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: S5W-22640

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5F-03239

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 April 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 April 2019

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that many pregnant women and homeless children are being housed by local authorities in substandard temporary accommodation.

Question reference: S5W-22303

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many rent appeals the First-Tier Tribunal has dealt with in each year since 2015, also broken down by how many were upheld.

Question reference: S5O-03093

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to consult on the outstanding special marine protected areas.

Question reference: S5W-21639

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 12 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the availability and affordability of shared housing for people for who are entitled only to the shared accommodation rate of local housing allowance.

Chapter 3.1 of the paper Housing and Social Security: follow-up paper on Welfare Reform, contains an analysis of the impact of the UK Government’s freeze to local housing allowance (LHA) rates, and is available on the Scottish Government’s website at the following location: https://www.gov.scot/publications/annual-report-welfare-reform-follow-up-paper-housing-social-security/pages/4/ .

It contains tables which set out the portion of the actual rental market in each area that each LHA rate (including the shared accommodation rate) can access and the difference in cash terms (per week) between the LHA rate and a property at the thirtieth percentile of the rate.

Question reference: S5W-21807

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that everyone referred for cataract surgery is managed to final and appropriate diagnosis.

The Scottish Government National Eyecare Workstream is working closely with Health Boards across Scotland to ensure that patients referred for cataract surgery get the appropriate treatment they need.

Processes are in place to ensure that only those patients for whom surgery is appropriate and who are willing to be considered for surgery, are referred for such treatment. Existing patient information leaflets are being updated to ensure that comprehensive information is available so that patients can make informed decisions about surgery. Additional consultations with an optometrist in primary care are also available to allow patient to discuss further and reflect on whether they wish to be referred for cataract surgery.

All patients referred for surgery are triaged and, if appropriate, are pre-assessed by the multi-disciplinary team in hospital eye services and once patients have undergone diagnostic tests, the decision to proceed to surgery is undertaken in collaboration with the ophthalmologist.

Ensuring that only those patients who need and are willing to undergo cataract surgery are referred for such procedures prevents avoidable referrals and patients travelling unnecessary to hospital.

Question reference: S5W-21806

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 6 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is from positive diagnosis of cataract to corrective surgical intervention.

This information on specific procedures are not held centrally.

The following tables provide the median for speciality ophthalmology waiting times for the quarters ending September and December 2018 (inpatient and day case from referral date) and new inpatients. This data also includes cataract operations.

Table 1: Inpatient and Day Case median wait time (days) from referral date for the specialty Ophthalmology

			Quarter End Date
NHS Health Board	Specialty	Indicator	30 Sep 2018	31 Dec 2018
NHSScotland*	Ophthalmology	Median wait (days)	70	74

Source: ISD waiting times warehouse

* excluding NHS Ayrshire & Arran due to data quality issues

Table 2: New outpatient median wait time (days) from referral date for the specialty Ophthalmology

			Quarter End Date
NHS Health Board	Specialty	Indicator	30 Sep 2018	31 Dec 2018
NHSScotland**	Ophthalmology	Median wait (days)	46	42

Source: ISD waiting times warehouse

** excluding NHS Ayrshire & Arran and NHS Tayside due to data quality

Question reference: S5W-21641

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce a statutory duty on local authorities to prevent homelessness, and what analysis it has made of the imposition of similar duties elsewhere in the UK.

The Ending Homelessness Together: High Level Action Plan, published jointly by the Scottish Government and COSLA in November 2018, sets out a five year plan for how national and local government, with third sector partners will work to prevent homelessness in the first place and to address people’s needs quickly when homelessness does happen.

Included in the Action Plan is a commitment to ensuring that our legislative framework supports a shift to prevention right across the system in Scotland. We also state our intention to work with other partners to develop a new duty on local authorities, wider public bodies and delivery partners for the prevention of homelessness. The Action Plan is clear that this is a significant change, which will require careful analysis and planning to ensure that any new duty does not undermine the strengths of existing rights and work on prevention. Part of that analysis will be to review prevention duties in place in the UK and elsewhere and we will set out a timetable for our plans later this year.

Question reference: S5W-21643

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will develop prevention pathways for people deemed particularly vulnerable to homelessness, including those experiencing domestic violence and care leavers.

As indicated in our Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan, published on 27 November 2018, during 2019 we are committed to reviewing the evidence and identifying the timetable and process for the design and implementation of preventative pathways for each group at high risk of homelessness, including those who have experienced domestic violence and people with experience of the care system or on leaving the care system. Through 2020-23, pathways will be developed and implemented with consideration of the groups at highest risk of rough sleeping and the highest proportion of people who become homeless. We will target our efforts in accordance with evidence, seeking to develop and share good practice that already exists.

Question reference: S5W-21640

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities have submitted rapid rehousing transition plans; what assessment it has made of the quality of these plans, and whether they will be made publicly available.