Asked by: Clark, Katy (Scottish Labour - West Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to expand eligibility for the shingles vaccine.
Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health
Eligibility for the programme was recently expanded to allow some individuals to get protected at an earlier age. To deliver the programme effectively, NHS Boards will offer the programme on a phased basis over 10 years meaning by 2033 the vaccine will be routinely offered to everyone aged 60 and over.
Since 1 September 2023 the following groups have been eligible:
This phased approach is based on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and to support NHS Boards to deliver the programme alongside other immunisation programmes.
There are no plans to expand eligibility any further at this stage. As with all vaccination programmes, the JCVI keeps its recommendations under review. If at any time the JCVI updates its recommendations around the shingles vaccination the Scottish Government will give this due consideration.
Asked by: Clark, Katy (Scottish Labour - West Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the rationale for a cut-off date of September for people aged 70 or over for eligibility for the shingles vaccine.
Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health
The 1 September cut-off date for the shingles programme has been in place since the introduction of the programme in 2013. At that point it aligned the offer of shingles vaccine with seasonal flu vaccinations.
The cut-off date ensures that only those eligible for vaccination within the current year’s programme as recommended by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are included, and assists NHS Boards with planning and delivery locally, drawing up cohort lists (determined by date of birth) and the management of vaccine supply. It also supports the catch up programme for those who are aged 71-79 years who have not previously been vaccinated but remain eligible.
Asked by: Ruskell, Mark (Scottish Green Party - Mid Scotland and Fife)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a progress update on Scottish Water’s commitment to increasing monitoring levels of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs).
Answered by McAllan, Màiri - Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26620 on 25 April 2024. 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: Grant, Rhoda (Scottish Labour - Highlands and Islands)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £5 million announced in December 2022 for extra road safety measures on the A9 has been spent to date, and for what purpose.
Answered by Hyslop, Fiona - Minister for Transport
Since December 2022 to 25 April 2024, £2.97 million has been spent on the A9 short term road safety measures announced by the then Minister for Transport in December 2022. The remaining amount is programmed to be spent by the end of March 2025 in line with the commitment.
Spend includes upgrades to road markings on single carriageways sections between Perth and Inverness to install a high performance product with greater reflectivity and acoustic feedback for drivers deviating from their lane. Additional overtaking restrictions have been included where feasible, as well as illuminated road studs at key junctions to improve clarity during darkness. Also on the Perth to Inverness section, the transitions between dual and single carriageways are being upgraded with illuminated studs and additional red surfacing to emphasise the change in carriageway type. In addition, two-way traffic signs and road markings are being installed on single carriageway sections, along with temporary variable message signs displaying key road safety messages. These engineering measures were complemented by two education campaigns on fatigue and ‘drive on the left’ deployed by Road Safety Scotland.
In addition to the £5 million announced in December 2022, approximately £83,000 has been spent on replacing the HGV 50mph speed limit signs on the A9. These new signs do not conflict with traffic sign recognition systems, which are becoming common in modern vehicles. This is also supplemented by over £90,000 spend on recent road safety improvements identified through Transport Scotland’s ongoing assessment of the safety performance of the trunk road network..
Asked by: Simpson, Graham (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Central Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) kilometres of bus priority lanes and (b) other strategic bus priority measures have been put in place since the adoption of recommendation 14 of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).
Answered by Fairlie, Jim
a) The length of carriageway or lane reserved for the use of buses (and other vehicles as identified) delivered through the Bus Partnership Fund is 12.16km. This includes bus gates in Aberdeen City Centre, which the North East Bus Alliance has reported to have reduced journey times for passengers by up to 25%, and a bus gate at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, opened in March 2024, providing improved public transport access to this important facility as well as improving connectivity with the city centre. A section of bus lane has also been delivered on the M8 eastbound between Claylands (Junction 2 of the M8) and Hermiston Gait (Junction 1 of the M8) in the form of an actively managed hard shoulder for buses. This also includes 2.58km of BPF funded bus lanes in Edinburgh that are currently in operation and the Council are seeking to make permanent.
b) In addition to bus lanes, other bus priority and supporting measures have been delivered through the Bus Partnership Fund. This includes bus priority at 66 signalised junctions across Scotland, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, Ayrshire, Oban, Dundee and Perth, helping buses to get through them more quickly. Seven supporting projects have also been completed, including measures such as bus lane enforcement cameras. When the Bus Partnership Fund was launched and STPR2 was published, there were not many bus priority measures identified that could be built straight away. Therefore the Bus Partnership Fund also provided funding which has seen 32 studies completed to identify, develop and design further pipeline bus priority measures.
Asked by: Simpson, Graham (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Central Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding recommendation 8 of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2), what proportion of children currently travel actively to get to school, and how this has changed since STPR2 was adopted.
