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-33807

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the COVID-19 vaccination delivery plan that has been reviewed by Ministers.

Question reference: S5W-33815

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will follow the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI) recommendations for who gets priority for the COVID-19 vaccine, and whether it will publish a definitive list of the priority groups in Scotland.

We will prioritise to make sure those most at risk are protected, in line with advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) . They have recommended prioritising those with the greatest clinical need - this includes older residents in care homes, health and social care workers, and those aged over 80.

The priority groups we can offer the vaccine to, and the number of people we can reach, depends on the supply of vaccines that become available. Initial supply, and constraints on vaccine transportation, mean we will initially focus our over-80s programme on care home residents and long-term hospital inpatients. Over 80s who are not long-term inpatients or care home residents will be the next group to be called forward as soon as vaccine supply permits. We hope to address your other queries in a forthcoming communication from the Scottish Government to MSPs.

Question reference: S5W-33811

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many mobile COVID-19 vaccination units there are, and when they will be operational.

Question reference: S5W-33813

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government where the fridges needed to store COVID-19 vaccines are currently located, broken down by the number in each NHS board area.

Question reference: S5W-33390

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) shore and (b) seagoing staff are currently employed by David MacBrayne Limited and its subsidiaries, and how many of these reside on the islands served by CalMac Ferries.

The number of staff employed by David MacBrayne Limited and its subsidiaries are as follows

	Total Headcount	Reside on the Islands #
David MacBrayne HR (UK) Ltd	29	1
CalMac Ferries Ltd	296 *	19 *
CalMac Ferries Ltd	247 **	191 **
CalMac Crewing (Guernsey)	1,063	321

# includes those that reside on the Kintyre peninsula

* Support Services job roles

** Port staff roles

The sea-going staff who crew CalMac Ferries Ltd vessels are employed through CalMac Crewing (Guernsey). All employees have been recruited on the basis of their skills and experience, not on their place of residence.

Question reference: S5W-33252

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to promote the measures put in place to make cancer services as free from COVID-19 as possible.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, we have worked hard to ensure that Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures in hospitals and other care settings are robust. Health care workers in oncology and haemato-oncology wards and day patient areas including radiotherapy are also offered weekly testing

All testing policies are kept under active review, in line with expert advice and the changing prevalence and local epidemiology. As outlined in Scotland’s Testing Strategy, our approach to COVID-19 testing continues to be adaptive as we deal with the pandemic and the coming winter months and planning work on delivery to additional cohorts in line with clinical guidance is underway. In line with the clinical review of our testing strategy, and further scale-up of capacity, we announced the phased roll out of testing from the end of November 2020 to all patient-facing healthcare workers in hospitals, the Scottish Ambulance Service and the patient facing workforce deployed in the COVID-19 Community Assessment Centres and this is underway.

Testing is only one measure of protection against COVID-19, alongside a strong emphasis on robust infection prevention and control measures, including the use of PPE, the extended use of face masks, physical distancing and good hygiene.

Elective surgical patients are already tested prior to admission. Work is now under way to expand this to include all planned medical admissions and emergency admissions including maternity.

The planned medical admission testing will include patients who are undergoing an endoscopy procedure, and planned medical admission patients who remain in hospital for 5 days, will be retested.

Question reference: S5W-33276

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 16 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what forward planning it is undertaking for the possibility that COVID-19 vaccination is required annually.

We do not yet know whether the vaccines prevent transmission of the virus, nor how long the protection offered by the vaccines lasts and clinical studies on these matters are ongoing. This will inform the Scottish Government’s plans for COVID-19 vaccination following this first programme, along with details about the supply of approved vaccines, details of approved COVID-19 vaccines’ characteristics and clinical and scientific advice from advisory and regulatory bodies.

Question reference: S5W-33987

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2020
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the COVID-19 vaccination policy for (a) NHS and (b) social care staff in each NHS board area.

Question reference: S5W-33500

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 November 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many PET scanners NHS Scotland has, broken down by NHS board area, and whether they are all fully operational.

Question reference: S5W-33287

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the development of a communications campaign to promote the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be sending out information explaining what the vaccine is, how we are prioritising who gets the vaccine and what to expect when you are vaccinated. Our plans are dependent on a supply of approved vaccines becoming available, and also on us getting the full information about vaccine characteristics. All of our communications for people who will be invited to get a vaccination will be carefully tailored to meet the varying needs of the different groups and encourage maximum uptake.