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-12878

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many companies are currently accredited to carry out home insulation work in each local authority area in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-12879

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people in Scotland have claimed unemployment-related benefits in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) age group and (b) local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-12767

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what lessons it can learn from the reported use of an expert working group during the introduction of the UK Aggregates Levy, and whether it will consider establishing a similar working group during the introduction of a Scottish Aggregates Levy.

The Scotland Act 2016 empowers the Scottish Parliament to legislate for a devolved tax to replace the UK Aggregates Levy. This is an environmental tax that aims to reduce extraction of primary – fresh or new – aggregate, mainly crushed rock, gravel and sand, used as bulk fill in construction.

The Scottish Government is progressing work to develop a devolved replacement for the UK levy. Consistent with the Scottish Approach to Taxation, set out in Scotland’s Framework for Tax, we will continue to consult and engage with stakeholders via a range of channels and fora to help inform this work.

Question reference: S6W-12882

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS Scotland patients in each NHS board have been referred for surgical treatment in the rest of the UK in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-12732

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether Circularity Scotland Ltd meets the requirements and could be designated as a public authority for the purposes of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, in accordance with section 5 of the Act.

The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Scheme Administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd, is a privately owned company. This arrangement is consistent with the polluter pays principle and is the same approach used by many similar schemes internationally.

The Scottish Government has not given any consideration to its designation as a Scottish public authority for the purposes of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Question reference: S6W-12665

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the total quantity of counterfeit and illegal goods seized by Trading Standard Scotland officers was in each of the past five years.

Question reference: S6W-12666

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 9 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to ensure that any counterfeit and illegal goods seized by Trading Standards Scotland officers are recycled rather than incinerated or sent to landfill.

Trading Standards Scotland, when it takes possession of counterfeit and illegal goods, is subject to Section 34 of the Environment Protection Act 1990 which requires waste to be dealt with in line with the waste hierarchy. The Scottish Government has provided guidance on applying the waste hierarchy - https://www.gov.scot/publications/duty-care-code-practice/ .

I welcome the initiative shown by Falkirk Council and the local Trading Standards Scotland team in finding alternative destinations for seized counterfeit and illegal goods, to prevent them becoming waste. I would encourage others to follow this example.

Question reference: S6W-12520

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an updated timeline on the forthcoming consultation process for the Review of the Storage and Spreading of Sewage Sludge on Land in Scotland (The Sludge Review).

The legislative changes recommended by the completed review of the Storage and Spreading of Sewage Sludge on Land in Scotland (‘The Sludge Review’), are being implemented via the forthcoming Integrated Authorisation Framework (IAF) regulations.

The proposed changes are designed to strengthen SEPA powers to ensure effective management practices are implemented and followed by operators within the industry.

A consultation on proposed IAF regulations is due to be published early next year and stakeholders will have the opportunity to comment on the proposals relating to sewage sludge.

Question reference: S6W-12527

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 9 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS patients have been treated in private hospitals in each of the past five years, broken down by NHS board.

The total number of NHS patients that have been treated in private (independent) hospitals in each of the last five financial years and reported to PHS is presented in the following table.

Number of NHS patients treated in Private (independent) hospitals 1 by NHS board of residence; 2017-18 – 2021-22

	Inpatients or Daycases (SMR01)					Outpatients (SMR00) 2
Health Board of Residence	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Ayrshire and Arran	247	44	145	499	705	-	-	-	-	434
Borders	59	55	62	52	86	68	136	109	93	121
Dumfries and Galloway	5	6	6	19	29	38	29	27	16	34
Fife	63	582	157	502	91	26	7	7	10	7
Forth Valley	429	808	689	558	319	1	220	-	135	1
Grampian	742	510	290	1081	446	774	293	507	381	124
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	818	752	841	643	539	306	393	408	197	203
Highland	171	201	161	16	3	18	23	17	14	12
Lanarkshire	1951	1703	2919	1389	1389	271	151	480	176	208
Lothian	828	374	839	713	361	2348	1916	1672	146	366
Orkney	2	2	4	22	2	-	-	2	-	1
Shetland	2	-	-	13	2	-	1	-	1	1
Tayside	55	155	203	108	54	60	18	77	263	294
Western Isles	42	39	39	36	19	-	1	-	-	1
Not Known	2	2	1	5	2	20	9	10	9	1
Outwith Scotland	2	3	-	1	1	2	1	1	2	-
Grand Total	5418	5236	6356	5657	4048	3932	3198	3317	1443	1808

- denotes zero
1. relates to patients treated in non-NHS locations such as private hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, care homes, etc. The data recording/completeness of Non-NHS Provider data varies from year to year.
2. Outpatient data only include patients that attended their outpatient appointment and were seen.

Question reference: S6W-12528

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) GP and (b) hospital appointments have been missed in each of the past five years, broken down by NHS board.

Part (a) The Scottish Government does not hold data on missed GP appointments. Individual GP practices are responsible for their own appointment arrangements.

Part (b) Information on consultant led new outpatient appointments where the patient did not attend is published within Public Health Scotland’s annual acute hospital activity and NHS beds publication. Information can be found in ‘Table 1 – outpatient activity (consultant led).xlsx’ which presents data by NHS Board of Treatment for 2012/13 to 2021/22 (available under the ‘Data files’ heading on this Public Health Scotland web page: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual-annual-year-ending-31-march-2022/ ).

In addition, monthly trend information from May 2015 to September 2022 on the number of planned operations typically carried out within an inpatient or day case setting in NHS Scotland, that were cancelled the day before or the day of treatment by NHS Board of treatment (including cancellation reason, cancelled by patient). This information is published within Public Health Scotland’s monthly cancelled planned operations publication (available under the ‘Data files’ heading on this Public Health Scotland web page:

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/cancelled-planned-operations-month-ending-30-september-2022/ ).

The next Public Health Scotland’s monthly cancelled planned operations publication covering October 2022 is due to be published on 6 December.