- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by James Wolffe QC on 10 February 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what settlement payments have been paid in relation to (a) Police Scotland and (b) the Crown Office subsequent to the admission that certain individuals involved in the administration and liquidation of Rangers FC have been the victims of malicious prosecution.
Answer
I can only speak for COPFS but to date £24,427,293.67 has been paid in damages and legal costs.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by James Wolffe QC on 10 February 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether any individuals have resigned or been removed from their positions following the admission that certain individuals were victims of malicious prosecution in relation to the administration and liquidation of Rangers FC.
Answer
Given that there live proceedings before the court, it would be inappropriate to comment at this time; in any event, I do not comment on individual staffing matters.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by James Wolffe QC on 10 February 2021
To ask the Scottish Government on what date the Lord Advocate will update the Parliament in relation to the malicious prosecutions of individuals involved in the administration of Rangers FC.
Answer
I made a statement to the Scottish Parliament on 9 February 2021. In that statement I committed the Crown to continuing to support public accountability in relation to this matter.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 February 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 2 February 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what impact there will be on the Crown Office budget as a result of any payments of compensation to individuals involved in the administration and liquidation of Rangers FC, following the admission that they were victims of malicious prosecution.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 2 February 2021
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to start trials of the drug, Ivermectin, in light of its reported effectiveness at all stages of COVID-19 and research on the drug being supported by the World Health Organization through its Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.
Answer
Potential new therapeutic approaches to COVID-19 are tested through the UK-wide platform trials, including RECOVERY, PRINCIPLE and REMAP-CAP. These trials are active in Scotland. An independent COVID-19 Therapeutics Advisory Panel (UK-CTAP) advises on what treatments should be proposed for testing through the platform trials. An open nominations portal for UK-CTAP is managed by UK Research and Innovation.
Guidance: making a proposal for COVID-19 therapeutics clinical trials - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 25 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has received regarding continuing business rates relief for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in full or in part in 2021-22.
Answer
The Scottish Government has been in regular contact with individual business as well as business representatives, including from the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. It is clear from this, and extensive correspondence, that certainty over the future of COVID-19 non-domestic rates relief next fiscal year has been a key priority for the business community.
Unfortunately, the lack of clarity from the UK Government at successive fiscal events, starting with the cancellation of the Autumn Budget, has undermined our desire to provide the certainty sought. We have been consistently clear that our ability to continue offering full relief next year is contingent on the UK Budget extending the equivalent policy in England and subsequently generating Barnett consequential funding.
In the forthcoming budget, we will nevertheless use the limited resources available within the existing devolution settlement in an innovative, targeted way to help these businesses as far as possible. If the UK Government subsequently announces enhanced rates relief in its own budget which results in increased funding, we will take further action to support business in Scotland .
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 22 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Scotland uses cycles higher than 35 for PCR (polymerase chain reaction) COVID-19 tests and, if so, how often this is done as a percentage of all tests.
Answer
Each manufacturer of the RT-PCR test will recommend a differing maximum amplification cycle number to determine presence of SARS CoV-2 when interpreting results, but a maximum of around 40 amplification cycles is normally used.
The Scottish Government does not hold information on the individual threshold used for every RT-PCR test in use, as the validation and interpretation of the test results are carried out by the individual laboratory performing the test.
NHS Scotland Laboratories have a protocol in place to carry out confirmation testing (or repeat testing) in certain circumstances to confirm whether low positive test results should be reported as positive or negative. Public Health Scotland have produced guidance for sampling and laboratory investigations to minimise reporting of false positives occurring: HPS Website - COVID-19 - guidance for sampling and laboratory investigations (scot.nhs.uk)
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has changed the reporting of COVID-19 cases in local authority areas so that they are reportedly no longer available for the general public to view and, if it was concerned that the previous approach risked breaching patient confidentiality, whether it will publish the evidence that informed this.
Answer
Reporting of COVID-19 cases by local authority is published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) on the COVID-19 Daily Cases Dashboard . The dashboard is updated daily and includes data for neighbourhoods (intermediate zones) where there are 3 or more confirmed positive cases of COVID-19.
From 14 December 2020, PHS made changes to how they publish small area COVID figures, with the changes applied to the historic trend data going back to March 2020.The changes balance the need to release as much information as possible whilst minimising the risks that individuals may be identified and also trying to ensure that the information is presented in a clear and meaningful way. This means data is now suppressed when a local neighbourhood has fewer than 3 positive cases, with the area labelled as having “0-2” confirmed cases and no population rate being applied. This is to help protect patient confidentiality and reduce situations where very small numbers of cases in an area with a small population show a disproportionately high rate. The new approach means that users can no longer separate out local neighbourhood areas with zero confirmed cases, but it is important to note that zero confirmed cases does not mean that there is no infection present in an area; the maps can only ever be an indicator of infection levels because they only show confirmed positive cases. The new approach also introduces a wider scale of rate categories used to colour the maps, which makes it easier for users in areas with high rates of confirmed positive cases to see variation between neighbourhoods and changes over time. In the interests of transparency, users can also now download the data underlying the neighbourhood level maps from the open data platform https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/covid-19-in-scotland .
Further information on the changes and why these were made are set out on the PHS website .
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 19 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the most recent COVID-19 regulations have removed welfare dog grooming from the list of essential services.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not removed welfare dog grooming from the list of essential services.
The Scottish Government recognises that the lack of access to professional pet grooming services has the potential to impact on the welfare of certain breeds of animal, particularly those requiring regular grooming to maintain their wellbeing.
Routine grooming is deemed a non-essential business activity. Where an animal is not at risk of pain or injury, professional groomers should not be providing routine grooming services in mainland Scotland.
Where essential professional grooming on welfare grounds is undertaken it must be conducted in line with the rules on physical distancing. Such tasks essential for the welfare of an animal include the clipping of heavy coats and claws.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the decision in the case of R Quincy Bell and A v. Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust & others in the English High Court, what steps it will now take to review the provision of services for children with gender dysphoria, including the prescription of puberty blockers.
Answer
Whilst the ruling from the High Court on 2 December has no formal status in Scotland we are examining it with intent. The law in Scotland on the capacity of young people to consent to medical treatment is different to that in England and Wales. Under the Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991, a person under 16 can consent to a medical procedure or treatment where the qualified medical practitioner attending them considers they are capable of understanding the nature and possible consequences of that procedure or treatment.
NHS England has announced that Dr Hilary Cass OBE, former President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, will lead an independent review into gender identity services for children and young people. The review includes examination of the issues around the prescription of puberty blocking and cross-sex hormone drugs to young people. It is expected that the review will report its findings on those issues in early 2021 with wider findings to follow later in the year.
NHS Scotland and the National Gender Identity Clinical Network Scotland are working with services to best meet the needs of young people in Scotland. Though some of this work was paused as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now in a position where we can start to progress it once again. This will include work to review current pathways, improve waiting times and ensure that trans young people and all young people exploring their gender identity can access appropriate care in a timely manner.
We do not look to duplicate the work of the review in Scotland and will closely consider the findings of the review when they become available early next year.
