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-24586

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much capital funding to NHS Lothian (a) has been provided in the financial year 2023-24 and (b) will be made available in the financial year 2024-25.

NHS Lothian has received £24.7 million of Capital Formula and the latest forecast indicates that by the year end a further £10.7 million in allocations will be provided for a total of £35.4 million in capital funding in 2023-24.

As set out in our draft budget the capital funding position is extremely challenging, with a UK Government cut of some 10% in our capital budget over the next five years. Nonetheless, this settlement allows formula capital to be maintained at £24.7 million 2023-24 levels in 2024-25. Additional in-year capital allocations will also be provided, but these have not been finalised at this point.

Question reference: S6W-24583

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22795 by Michael Matheson on 21 November 2023, whether the review of funding availability took place in line with its Budget.

Question reference: S6W-24584

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact a freeze on capital budgets will have on the building of a new eye hospital in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S6W-24582

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has informed NHS boards that capital funding has been frozen for two years as part of its Budget, in light of reports of it putting in place such a freeze.

As set out in the draft Scottish Government budget, the capital funding position is extremely challenging due to the UK Government’s decision to cut our capital budget by nearly 10%.

The capital budget settlement allows for Health Boards’ delegated capital budgets to be maintained at 23-24 levels, for all major projects in construction to be completed and for continued support for the national replacement programmes for ambulances and radiotherapy equipment. Given the current uncertainty regarding availability of funding, regrettably, we have advised boards to pause any new capital projects until capital funding becomes more certain.

Our Infrastructure Investment Plan identified priority health capital projects for funding within that period. As a result of UK Government cuts, we will bring forward a revised Infrastructure Investment Plan in the spring. All due consideration will be given to what projects can be included to ensure the revised Plan is affordable and deliverable.

Question reference: S6O-03071

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it can do to address potholes on the road network, including what support is available for local authorities to do so, in light of reports that Edinburgh is the second worst city in the UK for potholes.

Question reference: S6W-24352

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs have been created to date through its Green Jobs Fund, broken down by the year in which the jobs were created.

More than 100 projects have received support from the Green Jobs Fund.

Jobs created through the Green Jobs Fund are categorised as green jobs if they meet certain criteria including being defined as:

Jobs in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources.
Jobs in which workers’ duties involve making their establishment’s production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources.

118 projects have been forecast to create up to 6,956 green jobs.

Question reference: S6W-24354

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of any allocations made as part of the Green Jobs Fund proposals that were set out in its Programme for Government 2021-22.

The breakdown of the Green Jobs Fund includes actual payments made in financial years 2021-22, 2022-23 and a mix of actual and forecast payments for the 2023-24 financial year, which will be confirmed at the end of this financial year.

	Number of projects supported	Green Jobs Funds Awarded	Number of jobs forecast
Highlands & Island Enterprise	18	£1,659,419	603
South of Scotland Enterprise	11	£2,000,000	212
Scottish Enterprise	87	£20,206,378	3125
Scottish Ministers	2	£6,366,129	3016
Total	118	£28,231,926	6956

Question reference: S6W-24353

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it remains committed to delivering a Green Jobs Fund of £100 million to the five-year timescale set out in its Programme for Government 2020-21.

The Green Jobs Fund was created to support new and increased opportunities for green job creation across Scotland, by providing up to £100 million capital investment over a five year term.

Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise are working to deliver £50 million to businesses which provide sustainable or low carbon products and services to help them develop, grow and create jobs. Up to a further £50 million is aimed at supporting businesses and their supply chains create and safeguard jobs by investing in equipment, premises, research and development.

While public sector budgets are now under extreme pressure, the Scottish Government continues to invest in supporting existing businesses to transition to a low carbon environment and looking to fund new and innovative projects, which will take time to develop and deliver, and could result in more funding being required over the latter part of the five year term, as these newer markets grow and mature.

Question reference: S6W-24522

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the UK Government’s Industrial Energy Transformation Fund opening for applications on 29 January 2024 to support industrial sites in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to decarbonise, when it will open the next phase of the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to support Scottish businesses to decarbonise.

During 2020, Scottish Ministers announced their intention to administer a separate fund to the UK Government's Industrial Energy Transformation Fund and that more funds would be available for Scottish Industries than received as Barnett consequentials. We are in the process of concluding the due diligence process for SIETF applications and in the coming weeks intend to announce a further set of projects. Following this, we will engage with industrial representatives regarding potential proposals for future decarbonisation initiatives, including the possibility of a next phase for SIETF.

Question reference: S6W-24457

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the anticipated impact of any increase in funding for community eye healthcare will be on patients in (a) Edinburgh and (b) the Lothians.

The 2024-25 draft Scottish Budget document, published on 19 December, set out a budget of £130.1m for community eyecare services. This increase in the budget provision supports national provision of free universal NHS eye examinations, NHS optical vouchers for eligible persons to help with the cost of glasses and contact lenses, and new NHS services such as the Community Glaucoma Service which will enable patients to be seen closer to home.

The Scottish Government can confirm that patients in Edinburgh and the Lothians will continue to benefit as recipients of these national policies.