Questions and answers

Question reference: S6T-02009

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working to build resilience to flooding, in light of reports that heavy rain and flooding caused drivers to be stranded on the Edinburgh City Bypass for hours.

Question reference: S6W-27458

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to understand the cause of the e-gate outage at Scottish airports on 7 May 2024, and what it is doing to ensure that such an incident does not occur during the upcoming summer tourist season.

Question reference: S6W-27383

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to promote coordination between schools and mental health services.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is a top priority for the Scottish Government.

We continue to provide £16 million a year to ensure that every secondary school has access to school counselling services. Our guidance makes clear that local authorities should consider how links between schools, and their local community health and social services, and relevant third-sector organisations can be made to ensure a holistic child-centred approach.

The Scottish Government is also providing local authorities with £15 million per annum to deliver community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children and young people. Our supporting Framework for this funding advocates a whole-system approach and makes clear that community supports and services should work closely with schools to ensure that there are clear and streamlined pathways to support for children and young people, and that local partnerships should be explicit about how different services should work together.

It is a matter for local authorities to decide how services work together in individual areas.

Question reference: S6O-03485

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what forms of community engagement the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill mandates in relation to the creation of a land management plan for large land holdings.

Question reference: S6W-27347

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 22 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has assessed the impact of the reductions in the number of police officers since 2008 on the force’s ability to respond to reports of a crime.

Police Scotland implemented the THRIVE approach as part of the roll out of its Contact Assessment Model (CAM) across 2019/20. THRIVE is used to ensure a consistent response to an incident report by evaluating threat, harm, risk, investigation, vulnerability and engagement. That places the needs of the individual at the centre of the police’s decisions while ensuring that effective prioritisation is in place.

It is vitally important that the Chief Constable has the flexibility to develop her workforce in a way that responds to the challenges she faces by ensuring the right workforce mix. She confirmed to the Criminal Justice Committee on 20 December that the extra £75.7m of resource funding provided by Scottish Government in 2024-25 will enable Police Scotland to bring officer numbers up to around 16,500-16,600. With plans in place to bring in over 1000 new officers this financial year and around 320 having joined since March, she is bringing in the resources that will ensure that frontline policing is prioritised.

Question reference: S6W-27384

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 21 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how the provisions in the Housing (Scotland) Bill will aim to ensure that landlords keep their properties habitable and well ventilated.

The objective of the Housing (Scotland) Bill as introduced to Parliament on 26 March 2024 is to deliver a package of reforms which will help ensure people have a safe, secure, and affordable place to live. If passed by Parliament, the Bill will enable the delivery of our commitments which include longer-term private sector rent controls; duties aimed at the prevention of homelessness; and supporting social rented sector tenants experiencing domestic abuse.

On the specific issue of properties being habitable and well ventilated, all rented homes in Scotland must already meet the minimum Tolerable Standard which includes elements that require housing to be free from damp and have adequate ventilation. Social rented homes are also required to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

If landlords fail to comply, tenants can escalate complaints to the Scottish Public Sector Ombudsman. In the private rented sector, landlords are required by law to comply with the Repairing Standard. Where the minimum standards are not being met, tenants can apply to the First Tier Tribunal (Housing and Property Chamber) for a determination.

Question reference: S6W-27303

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it has monitored the implementation of the Hospital Based Complex Clinical Care guidance, published in 2015, including in particular the monitoring of discharging patients in consultation with the patient, family and carers.

The Hospital Based Complex Clinical Care guidance was introduced in Scotland on 1 June 2015 following a review of NHS continuing care. A key aim was to ensure that anyone who needs to be in hospital for a longer period of time is to get them well enough to return to whatever setting is most suitable for them in the community while ensuring that all health and social care needs are supported.

Ministers and Officials meet regularly with Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs), NHS Boards, Local Authorities and CoSLA to discuss a wide range of activity, including performance and hospital discharges. The whole health and social care system is working hard to support people out of acute settings and back into the community when it is clinically safe to do so. This includes ensuring that everyone is discharged from hospital without delay, and we are working to improve discharge planning through our Discharge Without Delay Programme (DwD) which aims to improve the patient journey, from the initial point of a hospital stay, preventing any delays through early and effective planning.

While the challenge is highly complex, ever shifting and dynamic, the foundations of DwD are based on simple patient centred principles which aim to enhance discharge and prevent delay, through early and effective planning, limiting hospital stays to what is clinically and functionally essential, and getting patients home at the earliest, safest opportunity.

The Scottish Government has also developed statutory guidance for Health Boards, Local Authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships on effective discharge planning and carer engagement, Summary - Carers (Scotland) Act 2016: statutory guidance - updated July 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . We have also funded Health Improvement Scotland to improve practice on carer involvement across health, with a focus on carer involvement in hospital discharge.

Question reference: S6W-27238

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many visitors each VisitScotland iCentre had in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-26965

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the adequacy of non-emergency kidney patient transport service provision for patients travelling to and from in-centre dialysis appointments across each NHS board, and when it made any such assessment.

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery and treatment. All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services and must ensure Patients have access to all information on any relevant patient transport (including community transport) and travel reimbursement entitlement.

Individual Boards are responsible for developing and applying their own policies, including determining eligibility and reimbursement rates, whilst ensuring patient care and safety.

A requirement has been placed within the NHS Territorial Boards annual delivery guidance to bring attention to the requirement for the Boards to consider transport to health for patients and ensure patients have access to information.

Question reference: S6W-26964

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the average time that kidney patients wait for non-emergency patient transport services to and from in-centre dialysis appointments.

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery and treatment. All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services and must ensure Patients have access to all information on any relevant patient transport (including community transport) and travel reimbursement entitlement.

Individual Boards are responsible for developing and applying their own policies, including determining eligibility and reimbursement rates, whilst ensuring patient care and safety.

A requirement has been placed within the NHS Territorial Boards annual delivery guidance to bring attention to the requirement for the Boards to consider transport to health for patients and ensure patients have access to information.

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