- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of patients with diabetes it anticipates will be offered the option to transfer to a hybrid closed loop system as part of their insulin management during the financial year 2024-25, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
It is for each individual NHS Board to determine how they plan to meet the needs and priorities of their local populations. The Scottish Government is committed to increasing access to diabetes technologies. We are continuing to work with key stakeholders to determine the best way to do this and how to fund it.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making on achieving priority 8 of its Diabetes Improvement Plan "to accelerate the development and roll-out of innovative solutions to improve treatment, care and quality of life of people living with diabetes".
Answer
The implementation of the Diabetes Improvement Plan is underway and supported by the Scottish Diabetes Group.
Regarding Priority 8, the Scottish Government has provided £19 million of additional funding to NHS Boards to support the roll out of technologies since 2021. The Scottish Diabetes Technologies & Innovation Group also has a significant programme of work which aims to find new solutions, or scale up existing, and ensures dedicated focus on the delivery of Priority 8.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many new overflow monitors have been installed by Scottish Water since its Improving Urban Waters Routemap was published in 2021, broken down by year.
Answer
As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:
I refer the member to the answers to S6W-15158 on 3 March 2023 and S6F-02135 on 19 May 2023 for information on Scottish Water’s approach to installing CSO monitors at priority locations. As confirmed in these answers, no new event duration monitors (EDMs) were installed in 2021 or 2022.
Scottish Water’s annual update to the improving urban waters routemap, published on its website at Scottish Water (readymag.website) , confirms that 230 new EDMs were installed in 2023. In addition, Scottish Water installed a further 229 sensors as part of its wastewater intelligent network (WWIN) transformation programme, of which 53 are EDMs.
In 2024 to date, Scottish Water has installed a further 633 new EDMs. Plans have also been approved for 450 new EDMs in 12 further WWIN catchments.
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 , and https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament .
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to NHS Lothian to transfer patients with diabetes from their current treatment to a hybrid closed loop system, where this is appropriate for them.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to increasing access to diabetes technologies.
Between 2016 and 2022, we invested £29.6 million specifically for diabetes technologies. This is in addition to baseline funding to NHS boards. In 2023 we also invested £350,000 to pilot a national onboarding pathway to support roll out across Scotland.
We know there is more to do to increase access to diabetes technology and we continue to work with key stakeholders to determine the best way to do this and how to fund it. This includes working with NHS Lothian, via their clinical leads and Diabetes Managed Clinical Network.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it remains committed to allocating £80 million on carbon capture, utilisation and storage, in light of no provision being made in the Budget for 2024-25.
Answer
Our Emerging Energy Technologies Fund supports the development of CCUS and negative-emissions technologies and has been offered to support the Scottish Cluster Carbon Capture Project accelerate its effort to help Scotland’s just transition to net zero. We remain committed to supporting this development.
Due to UK Government still not confirming the award of the Acorn Project and also which emitter sites will form the Scottish Cluster, it has not yet been possible to deploy this funding support. Only when we, the Acorn Project and the Scottish Cluster are provided with a final decision will it be possible to assess how we can utilise this funding to best support the deployment of CCUS.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what the average time was for a response to a scoping opinion request submitted under section 12 of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022 and (e) 2023.
Answer
Applications which make their way through the application journey on the energyconsent.scot portal are assigned a single case number which is retained from the pre-application period, all the way through to a determination decision.
The dates at which a scoping opinion request submitted under section 12 of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 is received, and then a response provided, are not data points which are captured by the portal system. It is therefore not possible to calculate the average time taken to provide a response in the years requested.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 23 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what potential impact the proposed Berwick Bank offshore windfarm not being included in the Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6 will have on achieving Scotland’s climate targets.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 23 April 2024
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 19 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what the average number of working hours was spent on processing an environmental impact assessment (EIA) scoping request under section 12 of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022 and (e) 2023.
Answer
The processing of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) scoping request under section 12 of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 involves work across a number of teams within the Energy Consents Unit.
We do not centrally log or track the specific number of working hours spent by individual team members on any particular activity or task. The work is integrated into the broader responsibilities and workflows of the team. It is therefore not possible to calculate the average number of working hours spent processing in the years requested.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 19 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what the average number of working hours was spent on processing an environmental impact assessment (EIA) request for screening under section 8 of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022 and (e) 2023.
Answer
The processing of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) screening request under section 8 of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 involves work across a number of teams within the Energy Consents Unit.
We do not centrally log or track the specific number of working hours spent by individual team members on any particular activity or task. The work is integrated into the broader responsibilities and workflows of the team. It is therefore not possible to calculate the average number of working hours spent processing in the years requested.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards the commitment to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.
Answer
Achieving the commitment to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (30 by 30 commitment) is a key component in our ambition to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and substantially restore it by 2045. The target has already been achieved at sea with the suite of Marine Protected Areas. On land, our existing protected areas cover 18.2% of Scotland. It is envisaged that the 30 by 30 commitment will be achieved on land by improving the condition of existing, as well as creating new, protected areas, alongside developing a network of ‘Other Effective [area-based] Conservation Measures’ (OECMs).
Our 2023 consultation on Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity included a draft policy framework on our 30 by 30 commitment, which was co-designed with over 100 organisations and individuals representing a diverse range of interests. We are considering responses from that consultation, which will inform the final framework to be published later this year.
A further consultation, to gather views on whether the legislative framework for our current protected areas needs to be strengthened, was launched on 3 April and will run until 24 May 2024. It can be accessed at: https://consult.gov.scot/environment-forestry/meeting-our-30-by-30-commitment-a-consultation/ . This will inform any requirements within the Natural Environment Bill.
A stakeholder group convened by NatureScot will help develop the OECM criteria which sites must meet to be considered within the ‘30 by 30’ network. This work is being carried out in parallel, and in discussion with, the other UK administrations to ensure a degree of consistency of approach.
