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-25226

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to recent reports that Orkney’s harbour seal population has declined by 85% in the last 20 years, and what steps are being taken to identify the reasons for this decline.

In response to local declines in harbour seal populations, the Scottish Government introduced a Seal Conservation Area for Orkney in 2007 which provides additional protection to vulnerable seal populations.

Scottish Government is currently funding a major research project to investigate possible causes for these local declines. The research has already eliminated bycatch, entanglement, pollution, disease and shooting as significant factors. Effort is now focused on exploring other potential causes such as prey quality, competition with grey seals, predation by other marine mammals and harmful algal biotoxins. The research will report its findings in 2020.

Question reference: S5W-25255

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the collection of empty drinks containers through its proposed deposit return system will be provided at the producers' expense for all retailers and other operators of collection points, irrespective of their location.

As set out in the draft Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Regulations, published on 10 September 2019, producers, directly or through a scheme administrator, will be obliged to collect scheme packaging marketed by that producer from all return points free of charge in line with their operational plan. A condition of registering for the scheme, whether as a producer or a scheme administrator, will be to outline the frequency with which it will collect scheme packaging from retailers and other return points.

Question reference: S5W-25256

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any international evidence that suggests that being included in a deposit return system has led to an increase in the price of the drinks themselves.

The Deposit Return Scheme Full Business Case Stage 1 establishes that the cost of the scheme will be borne in part by producers as a form of extended producer responsibility. As in any competitive market, it is for producers to determine how much of this cost to pass on to consumers. A Full Business Case Stage 2 is planned for publication in early 2020 and will include indicative producer fees, drawing on evidence of international best practice.

Question reference: S5T-01783

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it will address the reported backlog of unresolved criminal cases.

Question reference: S5W-24631

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been referred to the Interventions for Vulnerable Youth service in each year since its inception.

Question reference: S5W-24634

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether an impact assessment of the closure of the Interventions for Vulnerable Youth service has been carried out and, if so, what the conclusions were.

The needs of the 10 young people supported through the IVY service are paramount. IVY are currently working with those young people and their local authority to ensure that services and supports, including appropriate support around transitions, are in place from the end of October.

Following the decision made by CYCJ to cease hosting the IVY service, the Scottish Government have carried out a survey of all 32 local authorities to understand the level of need for the service and what alternative provisions are available within the local authority to support vulnerable young people. Of the 18 responses received support will be considered through multi-agency planning and local resources, including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and psychologists.

Question reference: S5W-24635

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it began negotiations to try to relocate the Interventions for Vulnerable Youth service.

Question reference: S5W-24632

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that the Interventions for Vulnerable Youth service is no longer accepting referrals, what will happen to (a) existing and (b) new referrals.

Question reference: S5W-24633

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to establish an alternative provider for the Interventions for Vulnerable Youth service.

CYCJ alerted the Scottish Government to its intention to cease hosting this service at Strathclyde University in November 2017. The Scottish Government have been engaged in a number of discussions between the IVY service, CYCJ and potential alternative hosts since then. The Scottish Government have also initiated discussions with interested partners willing to consider hosting the IVY service and we continue to support these on-going discussions.

Question reference: S5W-24571

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the roles and settings included in the "other settings" category of the quarterly performance updates for action 15 of the mental health strategy.

In respect of other settings and through the quarterly reporting templates agreed with Integration Authorities (IAs), we have specifically asked what recruitment is being undertaken, the roles involved and where exactly the workers will be based.

The level of detail received from the IAs in respect of this request has been varied. Some areas have provided specific detail on the roles of the workers to be recruited and where they will be based (for example support workers recruited through the third sector to work in a community hub providing an out of hours service).

However some areas have only provided a general statement around the initiatives they are looking to develop and how this will assist people in mental health crisis/distress. One of the reasons for this is because they are still in the planning stages for these (as with the key settings of the commitment) for years three and four of Action 15.

Policy officials however remain in constant dialogue with IAs on their recruitment plans under this commitment and a fourth quarterly update will be published in November 2019.