- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, for what reasons it determined that the period of a strategic plan by the Scottish Ministers must not exceed three years, and how it arrived at that decision.
Answer
The National Care Service (Scotland) Bill requires Ministers to have a strategic plan if they are delivering, or arranging for the delivery of, national services.
In order to ensure that national services remain aligned with changing population need it is important that Ministers regularly review, with partners, stakeholders and people, the strategic plan.
We will continue to liaise with those who plan and deliver services to ensure that the Bill sets out appropriate national and local strategic planning requirements.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many members of staff it expects to transfer from local authorities to the National Care Service, broken down by each local authority.
Answer
The answer to this question is set out in Paragraph 48 of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill Policy Memorandum. This can be accessed at: https://www.parliament.scot/bills-and-laws/bills/national-care-service-scotland-bill/introduced
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 December 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 12 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been awarded to businesses in the South Scotland region from the Regional Food Fund, in each year since the Fund was established.
Answer
Information on funding awarded to projects from the Regional Food Fund in each year since it was established is published on the Scotland Food & Drink website and can be found at the following link: https://foodanddrink.scot/regional-food-growth/regional-food-fund/
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 30 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it still plans to launch a National Care Service in the current parliamentary session.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 30 November 2022
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to expand rail infrastructure in the South Scotland region.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2022
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 3 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Audit Scotland report, Self-directed support: 2017 progress report, which of the recommendations were (a) completed in full, (b) partly completed and (c) not completed.
Answer
Audit Scotland’s 2017 progress report made seven recommendations for the Scottish Government. Since then, two of the recommendations have been completed in full, four have been partially completed and one has not been completed.
The SDS Implementation Plan 2019-2021 built on the learning from the Audit Scotland report and incorporated the inputs of third sector organisations, COSLA and people with lived experience. The implementation of this plan was disrupted by the emergence of COVID19, and efforts to respond to this included publishing SDS pandemic guidance in July 2020.
The Scottish Government will issue a significant update of the SDS Statutory Guidance later this month, and is currently working with COSLA and a national group of stakeholders to develop an SDS improvement plan to drive improvements in SDS implementation covering the years leading up to the establishment of the National Care Service. This will take into account the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report of 2017 as well as from reports published since then, including the Feeley report of 2021.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints from (a) passengers and (b) staff have been received by ScotRail regarding train services in the South of Scotland in 2022, broken down by the (i) reason for the complaint and (ii) local authority area.
Answer
ScotRail does not record passenger complaints data by region or local authority area, but by rail route. The following table shows ScotRail’s complaints data for routes which serve the South Scotland region from 1 April 2022:
Complaint Type | April | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct |
1st Class | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Assisted Travel | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Capacity | 3 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
Environment | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
Information Provision | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Policy And Product | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Rail Replacement | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Safety & Security | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Smartcard | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Staff | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 |
Station Facilities | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Ticket Buying Facilities | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Timetable | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Train Service Performance | 5 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 9 |
TOTAL | 28 | 34 | 29 | 21 | 18 | 21 | 27 |
ScotRail has confirmed that the routes detailed below were included in this data. The member should note that the data reflects complaints which may have occurred at any point on the route:
- Ayr - Glasgow
- Barrhead - Glasgow
- Carlisle - Glasgow
- Dumfries - Glasgow / Edinburgh
- Edinburgh - Dunbar
- Edinburgh - North Berwick
- Edinburgh - Tweedbank
- Girvan - Glasgow / Edinburgh
- Glasgow - Kilmarnock
- Glasgow - Lanark
- Glasgow - Stranraer
- Kilmarnock - Carlisle
- Kilmarnock - Dumfries
ScotRail does not record staff complaints and therefore the information is not available.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of public bridges that are closed in the South Scotland region, broken down by the number of years that they have been closed for.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not permanently closed any trunk road bridges in the South of Scotland regions. Decisions on the closure or re-opening of Local Authority bridges is a matter for the relevant Local Authority.
Following consultation, Local Authority colleagues have indicated the following local bridge closures:
Local Authority | Route Number | Location | Bridge | Closure |
Dumfries and Galloway Council | | Kirtle Water | Cove Footbridge | 1 Year |
Dumfries and Galloway Council | | Over River Annan | Cuthbertson Memorial Footbridge | 1 Year |
Dumfries and Galloway Council | | Over River Annan | Diamond Jubilee Footbridge | 1 Year |
Dumfries and Galloway Council | B725 | Nithsdale) | Brow Well Road Bridge | 3 Years |
Scottish Borders Council | | Kalemouth | Kalemouth Suspension Bridge | 2 Years |
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 21 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the current dentist capacity is in the South Scotland region.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally, however each NHS Board will hold information on dental capacity for their respective areas.
We remain in a position of relative strength in terms of workforce numbers and capacity in Scotland, with 59 dentists per 100,000 of the population providing NHS dental services, compared with 43 per 100,000 in England. Dental registrations project a similar picture, with a record number of people registered with a NHS dentist, more than 95% of the population of Scotland.
Further information on dental statistics, including NHS dental registration numbers broken down by NHS Board, can be found on the Public Health Scotland (PHS) website, at: Dental Statistics (publichealthscotland.scot) .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 21 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support communities that are currently without a local dentist surgery to obtain one.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to improving access to NHS dental services, which is why we have included several areas in the Scottish Dental Access Initiative grant (SDAI). This financial grant enables dentists to open a new or expand an existing dental practice in areas where there is a particular and protracted problem with patient access to NHS dental services.
The areas currently included in the grant are:
- Dalmellington and Patna within NHS Ayrshire and Arran;
- Kelso and Berwickshire (exc. Eyemouth) within NHS Borders;
- NHS Dumfries and Galloway;
- Auchtermuchty within NHS Fife;
- Banff, Fraserburgh, Huntly and Moray within NHS Grampian;
- Isle of Bute, Islay and Jura, Lochgilphead, Mull and Iona, and Tarbert within NHS Highland;
- NHS Orkney;
- NHS Shetland;
- NHS Western Isles.
Officials are in regular contact with NHS Boards about areas which may benefit from having the SDAI and the areas can be updated as and when required.
