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-12013

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recent announcement by the First Minister, what subsidies it will provide to ensure that the proposed publicly-owned energy company will provide energy at a below-market rate.

Question reference: S5W-12015

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recent announcement by the First Minster, whether the proposed publicly-owned energy company will contract services from existing energy firms in a similar way to other energy retailers.

Question reference: S5W-12016

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recent announcement by the First Minster, whether the proposed publicly-owned energy company will generate energy as well as supply it.

Question reference: S5W-12014

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recent announcement by the First Minister, whether the proposed publicly-owned energy company will be set up as a retail business, including with its own billing system and call centre.

The Scottish Government is developing plans for an energy company that will support our efforts to tackle fuel poverty and help to achieve our ambitious climate change targets. In developing our plans we are reviewing responses to specific questions on the issue set out within the consultation on the Scottish Government's draft Energy Strategy. The aim is to have the company set up by the end of this term of the Parliament. Our final Energy Strategy is scheduled to be published by the end of the year and we will bring forward our further thinking on our proposal at that time.

Question reference: S5W-12012

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recent announcement by the First Minister, how much the proposed publicly-owned national energy company will cost to establish.

Question reference: S5W-12009

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recent announcement by the First Minister, what discussions it has had with Scottish Power and SSE regarding the impact that the establishment of a publicly-owned national energy company could have on their (a) operations and (b) employees.

The Scottish Government consulted earlier in the year under our draft Energy Strategy on the scope to set up a government owned energy company.

The draft Energy Strategy consultation responses have been carefully considered by the Scottish Government and independently analysed. The views given under the consultation will continue to feed in to the development of our new Energy Strategy and our plans for a new energy supply company.

Over 100 respondents commented specifically on the question of a government owned energy company, confirming a range of views. The analysis and responses to the draft Energy Strategy will be published shortly.

In addition as part of the extensive and well-publicised consultation process the Scottish Government hosted a workshop that representatives from the Big Six energy companies which was attended by representative of both Scottish Power and SSE.

Question reference: S5O-01405

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reported concerns by social workers in Fife regarding health problems being caused as a direct result of GP shortages.

Question reference: S5W-12029

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 1 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to collect information about diagnostic waiting times for children and adults with autism, either locally or centrally, to ensure that these are reduced and improvements are maintained.

Reducing diagnostic waiting times remains a priority of the Scottish Government through Scottish Strategy for Autism.

NHS Boards are responsible for providing diagnostic services for people with autism in line with their statutory obligations and Scottish Government policy.

Information on waiting times is not held centrally. Information Services Division does not collect Autism Spectrum Disorders waiting times information.

Information Services Division receives waiting times information from NHS Boards for all referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) but this is not broken down by condition.

Question reference: S5W-11916

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 31 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-10938 by Derek Mackay on 5 September 2017, by what date it expects the first business or organisation will receive support from the Scottish Growth Scheme.

It is not possible to speculate on a precise date.

There are currently two distinct products under the Scottish Growth Scheme: the £200m Scottish-European Growth Co-investment Programme (SEGCP) launched on 16 June this year, aimed at companies seeking equity investment of £2m or above; and the new and additional funding to the SME Holding Fund under SGS (announced in Programme for Government 2017) to support equity funding up to £2m.

Work progresses with a number of companies seeking to access investment support under the SEGCP. At this stage, five companies have been referred to the European Investment Fund (EIF) to be considered for investment from EIF accredited Fund Managers. Scottish Enterprise is providing a package of support to help individual companies become investor ready and, alongside the EIF, introducing companies seeking investment to relevant Fund Managers.

Under the SME Holding Fund, it is anticipated that the additional investment could flow to relevant companies from the start of November 2017, with the resources being fully invested by December 2018.

Question reference: S5W-12032

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has received from NHS Fife about its work on reducing waiting times, and how effective it has been.

NHS Fife has undertaken some very robust work in relation to improving both demand and capacity planning and their local management processes. They have put in place clinical and theatre monitoring which has led to more robust job planning processes to ensure all capacity is fully utilised. This has led to NHS Fife having one of the best of the mainland Board's performance on both outpatient and inpatient and day case waiting times in Scotland.

I have made an additional £50 million to help Boards improve waiting times of which NHS Fife has received £3.4 million. This additional funding should improve waiting time performance between now and the end of March 2018. In addition, I have set up an expert group to reduce waiting times and improve the way elective care services are managed across all Boards. The Group will be led by Paul Hawkins, Chief Executive of NHS Fife, and the Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Professor David Bell.