- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 22 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 8 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the time taken to complete a fatal accident inquiry into the death in custody of a young person, what is (a) the average time taken and (b) the longest time taken in each of the past five years.
Answer
The following table shows, in relation to deaths in prison where the deceased was aged 25 or younger, the average and longest time taken to conclude an FAI in each of the last five years. Days are calculated from the date of death to the date evidence at the FAI was concluded.
| 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 (as at 28 October 2021) |
Total FAIs concluded in year | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
Average length (days) | 883 | 935 | 1,132 | 733 | 568 | 0 |
Longest time to complete FAI (days) | 1,428 | 1,236 | 1,549 | 1,091 | 647 | 0 |
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been convicted of drink spiking in each of the past five years.
Answer
There is no specific offence for 'drink spiking' however the Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database shows there were no people convicted for offences under section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 (administering a substance for sexual purposes) or for drugging from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the evidence on which it has based its COVID-19 advice for people who are shielding and immunosuppressed.
Answer
The Scottish Government obtains information which informs how we identify and advise people at highest risk of becoming severely ill or dying from Covid-19 from a variety of reliable UK and international sources. While that evidence is published and readily available, it is not always easy for people at highest risk to understand or to translate into informed choices about individual behaviours. We are therefore planning to publish a summary of the current evidence that underpins our advice in a form that people find accessible this autumn.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 30 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether any ring-fenced funds are being provided to local authorities to cover the cost of installing (a) ventilation aids, such as fans, and (b) CO2 monitors in all public buildings, including schools and community groups.
Answer
The Scottish Government provided Scotland’s local authorities with an additional £1.2 billion in direct support during 2020-21 through the local government finance settlement – over and above their regular grant payments to combat COVID-19. Taken together with the additional £259 million confirmed for this year, this brings the value of the overall COVID-19 support package for councils up to over £1.5 billion.
£10 million of funding was announced on 3 August to enable local authorities to undertake CO2 monitoring to assess the ventilation levels in all learning, teaching and play spaces by the October break.
Further to initial recommendations from the Short Life Working Group on Ventilation, funding of up to £25million to support businesses with ventilation was announced on 28 September. Due to be open for applications in November, further details will be available in due course.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-03450 by Lorna Slater on 21 October 2021, whether it will provide detail of estimates of the amount of re-used materials from second-hand stores, and the (a) number of jobs and (b) economic value associated with that activity, in each year since the Revolve scheme was launched.
Answer
Under Zero Waste Scotland’s Revolve certification scheme the number of stores reporting fluctuates year on year which leads to variations in data collated. Zero Waste Scotland do not receive data from all certified stores in a given year.
The data is self-reported by reuse stores, who can update monitoring processes for their unique circumstances over time.
While Zero Waste Scotland collect data on sales income, it does not hold data on the full "economic impact" of the reuse stores which would also include metrics such as other income, services provided, alongside social and employment impact.
Data collected by Zero Waste Scotland is set out in the following table.
Year | Number Of Stores Reporting Data | Staff - FTE | Volunteer Hours | Income From Sale Of Second-Hand Items | Material Reused (kg) | Number Of Items Reused |
2013-14 | 25 | no data | no data | 1,986,969 | 1,526,628 | no data |
2014-15 | 26 | no data | no data | 2,878,186 | 1,802,033 | no data |
2015-16 | 99 | 2,047 | 300,348 | 39,884,503 | 6,817,588 | no data |
2016-17 | 88 | 5,178 | 285,436 | 33,867,993 | 23,940,519 | no data |
2017-18 | 82 | 2,209 | 337,307 | 33,760,806 | 14,689,394 | 21,219,368 |
2018-19 | 68 | 1,409 | 192,590 | 34,014,725 | 35,796,552 | 21,628,225 |
2019-20 | 42 | 941 | 114,319 | 28,392,122 | 31,787,481 | 20,643,926 |
- Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether a proposal under section 2 of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 will be made in Spring 2022.
Answer
Under Section 2(3) of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, a proposal for a new National Park must identify the area to be designated and the proposed functions of the new National Park Authority. We are aware that several areas may be interested in National Park status, so a fair and transparent bidding and evaluation process will be put in place to identify the area or areas which will be put forward to obtain National Park status and allow the statutory process to begin. We will shortly provide further information on this initial bidding and evaluation process, but given the complex and important nature of the work, we do not think it will be completed by Spring 2022.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether retrospective facial recognition technology will be used by (a) Police Scotland and (b) other security organisations as part of COP26 policing operations.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04001 on 8 November 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the number of online retailers that will be included within the scope of its Deposit Return Scheme.
Answer
Stakeholder mapping carried out in June 2021 on behalf of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency identified approximately 4,400 retailers selling drinks on the Scottish market. Of these, 2.6% were identified as selling exclusively online. Analysis was not carried out to determine what proportion of retailers operate both online and bricks-and-mortar retail.
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what resources it will make available to producers as part of its Deposit Return Scheme to make changes to third party online web shops and introduce the takeback service.
Answer
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is developing guidance for businesses to help them meet their obligations under The Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020. This will include an online toolkit and example scenarios to support producers and retailers to develop takeback services for online sales.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve access to new medicines for people living with progressive forms of MS.
Answer
In December 2019 we published "Neurological Care and Support - a National Framework for Action". Over 5 years we will invest £4.5 million to implement the Framework’s 17 commitments.
Some of these commitments aim to improve access to new medicines for people living with progressive forms of MS, such as our commitment to support the neurological research agenda by promoting the work of the Chief Scientist Office, third sector organisations’ research and Scottish neurological research networks; and encouraging opportunities for people with neurological conditions to become involved in research trials.
In September 2020, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) accepted siponimod (Mayzent®) for routine use in NHS Scotland. Mayzent® is the first oral Disease Modifying Therapy (DMT) for active secondary progressive MS. The SMC Horizon Scanning Team have also identified several DMT’s in development for the treatment of progressive forms of MS which are predicted to enter the UK market within the next 5 years.