- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to calls from the Scottish Environment Link coalition to introduce legally-binding targets to protect wildlife by 2022.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to action to protect wildlife and to the effective monitoring of progress towards this goal. The Scottish Government has recently added a new single high level indicator to the National Performance Framework which measures trends in marine and terrestrial biodiversity in Scotland.
We have committed to introducing an ambitious new Biodiversity Strategy for Scotland within a year of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties (CoP15) and the publication of a new global biodiversity framework. Policies to take forward our commitment to tackle the nature crisis and methods to measure progress in this regard will be considered as part of the development of this Strategy and its supporting delivery plan.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether its assessment of the risk to children’s health from COVID-19 is being revised, and on what basis.
Answer
Preliminary data indicates that in the Delta wave we are seeing a cohort of younger adults in hospital with Covid.
We do not recommend travelling to another area of Scotland to take part in an activity that is not permitted in your local protection level.
The risk of COVID-19 to young children remains low.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether there has been in increase in cases of children being hospitalised as a result of COVID-19 in the six months up to June 2021.
Answer
This data is available on the Public Health Scotland Education Surveillance Dashboard which provides a three-weekly rolling average of hospital admissions for 2-17 years olds -
Equivalent weekly data for children under 2 years is not currently published however, data on Cumulative COVID-19 Hospital Admissions since the start of the pandemic is available and shows that as of 26 May 2021, 238 children between 0-4 years have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 since March 2020. The full set of data can be found here - .
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what reassurances it can provide to parents and carers regarding the risk of COVID-19 to young children, in light of comments by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care during a radio interview on 2 June 2021 that travelling from a Level 2 area to a Level 1 area to visit a soft play centre “could lead to hospitalisation of children”.
Answer
Preliminary data indicates that in the Delta wave we are seeing a cohort of younger adults in hospital with Covid.
We do not recommend travelling to another area of Scotland to take part in an activity that is not permitted in your local protection level.
The risk of COVID-19 to young children remains low.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what recent research or assessment it (a) has carried out and (b) is aware of regarding the health risk to children from COVID-19, including from variant strains.
Answer
Preliminary data indicates that in the Delta wave we are seeing a cohort of younger people in hospital with Covid.
The risk of COVID-19 in young children remains low.
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 22 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress with the (a) recruitment and (b) construction work being carried out as part of the rollout of 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare.
Answer
The Improvement Service has been commissioned by the ELC expansion programme to collect data from local authorities on progress towards delivery of 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare, and to report on this data. The most recent report, on data returned by Local Authorities in April 2021, was published on 15 June and can be accessed via the and Scottish Government websites. This provides detail on progress with both recruitment and construction work.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what medicines are excluded from free prescriptions.
Answer
All medicines prescribed for patients in Scotland on the NHS are free. Prescription charges were removed by the Scottish Government in 2011. Scottish Ministers believe that prescription charges are a barrier to good health for many people. This is particularly so for those with long-term conditions and those on low incomes who in the past have faced choices about which medicines they can afford to take. Evidence shows that this can lead to deterioration in health, absence from work, or extra hospital admissions.
Scottish Ministers believe that healthcare should be free at the point of access for everyone: this is the founding principle of the NHS. By abolishing prescription charges, we have ensured that everyone can access the medicines they need and make choices about managing and improving their health, whatever their income.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on prescriptions in each of the last five years, and how many people received a prescription.
Answer
The cost of medicines and appliances in the past five financial years, 2016-17 to 2020-21, is shown in Table 1. These data relate to community dispensing only.
Table 1 – Gross Ingredient Cost (£), 2016/17 – 2020/21 Year | Gross Ingredient Cost (GIC) (£) |
2016-17 | 1,137,588,236 |
2017-18 | 1,170,761,719 |
2018-19 | 1,142,104,457 |
2019-20 | 1,175,878,909 |
2020-21 | 1,118,110,484 |
Source: Public Health Scotland, PIS (Prescribing Data)
Reference: IR2021-00410
The number of people who have received a prescription in the last five years has recently been provided in an answer to S5W-36221 on 30 April 2021. This presented the number of patients with a paid prescription by financial year from financial year 2009-2010 to financial year 2020-2021 (partial year to December 2020 data).
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many young people aged (a) under 12, (b) 12 to 15 and (c) 16 to 17 have been in hospital with COVID-19 each week in 2021.
Answer
This data is available on the Public Health Scotland Education Surveillance Dashboard which provides a three-weekly rolling average of hospital admissions for 2-17 years olds -
Equivalent weekly data for children under 2 years is not currently published however, data on Cumulative COVID-19 Hospital Admissions since the start of the pandemic is available and shows that as of 26 May 2021, 238 children between 0-4 years have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 since March 2020. The full set of data can be found here - .
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce water pollution on beaches, in light of a recent survey, which suggested that seven out of the 10 of the UK beaches with the highest samples of E.coli and intestinal enterococci were in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to reducing water pollution at beaches across Scotland.
We do not know what water quality data range was used by Save on Energy, a price comparison website, to support its claim. They do not reflect the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s bathing water classifications, which use statutory methods that are used across the UK and all EU member states.
Four of the seven Scottish beaches listed with the highest E.coli and intestinal enterococci in the Save on Energy survey are classified by SEPA as having ‘sufficient’ or better bathing water quality with one of these being rated as ‘excellent’. The three other beaches are receiving significant investment from Scottish Water totalling £23M in order to improve bathing water quality.
This bathing water season Scotland has more bathing waters rated as ‘excellent’, ‘good’ or ‘sufficient’ than at any point since tighter bathing water standards first came into force in 2015.
