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-20912

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, according to the latest data, how many people (a) in Aberdeen and (b) throughout Scotland are in receipt of a free bus pass.

By 31 August 2023, there were 84,660 cardholders in Aberdeen City within the National Concessionary Travel Schemes. In Scotland, there are a total of 2,263,403 cardholders. This includes cardholders in the free bus schemes for those aged 60 and over, those aged under 22 and eligible disabled people.

Cardholder data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO) and is provided by local authority.

NECPO supports the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The figure includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile app.

Question reference: S6O-02554

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help businesses take full advantage of Scotland’s hydrogen potential.

Question reference: S6W-20831

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the number of Baby Boxes that have been distributed since the scheme began, broken down by local authority, NHS board or any other local area breakdown for which figures are available.

The Scottish Government’s universal Baby Box programme, the only one in the UK, opened for registration on 15 June 2017. Nationwide delivery of Baby Boxes began on 15 August 2017 for all babies born and resident in Scotland.

We are unable to give the number of Baby Boxes delivered by local authority or other local area breakdown area as we only record numbers of Baby Boxes distributed by Health Board area.

The following table shows the number of Baby Boxes distributed by NHS Board area since the Scheme began up to 25 th August 2023.

Health Board	Boxes Delivered
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	16,508
NHS Borders	4813
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	6466
NHS Fife	17,584
NHS Forth Valley	14,265
NHS Grampian	29,954
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	67,367
NHS Highland	13,459
NHS Lanarkshire	31,126
NHS Lothian	47,881
NHS Orkney	1042
NHS Shetland	1267
NHS Tayside	19,385
NHS Western Isles	1006
Total	272,123

Question reference: S6W-21013

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the number of COVID-19 cases in Scotland, and what assessment it has made of the potential impact of the newly-identified Eris strain, which the World Health Organization has classified as a "variant of interest".

Public Health Scotland continue to monitor all COVID-19 variants in Scotland and publish this regularly within the “National respiratory infection and COVID-19 statistics” report available at Publications - Public Health Scotland . The latest report was published on 14 September and included a section dedicated to EG.5.1.

The World Health Organization (WHO) published an initial Risk Evaluation for EG.5 and EG.5.1 on 9 August 2023 and has assessed the risk to global public health as low. 320 cases of EG.5 (or “Eris”) and its descendant lineages have been detected in Scotland as of 11 September 2023. The current risk in Scotland is low, we continue to advise, to prevent the spread of coronavirus, to try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you have symptoms of a respiratory infection. Vaccination remains the best way to protect ourselves and we encourage all those eligible to take up their invitation when they are offered.

The Government will continue to work closely with Public Health Scotland and other partners to monitor, assess and be ready to respond to any new outbreaks of COVID-19.

Question reference: S6W-21055

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work is being done to accelerate the winter vaccination programme.

In response to the emergence of the new Covid-19 variant BA.2.86, we have taken the precautionary measure of bringing forward the vaccination of those at highest risk – notably residents in care homes for older adults, those aged 75 and over and those aged 12 and over with a weakened immune system.

Although there is currently insufficient data to assess the potential severity, transmissibility or immune escape of BA.2.86, it is felt that this ‘no regrets’ approach is wisest until we understand more about this variant.

Officials and Public Health Scotland are working closely with Health Boards to operationalise this change to the programme, which happened after some Boards had already scheduled their lower risk groups from 18 September, in line with the original plan. We have instructed them to honour these appointments.

This means that although many of those at highest risk will be called forward sooner than the original plan, this will not apply to everyone. We are however endeavouring to bring forward as many of these appointments as we can, while honouring appointments that had already been scheduled before the change.

To this end, some Boards began vaccinating in care homes the week of 4 September, six weeks earlier than originally planned.

A letter to all MSPs on the re-phasing will be issued shortly.

Question reference: S6W-21054

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it plans to make available to NHS boards to cope with any further rise in COVID-19 infections.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the totality of the Health and Social Care system to deal with emerging pressures including any rise in COVID-19. We have made available record levels of funding in this financial year to support the NHS and Social Care and are committed to working with local systems to ensure that they are well prepared for pressures that can be expected. The Scottish Government and COSLA are developing the Winter Plan for 2023-24, working collaboratively with local systems and partners to ensure that the necessary steps are being taken now to support system resilience. We will publish the plan in October. The Scottish Government and COSLA will also continue to monitor the situation and stand ready to enact the National Response Framework if needed.

Question reference: S6W-20914

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, according to the latest data, how many people (a) in Aberdeen and (b) throughout Scotland are in receipt of free personal and nursing care.

The latest statistical release for Free Personal and Nursing Care is for the period 2022-23 and was published on 05 September 2023. Two published excel files accompany the publication, for people aged between 18 – 64 and for people aged over 65. These can be found at: Supporting documents - Free Personal and Nursing Care, Scotland, 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The relevant data can be found in table 2 within both excel files.

Question reference: S6W-20913

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, according to the latest data, how many children (a) in Aberdeen and (b) throughout Scotland are in receipt of Scottish Child Payment.

Social Security Scotland routinely publishes information on Scottish Child Payment applications, payments and the number of children actively in receipt of the payment.

As of 30 June 2023, 316,190 children aged 0-15 years were actively benefitting from Scottish Child Payment. Of those children, 10,165 children resided in Aberdeen City. This information along with other local authority areas can be found in the latest Scottish Child Payment Official Statistics publication:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications .

The next edition of the Scottish Child Payment publication which will cover the period to the end of September 2023, is due to be published in late November 2023.

Question reference: S6W-20942

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities have an up-to-date autism strategy, and which do not.

Question reference: S6W-20940

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors the delivery of local authority autism strategies.

Scottish Government officials engage individually with local authorities and health and social care partnerships alongside accessing feedback on autism strategies via the Social Work Scotland Learning Disability and Autism Subgroup meetings and the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) programme of work.

Local strategies are based on The Scottish Government Learning/Intellectual Disabilities and Autism: Towards Transformation Plan.