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-00832

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comments by the president of COSLA, who said that local authorities are at breaking point.

Question reference: S6W-05938

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the current average length of time is between screening appointments for women aged between 50 and 70 eligible for the Breast Cancer Screening Programme, broken down by NHS board.

The data is not available in the format requested as the Scottish Breast Screening Programme (SBSP) is delivered from six screening centres, each covering a designated population. It should be noted that the data provided below is management information that has not been subject to the quality checks that are normally applied on a statistical publication.

For women aged 53-70 years who were screened between 1st April 2020 and 31st January 2021, the average interval between screening episodes was 41 months across Scotland. The average interval between screening episodes across each screening centre was as follows:

East – 46 months

North – 40 months

North East – 42 months

South East – 41 months

West – 38 months

South West – 39 months

Question reference: S6W-05937

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many breast cancer screening centres are currently meeting the target of offering all eligible women aged 50 to 70 their breast screening appointments within 39 months of their previous screening, broken down by NHS board.

The data is not available in the format requested as the Scottish Breast Screening Programme (SBSP) is delivered from six screening centres, each covering a designated population. The SBSP should offer an appointment to women within 36 months of their previous screening episode.

On average, the West and South West screening centres are offering women aged 53-70 a screening appointment within 39 months of their last screen.

The National Screening Oversight, Scottish Screening Committee and Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) continue to work with health boards to increase the number of available appointments, including through deploying additional mobile breast screening units and providing additional appointments during evenings and at weekends.

It should be noted that this data is unpublished management data that has not been subject to the standard quality checks that are applied to statistical publications.

Question reference: S6W-05939

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how many cases of breast cancer may not have been diagnosed as a result of women over 70 not being able to self-refer for routine breast cancer screening.

Question reference: S6O-00802

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it plans to provide to rural households to transition to net zero heating.

Question reference: S6O-00638

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to build 110,000 affordable homes by 2032.

Question reference: S6W-04863

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to ensure that governing bodies of sport that rent office space from sportscotland are given a rent rebate.

Sport scotland has followed Scottish Government guidance on rent charges for tenants.

sport scotland have been clear that the COVID support fund was there to support any Scottish governing bodies (SGBs) that were in financial difficulty, this includes both tenants and non-tenants. In addition to the COVID support fund, sport scotland released its full annual investment to all SGBs and allowed them to use this flexibly.

sport scotland meet regularly with tenants to discuss both short-term access to offices, in the context of the latest Government guidance, and establish medium to longer-term requirements for office space. These meetings have been well attended and well received by tenants. Going forward, sport scotland is also offering a 10% discount to tenants on next year's rent. This is in recognition of the uncertainty surrounding how often office space will be used.

Question reference: S6W-04864

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the commitment in its Programme for Government 2021-22 to provide long term funding for third sector organisations includes governing bodies of sport and, if so, whether sportscotland will be given core funding, in order to provide funding to such governing bodies.

We have committed to increase multi-year funding for the third sector and where possible we will do so. However, our ability to fulfil our devolved responsibilities remains hampered by a centralised UK budgeting approach that gives little fiscal flexibility.

Spending plans were contained in the Scottish Budget published on 9 December 2021. As set out in Programme for Government we will double investment in sport and active living to £100 million a year by the end of the Parliament ensuring more people can enjoy active lives as we recover, improving physical, mental and social health. We are working with the National Agency for Sport, sports cotland and other partners to consider how that money can best be invested to deliver against our priorities.

Question reference: S6O-00524

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the role that clinical research has played in leading the country out of the COVID-19 pandemic, how it will support clinical research in the NHS to improve the care and treatment of patients with non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and stroke.

Question reference: S6W-04540

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 1 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether local authorities that have signed contracts, which may be up to 25 years, to provide aluminium, plastics and glass to waste management companies will be compensated if or when they are no longer able to provide these volumes as a result of a proportion being captured by the deposit return scheme.

Recyclate contracts are typically much shorter than residual waste management arrangements, normally 1 to 3 years. Modelling by Zero Waste Scotland projects that for 29 out of the 32 Scottish local authorities, cost savings from residual waste reductions as a result of the Deposit Return Scheme will be greater than any lost recyclate-related income. Zero Waste Scotland is working with the three remaining local authorities to see how their collection and processing systems can be reshaped following introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme to realise efficiencies and to help mitigate any potential losses. Local authorities are also expected to benefit from a reduction in the impact of litter, for instance through reduced demand for street cleansing.

We are taking key steps to support local authorities in the introduction of our Deposit Return Scheme, to help meet our ambitious waste reduction, recycling and climate change targets. This includes making our first investments from the £70m Recycling Improvement Fund to support local authorities in improving recycling infrastructure, and working with local government partners to review the Household Recycling Charter’s Code of Practice, to help make it easier for householders to recycle the right things. The review will ensure that the Code of Practice continues to enshrine best practice and prepares local authorities for the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).