Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with Twitter representatives regarding disinformation tweeted by official accounts of the Russian Government.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Russian state is waging an aggressive information campaign, including using disinformation spread by official Russian Government accounts to try and justify Russia’s unacceptable military action in Ukraine.
DCMS is working closely with major social media platforms, including Twitter, to ensure disinformation, and coordinated inauthentic or manipulated behaviour, is removed in line with platforms’ terms of service, and authoritative content which accurately depicts the ongoing situation in Ukraine is promoted across their services.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what progress has been made in the building of new business units in Coldstream as part of the Borderlands Growth Deal.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
We are continuing to work at pace with the Borderlands partners to agree project business cases. Business Infrastructure falls within the Scottish Government investment in Borderlands. However, I can advise that progress is being made between SG and partners and it is anticipated that the Coldstream business infrastructure project could draw down Deal funding in 2022/23.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what steps the Government is taking to work with the Welsh Government to deliver the Veterans Strategy Action Plan 2022-24.
Answered by Simon Hart - Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip)
A key commitment in the Veterans’ Strategy Action Plan is to appoint a Veterans’ Commissioner for Wales, ensuring that all parts of the UK have an independent voice representing the interests of veterans.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to roll out the Ask for ANI scheme to more independent pharmacies in Scotland.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Ask for ANI Codeword Scheme celebrated it’s one-year anniversary earlier this year.
The voluntary scheme was rolled out to pharmacies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It has now been adopted by over 50% of pharmacies in the UK and over 100 official disclosures have been made.
We continue to work with partners across the UK, including pharmacy associations, to encourage more pharmacies to sign up to the scheme.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on mutual priorities for improving cross-border transport links following the publication of Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 by Transport Scotland.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
UK Government Transport Ministers regularly engage with their counterparts in the Scottish Government to discuss matters of shared interest, including improving cross-border transport connectivity.
The Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 (STPR2) draft recommendations include improvements to the A75 and A77, routes that were also highlighted in the independent Union Connectivity Review carried out by Sir Peter Hendy and published in November 2021. The UK Government has invited the Scottish Government to work in partnership to consider the recommendations of the Union Connectivity Review and identify solutions which work best for the people of the UK.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect on the Welsh lamb industry of the end of US restrictions on the import of British lamb.
Answered by Simon Hart - Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip)
The lifting of this ban is fantastic news and brings Welsh farmers one step closer to putting their first-class lamb on US menus for the first time in 20 years.
Farmers will now be able to reach a new market of over 300 million people. This win will support vital jobs and growth in Wales.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of people who will benefit from the Multiply scheme in Scotland.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
All local areas in the United Kingdom will receive funding to deliver bespoke adult numeracy programmes from April 2022. Multiply will help people improve their basic numeracy skills through free digital training, flexible courses and tutoring. It will be a new UK-wide offer launching in spring 2022, which will help people build their confidence, remove barriers to learning, and tailor delivery to meet learner and employer needs.
We estimate that up to 500,000 learners across the UK could gain a recognised qualification and/or improve their numeracy skills through Multiply.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to launch the Multiply scheme in Scotland.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
All local areas in the United Kingdom will receive funding to deliver bespoke adult numeracy programmes from April 2022. Multiply will help people improve their basic numeracy skills through free digital training, flexible courses and tutoring. It will be a new UK-wide offer launching in spring 2022, which will help people build their confidence, remove barriers to learning, and tailor delivery to meet learner and employer needs.
We estimate that up to 500,000 learners across the UK could gain a recognised qualification and/or improve their numeracy skills through Multiply.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost to the Government of providing covid-19 testing in Scotland.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We are unable to provide the information requested as it is commercially sensitive.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the cost to the Government of purchasing covid-19 vaccines for residents in Scotland.
Answered by George Freeman
As announced at the Spending Review in 2020, the Government has made available more than £6 billion in total to develop and procure COVID-19 vaccines.
The UK Government has procured vaccines on behalf of all four nations of the country and Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories. As a consequence, a total of 8,169,061 vaccinations have been administered in Scotland as of 17 October 2021 with 81.1% of those aged 12 and over fully vaccinated.