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-23799

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) model should be used to guide the support offered to individuals and to make predictions about people's abilities or life outcomes, or to inform family policy.

Question reference: S5W-23797

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been allocated to tackling Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in schools through the pupil equity funding scheme.

Pupil Equity Funding was introduced in 2017 as a new way of working to close the attainment gap, by providing money directly to the schools, and head teachers, that know their young people best, giving schools the power to choose where to target support and interventions. While the Scottish Government collects and publishes school level Pupil Equity Funding spend from Local Authorities each financial year, we do not collect or hold detailed information about what the funding has been spent on. The Pupil Equity Funding national operational guidance states that the funding should be focused on activities and interventions that will lead to improvements in literacy, numeracy, health, and wellbeing, which will include approaches to tackle Adverse Childhood Experiences.

Question reference: S5W-23800

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government to what extent it considers that the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) model could be misused in ways that could not be described as a trauma-informed approach.

Question reference: S5T-01738

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it will reduce the reported long waits for inpatient and day-case dental treatment.

Question reference: S5W-23716

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the freight capacity of Scotland’s railways.

The Scottish Government recognises that rail freight supports sustainable, inclusive economic growth and contributes to the wider climate change targets and has, therefore, worked closely with the rail freight industry to understand the capacity of the rail network for freight and areas where growth can be facilitated. This work has been informed by studies carried out by Network Rail to determine the demand and capacity for freight services including the Scotland Route Study, the Freight Network Study and the Industry Growth Plan for Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-23687

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 07 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 21 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on directly elected Lord Provosts and mayors in Scottish local authorities, and whether it has any plans to introduce such a policy.

The Scottish Government jointly launched the Local Governance Review with COSLA to consider how powers are shared across national and local government, and with communities. Engagement extended beyond local government to consider all public services. Summary reports of the initial findings can be found at https://www.gov.scot/democracymatters . We didn't specifically ask about directly elected Lord Provosts and mayors in Scottish local authorities. Instead, we asked a short set of broad questions about the future of local democracy in Scotland. From over 350 responses from individuals, communities and public institutions, whether or not we should have provosts or mayors didn’t appear in the analysis. On 16 May 2019, the Scottish Government and COSLA announced the initial findings and set out next steps. A further round of widespread engagement will take place later in 2019 in order to help create a new system of community-led decision-making that can become integrated into Scottish society.

Question reference: S5W-23715

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the Department of Transport regarding the integration of HS2 into the Scottish railway system.

The North of HS2 to Scotland Working Group (comprising representatives from Transport Scotland, the Department for Transport, HS2 Ltd and Network Rail) was set up in 2016 to deliver the Scottish and UK Governments' joint commitment to identify potential infrastructure improvements that could be implemented over the next 10 years to improve the capacity, resilience and journey time on the rail routes between Scotland and England. This Group meets every two months, with the next meeting scheduled for 3 July 2019. The group has been examining options on both the East and West Coast routes to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Question reference: S5W-23660

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement in the recent Royal College of General Practitioners report, From the Frontline, that 26% of GPs are unlikely to be working in general practice in five years’ time.

This was a small sample of only 165 Scottish GPs and of the 43 that said they would leave in the next 5 years over half of them were over the age of 55. There are a variety of reasons why GPs leave the profession. The new GP contract, agreed with the BMA and GPs addresses the concerns raised by the BMA and ensures GPs are able to spend more time with patients and less on bureaucracy, making a career in general practice an even more attractive career choice.

We have committed to increasing GP numbers by at least 800 in the next 10 years and are investing in a package of retention initiatives for GPs who may be considering leaving the profession, including support for GP appraisals, mentoring, coaching and a new Staying in Practice Scheme.

Question reference: S5W-23661

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement in the recent Royal College of General Practitioners report, From the Frontline, that the proportion of NHS spending allocated to general practice should be raised to 11% from the current 7.75%.

Question reference: S5W-23662

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent Royal College of General Practitioners report, From the Frontline, how it plans to develop an information campaign that informs the public of changing care models and supports GPs and their teams to deliver more effective care to patients.