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: S6T-00339

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what resilience measures are in place to tackle serious organised crime and terrorism, in light of reports that the Assistant Chief Constable in charge has been suspended.

Question reference: S6W-04239

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many individuals have downloaded the COVID-19 vaccine passport app on a digital device and, of those who have downloaded it, how many have (a) successfully used it to produce evidence of a vaccination on the device of their choice, (b) called or emailed the service provider to report a fault with the app or process and (c) been unable to use the app due to database issues that have resulted in an incorrect vaccination status being shown.

Public Heath Scotland publish a weekly COVID-19 statistical report every Wednesday which includes this information. As at 15 November 2021 the COVID Status app had been downloaded over 1.5 million. It is important to note a single user may choose to download the App on multiple devices so this total figure does not represent unique individuals.

As we do not track individual’s use of their certificates, it is not possible to indicate how many people have used their certificate.

For part’s (b) and (c), the Deputy First Minister wrote to the Covid-19 Recovery Committee setting out the information requested in detail. This can be accessed on the Scottish Parliament website here .

Question reference: S6W-04395

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the number of staff shortages in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Decisions on local staffing requirements and recruitment are the responsibility of individual NHS Boards. However, Scottish Government officials are continually engaging with NHS Boards to identify particular areas of concern.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are delivering a number of campaigns to fill vacancies and to recruit additional staffing. The Board are recruiting 222 Band 3 Health Care Support Workers (HCSW) to their Health and Social Care Partnerships and are targeting the recruitment of a further 200 HCSWs into Acute settings, as well as 20 Band 5 and 20 Band 6 Critical Care nurses. The Board have also recruited over 577 newly qualified nurses who have been commencing throughout October and November with some planning to commence in early 2022.

As a result of local and national efforts to recruit staff in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s staffing levels are up 4.7% or by 1,608.3 whole-time equivalent, since March 2020.

Source: NHS Education for Scotland Official NHS Workforce publication, data at June 2021.

Question reference: S6W-04397

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the financial cost of the vaccine passport scheme to the hospitality sector.

Question reference: S6W-04587

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support is provided to promote access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among women and ethnic minority groups at risk of HIV.

Question reference: S6W-04586

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it is giving to widening access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to all people at risk of HIV transmission.

The Scottish Government’s recovery plan for sexual health and blood borne virus services, Reset and Rebuild, includes an action to widen access to PrEP to a much broader range of people, including those who do not access sexual health services. The plan acknowledges that this will require novel models of care and access to PrEP in settings that people who do not currently access it will find acceptable.

In the plan, the Scottish Government has committed to working with stakeholders to support and develop a number of research projects to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on service users and providers, including piloting an evaluation of new care pathways, such as a community based PrEP service.

The recovery plan also makes available an additional £0.5 million of funding, on top of the existing funding provided to third sector delivery organisations, to support specific recovery actions, particularly those focussed on testing, HIV and Hepatitis C elimination.

Finally, the Scottish Government has established an HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal Oversight Group, which will support delivery of a proposal for how Scotland can eliminate HIV transmission by 2030. The action to widen access to PrEP will form a key part of the final proposal, which is expected to be delivered by Autumn 2022.

Question reference: S6W-04585

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to introduce prescribing of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in settings outside of sexual health clinics.

Question reference: S6W-04240

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the procurement process was for the NHS Covid Status App; which company was chosen for the design and production of the app; what the cost was of (a) the app's procurement and (b) any initial (i) research, (ii) development and (iii) launch of the app; what the ongoing operational costs (A) have been to date and (B) are estimated to be for the period that the app is operational, including any licence fees or other costs related to the use of the app by it and its agencies.

The full contract notices are published on Public Contracts Scotland. See https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=NOV432052 and https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=NOV432062 . I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03620 on 17 November 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-04237

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what data it has on any causational link, direct or indirect, between the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine passport scheme for certain entertainment, sporting or large-scale events and any changes in (a) the take-up of the COVID-19 vaccine and (b) COVID-19 rates of infection since the scheme launched.

Question reference: S6W-04431

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with representatives of Peel Ports Group regarding the regeneration of Hunterston, and whether it will provide details of the content of any discussions.

Scottish Enterprise continue to be closely engaged with Peel Ports and are collaborating with them, along with North Ayrshire Council, under a Memorandum of Understanding to advance and secure the delivery at Hunterston of regional and national investment objectives defined in the Scottish Government Inward Investment Strategy and Ayrshire Economic Strategy. Work is progressing across a range of sectors including the Circular Economy to develop a refined position identifying market gaps, industry demand and alignment with the assets of Hunterston PARC. In addition, the Scottish Government is in regular communication with the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership of which Peel Ports is a member.