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-24780

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 6 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on tree planting and woodland preservation; what targets it has set, and what its position is on whether these are sufficiently ambitious.

The Scottish Government’s position on woodland creation and maintaining existing woodland cover are outlined in Scotland’s Forestry Strategy 2019-2029 . Scotland’s woodland creation target is set out in the Climate Change Action Plan: 10,000 hectares per year until 2020-2021 and then increasing by steps to 15,000 hectares per year by 2024-2025. Scotland exceeded this target in 2018-19 by creating 11,210 hectares of new woodland – 84% of the new woodland created in the UK.

The Scottish Government recognises forestry’s vital role in Scotland’s response to the global climate emergency as well as in supporting the rural economy, which is why the current Climate Change Action Plan includes the ambitious forestry expansion plans described above. The Scottish Government has committed to updating the Climate Change Action Plan within six months of Royal Assent to the new Climate Change Bill, and a consideration of the government’s forestry ambitions will be included as a part of this process.

Question reference: S5W-24519

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 5 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comment by Obesity Action Scotland in its July 2019 newsletter that, "food is a human right".

Access to adequate food is an internationally recognised human right and is key to the fulfilment of other rights. The Scottish Government is therefore committed to ensuring everyone in Scotland has the opportunity to eat well and maintain a healthy diet as an key component of our Good Food Nation ambition. To do this we are taking action both at a population-wide level and through delivering targeted support specifically to those who need it most, including taking action to ensure people affected by food insecurity can eat well.

The Scottish Government already takes a human rights approach to tackling food insecurity by promoting the living wage and through the design and delivery of our new Scottish social security system. We have also committed to setting up a National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership and its work will include consideration of the right to food, as an integral part of the right to an adequate standard of living.

Question reference: S5W-24823

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 19 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the introduction of a UK Government Bill to restrict the serving of foods high in fat, salt or sugar in schools by 2022, whether it has considered introducing a similar target.

Our school meal uptake is higher now than when current Scottish school food regulations were first introduced in 2008 and we are leading the way by becoming the first part of the UK to set a maximum amount of sugar and processed red meat that can be made available during the course of the school day.

The current regulations already include strict upper limits in relation to sugar and school caterers must plan their menus in a manner which prevents children and young people from consuming excessive amounts of sugar, fat, or salt over the course of the school week.

We will be amending the regulations further to make school meals even healthier and more closely aligned with the Scottish Dietary Goals.

The improvements to school food and drink are a key part of our commitment to strengthening children and young people’s healthy eating habits and halving childhood obesity by 2030.

Question reference: S5W-24834

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review regulations relating to the marketing of vaping products in supermarkets and other retail outlets.

The Scottish Government is committed to consult and legislate on restricting the advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes. This will make Scotland the first country in Europe to do so. The proposed restrictions will not apply to any public health campaigns or adverts, and the proposal is to allow advertising at point of sale provided it is not seen from outside the premises.

The Scottish Government will launch this consultation around the end of 2019. The restrictions proposed will cover domestic advertising of e-cigarettes – on bill boards, on leaflets, on bus shelters etc. Advertising on TV, on the radio, on-line and in newspapers and magazines is already banned.

Question reference: S5W-24761

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-24372 by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 August 2019, what the outcome was of the visit to (a) the Brownlee clinic and (b) Waverley Care's street support team.

I found the visits to the Brownlee clinic and Waverley Care’s street support team informative and was impressed by the collaborative working taking place between the NHS and 3 rd sector organisations. I continue to take a close interest in measures to tackle the HIV outbreak in Glasgow. My officials are in contact with the Incident Management Team and clinicians leading on the response in Glasgow in order to understand what more can be done to tackle the ongoing transmissions of HIV in this vulnerable population.

Question reference: S5W-24760

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-24371 by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 August 2019, which NHS boards have waiting lists for access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), broken down by the waiting time.

Question reference: S5W-24786

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of pneumothorax (collapsed lung) have been recorded by each NHS board in each year since 2015-16, broken down by cause.

The information requested is not held centrally. However, the number of NHS Scotland hospital admissions with pneumothorax (spontaneous tension pneumothorax and other pneumothorax ) and the number of hospital admissions with traumatic pneumothorax are shown in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively.

Table 1

Number of NHS Scotland hospital admissions with spontaneous tension pneumothorax and other pneumothorax in each year since 2015-16, by health board and financial year.

	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19p
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	229	215	189	198
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	92	95	94	82
NHS Borders	27	14	18	19
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	24	35	29	28
NHS Fife	48	71	52	56
NHS Forth Valley	58	46	62	56
NHS Grampian	118	128	131	104
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	284	294	254	286
NHS Highland	34	42	41	50
NHS Lanarkshire	112	113	119	109
NHS Lothian	379	302	307	313
NHS Orkney	6	5	5	*
NHS Shetland	*	*	7	*
NHS Tayside	96	97	79	96
NHS Western Isles	*	*	*	*

* indicates suppression

p indicates provisional data

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01

Date extracted: August 2019

Table 2

Number of NHS Scotland hospital admissions with traumatic pneumothorax in each year since 2015-16, by health board and financial year.

	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19p
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	8	5	*	*
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	42	35	48	46
NHS Borders	17	17	19	20
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	18	20	23	16
NHS Fife	35	37	27	37
NHS Forth Valley	31	13	17	25
NHS Grampian	59	73	86	79
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	186	182	191	186
NHS Highland	30	41	38	42
NHS Lanarkshire	64	59	94	80
NHS Lothian	99	113	113	138
NHS Orkney	*	0	*	*
NHS Shetland	*	*	*	0
NHS Tayside	41	39	59	52
NHS Western Isles	*	*	*	*

* indicates suppression

p indicates provisional data

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01

Date extracted: August 2019

Question reference: S5W-24787

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many unlicensed acupuncturists there are in each NHS board area.

Responsibility for enforcing tattooing and skin piercing, including acupuncture, legislation lies with Local Authorities.

This falls within the remit of Local Authorities who have the statutory responsibility under The Civil Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Skin Piercing and Tattooing) Order 2006 which came into force in Scotland on 1st April 2006 and gives Local Authorities the power to license individuals who carry out skin piercing or tattooing activities as a business.

Question reference: S5W-24689

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 12 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the provisional levels of spending for the Tackling Child Poverty Fund set out in the report, Every Child, Every Chance: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan: First year Progress Report 2018-19, to what areas or projects the remaining £18 million of the Fund will be allocated.

Question reference: S5T-01752

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 02 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh will open.