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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-15312

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it will support NHS boards that have outsourced Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and other services to bring any such services back in-house.

Patient care and service delivery are the statutory responsibility of local healthcare providers. NHS Boards are responsible for working with their partners to plan and provide health services which meet the needs of their populations. Use of the independent sector has been an option open to all Health Boards to help address short-term capacity issues and is an operational decision for them.

However, through Scottish Government investment, we continue to engage and support Boards to build their workforce and implement the National CAMHS Service Specification. The Scottish Government allocated around £40 million to improve CAMHS and Neurodevelopmental services for children and young people in 2021-22, and has invested £46 million in 2022-23 via the Mental Health Outcomes Framework to improve the quality and delivery of mental health and psychological services for all. The priorities for the funding this financial year have been to continue delivering improvements in CAMHS, psychological therapies, eating disorders and neurodevelopmental services for children and young people, as well as ongoing innovation and service reform.

As a result of our investment over recent years, CAMHS staffing has increased significantly. NHS Education for Scotland (NES) publishes quarterly statistics on the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) workforce. The publication on 6 December 2022 showed, as of September 2022, the CAMHS community staff Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) was 1259 compared to 900.3 WTE in March 2021, when significant investment in CAMHS was made. This represents a 39.8% increase.

Question reference: S6W-15316

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service court transcripts contract is due for renewal; whether it will be put out to tender, and what its position is on this matter.

Question reference: S6W-15314

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on local authorities pursuing parents for school meal debt during a cost of living crisis, and what plans it has to prevent this.

We recognise that rises in the cost of living are putting a huge strain on some families and they are facing unforeseen challenges.

The management of debt is an issue for education authorities and their finance departments. Councils have the power to make discretionary offers of free school meals to families, where they are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances, who do not meet the regular eligibility criteria.

COSLA, working with partners from across Local Government, have developed a set of good practice principles for the management of school meal debt, which were published on 20 February 2023. The intended audience for these principles is local authority staff across a range of departments (including education, catering, finance and debt collection) as well as Head Teachers, class teachers and other school staff. The principles can be accessed through the following link: COSLA Publish Good Practice Principles for Managing School Meal Debt - 20th February 2023 | COSLA

Question reference: S6W-15343

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14658 by Keith Brown on 22 February 2023, whether it will provide a breakdown of the statistics by local authority area.

The requested information on the number of recorded crimes of having in a school an article with a blade or point, split by local authority area, is provided below. As with the national picture, at least part of any reduction at the local authority level during 2020-21 (and any subsequent increase in 2021-22) will likely reflect the closure of the school estate during the pandemic related lockdowns.

Table 1: Having in a school an article with a blade or point not used in other criminal activity

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Aberdeen City	8	3	2	6
Aberdeenshire	8	9	5	14
Angus	1	5	1	4
Argyll & Bute	2	1	0	2
Clackmannanshire	1	3	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	5	14	1	8
Dundee City	3	2	3	2
East Ayrshire	3	1	0	1
East Dunbartonshire	0	1	1	1
East Lothian	1	1	1	1
East Renfrewshire	0	1	1	0
Edinburgh, City of	11	13	2	7
Falkirk	4	8	3	4
Fife	10	3	7	10
Glasgow City	5	8	8	9
Highland	1	8	0	4
Inverclyde	0	0	0	1
Midlothian	1	2	0	1
Moray	1	4	2	5
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	1	0	0
North Ayrshire	3	0	2	2
North Lanarkshire	3	4	4	3
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	1
Perth & Kinross	5	4	4	1
Renfrewshire	0	2	1	1
Scottish Borders	2	3	0	1
Shetland Islands	0	0	1	0
South Ayrshire	3	1	0	0
South Lanarkshire	1	3	0	5
Stirling	3	3	0	1
West Dunbartonshire	2	2	3	1
West Lothian	4	2	4	2

Source: Police recorded Crime Statistics: March year-end data

Table 2: Having in a school an article with a blade or point used in other criminal activity

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Aberdeen City	2	0	1	2
Aberdeenshire	2	0	0	2
Angus	2	0	0	1
Argyll & Bute	1	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	1	1	0	3
Dumfries & Galloway	6	0	0	1
Dundee City	1	3	2	1
East Ayrshire	0	1	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	2	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	1
Edinburgh, City of	3	1	0	3
Falkirk	2	1	0	2
Fife	3	2	1	4
Glasgow City	3	3	1	5
Highland	1	0	0	0
Inverclyde	0	0	1	0
Midlothian	0	0	0	0
Moray	0	2	0	1
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	2	1	1	0
North Lanarkshire	1	1	0	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0
Perth & Kinross	1	0	0	1
Renfrewshire	2	0	0	2
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	1	1	0
South Lanarkshire	0	0	1	5
Stirling	1	1	0	3
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	0	1	0	0

Source: Police recorded Crime Statistics: March year-end data

Question reference: S6W-14690

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to ensure that the education and training related to heart disease adapts as changing models of care are implemented.

Question reference: S6W-14679

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the workforce aspects of the rehabilitation and recovery framework support for people with heart disease allow them access to the correct professional at the correct point in their journey.

In order to provide a wide-range of rehabilitation approaches, a skilled workforce is required that spans health, social care and third and independent sectors. The workforce brings a range of skills that can vary across sector and by background.

Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) make up a significant proportion of the rehabilitation workforce. The AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review considered the actions necessary to deliver a national education and workforce plan for AHPs. This has now been completed. The recommendations will be published early 2023 and an implementation plan will be developed thereafter.

Question reference: S6W-14667

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to implement a person-centred and co-designed community-based awareness, prevention and detection programme for high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Question reference: S6W-14674

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has established referral guidelines for common symptoms of heart disease to support timely access to diagnostics.

Question reference: S6W-14924

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how long the current board members of Scottish Rail Holdings (a) have been and (b) are due to be contracted in those positions.

Details of the current membership of Scottish Rail Holdings Board is available on Companies House via the following link:- https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC548826

The Chief Executive Officer, Rail Business Director, Finance Director and General Counsel of Scottish Rail Holdings are normally permanent roles. The Non-Executive Directors of Scottish Rail Holdings Board were appointed on an interim basis to the 31 March 2023.

Question reference: S6W-14927

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government who the current acting chief executive officer of Scottish Rail Holdings is; how long it is intended that they will be in this position; how many days they are contracted to work in the post, and what their remuneration is for these duties.