Jackie Dunbar

10 Mar 2025 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to build on the reported successes of the Aberdeen City Region Deal, which is due to conclude its 10-year plan next year.

25 Feb 2025 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting Aberdeen City Council to manage the impact of the UK Government's increase to employer national insurance contributions.

12 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the percentage of staff in (a) the NHS, (b) care homes and (c) childcare settings who have received the winter 2024-25 influenza vaccine.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The publicly available data on NHS workers who have received the flu vaccine is available via Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) surveillance website PHS Vaccination Surveillance.This is detailed as 'All Healthcare Workers' and uptake currently sits at 35.6…

12 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will expand the influenza vaccine eligibility to help reduce the winter pressures on the NHS in winter 2025-26.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government continues to be guided by the expert clinical advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).The JCVI has the responsibility to provide high-quality and considered advice and recommendations to the UK Health Minis…

12 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been given the 2024-25 influenza vaccine, broken down by eligibility criteria.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The number of vaccinations and percentage of uptake for each of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority groups is available via the Public Health Scotland (PHS) Surveillance website PHS Vaccination Surveillance.This information is …

21 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it determines which social media websites it maintains a presence on.

Answer · Ivan McKee: The Scottish Government has a crucial role in communicating with the public and uses a mix of channels to reach different audiences. This includes digital channels such as social media as well as traditional broadcast, print media and others. Channels are cho…

21 Jan 2025 · Inspired Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on plans to simplify the post-school education and skills funding body landscape in Scotland.

Answer · Graeme Dey: In June, I launched a public consultation on proposals to simplify the post-school funding body landscape. With thanks to all those who submitted responses I have now considered the evidence both from the consultation, and from an Outline Business Case analys…

15 Jan 2025 · Inspired Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the escalation status of NHS Grampian.

Answer · Neil Gray: The NHS Scotland Support and Intervention Framework is one of the key elements of the evidence-based approach to monitoring performance and managing risk across the NHS in Scotland. All NHS Boards have recently been reviewed against the framework for finance …

13 Jan 2025 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the potential economic impact of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners' reported £800 million investment in battery energy storage sites in Scotland.

7 Jan 2025 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update regarding the steps that it is taking to tackle child poverty.

10 Dec 2024 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting NHS Grampian to increase bed capacity, particularly in light of increased demand during the winter period.

6 Dec 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the time and resources required for public transport projects to go through the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance stages.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) sets out the appraisal framework for proportionately securing best value and value for money. Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance is designed to comply with the SPFM and forms the first stage of the Business Case pr…

27 Nov 2024 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting NHS Grampian with its winter preparedness.

22 Nov 2024 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what it is doing to help promote the Armed Forces Covenant and the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme amongst MSPs.

Answer · Jackson Carlaw (on behalf of the SPCB): Individual MSPs can join the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme. To help them make an informed choice, the SPCB will share information with Members about the Scheme and the Armed Forces Covenant. The only charity that the SPCB endorses is Poppy Scotland and …

19 Nov 2024 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further details of the workthat it is doing to tackle stigma around HIV and to eliminate new HIVtransmissions by 2030.

15 Nov 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the feasibility study examining the case for reconnecting Buchan to the East Coast Main Line, which was published in June 2024 by the Campaign for North East Rail.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Government is supportive of increasing sustainable travel and better integrated travel infrastructure for the north east. As part of this, Officials from Transport Scotland attended a roundtable event organised by the Campaign for North East Rail…

9 Oct 2024 · Inspired Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress it is making towards delivering its Fisheries Management Plans.

Answer · Mairi Gougeon: Development of the 43 UK Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) is an important element of the UK Fisheries Act (2020) and the 2022 UK Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS). The four UK fisheries policy authorities (UK Government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government a…

2 Oct 2024 · Inspired Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it is responding to reported concerns by local authorities regarding a lack of proxy voting for councillors.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government has today published a consultation seeking views on allowing proxy voting by councillors. The consultation is available at - http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781836018704

17 Sep 2024 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of recent UK Government announcements ahead of its Budget statement, whether it will provide an update on its latest engagement with the UK Government regarding the potential devolution of further financial powers to Scotland.

12 Sep 2024 · Inspired Question

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the No One Left Behind approach has made to date, and what its future priorities are for devolved employability services.

Answer · Tom Arthur: Latest devolved employability statistics show that over 61,000 people have started receiving support through our No One Left Behind approach, with over 19,000 people moving into work.Today we have published the No One Left Behind Employability Strategic Plan …

2 Sep 2024 · Inspired Question

To ask Scottish Government what plans it has to replace the trains that currently operate on ScotRail Intercity services.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Government is planning to require ScotRail to procure replacement trains for the current fleet, known as the High Speed Trains (HST) fleet which operate on its InterCity routes between Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Inverness.The aim for the r…

19 Aug 2024 · Inspired Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the ScotRail peak fares removal pilot.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Government has subsidised the temporary removal of ScotRail peak fares for twelve months in a move to encourage modal shift from private car to rail while making rail travel more affordable and accessible over the pilot period. The cost of the fu…

15 Jul 2024 · Inspired Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the procurement of phase 1 of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to improving, decarbonising and modernising the small ferry fleet and better meeting the needs of island residents, businesses and communities. After careful consideration of the SVRP Phase 1 outline business ca…

15 Jul 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates receiving any Barnett consequential funding in light of the UK Government’s recent announcements on housebuilding, and, if this is the case, what assessment it has made of how much it is likely to receive.

Answer · Shona Robison: At this stage we've had no confirmation on whether recent UK Government announcements on housebuilding will generate additional consequential funding for Scotland. This is dependent on whether the UK Government policy is funded from within existing UK departm…

25 Jun 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people received the seasonal flu vaccine in the winter 2023-24 programme.

Answer · Jenni Minto: As part of the 2023-24 COVID-19 and Flu winter vaccination programme the NHS in Scotland delivered over 3.57 million vaccines, including 1,647,596 adult flu vaccines and 538,580 child flu vaccines. Vaccination uptake rates in the 65 years and over group reac…

25 Jun 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine programme will engage with the seasonal flu vaccine programme.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The RSV programme for older adults will run from 12 August to the end of September. The childhood flu programme will launch from early September. We are currently working with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Health Boards to confirm a start date for the adul…

25 Jun 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has held with patient organisations to raise awareness of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, which will be made available on 1 August 2024.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government was only able to officially confirm and announce the programme after the completion of the tender process in early June therefore initial work has been limited to a small planning group comprising the Scottish Government, Public Health…

25 Jun 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) infants and (b) adults it expects to take up the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine in the first year of the new programme that was announced on 24 June 2024.

Answer · Jenni Minto: RSV is one of the leading causes of hospitalisation in the first year of life and can also cause severe complications for older adults which may require hospitalisation. Protecting infants by vaccinating pregnant women and birthing people, and the adult RSV v…

10 Jun 2024 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of any implications for its policy for economic development in Scotland of the findings of the Resolution Foundation’s recent report on the UK’s economic and trade performance. 

15 May 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is undertaking to ensure that any armed forces compensation is not included in means testing calculations in relation to Scottish social security benefits.

Answer · Graeme Dey: None of the benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland are directly means tested although some rely on a reserved UK benefit, such as Universal Credit as a qualifying benefit. In practice this means that armed forces compensation generally does not direct…