Questions and answers

Question reference: S6F-00989

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 April 2022

To ask the First Minister whether she can provide an update on the Scottish Government's strategy to include libraries in the policy to address the attainment gap.

Question reference: S6O-00956

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on travel in Scotland of the recent changes to the Highway Code.

Question reference: S6O-00893

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of calls from Audit Scotland to establish a clear plan to increase transparency around spending on drug and alcohol services.

I welcome Audit Scotland’s review into drug and alcohol services and their recommendations. We agree that more can be done to improve the accessibility and transparency of funding and how it is used.

Currently information on funding allocation is available through various publications including published budgets and I also report to Parliament regularly outlining our progress and funding decisions. We have also recently agreed on eight recommendations with COSLA to implement the Partnership Delivery Framework which underpins the governance of Alcohol and Drug Partnerships, this includes a recommendation requiring Health and Social Care Partnership Chief Finance Officers to be represented at the ADP and provide assurance regarding funding for alcohol and drug services including clear financial reporting. In addition, Public Health Scotland have been tasked with introducing new monitoring to track both the number of and investment in residential rehab placements by ADPs.

Question reference: S6O-00915

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is putting in place to attract younger people into the farming sector.

Question reference: S6O-00856

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (On Behalf of the SPCB) on 10 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what assessment has been made of the new car park barrier system.

The new vehicle entry system was one of several security enhancements to upgrade the security of the Service Yard. These enhancements were identified in the Police Scotland review commissioned by the SPCB in 2017, following the tragic attacks on Westminster Bridge in London.

The main aim of the Service Yard project was to improve the security of the area by addressing vulnerabilities with the layout and replace ageing technology with a state-of-the-art hostile vehicle mitigation system.

There have been several assessments throughout the Service Yard project in relation to users’ safety. These have included a review of the flow of vehicle traffic, the safety of the gates and barriers and an overall health and safety review of the arrangements in the Service Yard.

The results of these assessments are that the project to improve the Service Yard has delivered the desired outcomes of significantly improving safety and security at the vehicle entrance area.

Question reference: S6T-00534

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what measures have been put in place to recruit a new Chief Executive Officer of the Scottish National Investment Bank following the resignation of Eilidh Mactaggart.

Question reference: S6O-00763

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what plans it has to introduce legislation to support veterans during this parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6O-00724

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received free personal care, under Frank’s Law, since it came into effect in 2019.

Question reference: S6W-05759

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of elective surgeries were cancelled in each month since March 2020, broken down by NHS board.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes monthly statistics relating to the number of cancelled planned operations at health board level, a summary of which is available the following link:

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/

The latest statistics published cover the period up to 30 November 2021 and the percentage of planned operations that were cancelled each month from March 2020 onwards can be found within the tab ‘Publication table (%)’ in the table below

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/11000/2022-01-11-cancellations.xlsx

These statistics are sourced from local theatre systems and only includes cancellations that were cancelled the day before, or on the day the patient was due to be treated. PHS does not collect information on cancellations that occur prior to this.

Question reference: S6W-05225

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 27 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when Scottish Ministers were first made aware that there had been a potential breach of state aid rules in relation to its contract with Tata Steel UK Ltd.

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