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-00864

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will (a) begin and (b) conclude its review of assessment and eligibility criteria for Disability Assistance, in light of the forthcoming devolution of powers over this benefit.

Question reference: S6W-00847

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding whether the NHS document that serves as proof of a person's COVID-19 vaccination status will be accepted internationally.

Question reference: S6W-00858

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps have been taken to ensure that people can access NHS dental treatment, and what estimate it has made of the number of people waiting for appointments.

The Scottish Government has recently announced a suite of measures to continue to support NHS dentistry, including a vital funding package of up to £5M for improved ventilation in dental premises, and an extension of free PPE for the dental sector, which from July will increase by up to 50%. This builds on the continued phased remobilisation of NHS dental services, ensuring that as many patients can be seen within the current set of infection, protection and control measures required for the safe operation of dental treatment.

NHS dental services are largely provided by independent dental contractors. Information on appointments is held by each individual dental practice.

Question reference: S6W-00765

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the NHS Scotland Protect Scotland app.

To date we have spent £478,975.94 on the Protect Scotland - Proximity Tracing App and the Federated Server. The costs are broken down in the following table:

Supplier	Component	Initial Implementation Costs	Monthly Service Support Costs	Service Support Costs to date
NearForm	Protect Scotland App	£120,000.00	£10,000.00	£70,000.00
NearForm	Custom changes to the App (Pause Button, 12yrs+ and Isolation Payments)	£66,503.50	NA	NA
NearForm	Federated Server: Interoperability with other Proximity Tracing Apps - England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Gibraltar	£30,000.00	£5,000.00	£40,000.00
Expleo	Proximity App and Federated Server Testing	£103,142.00	NA	NA
AWS	Cloud Hosting Environment	NA	NA	£48,338.38
UK Gov Notify	SMS Messages Sent	NA	NA	£992.06
Totals		£319,645.50	NA	£159,330.44

Question reference: S6W-00930

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will allow people who have yet to have the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccination to sign up for an appointment to do so, following reports that it had urged people in their 40s to get their second dose sooner.

From 21 June 2021, the Scottish Government brought forward the second COVID-19 vaccination dose to eight weeks.

This week sees the launch of the online self-registration portal, see Registering for a coronavirus vaccine | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot) . Anyone aged 18 and over who has not received a first coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination appointment or has missed their first dose for any reason is being invited to self-register for an appointment.

The programme is under continuous review to optimise the vaccination delivery roll-out in partnership with the nation’s health boards, ensuring its more people-centred. Other recent innovations include the launching of Vaccine appointment checker | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot) and drop-in centres.

Anyone aged 18 and over who has not received a first coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination appointment or has missed their first dose for any reason is being invited to self-register for an appointment.

Question reference: S6W-00807

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made with introducing legislation to support people affected by mesh implants.

Question reference: S6W-00769

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many users of the NHS Scotland Protect Scotland app there have been in each month since its launch.

The total number of downloads of the app are shown in the table attached in reply to S6W-00767 on 30 June 2021. The functionality to count the number of active daily app users has been improved since launch and currently indicates that there are around 980,000 active users each day.

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

Question reference: S6W-00766

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost of maintaining and operating the NHS Scotland Protect Scotland app has been in each month since its launch.

Question reference: S6W-00767

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been (a) identified and (b) contacted through the NHS Scotland Protect Scotland app in each month since its launch.

a) The app does not identify anyone it is completely anonymous b) we do record the number of people that are advised by the app to self-isolate on a daily basis (see the “Contacts Advised to Self-Isolate” column in the following table).

Month	Total Downloads	Contacts
Month	Total Downloads	Advised to Self-Isolate
September 2020	1,306,529	2,015
October 2020	1,568,923	10,007
November 2020	1,672,309	9,359
December 2020	1,745,259	8,065
January 2021	1,805,953	7,585
February 2021	1,839,805	3,858
March 2021	1,865,245	2,597
April 2021	1,891,293	956
May 2021	1,938,958	911
16 June 2021	1,969,571	1,893

Question reference: S6W-00738

Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 30 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to implement the recommendations of the Scotland Eating Disorder Service Review.

As announced in March, the recommendations from the Review will be taken forward by an Implementation Group. On the 18 June we announced that the Group will be Co-Chaired by Dennis Robertson and a clinical lead who will be confirmed shortly.

We also announced we are providing £5 million of funding to respond to the recommendations from the Review in this financial year. The majority of this funding will be provided to NHS Boards to support them in responding to the increase in eating disorder presentations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is Recommendation 1 from the Review. This funding is being provided from the £120 million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund.

In addition, in response to Review recommendation 6 (Self-help Resources) and Recommendation 13 (Families and Carers), we are also providing funding to Beat, the UK’s Eating Disorder Charity, to provide a wide range of support options such as support to families and carers of those with an eating disorder; support for children, young people and adults who are currently waiting to be seen by services; and peer support services. We will shortly announce further details of this package of support.