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-03535

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 28 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential (a) quality and (b) quantity of private rented housing provision in (a) North Ayrshire and (b) Inverclyde following the introduction of its proposed rent controls.

Once firmer options for the design of rent controls are developed, including through a full public consultation, we will carefully consider the potential impact on the quality and quantity of private rented housing at a national and sub-national level. We will be gathering evidence and engaging with stakeholders in the private rented sector to develop a range of Impact Assessments, including a Business Regulatory Impact Assessment.

Question reference: S6O-00311

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government to what extent it takes local government decision making into account when considering proposals previously rejected by a local authority.

Question reference: S6W-03545

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients in NHS (a) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (b) Ayrshire and Arran have waited longer than the 12-week waiting time standard for an outpatient appointment for orthopaedic treatment in each month since January 2020.

Question reference: S6W-03718

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government where the money for the Victim Centred Approach Fund has been allocated from for the financial years from 2022-23 to 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-03348

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential (a) quality and (b) quantity of private rented housing provision following the introduction of proposed rent controls.

As we further develop options for the design of rent controls, including through a full public consultation, we will carefully consider the potential impact on the quality and quantity of private rented housing. This will include gathering evidence and engaging with stakeholders in the private rented sector to develop a range of Impact Assessments, including a Business Regulatory Impact Assessment.

Question reference: S6W-03455

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Lord President and Lord Justice General recommending to the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland that an extra 15 fee paid sheriffs and 15 fee paid summary sheriffs be appointed.

In January 2021 I announced that £50 million would be allocated to support the justice system “Recover, Renew and Transform Programme”, which includes addressing the national requirement for a higher number of both sheriff and summary sheriff roles to manage the backlog in the sheriff courts that occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

To support this programme of work, the Lord President made a formal request to Scottish Ministers for 15 fee paid sheriffs and 15 fee paid summary sheriffs to be appointed by the end of 2021. In April 2021, Scottish Ministers formally requested the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland (JABS) begin the recommendation for appointment process to fill these roles. Subsequently recommendations for appointment are expected to be received from JABS in November 2021.

Question reference: S6W-03716

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many drug tests for any prohibited substance have taken place in prisons in (a) each financial year since 2018-19 and (b) 2021-22 to date, broken down by how many test results were (i) positive, (ii) negative and (iii) inconclusive.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table provides the total number of drug tests conducted in each financial year, along with the results.

Year	Total Number of Tests	Positive tests	Negative tests
2018-19	8562	815	7747
2019-20	7451	684	6767
2020-21	3460	242	3218
2021 – to date (18-10-21)	2321	182	2139

* The reports run from 01 April to 31 March each year

The SPS do not record data on inconclusive tests.

Question reference: S6W-03719

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether prisoners are routinely drug tested for any prohibited substance upon release from prison at the end of their sentence, and, if so, how many such tests have taken place in (a) each financial year since 2018-19 and (b) 2021-22 to date, broken down by how many test results were (i) positive, (ii) negative and (iii) inconclusive.

Question reference: S6W-03551

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the reasons for the reported reduction in life expectancy for people in (a) North Ayrshire and (b) Inverclyde between 2016-18 and 2018-2020.

The majority of Scotland’s council areas have experienced a stall in life expectancy growth since 2012-2014. Life expectancy has unfortunately decreased across many areas in Scotland. This trend has also been experienced across the UK.

National Records of Scotland publish official annual statistics on life expectancy by council area. Their report for 2018-2020 can be found here: Life Expectancy in Scotland, 2018-2020 | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk) . Between 2016-2018 and 2018-2020, average life expectancy in Inverclyde reduced from 75.2 to 74.3 for males and 79.6 to 78.6 for females. Average life expectancy in North Ayrshire reduced from 76.3 to 75.3 for males, though female life expectancy increased from 79.9 to 80.1.

It is worth highlighting that deaths from COVID-19 have accounted for the vast majority of the fall in life expectancy across Scotland as a whole, reducing male life expectancy by 16.7 weeks and female life expectancy by 14.3 weeks. Inverclyde and North Ayrshire have sadly experienced some of the highest rates of deaths per local population from COVID-19, with 216.7 per 100,000 population in Inverclyde and 234.6 per 100,000 population in North Ayrshire.

We know that deprivation drives excess mortality, and that areas of high deprivation have increased rates of deaths from COVID-19. Inverclyde and North Ayrshire have a higher proportion of local zones of high deprivation than many other areas in Scotland. We are committed to ending poverty, increasing equitable access to fair employment, education and training, and improving our physical and social environments. We will do this by working more effectively in partnership across government and with our local partners across all sectors.

Our recently published COVID-19 Recovery Strategy sets out how we will tackle many of the deep-rooted inequalities that lead to unfair differences in health and life expectancy. Increasing life expectancy and improving the health for everyone in Scotland remains a clear priority for this Government.

Question reference: S6W-03539

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase the number of defibrillators in public places.

Scottish Government is a key partner in Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS). The partnership published an updated Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) strategy in March 2021, which seeks to increase the percentage of OHCAs which have a defibrillator applied before the arrival of ambulance service from 8% to 20%.

Achieving this is not only about increasing the number of defibrillators in public places, but also about ensuring that defibrillators already in the community are publicly accessible, are registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service so they can be directed to in instances of OHCA, and that people feel empowered to use them. The OHCA strategy identifies a number of actions to take in order to achieve these goals.

We also recognise that it is important to support evidence based placement of defibrillators in areas where OHCAs are most likely to occur. To this end, the Resuscitation Research Group, Edinburgh University is piloting a data-led approach to the placement of defibrillators in Scotland, called SCOT-PAD. The Scottish Government funded the initial modelling analysis in 2018 and are fully supportive of the group’s work.