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-18929

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that rural communities have access to pharmacy services, within a reasonable distance, in light of reports of continuing shortfalls in pharmacist recruitment in remote and rural communities.

It is for individual Health Boards to ensure that communities have access to pharmacy services within a reasonable distance. However, in our strategy for pharmaceutical care in Scotland ‘Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care’ (2017) we committed to enhancing access to pharmaceutical care in remote and rural communities, which included use of Attend Anywhere for pharmacist clinics, and use of Near Me for remote and rural access to pharmaceutical care. We commissioned NES to work with remote and rural NHS Boards to explore mechanisms to attract more pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to work in remote and rural communities; ensuring any associated education and training needs are flexibly met. We also committed to testing a pharmacy longitudinal clerkship.

There are remote and rural longitudinal clerkships occurring in NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Highland, NHS Grampian and NHS Lanarkshire, all of which feed into a new piece of Additional Cost of Teaching Pharmacy research in collaboration with both Scottish Schools of Pharmacy.

In addition, to promote pharmacy technician recruitment in remote and rural areas, a number of senior pharmacy technicians attend school careers fairs etc to raise awareness of the role. All vacancies for the Pharmacy Technician Technical Apprenticeship are advertised on the Apprenticeships.scot website. Skills Development Scotland also provides an additional rural uplift for apprentices whose main employment and normal working hours are based in Argyll and Bute, Isle of Arran, Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles. Some of the Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technicians in the remote and rural areas are undertaking placements in primary care and community pharmacy whilst undertaking the Technical Apprenticeship.

The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in developing a joint programme to encourage more students, and not just school leavers, to consider careers in pharmacy, including ensuring the output reaches deprived and remote and rural communities.

Question reference: S6W-19191

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 28 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government in relation to any support payments that are returned through the agricultural cross compliance mechanism, for example, penalties under SMR7, where the funding is returned to.

When we process payments, some will have cross compliance applied to them. If the beneficiary does not comply with the requirements and standards, we deduct this during the payment calculation for EU funding, so in effect, return this to the Commission. For Scottish Government funding, this reduces the actual spend and so increases the Scottish Government budget remaining.

For penalties post payment, EU recovered penalties are returned to the Commission and the Scottish Government recovered penalties are returned to the scheme budget, increasing the budget remaining.

Question reference: S6W-18930

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact of delays to the R100 programme on access to digital healthcare services for remote and rural patients.

Our investment through the R100 programme will be transformational for many of Scotland’s most rural communities and is providing a full fibre backbone that will enable reliable connectivity services to be delivered.

An individual’s ability to access digital healthcare can be impacted by a number of factors, not just their rurality and the availability of digital infrastructure in their area.

That is why, while recognising the importance of access to digital healthcare, it should be promoted as one choice for patients but not the only available option. Digital healthcare programmes are subject to Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) to assess the impact of accessibility.

Question reference: S6W-18911

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have been provided with new connections of superfast broadband by the R100 build scheme since 2017, broken down by (a) lot and (b) year.

As outlined in response to S6W-18910, the R100 commitment comprises of three strands of activity - the R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) and continued commercial build.

The R100 Central and South contracts were awarded in December 2020 with the R100 North contract awarded in December 2021. As a result, build did not commence through the R100 contracts until 2021. The table below provides the number of connections built in each year since 2020 through the R100 contracts.

R100 Contracts

	2020	2021	2022	2023*	Total
North Lot +	0	151	4238	2032	6421
Central Lot	0	2174	3895	2294	8363
South Lot	56	3007	3126	1448	7637
*Figures up to 30th April 2023
+ North Lot deployment was delayed by 12 months due to a legal challenge

The R100 SBVS is a demand-led initiative and it is ultimately a decision for residents and property owners whether to pursue a connection through this route. The R100 SBVS launched in September 2020 and an annual breakdown of connections delivered in each lot since that date is provided in the following table.

R100 SBVS - Vouchers Delivered

	2020	2021	2022	2023*	Total
North Lot	0	372	374	64	810
Central Lot	0	680	970	209	1859
South Lot	0	312	166	25	503
*Figures up to 1st June 2023

It is not possible to provide a breakdown of commercial build by year or by lot as we do not collect this level of detail from suppliers.

Question reference: S6W-18910

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have been removed from the R100 build scope since 2017, broken down by (a) lot and (b) year.

Our Reaching 100% (R100) commitment is delivered through three strands of activity – the R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) and continued commercial build.

While a property may move between these strands, for example properties can move from being eligible for R100 SBVS to being delivered commercially, no properties are removed from the overall scope of the programme.

Question reference: S6W-18908

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 22 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what data from the fishing industry will feed into any current or future assessments of fish stocks in the River Clyde, and whether any such data will include information from randomised checks of fishing boats.

The stock assessment mentioned in the response to S6W-18907 is still at a developmental stage. Before it could be used as the basis for advice, it would need to a) be finalised and published, and b) undergo a rigorous benchmark process conducted under the auspices of the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas [ICES]. There are therefore as yet no firm plans for increasing monitoring coverage of commercial fishing vessels in the Firth of Clyde, over and above what is routinely done now. Should the assessment model be accepted for advisory use, then consideration would need to be given to how to ensure adequate data for it.

Question reference: S6W-18912

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many properties are expected to receive new connections of superfast broadband through the R100 build scheme by its completion.

The R100 contracts are expected to connect over 114,000 premises upon completion. Around 99% of those connections will be fibre to the premises (FTTP) which is capable of delivering gigabit download speeds, over 30 times faster than our original superfast commitment.

For those who live or work in premises that are outwith the reach of commercial and R100 contract build plans, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) remains available and offers up to £5,000 to secure a superfast broadband connection. As this is a demand-led scheme it is not possible to provide dates by which people might be connected.

There is also on-going delivery of commercial superfast broadband networks and we continue to engage with the industry to understand their future plans.

Question reference: S6O-02429

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to "support the constitutional protection of the specific interests and needs of island communities", as outlined in its latest Building a New Scotland paper.

Question reference: S6W-18935

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 21 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact of accelerated home working and flexible working practices on the health of the working population, and of any consequential impact on the NHS.

Good quality employment contributes to good health. We know that home and flexible working can have both positive and negative impacts on workers’ health and wellbeing. ONS data has found positive and negative health impacts vary by socio-demographic characteristics and factors, such as an employee’s work satisfaction and personal circumstances. Our understanding of the range of factors which may impact health system pressures remains informed by the latest emerging evidence.

Question reference: S6W-18933

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 21 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that any patients who have lost access to NHS dental care, but who require regular NHS dental prescriptions, are able to continue to access any such prescriptions without having to pay for them privately.