- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many applications for the Scottish Child Payment that have been submitted since it expanded to children under 16 in Nov 2022 are currently yet to be processed.
Answer
Official Statistics covering the number of Scottish Child Payment applications received and processed are published as part of the regularly scheduled quarterly publication. The latest Scottish Child Payment statistical publication was released on 28 February 2023.
The next publication will be published on 30 May 2023 and will include information on the number of applications received and processed by the end of March 2023. Official Statistics for Scottish Child Payment can be found at: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many Social Security Scotland staff are currently employed on (a) fixed-term and (b) permanent contracts.
Answer
Social Security Scotland directly employed 3,976 staff (headcount) as at December 2022. Of this amount, 69 were fixed term, fixed term student placements and modern apprentices. The remaining 3,907 staff were permanent.
Information on Social Security Scotland’s workforce are published quarterly with the most recent statistics from December 2022 published 14 March 2023, published workforce statistics .
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) financial, (b) legal and (c) other costs have been incurred, to date, in the process of nationalising the Caledonian Sleeper rail service.
Answer
Since the announcement on 2 March 2023 that Caledonian Sleeper services will be provided through the Scottish Government’s Operator of Last Resort arrangements on expiry of the current franchise agreement, there have been no costs charged to date on a) financial, b) legal and, c) other costs.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) pharmacists, (b) pharmacy technicians, (c) advanced nursing practitioners, (d) advanced paramedics, (e) mental health workers, (f) musculoskeletal physiotherapists and (g) community link workers have been recruited since 1 April 2022.
Answer
The requested information on how many pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have been recruited since 1 April 2022 can be found on the following link: Pharmacy report 2022 | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)
The requested information on how many (c) advanced nursing practitioners and (e) mental health workers have been recruited since 1 April 2022 can be found on the following links:
Advanced nurse practitioners: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (LoSD (only N&M) & AHP) tab
Psychiatric specialty consultants and mental health nurses: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (consultant and nursing & midwifery drop downs)
Child and Adolescent Mental health Services: 07 March 2023 CAMHS | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)
The requested information on how many advanced paramedics, musculoskeletal physiotherapists and community link workers have been recruited since 1 April 2022 is not centrally held.
Information on how many paramedics and physiotherapists have been recruited since 1 April 2022 can be found on the following link:
NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (allied health professional drop down)
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many overseas trips members of the Cabinet were invited to in 2022.
Answer
Thank you for this question however this information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase the rate of business start-ups in Scotland.
Answer
Our National Strategy for Economic Transformation sets out how we will establish Scotland as a world-class entrepreneurial nation, recognised as one of the best countries to start and grow a business.
Since the Strategy’s publication we have announced the appointment of Mark Logan as Chief Entrepreneur, launched our Techscaler network to support the creation of more tech start-ups and published the Pathways Report: A New Approach for Woman in Entrepreneurship to address the barriers woman face in entrepreneurship and business start-up.
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Elena Whitham on 20 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will support the Proposed Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill in order to aim to save lives and tackle Scotland’s drug deaths crisis.
Answer
We will consider the proposed Right to Addiction Recovery Bill when it is introduced by Mr Ross to Parliament.
Meanwhile, we have committed £250 million pounds now, through the National Mission, to tackle the drug deaths crisis.
We are also looking to the National Collaborative – which includes people affected by substance use and their families – to bring forward a Charter of Rights.
This will aim to set out how rights in the forthcoming Human Rights Bill can be implemented to improve the lives of people affected by substance use.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with the Human Rights Consortium Scotland since May 2021, and what the agreed outcomes were of any such meetings.
Answer
Ministers meet representatives of civil society organisations from time to time to discuss matters of common interest. Meetings with the Human Rights Consortium Scotland have been held on a number of occasions since May 2021.
Information about ministerial engagements is proactively released and is publicly available on the Scottish Government website .
Civil society organisations contribute in other ways to the development and delivery of public policy in Scotland, for example through participation in working groups and advisory boards.
The Human Rights Consortium Scotland is a member of the Governance and Engagement Board for the Scottish Government’s proposed Human Rights Bill. Details are available on the Scottish Government website .
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to identify how many (a) Deaf and (b) disabled people who died during the COVID-19 pandemic had (i) a voluntary and (ii) an involuntary do-not-resuscitate order in place.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information.
National Records of Scotland (NRS) are the official producer of statistics relating to deaths, including where the cause was related to COVID-19. The information they hold is restricted to that recorded at death registration and therefore they do not hold sufficient detail to identify where a person had in place a do not resuscitate order.
A one off analysis of COVID-19 deaths by disability was made possible by linking information on death registrations to data on long-term health problems and disabilities from Scotland’s Census 2011. This is publicly available on the NRS website: Deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland, Week 11: Report (nrscotland.gov.uk)
There is no ongoing or planned work to look further at the level of detail outlined in the question.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS staff have been recruited from overseas in each year since 2018.
Answer
No information is held centrally on the number of NHS staff recruited from overseas from 2018 to October 2021.
In October 2021 the then Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care announced £4.5 million for Health Boards to recruit up to 200 nurses from overseas. Figures released in August 2022 show that this target was met and 200 registered nurses were recruited, taking up posts in hospitals across NHS Scotland.
On 4 October 2022, further funding of £8 million was announced to support Boards in recruiting up to 750 registered nurses, midwives and allied health professions from overseas by end of March 2023. Early indications are that boards have achieved the target with many staff already in post or have signed offers of employment to arrive as soon as practicably possible. The data is currently being reviewed and will be published shortly.