Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

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 ��˿�� 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: S6W-11978

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many primary school children in (a) Inverclyde and (b) North Ayrshire are eligible for its school clothing grant.

The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities of over £11 million per year to provide the school clothing grant for eligible children and young people. Local authorities are directly responsible for setting the eligibility criteria at the local level, therefore the Scottish Government does not hold information about how many children and young people are eligible to receive the grant.

However, the Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics workbooks contain information about the number of school clothing grants issued by local authorities in each financial year. In 2020-21, the most recent year for which this data is available, Inverclyde Council issued a total of 1,400 school clothing grants to primary school children and North Ayrshire Council issued 3,689 grants.

In total, Inverclyde Council issued 3,282 school clothing grants to eligible pupils across all age groups and North Ayrshire Council issued 6,283 grants.

This information is available on the Scottish Government’s website through the following link: .

Question reference: S6W-11838

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 11 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland report, Inspection of COPFS practice in relation to sections 274 and 275 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, which was published on 19 October 2022.

I am grateful to the Inspectorate for doing such a thorough piece of work on this important topic. It is a priority for all prosecutors that complainers are treated with dignity and respect, and that they are not subjected to inappropriate questioning during a trial.

This is a challenging area of work and I was pleased to see that the Inspectorate noted that Crown applications under this section of law were generally good and that it has developed its practices. Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has responded swiftly to developments in case law, issuing new instructions to staff and creating a training course dedicated to sexual history and character evidence. This has led to a significant shift in practice regarding how section 275 applications are managed.

There remains improvement work to be done, and I have instructed that this is taken forward through an action plan to address the outstanding recommendations. COPFS is committed to improving the experience of complainers in serious sexual offence cases, both in enhancing its own processes, for example through their ongoing review of its Victim Information and Advice function, and in working with partners across the criminal justice sector.

Question reference: S6W-11833

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether a prisoner serving a life sentence should be released on licence if a risk of serious harm assessment recommends that they should not.

Consideration for temporary releases will be undertaken by a multi-disciplinary Risk Management Team consisting of appropriate officials from SPS, Justice Social Work and key stakeholders. Temporary release and home leave form part of a phased reintegration programme which provides an opportunity to work towards safe re-integration, using a robustly risk assessed process, involving multiple key stakeholders.

Decisions as to whether or not to recommend a life sentenced prisoner for temporary release are informed by a range of assessments, including risk of serious harm assessments, where required. The risk of serious harm assessment examines the risk of serious harm that the individual would present in the community. It does not, in itself, recommend whether they should be released.

Decisions as to whether to release a life sentenced prisoner on parole are a matter for the independent Parole Board for Scotland. The Parole Board may take into account any matter which it considers to be relevant in their decision making process.

Question reference: S6W-11784

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people under the age of 16 have been admitted to an NHS hospital for a tooth extraction as a result of decay in (a) 2012, (b) 2016 and (c) 2021, in NHS (i) Ayrshire and Arran, and (ii) Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Table 1 shows the number of patients under the age of 16 with a recorded diagnosis of tooth decay who were admitted to hospital for a tooth extraction in (a) 2012 (b) 2016 and (c) 2021, in NHS (i) Ayrshire and Arran, and (ii) Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Table 1:

Health Board of Treatment	2012	2016	2021
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	720	683	385
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	2,430	2,251	1,166

Source: SMR01, Public Health Scotland, extract: November 2022.

Question reference: S6W-11830

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to data published by Transport Scotland on 26 October 2022 showing that drink driving fatalities increased from 10 in 2010 to 20 in 2020.

My condolences go to any families who have lost loved ones through drink-driving. The Scottish Government takes this issue very seriously and any road death, no matter what the cause, is tragic.

The Scottish Government is committed to achieving safer road travel in Scotland. Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030, launched in February 2021, sets out a compelling long-term vision for road safety, Vision Zero, where there are zero fatalities and injuries on Scotland’s roads by 2050. The journey to achieving this vision also includes ambitious interim targets where the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads will be halved by 2030.

On drink driving, through Road Safety Scotland, we have campaigned on this issue for many years. These campaigns have been developed and delivered with our partners in Police Scotland to ensure that our innovative media campaigns align with Police targeted enforcement campaigns.

In 2014, this Government introduced the lowest drink-drive limit in the UK. Working closely with Police Scotland and Transport Scotland, we will continue to support the use of police enforcement initiatives and awareness-raising campaigns to help eradicate drink-driving in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-01547

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on Historic Environment Scotland site closures.

Question reference: S6W-11643

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport last met with the Hunterston B nuclear power station director, either in person or virtually.

Whilst I have not met with the Hunterston B nuclear power station director, either in person or virtually, since taking up the post of Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport in May 2021, I did meet with Matt Sykes, the Managing Director for EDF Generation in December 2021.

The discussion focussed on various issues pertaining to EDF Generation, EDF Renewables and their role in supporting Scotland on the road to Net Zero. This included the closure of Hunterston B, which ceased electricity generation in January 2022 with the plant currently being decommissioned.

Question reference: S6W-11755

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many sick days were recorded for fire service personnel for mental health reasons, including anxiety, stress, depression or other psychiatric illnesses, in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S6W-11658

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many children in the (a) North Ayrshire and (b) Inverclyde local authority area are eligible to receive a free laptop or tablet, and, of those, how many (i) have received and (ii) are yet to receive a free laptop or tablet.

The following table shows how many pupils are in each of the named local authorities (taken from the most recent pupil census data from 2021) and how many devices have been distributed by these local authorities, using £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21. In total, this funding supported the provision of 14,000 internet connections and 72,000 devices for learners across all local authorities.

Local Authority	Pupils (2021 pupil census)	Devices Distributed (via SG digital inclusion funding 2020/21)
North Ayrshire	17,887	1,734
Inverclyde	9,805	1,107

Individual local authorities across Scotland have also undertaken their own digital inclusion schemes. The latest information we have available indicates that almost 280,000 devices have been, or are in the process of being, rolled out to learners across Scotland.

We continue to work with local authorities on plans to ensure every school-aged child has access to a device and connectivity by the end of this parliamentary term in 2026.

Question reference: S6W-11693

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to address the lack of dental spaces for new NHS patients in Inverclyde, in light of reports that every practice in the area is closed to new patients.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all communities within Scotland, including NHS patients in Inverclyde, can access a NHS dentist.

We have provided over £150 million of financial support to date to maintain the capacity and capability of NHS dentistry and agreed further funding into the new year to address the cost of living crisis.

From April 2022 we have re-introduced a system of fee per item payments that incentivises NHS dental teams to see patients. Public Health Scotland statistics (link attached) show that these measures have increased patient examination appointments and are comparable to pre-pandemic levels, allowing more patients to be seen and dental practices to begin to register more patients as they work through the pandemic backlog.

NHS registration is significantly higher in Scotland than the rest of the UK, with more than 95% of the population registered with a NHS dentist.