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: S6W-27556

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to re-examine the installation of a fixed link between the Isle of Jura and Isle of Islay, as originally proposed in the option appraisal for the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).

Question reference: S6O-03515

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 30 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has held any recent discussions with SSEN Transmission, in light of reported concerns by communities in the Highlands and Islands region regarding electricity transmission proposals.

Policy and regulation of energy networks in the UK, including their operation, maintenance and resilience, are reserved to the UK Government.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials regularly meet with stakeholders, including network companies, across the energy industry. The Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy and I last met with SSEN, alongside SPEN and ESO, on 21 March to discuss the ESO’s ‘Beyond 2030’ network recommendations for connection and delivery of clean power to homes and businesses across GB, where we stressed the need for meaningful and early engagement with communities.

Question reference: S6O-03541

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has held any discussions with stakeholders regarding the future of hyperbaric treatment services on the west coast.

Question reference: S6W-27554

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to re-examine the installation of a fixed link between the Isle of Mull and the mainland, as originally proposed in the option appraisal for the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).

Investigation of potential fixed link connections (bridges, causeways and/or tunnels) between Mull and the Scottish mainland forms part of STPR2 recommendation 41. Details on why a fixed link to Mull is part of this recommendation can be accessed at: https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/52545/recommendation-41-potential-sound-of-harris-sound-of-barra-fixed-link-and-fixed-link-between-mull-and-scottish-mainland.pdf

The STPR2 recommendation notes, that further work is undertaken on business cases to better understand the benefits, costs and challenges associated with these options. These studies would further consider the feasibility of improving island connectivity through additional fixed links by replacing existing ferry services currently delivered by CalMac Ferries Ltd as part of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) contract.

These studies would also analyse in further detail the potential long term savings associated with the public sector funding required to maintain the ferry services and would involve input from communities that may potentially be affected.

Question reference: S6W-27549

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 29 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been allocated to the University Innovation Fund in each year since 2016-17.

The Scottish Government, through the Scottish Funding Council, has invested over £120mil in the University Innovation Fund since 2016 to support universities to work collaboratively to exploit their research to improve Scotland’s economy. Funding allocations for universities for each academic year are managed through the Scottish Funding Council and made publicly available on the SFC’s website, accessible here: University Indicative Funding Allocations 2024-25 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

University Innovation Fund for AYs 2016-17 to 2023-24

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Total	12,240,000	12,240,000	18,678,000	13,458,000	13,705,000	15,106,000	15,347,000	20,847,000

Question reference: S6W-27552

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 29 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how the Scottish Funding Council monitors the efficacy of funding awarded to universities from the University Innovation Fund.

The efficacy of the University Innovation Fund (UIF) has been monitored by the Scottish Funding Council through the submission of annual progress reports, managed through the SFC Outcome Agreement process. The SFC Knowledge Exchange metric return and HESA Higher Education and Business Interaction survey has also been used as indicators of performance against knowledge exchange activity metrics, with the latest data indicating that the UIF has enabled at least 24,000 interactions with Scottish businesses and helped generate KE&I income of over £755M. (SFC KE metric return 22-23.)

Question reference: S6W-27488

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to provide NHS boards with any additional funding towards the roll-out of new diabetes technologies in 2024-25, and, if so, whether it will provide details of this.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27895 on 28 May 2024. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living with diabetes can access the care that they need to live their lives well. This includes increasing access to diabetes technologies.

Between 2016 and 2022, we invested £29.6 million of additional funding to support the increased provision of diabetes technologies.

I am delighted to confirm that this financial year, £8.8 million of funding will be made available to expand access to diabetes technologies in Scotland. The focus will primarily be on providing access to all children that want Closed Loop Systems, but will also allow us to continue increasing access to adults.

This investment will allow us to continue developing innovative care models for diabetes in Scotland that have a focus on digital pathways and peer support.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-27491

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people currently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes have made requests to their NHS board to access hybrid closed loop systems, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-27550

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 29 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the University Innovation Fund were (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful in each year since 2016-17.

The University Innovation Fund is one of the Scottish Funding Council’s core grants designed to support research and knowledge exchange activity across all institutions and is allocated according to a formula developed in consultation with the sector. Therefore Scotland’s 19 universities have received funding each academic year since 2016-17 through the UIF. Individual funding allocations for universities for each academic year are managed through the Scottish Funding Council and made publicly available on the SFC’s website, accessible here: University Indicative Funding Allocations 2024-25 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

Question reference: S6W-27548

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to re-examine the installation of a fixed link between the Cowal and Kintyre, as originally proposed in the option appraisal for the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).

STPR2 (Recommendation 41) recommends that further study work to better understand the benefits, costs and challenges associated with a Sound of Harris fixed link, a Sound of Barra fixed link and a fixed link between Mull and the Scottish mainland is undertaken.

There are currently no plans to revisit any of the fixed link options that did not make it to final consideration during the STPR2 appraisal process. The reason why a particular option did not progress can be found in Appendix G of the Final Technical Report .