any workforce issues in social care, in light of comments from the Chief Executive of Scottish Care that the social care sector is facing the biggest workforce crisis it has ever experienced.

Question reference: S6W-05147

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the (a) UK Government and (b) insurance industry regarding (i) the issue of reimbursing COVID-19-related domestic trip cancellations and (ii) whether there is a need for consistency across providers.

At present there are no restrictions on domestic travel therefore no specific discussions have been tabled with the UK Government. The majority of domestic trips are able to go ahead however we are asking that people be cautious when travelling and choosing activities and we are strengthening some mitigating measures in some areas of the visitor and retail economy. The Scottish Government also continues to engage regularly with the UK Government in relation to support for the wider tourism and hospitality industry.

The regulation of insurance providers is a reserved matter and the Competition and Markets Authority may choose to engage if they believe there is a need for consistency across providers.

Question reference: S6W-04949

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04128 by Humza Yousaf on 30 November 2021, whether it will provide an update on its plans to display a person's COVID-19 booster vaccine status on the (a) paper vaccine certificate and (b) digital COVID passport.

Question reference: S6W-04989

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how convicted prisoners who identify as trans male or female are facilitated in the prison estate, and how many are currently held in each part of the prison estate, broken down by facility, prison or institution.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Decisions by the SPS as to the most appropriate location to accommodate transgender people are made on an individualised basis, informed by a multi-disciplinary assessment of both risk and need.

Such decisions seek to protect both the wellbeing and rights of the individual as well as the welfare and rights of others around them, including staff, in order to achieve an outcome that balances risks and promotes the safety of all.

As of 3 December 2021, there were 15 transgender individuals held across 10 prisons in Scotland. In order to avoid the potential indirect identification of individuals, it is not appropriate to disaggregate the data as requested.

Question reference: S6W-04990

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many calls have been made to the Dumb Dumpers phoneline in each year since 2014.

The following table outlines the number of calls made to the Dumb Dumpers hotline each year since 2014. As a result of the cyber attack experienced by SEPA, the Dumb Dumpers Hotline was down between 24 December 2020 and 27 June 2021.

During this time, the public were still able to report flytipping incidents through the online form on the Zero Waste Scotland website.

However, due to this cyber attack, we do not have access to Dumb Dumpers data between 1 November and 24 December 2020.

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020*	2021**
TOTAL CALLS	1556	1484	1743	1786	1773	1551	703	431

* Figures from 1 June 2020 to 30 October 2020

** Figures from 28 June 2021 to 30 November 2021

Question reference: S6W-04846

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the COVID-19 in Scotland dashboard does not include a specific indicator showing the number of long COVID cases.

The Scottish government does not include its long COVID estimates in the COVID-19 in Scotland dashboard, because they are instead published in the weekly Scottish Government Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic series of publications ( Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). The estimates reported in the weekly Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic series are based on data and simulation, so are inherently uncertain and therefore this weekly modelling report is the most appropriate location to publish them.

Estimates of the number of long COVID cases in Scotland are also generated by the Office for National Statistics ( Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) ). These estimates are caveated in a similar manner; “this is analysis of new, recently collected data, and our understanding of it and its quality will improve over time. Long COVID is an emerging phenomenon that is not yet fully understood. The estimates presented in this release are experimental statistics, which are a series of statistics that are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed.”

Question reference: S6W-04860

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04540 by Lorna Slater on 1 December 2021, whether it will provide a breakdown for each local authority of projected (a) cost savings, including how long it will be before those savings are fully realised in each case and (b) losses, as a result of the deposit return scheme.

As per the answer to S6W-04540 on 1 December 2021, we expect that 29 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities will incur a net financial benefit from the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). This figure is calculated for the first year in which the scheme target is set at 90%, so savings will be realised by 2025.

Local authorities are also expected to benefit from a reduction in the impact of litter, and from efficiencies to collection services following the implementation of DRS. Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) is engaging with the three local authorites currently projected to not to make savings, to explore how such efficiencies may be realised.

These results have been calculated based on commercially sensitive data shared with ZWS by individual local authorities in confidence. It would therefore not be appropriate to provide a breakdown of these results publicly.

Question reference: S6W-04957

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it will place oil and gas workers returning from Angola, who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and have a negative PCR test, on the quarantine exemption list, in line with the rest of the UK, and whether it will do this in time for the Christmas holiday season.

Question reference: S6W-04904

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has spent on mental health services in each year since 2018.