- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 12 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to support doctors who have been victims of assault in the workplace.
Answer
No-one should be the victim of abuse or violence while at work and assaults on NHS staff are completely unacceptable. We encourage Health Boards to support criminal proceedings, where appropriate, against anyone who assaults staff. NHSScotland staff can access a range of services to care for their physical and mental health. This includes employee assistance programmes, trauma counselling services and pastoral support, to ensure a safe working environment.
The wellbeing of our health and social care workforce remains a key priority and we are working to ensure that the right level of support is offered across the system. Scottish Government funding provides our workforce with access to psychological interventions and therapies, self-service resources through the National Wellbeing Hub and the National Wellbeing Helpline delivered by NHS 24 to support their wellbeing. We also provide access to confidential mental health services through the Workforce Specialist Service.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what policies and monitoring systems are in place to prevent access to pornography on Scottish Government devices or computers.
Answer
Guidance for staff in relation to usage of IT is provided in the IT Code of Conduct, which sets out acceptable usage for Scottish Government devices and networks. It covers:
- personal use of SCOTS and the internet
- misuse of IT misconduct examples
- accidental access to restricted sites
- sharing sensitive data by email
- monitoring
The code aligns with the wide range of legislation to tackle the potential criminal and civil liability issues that may arise from colleagues’ misuse of communication facilities while at work.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 12 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has sought feedback from NHS staff on their experiences of using NHS-issued pagers, including what alternative technologies they would recommend.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34097 on 12 February 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 12 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS-issued pagers, or so-called bleeps, are currently in use, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The information requested is not collected or held by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained directly from Health Boards.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 12 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact of so-called medical boarders in surgical wards on the scheduling and delivery of planned surgeries.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34124 on 12 February 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of accessing or attempting to access pornography on Scottish Government devices or computers have been recorded in each year since 2018, broken down by device type.
Answer
The Scottish Government retains logs of internet access by staff connected to the Scottish Government network for a period of 6 months only. There were zero connections made to websites categorised as "pornography" recorded in the last 6 months from any device connected to the Scottish Government network.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted any recent audits or investigations into inappropriate use of its devices or computers, and what the outcomes were of any such work.
Answer
Scottish Government has robust controls in place to identify any inappropriate use of devices. Sanctions for device misuse can range from warnings to loss of access and dismissal.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the installation cost is for (a) cat’s eyes and (b) emergency telephones on (i) the A90 in the (A) section north of Dundee and (B) other sections and (ii) other trunk roads.
Answer
Current installation costs for both cat’s eyes and emergency telephones relate to commercially sensitive information that would be inappropriate to share. It could be argued by incumbent Operating Companies and DBFO Companies that disclosing this information could provide competitors with a pricing advantage in future similar tendering exercises
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33168 by Fiona Hyslop on 22 January 2025, whether Transport Scotland has conducted any assessments on the potential impact of severe weather events, such as those experienced during Storm Babet, on the structural integrity of the A90 overbridges and overpasses.
Answer
Transport Scotland has developed an Approach to Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience (ACCAR), which provides a strategic overview of our approach primarily on infrastructure and services directly under Transport Scotland control. A key deliverable of this work is the development of a Trunk Road Adaptation Plan, based on a climate vulnerability and risk assessment using the latest UK climate projections. The Trunk Road Adaptation Plan will be published in 2025. It includes key interventions and recommendations for further adapting the Trunk Road Network. There will be a focus on risks associated with increased surface water flooding, river flooding, river scour and landslides.
The Trunk Road Adaptation Plan will complement the work of our roads Vulnerable Locations Operational Group (VLOG), which was established in 2021 in line with the commitments set out in the National Transport Strategy Delivery Plan 2020 – 2022 with an initial focus on delivering short-term cost-effective actions, whilst developing a move to a long-term proactive approach, including a dedicated budget for climate change adaptation.
The VLOG has targeted resource on early flood level warning systems around A90 river crossings and undertaken specific bridge scour assessments and inspections to national standards to enable resources to be focused on potential future risk areas
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33161 by Fiona Hyslop on 22 January 2025, what plans are in place to further upgrade street lighting along the A90, including (a) timelines and (b) estimated costs.
Answer
Transport Scotland’s Ancillary Assets Scheme Development Guidance provides direction on the identification, development and assessment of potential lighting schemes to ensure that funding is spent on the most deserving sites that offer best value with a demonstrable maintenance need. The protocol requires our Operating Companies to develop a 3 year programme that details all planned maintenance works. The following table lists the current draft A90 lighting maintenance plans.
Route | Location | Additional Info | Financial Year | Estimated Cost (£) |
A90 | Inchture | At Eastbound and Westbound slips roundabout | 26-27 | 200,000 |
A90 | Inchmichael Interchange | At bottom of Westbound on slip | 27-28 | 80,000 |
A90 | Fintry Roundabout to Emmock Roundabout | LHS William Fitzgerald Way | 28-29 | 110,000 |
A90 | Quilkoe Junction | B9128 on RHS | 28-29 | 220,000 |
A90 | Stracathro | On west side of over bridge | 28-29 | 200,000 |