Answered by Hyslop, Fiona - Minister for Transport
According to the Scottish Government’s classification of school locations, 31% of the students attending publicly funded schools went to a school in a large urban area, and 42% attend schools in smaller urban areas. The remaining 27% attend schools in accessible small towns (9%), remote small towns (5%), accessible rural areas (8%) and remote rural areas (4%) ( Scottish Government, 2021 ).
According to the latest Hands Up Scotland Survey (HUSS) data, published in August 2023, the percentage of children travelling actively to school is 49.4%. Walking remains the most common mode of school travel at 42.6%. It is not currently possible to determine a change in this metric since the adoption of STPR2 as the latest HUSS data is from 2022. Data from the 2023 survey will be available later this year.
The latest HUSS data can be found here: Hands Up Scotland Survey - Sustrans.org.uk
Asked by: Greer, Ross (Scottish Green Party - West Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it will explore the reintroduction of a public health supplement for large retailers, as announced in its 2024-25 Budget.
Answered by Arthur, Tom - Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance
I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-03144 on 29 February 2024 which is available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament .
Asked by: Briggs, Miles (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Lothian)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what research it has undertaken, or plans to undertake, into the number of people who are rough sleeping in cars in each local authority area.
Answered by McLennan, Paul - Minister for Housing
The Scottish Government collects information on whether any member of a household making a homelessness application to a local authority slept rough:
(a) during the three months preceding and b) the night before the application.
This data is collected from all local authorities as part of the homelessness application (HL1) data collection. Annual totals of rough sleeping reported by applicant households, broken down by local authority, are published in the main tables supporting the main annual publication, available at Supporting documents - Homelessness in Scotland: 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .
The data collection defines rough sleeping as any member of the applicant household who has slept outside, in the open air (such as on the streets, or in doorways, parks or bus shelters) or slept in a building or other place not designed for habitation (such as barns, sheds, car parks, cars, derelict boats, stations etc.). As households making an application for homelessness assistance are not specifically asked to define what form of rough sleeping they experienced, no specific figures relating to numbers of people rough sleeping in cars are available.
Data is not gathered for any household or individual rough sleeping who does not make a homelessness application to a local authority in Scotland and for this reason the statistics do not necessarily cover the entire homeless population. Those people who are experiencing homelessness but who do not appear in official statistics are often referred to as ‘hidden’.
It is not currently possible to estimate the scale of hidden homelessness in Scotland because of known complexities in reaching this population group. We are collaborating with the Office of National Statistics (ONS) researchers who are carrying out research which has potential to improve data collection in Scotland and across the UK on hidden homelessness, information available at "Hidden" homelessness in the UK: evidence review - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
Asked by: Simpson, Graham (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Central Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Energy Savings Trust e-bike loan scheme is closing.
Answered by Hyslop, Fiona - Minister for Transport
The increased scale and pace of Transport Scotland’s ambition in active travel is bringing wholesale reform of the delivery model for both active travel infrastructure - through the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) - and for behaviour change - through the creation of the Regional Transport Partnership (RTP) led Active Travel People and Place Programme (ATPP). With public funds facing unprecedented levels of pressure, it is vitally important that active travel investment is targeted where it can make most impact.
Support for grass-roots community groups and charity-led projects is also being decentralised, with acknowledgement from everyone involved in active travel that decisions about how to support grass roots behaviour change work needed to be taken closer to communities, and in a way that’s more joined up with local and regional transport strategies. As part of this process, it was decided we would not be continuing with direct support for a number of programmes, including the ebike loan fund.
Asked by: Gulhane, Sandesh (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Glasgow)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to reports that defibrillators held in locked cabinets or requiring the use of an access code can slow down the response to an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and may affect the chance of survival, and what steps it has taken to encourage defibrillators to be installed in unlocked, publicly accessible places.
Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health
In order to maximise defibrillator availability, they are usually best mounted on the outside of buildings and placed in unlocked cabinets.
We accept that it is likely that locking defibrillator cabinets introduces an additional delay for bystanders attempting to retrieve a defibrillator and lowers the likelihood of successful application prior to arrival of emergency services.
It is the decision of the defibrillator guardian whether to place their device in a locked or unlocked cabinet. There is limited evidence as to whether using locked cabinets will affect the likelihood of vandalism, however, we understand that communities who fundraise to purchase and place a defibrillator wish to safeguard this important investment. The British Heart Foundation has helpful information online your-guide-to-being-a-defib-guardian.pdf (bhf.org.uk) about being a defibrillator guardian and steps individuals can take to look after their device.
If guardians do purchase a locked cabinet, it is vital to ensure that the local ambulance service knows the access code, and this can be supported by registering the defibrillator on The Circuit - the national defibrillator network .