Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-34190

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 24 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further information on the figure of 130,650 Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination doses in the letter of 16 December 2020 from the Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing to MSPs.

Question reference: S5W-35134

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Current Status: Holding Answer by Mairi Gougeon on 24 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many of Movianto’s vaccine deliveries to GP practices were delivered on time in each week since 7 December 2020, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-34187

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 23 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what COVID-19 vaccine uptake rate it is aiming to achieve.

Question reference: S5W-35082

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 23 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government on how many marine fish farms the sea lice reporting and intervention thresholds were exceeded in 2020, and for how many weeks sea lice levels exceeded the sea lice reporting and intervention thresholds in each fish farm.

Question reference: S5W-35080

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions the Fish Health Inspectorate has taken formal enforcement action against marine fish farms when the intervention threshold for sea lice has been exceeded.

Enforcement action is taken when the farm is unable to demonstrate that satisfactory measures are in place for the prevention, control and reduction of sea lice, as required by the Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2007. If a farm reaches the intervention limit and over a specified period of time does not reduce the average number of adult female sea lice per fish to below the required level, enforcement action will be taken as satisfactory measures will not have been demonstrated. Actions taken to date are:

2016 – 0 No enforcement during introductory period

2017 – 8 Advisory Letters, 3 Warning Letters, 1 Enforcement Notice

2018 – 8 Advisory Letters

2019 – 5 Advisory Letters

2020 – 3 Advisory Letters, 2 Warning Letters, 2 Enforcement Notices

2021 (up to 10 February) – 1 Advisory Letter

Question reference: S5W-35083

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what enforcement powers the Fish Health Inspectorate has to address sea lice levels above the intervention threshold on marine fish farms.

FHI enforcement powers are those detailed in Part 1 of the Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2007 and particularly section 6 on enforcement. These powers can be taken when a person who carries on the business of fish farming fails to demonstrate that satisfactory measures are in place for the prevention, control and reduction of sea lice. This includes issuing an enforcement notice which may require the execution of such works or the taking of such other steps as necessary.

Question reference: S5W-35081

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the commitment made by Fergus Ewing to a "further reduction of the sea lice reporting and intervention thresholds to two and four average adult female lice per fish" (Official Report, 5 June 2019 col 2) has been taken forward.

The commitment made in the official record of the Scottish Parliament was to a further reduction of sea lice reporting and intervention thresholds unless there is compelling evidence to the contrary, and following the implementation of the a new statutory reporting regime. The Fish Farming Businesses (Reporting) (Scotland) Order 2020 will come into force on 29 March 2021, and will implement the new statutory reporting of average adult female L. salmonis sea lice counted per fish, per site, per reporting week by aquaculture production businesses. Reporting will now be required irrespective of whether the ‘reporting’ level of two is reached. Consideration with regards to lowering the intervention limit to 4 adult female lice per fish is underway in line with the timeline presented in the commitment and will take account of whether there is any evidence to the contrary.

Question reference: S5W-35114

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 16 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the average time taken has been between it receiving an external offer to help with COVID-19 diagnostic testing and it responding to the offer.

Any organisation that has offered to support testing provision is referred to NHS Scotland's National Services Scotland (NSS) as they co-ordinate the operational delivery of testing services.

A number of university and private laboratories stepped in to assist with testing in the early stages of the pandemic. However, as we have significantly increased our testing capacity from 350 tests per day to a maximum weekday capacity of more than 75,000 tests (based on the combined capacity of NHS Scotland and our share of UKG Lighthouse Laboratory Network capacity, so other laboratories that have assisted have been stood down.

A number of university and private laboratories remain part of the contingency plans should additional testing capacity be required. We are grateful for their continued support.

Question reference: S5W-35112

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 16 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many offers to help with COVID-19 diagnostic testing it has received in each month since March 2020 that it has (a) subsequently taken up and (b) not yet responded to.

Any organisation that has offered to support testing provision is referred to NHS Scotland's National Services Scotland (NSS) as they co-ordinate the operational delivery of testing services.

A number of university and private laboratories stepped in to assist with testing in the early stages of the pandemic. However, as we have significantly increased our testing capacity from 350 tests per day to a maximum weekday capacity of more than 75,000 tests (based on the combined capacity of NHS Scotland and our share of UKG Lighthouse Laboratory Network capacity, so other laboratories that have assisted have been stood down.

A number of university and private laboratories remain part of the contingency plans should additional testing capacity be required. We are grateful for their continued support.

Question reference: S5W-34001

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33500 by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020, whether it can confirm that the equipment required for the four PSMA-PET scanning services that it announced on 12 June 2019 are all in place, and that each service is fully operational.

Work is well advanced to provide these services to the Scottish population, although there have been some delays to installation due to the COVID pandemic. Equipment is in place in Edinburgh and Dundee and it is anticipated that Edinburgh will be granted a licence to administer PSMA by the end of March, and Dundee by end of April. Equipment is in place in Aberdeen and it is anticipated that the service will be going live in May/June 2021, the service in Glasgow will be up and running in the second half of 2021. It is also anticipated that until all sites are fully operational patients will have access to services at one of the other sites where appropriate.

Chamber and committees