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-25500

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, following the recent publication of data by the British Heart Foundation, which reportedly highlights significant issues in Scotland’s cardiology services for both outpatient appointments and echocardiograms and suggests that performance against waiting time targets is the worst on record, what urgent measures can be put in place to ensure that no one dies as a result of not receiving the appropriate scan in time.

Question reference: S6W-24641

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 31 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to NHS Fife reiterating its commitment, in August 2023, to the development of two new purpose-built Community Health and Wellbeing Centres in Kincardine, in addition to Lochgelly, with plans having been developed over a number of years with its partners and local communities, and in light of the current health centre reportedly being condemned as unfit for purpose around 15 years ago, for what reason this work has not yet commenced; whether the reason is budget related, and what stream of unused funding could be used to finance this project.

As set out in our draft budget the capital funding position is extremely challenging, with a UK Government cut of some 10% in our capital budget over the next five years. That has inevitably led to some difficult decisions on what capital projects will be progressed.

Kincardine and Lochgelly Medical Centres were not included within the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26, which identified the priority health capital projects for funding within that period. The Scottish Government will bring forward a revised Infrastructure Investment Plan in the spring, alongside the medium-term financial strategy, at which point we would hope that the fiscal outlook will be clearer.

Question reference: S6O-03035

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that the housing of adult male prisoners at HMP & YOI Polmont is being considered, what its position is on whether such an announcement should be made to the Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-24569

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 24 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many online clicks its paper, Our marine sector in an independent Scotland, received in its first month following publication, broken down by (a) main paper, (b) easy read version, (c) each individual language version and (d) audio version.

We have previously answered two FOIs on website visits to the Building a New Scotland Papers:

Paper title: Building a New Scotland: Our marine sector in an independent Scotland

Main paper URL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-new-scotland-marine-sector-independent-scotland/

Main paper publish date: 21-11-2023

Main paper views in first month (all pages): 2,775

Easy read URL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-new-scotland-marine-sector-independent-scotland-easy-read-version/

Easy read publish date: 21-11-2023

Easy read views or download link clicks in first month: 298

Audio URL: https://on.soundcloud.com/5VJaA

Audio publish date: 21-11-2023

Audio link clicks in first month: 9

Community language landing pageURL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-new-scotland-marine-sector-independent-scotland/documents/

Translation publish date: 21-11-2023

Translation downloads in first month:

Arabic: 1

Bengalii: 1

Bulgarian: 0

Cantonese: 0

French: 4

Gaelic: 1

Hindi: 0

Italian: 3

Mandarin: 0

Polish: 1

Punjabi:1

Romanian: 0

Russian: 0

Spanish: 0

Ukrainian: 1

Urdu: 3

BSL YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDdIcputSSg

Date BSL Version Published: 21-11-2023

Views in first 30 days: 4

Question reference: S6W-24447

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 19 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it (a) has and (b) will put in place to make the public aware that vehicle idling is an offence, under the Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (Scotland) Regulations 2003.

The Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (Scotland) Regulations 2003 provide local authorities with powers to issue fixed penalty notices to drivers of parked idling vehicles who refuse a reasonable request to switch off their engines. It is for individual local authorities to decide how to make use of their powers and promote awareness. The Scottish Government provides support to assist authorities in undertaking these duties.

Question reference: S6F-02717

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2024

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to reports that Scotland has among the worst survival rates for some of the most serious cancers.

Question reference: S6W-24118

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 12 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-23695 by Paul McLennan on 19 December 2023, whether it will provide the information requested regarding for what reason there is reportedly no requirement for people selling properties to demonstrate that any boiler present in a property has been serviced before the sale of the property concludes.

Responsibility for the regulation of the gas network and for the safety of supplies to premises is a matter reserved to the UK government. Within the current gas safety regime, there is no legal minimum frequency for servicing gas appliances in owner-occupied homes and no requirement for sellers to service their boiler before selling. Therefore, there is no requirement for sellers to provide proof of servicing as part of the selling process.

Question reference: S6W-23839

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 5 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that patients in the NHS Forth Valley area have access to assessments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and what the waiting time currently is for ADHD assessments to be carried out by NHS Forth Valley.

Data on ADHD assessments and waiting times is not centrally held for adults or for children and young people.

Although it is the responsibility of local Health and Social Care Partnerships to put in place services to meet local needs, including the needs of adults with ADHD, the Scottish Government is engaged in work to improve access to ADHD diagnosis in Scotland.

For children and young people, we have published a National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People which makes it clear that support should be put in place to meet their needs at the earliest opportunity, rather than be dependent on a formal diagnosis. For many children and young people, such support is likely to be community based, and should be quickly and easily accessible. We are currently funding five tests of change to test and implement specific aspects of the National Neurodevelopmental Service Specification and Forth Valley is one of these areas.

For adults, the final report on the adult neurodevelopmental pathway trials, including the findings and recommendations of the trials, was published in March 2023. We have accepted the recommendations and we are working with the National Autism Implementation Team on implementation.

Question reference: S6W-23695

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there is reportedly no requirement for people selling properties to demonstrate that any boiler present in a property has been serviced before the sale of the property concludes.

At present, there is no legal minimum frequency for servicing of gas appliances in owner-occupied homes in the UK. Therefore, there is no requirement for sellers to provide proof of servicing before a property sale. However, visual inspection of gas appliances forms part of the Scottish Home Report, and Gas Safe Register advice is to test gas appliances annually and prior to change in occupancy.

In addition, the Scottish Government introduced new requirements in 2022 for all homes containing carbon-fuelled appliances to fit a Carbon Monoxide alarm, to protect occupants from the dangers of faulty equipment.

Question reference: S6O-02917

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the housing minister has had with ministerial colleagues regarding any impact on the availability of housing through the private rented sector of its energy efficiency reforms.