- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many laptops it has purchased since 1 March 2020, broken down by the brand of laptop, and what the total cost was of these purchases.
Answer
The Scottish Government have purchased the following laptops since 1st March 2020 for use on the SCOTS network.
Number of laptops | Brand | Total Cost (inc VAT) |
7584 | HP | £4,845,550 |
55 | Microsoft | £78,900 |
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many computers it has purchased for each of its directorates in each of the last five years.
Answer
The breakdown of this information by Directorate is not held centrally and to collate this information would be at disproportionate costs. Computers have been defined as any device which has been configured for use on the SCOTS Network. The overall number for Scottish Government over the past 5 years are
Year | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 |
Number of Computers | 1523 | 6030 | 4070 | 3569 | NIL to date |
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what recent (a) discussions it has had on and (b) consideration it has given to improving lifeline interisland services in Orkney.
Answer
I met with Orkney Islands Council on 8 th August during my visit to the Northern Isles, where we discussed a range of issues including inter-island connectivity.
The Scottish Government recognises the challenges for local authorities with responsibility for ferries and has provided more than £136m over the last 5 years through the Local Government settlement and Specific Grant. A total of £33.095m has been made available for local authorities in 2022-23, including £13.402m for Orkney, which fully funds the Council to operate inter-island ferry services.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Scotland will roll out the use of HeartFlow technology across all NHS boards, following its introduction in NHS Western Isles.
Answer
The Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG), are part of Healthcare Improvement Scotland, and provide advice to NHS Scotland on the use of new and existing health technologies (excluding medicines). The SHTG made a recommendation in 2021 on the use of HeartFlow: 20210714-heartflow-adaptation-v20.pdf (shtg.scot) . Health boards are required to consider SHTG’s advice.
The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD), hosted by NHS Golden Jubilee, includes the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP). Work to promote HeartFlow technology across Health Boards is a key activity for the MPPP cardiology specialty group.
More information on the Centre for Sustainable Delivery can be found here: CfSD :: NHS Golden Jubilee , with information on the cardiology specialty network available here: Cardiology | Turas | Learn (nhs.scot).
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of ScotRail’s rail passenger revenue from 1 January to 31 July 2022.
Answer
Prior to the 1st April 2022, ScotRail services were operated by Abellio ScotRail. Under the terms of the franchise agreement, revenue figures for the period are commercially confidential. The published accounts for Abellio ScotRail for this period will be found at Companies House in due course.
For the period after 1st April, relevant revenue figures will not be available until the annual accounts for ScotRail Trains Ltd. have been audited, verified and published after the end of the financial year 2022-23.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the introduction of noise cameras on certain roads.
Answer
Transport Scotland is aware of the DfT Roadside Vehicle Noise Measurement trials and will continue to monitor their progress and effectiveness. There is an established Transport Scotland remote sensing programme for vehicle emissions and how these relate to air quality. My officials are preparing to include noise monitoring in the next round of this programme later this year.
Setting of legal limits for noise levels from new vehicles is reserved to UK Government via the Construction and Use Regulations and enforced by Police Scotland. Any noise monitoring and enforcement trials tackling excessively noisy car exhausts within Scottish towns or cities would be the collective responsibility of Police Scotland and the relevant road authority, which we would be happy to support as appropriate.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reportedly procured a civic mediation service to facilitate dialogue between anti-abortion campaigners who gather at abortion clinics and those who are affected by such activities; who was consulted on this approach, and how people will be identified and invited to participate.
Answer
All women in Scotland should be able to access timely abortion care without judgment or intimidation. Last year, a Ministerial-led working group was formed to explore possible ways to solve the problem of women being harassed outside abortion clinics as quickly as possible. The working group is made up with partners including CoSLA, Police Scotland and affected councils and Health Boards to look at how to address the protests and vigils that take place outside of abortion clinics. A number of pieces of work have been commissioned by the group to explore views in this area, including this work and research to develop a detailed picture of women’s experiences as a result of the protests.
Those leading this work met separately with various parties to hear their views. This work has now concluded.
This is one of a number of actions being taken. Subject to the detail of a forthcoming Supreme Court judgment, the Scottish Government will also support Gillian Mackay MSP with the development and drafting of her proposed Members Bill to protect safe access for women to healthcare facilities that provide abortion services.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10165 by Shona Robison on 19 August 2022, what (a) assessment, (b) feasibility studies and (c) survey activity it has conducted to determine the number of buildings of 11 metres and over that will require (i) assessment for and (ii) remediation of combustible cladding.
Answer
The work of the cladding remediation programme will gather data as it progresses with Single Building Assessments. This information will be used to build a reliable register of information as set out in the Ministerial Working Group on Mortgage Lending and cladding report in March 2021.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10165 by Shona Robison on 19 August 2022, how many buildings over 11 metres it estimates are affected by combustible cladding.
Answer
As part of the cladding remediation programme we will take a building-by-building approach to assess and gather this information to create a central register. This will include buildings over 11 metres. We expect the majority of buildings to be low risk and require limited or no intervention.
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what research it will undertake into the potential impacts that the three Shetland ScotWind projects, announced on 22 August 2022, could have on haddock nursery grounds and saithe spawning sites.
Answer
The Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy(SMP-OWE) has already carried out a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Habitats Regulations Appraisal (HRA). The SEA and HRA assessed the potential for impact on nursery and spawning locations from the SMP-OWE and at an individual Plan Option scale.
Developers’ stated ambitions from ScotWind awards have surpassed the SMP-OWE assessment assumptions and the potential for greater impact from larger capacity projects will now be considered in the SMP-OWE Iterative Plan Review (IPR). Where the now known ScotWind projects overlap with spawning and nursery grounds the potential for impact will be considered again.
In addition, the Scottish Marine Energy Research programme (ScotMER) has a specific receptor group focused on fish and fisheries-related evidence needs. This group, which includes fisheries representatives, has been updating the evidence map to ensure that the evidence needs reflect the results of ScotWind and capture a consideration of wider strategic monitoring to determine the potential for impacts on the physical environment that may influence spawning grounds. The potential sensitivity of spawning grounds to noise and vibrations has also been identified. This work can feed into the development of strategic research and project-level Environmental Impact Assessments.
Ongoing work to explore the mapping of essential fish habitats will also help better identify spawning and nursery ground locations.
