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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: S6W-04751

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to extend the concessionary travel scheme to include free rail travel for under-22s as part of the nationalised ScotRail fares strategy.

Question reference: S6W-04830

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people have been matched with an adopter via Scotland’s Adoption Register in each year since 2011.

Question reference: S6W-04834

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that adverse risk to patient care is being avoided in NHS Highland.

Safety is at the heart of everything we do and the Scottish Government wants everyone in Scotland to receive the best possible care and treatment from our health and care services. Along with NHS Scotland, the Scottish Government has a shared vision for an open and learning culture and we want to learn when there has been dissatisfaction or harm and encourage organisations to identify improvements.

Our commitment to this is strongly demonstrated in the development of our approach to openness and learning in the introduction of the statutory Organisational duty of Candour legislation, and in our commission to Healthcare Improvement Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland to work together on a Joint Commission to make this a reality.

A number of reviews and processes are in scope for the Joint Commission, which will seek to take a human factors/ safety science approach to minimising duplication and reducing variation in review processes as well as supporting and upskilling staff in leading and taking part in these.

NHS Health Boards are responsible for delivering safe, effective, person-centred care at a local level, which includes leading on learning and improvement in areas of challenge and to drive quality; creating an environment that values staff and supports them when concerns are raised; and monitoring and improving the quality of health care which is provides to individuals. The Scottish Government and NHS Health Boards work closely together to ensure local policies and processes are implemented and improved in line with national policy and frameworks.

Question reference: S6W-04836

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the pressure that existing NHS staff are reportedly under in carrying out their day-to-day responsibilities, how it is ensuring that mandatory staff training is provided to newly recruited staff.

The Staff Governance Standard, which has legislative underpinning, requires all health Boards to demonstrate that they are ensuring that staff are appropriately trained and developed and that resources, including time and funding, are appropriately allocated to meet local training and development needs taking into account the current priorities of both the service and service users.

Boards are expected to have systems in place to identify areas that require improvement and to develop action plans that will describe how improvements will be made. The Scottish Government also seek assurance from all Boards that they are meeting the Standard through the annual Staff Governance Monitoring exercise.

Question reference: S6W-04872

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the anticipated timescale is for the electrification of the Maryhill railway line in Glasgow.

Our Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan requires a rolling programme of electrification to meet its target date of 2035. We continue to make good progress, including the current electrification work on the Barrhead and East Kilbride routes. Early development work for further routes is currently underway as part of our project pipeline approach and we will make further announcements on these at an appropriate stage of development.

Question reference: S6W-04802

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will publish its annual report on the Victims’ Right to Review Scheme for 2020-21.

Question reference: S6W-04810

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) target and (b) actual average timescale has been for assessing applications for grant assistance to deliver affordable housing above Affordable Housing Investment Benchmark level, in each quarter since Q1 2016.

The Scottish Government does not set a target timescale for assessing applications for grant assistance to deliver affordable housing above the applicable affordable housing investment benchmark level.

Using information from our Housing and Regeneration Programme system (HARP), we have compiled the following table showing the average calendar days from the initial tender application submission date to the actual tender approval date for those projects submitted at above benchmark level over the period Quarter 3 2017-18 to Quarter 2 2021-22. It should be noted, however, that while we encourage early engagement on likely project costs prior to tender applications being submitted, there can be instances where applications have missing information or require further, more detailed work by the grant applicant before they can be fully assessed.

Financial year quarter	Total projects approved above the applicable benchmark	Average time between the initial tender submission and the actual approval date
Financial year quarter	Total projects approved above the applicable benchmark	(calendar days)
2016-17 Q1	5	Data not available
2016-17 Q2	7	Data not available
2016-17 Q3	20	Data not available
2016-17 Q4	45	Data not available
2016-17 Total/ Average	77	Data not available
2017-18 Q1	16	Data not available
2017-18 Q2	14	Data not available
2017-18 Q3	14	22
2017-18 Q4	41	19
2017-18 Total/ Average	85	20
2018-19 Q1	10	41
2018-19 Q2	13	30
2018-19 Q3	22	33
2018-19 Q4	47	26
2018-19 Total/ Average	92	30
2019-20 Q1	19	31
2019-20 Q2	14	38
2019-20 Q3	35	25
2019-20 Q4	82	25
2019-20 Total/ Average	150	27
2020-21 Q1	9	19
2020-21 Q2	16	44
2020-21 Q3	17	27
2020-21 Q4	30	29
2020-21 Total/ Average	72	31
2021-22 Q1	12	21
2021-22 Q2	21	42
2021-22 Total/ Average	33	35

Data on tender submission dates from Quarter 1, 2016-17 to Quarter 2, 2017-18 is not available as this pre-dated our HARP system and the historic information was not migrated to HARP.

Question reference: S6W-04817

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Scotland have registered a donation decision with the NHS Organ Donor Register.

Question reference: S6W-04845

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking, in addition to encouraging natural ventilation, to make classrooms safer learning environments for children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government Reducing Risks in Schools guidance contains a range of mitigations, such as use of face coverings, distancing requirements in schools and on school transport, and guidance for visitors and in-school events. This guidance is currently under active review, with input this week from the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group and the Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children's Issues . A new version will be published this week. The guidance will remain under regular review and, where the scientific advice supports it, mitigations will be enhanced or removed as appropriate.

Question reference: S6W-05251

Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Withdrawn

Year	Number of Matches
2011-12	8
2012-13	34
2013-14	59
2014-15	78
2015-16	89
2016-17	92
2017-18	96
2018-19	100
2019-20	75
2020-21	81