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-16010

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 23 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation of provisions in the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022.

The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 ("the Act") requires Scottish Ministers to publish a national good food nation plan. Work on the first iteration of the plan is currently underway. The Scottish Government expects to publish a draft of the national good food nation plan for consultation in summer 2023. Our intention is that, following completion and analysis of the consultation, the draft plan will be laid before the Scottish Parliament in spring 2024, with the final version of the plan published in late 2024.

In addition, the Act requires that the Scottish Ministers must, when exercising a specified function or a function falling within a specified description, have regard to the national good food nation plan. These specified functions must be set out in secondary legislation. We expect to consult on the proposals for specified functions in 2023, and to lay the relevant secondary legislation in time for it to come in force around the same time as final publication of the national plan.

The Act also requires that relevant authorities (defined in the Act as health boards and local authorities) must produce their own good food nation plans. We expect that relevant authority plans will be published in 2025. This allows time for relevant authorities to have regard to the content of the national plan when preparing their own plans, and to consult on the content.

Question reference: S6W-16009

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 23 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the establishment of a Food Commission.

The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 contains provisions to establish the Scottish Food Commission. Establishing a new public body is complex and it takes time to work through the processes associated with setting up a new body. The Scottish Food Commission’s functions are directly linked to the good food nation plans required by the Good Food Nation Act. We therefore intend to establish it in a similar timeframe to the publication of the final version of the Scottish Government’s first national good food nation plan, which is expected in late 2024. This will allow the Food Commission to take up one of its key tasks, which is to scrutinise and make recommendations in relation to the first national good food nation plan.

Question reference: S6T-01270

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation’s recent warnings about the potential impact of Highly Protected Marine Areas on the fishing industry.

Question reference: S6W-15476

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to implement and raise awareness of current national guidelines on endometriosis.

Improving access for women to appropriate support, speedy diagnosis and best treatment for endometriosis is one of the priorities set out in the Women’s Health Plan for 2021-24.

The Endometriosis Pathway for Scotland, created by the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme, was approved in January 2023 and has been shared in draft format with NHS Boards. The pathway, which is adapted from NICE guidelines, provides a streamlined, integrated pathway across primary, secondary and tertiary care that aims to provide a holistic approach and timely care for those with endometriosis and endometriosis-like symptoms. The pathway will be uploaded to the Centre for Sustainable Delivery’s (CfSD) website in the near future, at which point it will be formally shared widely across NHS Scotland.

In addition, to improve access to the most accurate and relevant information on endometriosis, we have updated the NHS Inform endometriosis page. This includes a link to the NICE Guidelines, to ensure the public are aware of current national guidelines.

Question reference: S6W-15064

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service on the development of regulatory proposals for muirburn, in light of its potential role in mitigating wildfire risk.

Question reference: S6W-15188

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a progress update on the National Speed Management Review, including the consideration of HGV speed limit policy, as outlined in the Road Safety Framework to 2030.

Transport Scotland is undertaking the National Speed Management Review to support a range of policy drivers including better road safety and health outcomes, promotion of active travel, climate change mitigation, place making and economic growth.

The review covers comprehensive analysis of all types of speed management policies including HGV speed limits as well as a review of what has been introduced in other countries throughout the world.

We will consult with stakeholders and the public this year to gather and consider their views on future changes to speed limit policies and speed management measures.

Question reference: S6W-15066

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has sought advice from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service regarding any implications of licensing muirburn.

Proposals to amend legislation relating to muirburn were included in our Wildlife Management in Scotland consultation. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service provided a full response to this consultation and their responses are being taken into account as the provisions for the Bill are developed.

I recently met with Bruce Farquharson, Deputy Assistant Chief Officer and Head of Training for SFRS to discuss their consultation response in more detail.

Question reference: S6W-15280

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which businesses were consulted in developing Circularity Scotland's £22 million cashflow support package for the Deposit Return Scheme that was announced on 21 February 2023.

Circularity Scotland, as the scheme administrator for DRS, represents and provides services to its members including drinks producers, importers, wholesalers and retailers. Scottish Ministers, Scottish Government officials and Circularity Scotland regularly meet with stakeholders including representatives of small producers and that package of support was in direct response to concerns they have raised.

Question reference: S6W-14719

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to promote interoperable prescribing systems between the NHS providers and homecare medicines services providers.

Question reference: S6W-14718

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made regarding the effect of staff vacancies on the performance and safety of homecare medicine services.

There were significant capacity constraints across the medicines homecare market in 2022. A key challenge has been recruitment of staff in a challenging labour market, with some providers more adversely affected than others. The situation is improving but continues to be closely monitored.

Certain homecare providers have highlighted issues with nursing capacity in recent months. Where this has been raised as an issue, there has been close working with providers to ensure that available staffing resource is used in a way that helps minimise disruption to service performance.

Homecare providers have not reported any recent issues with staffing within their pharmacy departments.

Several homecare providers have experienced staffing shortages within customer services departments, and this has been a major contributing factor to the capacity constraints experienced.

There have been a small number of instances where there have been delays to the delivery of medicines to patients, which has the potential to impact on patient safety. Medicines homecare providers and Health boards have processes in place to support managing and learning from any patient safety incidents that arise during service delivery.