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 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.

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Question reference: S6O-02686

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how its agricultural development projects will boost organic produce and improve environmental practice, as part of its work towards achieving its net zero targets.

Question reference: S6O-02530

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Scottish Prison Service regarding supporting and enabling families of prisoners to have better access to visiting their loved ones while they are in prison.

Question reference: S6W-20471

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 5 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which buildings in (a) the Falkirk area and (b) Scotland have been identified as having issues with dangerous cladding, and when work on these buildings will be undertaken and any potential danger addressed and/or cladding removed.

Question reference: S6W-20470

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 5 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it received from the UK Government in relation to cladding issues following the Grenfell Tower fire; how much of this has been spent on removing dangerous cladding, and where this was.

Scottish Ministers have set out our public commitment to ensuring that every penny of consequential funding received from the UK Government is invested in assessing buildings and making unsafe buildings safe. Information on expenditure on the programme is published quarterly and can be found here:

Single Building Assessment programme: spending information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The most recently published figures show a spend of just over £3.6m. This publication also includes information on the number of buildings in the programme. Information is provided on a regional basis in line with requests from residents and homeowners to protect their privacy.

Question reference: S6O-02459

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the investment announced in the 2023-24 Programme for Government will contribute towards a move to a wellbeing economy in the Central Scotland region.

Question reference: S6W-20168

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 18 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) it and (b) NHS Scotland has spent on treating nicotine addiction in children and young people in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government provides funding annually to Health Boards for smoking cessation and prevention services, but this funding isn’t split for adult and child smoking cessation and prevention services.

This funding is provided as part of a wider Outcomes Framework budget allocation to Health Boards to cover a range of outcomes – in 2023-24 this outcome framework funding totalled £74.1 million.

The table below sets out the Outcome Framework budget allocations for the last 5 years for Health Boards, which is then for Individual Health Boards to determine the allocation of and final expenditure from this budget. For illustrative purposes,‎ c£9-10 million per annum is notionally included as part of the Outcome Framework budget allocation for smoking cessation and prevention.

	2018-2019 Budget	2019-2020 Budget	2020-2021 Budget	Restated 2021-2022 Budget	2022-2023 Budget
	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m
Outcomes Framework Budget Allocations for Health Boards	66.2	75.7	71.9	74.1	74.1

Question reference: S6W-20167

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people it estimates currently have a nicotine addiction as a result of using (a) nicotine vapour products and (b) tobacco.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the number of children and young people who have a nicotine addiction.

However, it monitors smoking and vaping prevalence in these groups, drawing on surveys like the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Scotland study; the Health and Wellbeing Census ; and the Smoking Toolkit Study (STS).

For example, from the Health and Wellbeing Census , undertaken for the first time by Local Authorities in Scotland between October 2021 and June 2022 among secondary school pupils in Scotland (S2 around age 13 and S4 around age 15). This shows that:

2.7% of pupils said they were regular smokers. Prevalence was higher in S4 (4.3%) than in S2 (1.6%).
6.7% of pupils said they vaped regularly (once a week or more). Prevalence was higher in S4 (10.1%) than in S2 (4.3%).

Question reference: S6W-20166

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available for children and young people with a nicotine addiction caused by using (a) nicotine vapour products and (b) tobacco.

We urge anyone with a nicotine addiction caused by using tobacco or nicotine vapour products to contact the free NHS Quit Your Way Scotland' helpline on 0800 84 84 84 to speak to an advisor, who will be able to provide advice and support and can direct individuals to local support services.

Alternatively, local pharmacies can also offer a range of therapies and interventions to help reduce addiction.

Question reference: S6W-19901

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it expects Scotland's Green Freeports to meet the requirement to have positive effects for biodiversity, and what types of measures are expected to be brought forward to this end.

The two Green Freeports are currently preparing business cases for consideration by the Scottish Government and the UK Government. In those business cases, the Green Freeports must report on the environmental impacts of their proposals, and show how they will comply with relevant environmental regulations. More information on business case requirements can be found on the UK Government’s website, at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scottish-green-freeports-set-up-phase-guidance/scottish-green-freeports-set-up-phase-guidance .

Question reference: S6W-19902

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-15384 and S6W-15385 by John Swinney on 7 March 2023, now that six months have passed since the winning bids were announced for Scotland's Green Freeports, whether it can provide an update on what the timescale is for when maps showing the Green Freeport designation areas will be made publicly available, including the associated outer 45km limit boundary, in order to indicate any legally protected sites for nature that fall within the Green Freeport boundaries, in light of such maps already being available for England's Freeports, and of reports that applicants were required to submit maps showing the designation area as part of the bidding process in Scotland.