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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-21408

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are currently on a secondment, to the Scottish Government from NHS Ayrshire and Arran, that is governed by a service level agreement.

Question reference: S6W-21855

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund (a) has been provided in each financial year since 2021-22 and (b) will be made available in the next two financial years.

Over the last three years (2021-24), £51 million has been provided through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults. The following amounts have been provided in each year:

2021-22 (Year 1) – £21 million.
2022-23 (Year 2) – £15 million.
2023-24 (Year 3) – £15 million.

This is in addition to the £45 million allocated to local authorities since 2021 to provide community-based mental health and wellbeing support for children, young people and their families.

Future funding will be subject to the annual budget process and approval by the Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-22096

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place to increase capacity in NHS Ayrshire and Arran to prevent operations being cancelled for reasons related to capacity and other non-clinical issues.

The Scottish Government is working closely with NHS Ayrshire and Arran to increase capacity and reduce cancellations. A number of improvement actions to enable the prioritisation of resources to areas where the capacity gap has the greatest impact are already underway, including:

A bottom-up review of operating capacity within surgical teams;
Increase resilience of the planned care service through protection of planned care beds to ensure that operations are not cancelled as a result of bed capacity; and
Introduction of new enhanced roles across the wider multi-disciplinary teams to increase capacity and improve sustainability, such as surgical care practitioners, anaesthesia associates and theatre assistant practitioners.

These actions will help NHS Ayrshire and Arran deliver its plans to increase capacity which include targeted recruitment, extended workforce roles and new models of service delivery.

Question reference: S6W-21414

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of its current total workforce is on a secondment to the Scottish Government that is governed by a service level agreement.

Question reference: S6W-21413

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people on a secondment to the Scottish Government that is governed by a service level agreement have had their secondment renewed on an annual or bi-annual basis in the last five years.

As at October 2023, our records show that across the whole of the Scottish Government there are currently 155 individuals procured to provide specialist services under a Service Level Agreement.

The Agreements that are put in place stipulate the length of the service period, and so will often set that Agreement in place for a period of two years, or more. Some Agreements have been established with short service periods, such as 6 months, but the norm is for two to three years. Agreements are reviewed annually to consider the service being provided and whether there is a business need for that service continuation.

Question reference: S6W-21856

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much total funding has been put into mental health services in each financial year since 2021-22.

Funding for mental health services is drawn from the overall funds allocated to NHS Scotland by the Scottish Government. The latest available data from the Public Health Scotland Scottish Health Service Costs shows that for
‎ 2021-22 total expenditure by NHS Scotland on mental health was £1.299 billion.

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/scottish-health-service-costs/scottish-health-service-costs-high-level-costs-summary-2021-to-2022/

Question reference: S6W-22170

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 20 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a list of all Scottish Fire and Rescue Service stations that have closed in the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-22173

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 20 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government at which stations Scottish Fire and Rescue Service high reach appliances will be located.

Question reference: S6W-22169

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 20 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many Scottish Fire and Rescue Service high reach appliances have been in operation in each of the last five years.

In the last five years, SFRS have had a total of 26 High Reach Appliances in their fleet.

From 4 September this year, as part of the SFRS operational strategy and after careful consideration and scrutiny of Incident Recording System (IRS) data, this number will drop to 16. This is part of a number of operational changes the SFRS have undertaken last month.

The operation of high reach appliances and their commission is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Question reference: S6W-22171

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 20 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a list of all Scottish Fire and Rescue Service stations that are planned to be closed in the next year.