- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West 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 19 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14261 by Jenny Gilruth on 6 February 2023, and in relation to the two full time equivalent employees in ScotRail's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team, whether it will outline their role, responsibilities and aims, including how each job role relates to ScotRail staff and passengers.
Answer
ScotRail advises that the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Manager (ED&I Manager) post ensures that its diversity, equality, inclusion, and engagement initiatives are a core element of its People Strategy and fully embedded across all areas of the organisation.
The ScotRail ED&I Adviser Reports directly to the ED&I Manager and supports the programme of work to ensure that ScotRail’s diversity, equality, inclusion, and engagement initiatives are delivered.
Full detail on roles and responsibilities are a matter for the employer. The Member may wish to contact Scottish Rail Holdings for further information, if required:-
correspondence@railholdings.scot
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it
plans to make road improvements to increase road safety at Toll of Birness on
the A90; what the evidence base is that indicates that any such road
improvements will increase safety specifically at that junction, and, if
(a) it has no such road improvement plans and (b) no evidence base exists,
whether it will confirm this.
Answer
Transport Scotland undertakes an annual assessment of the safety performance of the entire trunk road network, including the A90. This assessment considers accident patterns and rates in the form of Route Accident Reduction Plans (RARP), and screens all locations where three or more personal injury accidents have occurred in a three-year period. This ensures that full consideration is given to accidents that may be spread along a specific corridor. Further investigations are then carried out and, where appropriate, mitigation measures are prioritised for delivery.
Two interactive signs were erected in 2017 with a third interactive sign to supplement the northbound signs erected in 2021. These signs alert drivers to vehicles turning at the junction and encourage drivers to drive within the speed limit. Other work involved an additional northbound advance direction sign. There are currently no further road safety improvement plans at A90 Toll of Birness, however, this will be monitored through the Annual Road Safety Review.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 19 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many SEPA employees have been working on water pollution, in each year since 2015.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The allocation of SEPA staff resource is the responsibility of SEPA’s CEO and Senior Management Team.
SEPA’s Corporate Plan will be renewed in 2024 and Ministers will work with SEPA to agree the Key Performance Indicators and priority areas to be included in that Plan.
- 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 19 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a further breakdown of the budget line for "Support for Active Travel", contained in the Scottish Budget 2023-24, and whether it will explain its rationale for increasing funding from £126.0 million in 2022-23 to £165.3 million in 2023-24.
Answer
The Scottish Government budget for 2023-24 for Active Travel is £189.2 million as follows. This is a step change increase from the 2022-23 budget, particularly in capital investment, as we progress towards the commitment to invest at least £320 million or 10% of the transport budget on active travel by 2024-25. This investment has a particular focus on improving the quality and range of active travel infrastructure where people can walk, wheel and cycle safely and confidently; and also funds access to bikes schemes and programmes to encourage more people to use active travel on day to day journeys. In turn these support key priorities in our second National Transport Strategy and second Strategic Transport Projects Review.
Budget Description | 2022-23 Allocation | 2023-24 Allocation | Percentage Movement |
Support for Active Travel – Capital (includes £11.073 m to bring Cycling Walking and Safer Routes up to £35 m) | 113.750 | 152.900 | 34% |
Support for Active Travel – Resource | 12.300 | 12.383 | 1% |
Support for Active Travel Sub-Total | 126.050 | 165.283 | 31% |
| | | | |
Cycling, Walking & Safer Routes – Capital (in local govt settlement line) | 23.927 | 23.927 | 0% |
Active Travel Total | 149.977 | 189.210 | 26% |
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with Deloitte since May 2021, and what the agreed outcomes were of any such meetings.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold a central record of meetings held with suppliers so is therefore unable to confirm what meetings have been held with Deloitte LLP since May 2021.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 19 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that colleges receive parity of esteem with universities.
Answer
The Scottish Government values the tertiary education sector, with each part making a crucial and unique contribution to Scotland. The 2023-24 budget allocates nearly £2 billion to colleges and universities, which continues the trend of a year-on-year increase of that budget in cash terms.
The Scottish Government recognises the essential role that colleges play across all learner pathways including their role in further and higher education provision and will further clarify that in the forthcoming Purpose and Principles. The Scottish Government is actively engaging with stakeholders on the interim Purpose and Principles that were published last December. The Scottish Government is focussing on developing the implementation plan, system level outcomes and metrics, evidence and insight papers and impact assessments to support a final publication in late Spring.
The Scottish Government recognises and celebrates the fact that everyone’s learner pathway is different and it is important that everyone has the opportunity to undertake the learner pathway that best matches their abilities and aspirations. The employer led DYW network and DYW School Coordinator role, currently operates in every secondary school. The programme has a key part to play in enabling the recommendations within the Ken Muir review by helping to create employer led experiences and parity of esteem between academic and vocational learning. The SCQF School Ambassador programme also offers schools the opportunity to learn more about the benefits of the SCQF levels and the wider ways in which it supports learners, including in demonstrating the diversity of provision on offer and the parity of these pathways.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 19 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that compulsory redundancies are being implemented by colleges.
Answer
Operational decisions on resourcing and staffing matters are for colleges to consider and decide but the Scottish Government expects colleges to align their staffing complement and skills with the needs of the economy and future skills. Colleges should work together with unions to make every effort to protect jobs where possible but colleges are not bound by Public Sector Pay Policy.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 19 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to make an announcement on future funding allocations for regional Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) groups.
Answer
As set out in the Future Skills Action plan, the Scottish Government is committed to the important work that the DYW Groups do to improve the relationship between young people and employers. To support this commitment, allocations and grant letters were issued on 31 March to the DYW regional groups for the first 6 months of the financial year 2023-2024.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 19 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when the Minister for Community Safety last met with the Fire Brigades Union, and what issues were discussed.
Answer
The previous Minister for Community Safety met with the FBU on 2 February 2023. This meeting, which included Professor Anna Stec of the University of Central Lancashire, was specifically to discuss issues around the FBU DECON campaign including firefighter health screening, the SFRS estate and budgets.
- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether the range of drugs available for prescribing to prisoners is consistent across all prison estates; whether it will outline any variations and what the reasons are for these, and what body is responsible for deciding what drugs are available for prescribing in each prison estate.
Answer
The range of drugs that exist for clinicians to prescribe to people in prison across all prison estates is the same as those available to NHS patients across the same geographical areas (Health Boards).
There may be some difference in what the first line and second line formulary recommendations are in each of the Boards, with these differences being attributable to local variation in assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness.
The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) is responsible for approving all medicines for use in the NHS in Scotland. Once a medicine has been approved by the SMC it is then considered for addition to the local formulary by the Boards Area Drugs and Therapeutic Committee (ADTCC). The ADTCC is a statutory committee of the Board with responsibility for the safe and effective use of medicines in that Board.
All medicines approved for use in the NHS in Scotland are available to all people in prison regardless of location, through the same processes that are available to the non-custodial population.
