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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: S5W-31662

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that there is not a long-term crisis in mental health service provision following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In engagement with stakeholders we are producing a Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan which will set out how we and our partners intend to respond to the mental health challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic will create for Scotland. As outlined in the 2020 Programme for Government the plan will be published this Autumn.

Alongside the Transition and Recovery Plan, we are working with communities and stakeholders across Scotland to ensure we learn from the lessons so far. Mental health has been made a clinical priority for NHS Boards within the Mobilisation process and we are working with Boards to support safe delivery of services. And we have produced a population wide mental health campaign ‘Clear Your Head’ to help individuals look after their own mental health and wellbeing.

We have also provided an additional £3.8 million to increase the capacity of NHS 24’s telephone and online services and to extend digital therapies. And we are providing over £1million to the DBI service on a national basis.

We recognise that there will be specific groups who are more vulnerable, and will feel the impact more greatly, of the Covid-19 pandemic which we have increased the support to. For example:

£768,000 for a relationships helpline to be delivered by The Spark counselling service;
£105,000 to support Young Scot to develop enhanced digital content and resources on mental health to create ‘Aye Feel’.
£205,000 to support 47,000 autistic people across Scotland. This consists of funding to increase capacity at the Scottish Autism Helpline, and help for the National Autistic Society to keep people in touch online during lockdown.

The Mental Health Research Advisory Group has been established to follow research developments to understand the medium and long term impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health and will help us to put evidence-based services and support in place to help meet the mental health needs of the population.

Question reference: S5W-31663

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many inpatient beds have been available for mental health patients from 1 January 2020 to date, also broken down by (a) month and (b) NHS board, and how these figures compare to the number of beds available in each month since 1 September 2015.

The data on the number of inpatients beds available for mental health patients for the period 1 January to date is not yet available. Public Health Scotland will publish data from the 1st January 2020 to 31st March 2020 on the 29th September. I will write to the member when this information is available.

Previous publications detailing numbers of inpatients beds by NHS board for previous years can be found on the Public Health Scotland website: https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/hospital-care/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly/ .

Question reference: S5W-31823

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5T-02387

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 September 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what mitigation measures are being considered to deal with the continuing closure of the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful.

Question reference: S5W-31463

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 8 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether there is any funding remaining from the (a) Small Business Grant and (b) Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant scheme since its closure to new applications on 10 July 2020 and, if so, where it plans to spend any remaining funding.

As at 4 August 2020, over 106,500 applications had been made for the Small Business Grant Scheme and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Scheme across Scotland. Of these applications, over 89,000 grants valuing over £998 million have been awarded.

Local authorities continue to process outstanding applications, and therefore final figures of expenditure are not yet available. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that every penny received from the UK Government for business support will be passed on directly to businesses and the early closure of the scheme was intended to ensure that any remaining resources from the grant schemes can be re-directed to help business as we have already done for the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund and other hardship funds.

Our package of support measures worth over £2.3 billion is tailored to the particular needs of the Scottish economy, and we continue to listen to businesses to understand their needs and explore means through which to provide support and rectify the gaps where possible.

Question reference: S5W-31467

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 7 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-30850 by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 August 2020, how much the Water Industry Commission has paid toward forest planting in offsetting carbon emissions in each of the last five years, and to whom these payments have been made.

The Commission began to make payments to offset its carbon emissions in 2018-19. The Commission made a contribution to Carbon Footprint Ltd totalling £1,780.20, which was equivalent to 138 trees being planted in Scotland, and balanced all the emissions from flights by WICS employees. The Commission has committed to offset all its flight emissions on an annual basis and will make a further offsetting payment later this year to account for emissions in 2019-20.

Question reference: S5W-31472

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 7 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of annual average investment spending of Scottish Water in the 2035-36 and 2039-40 periods it expects will be met through government borrowing.

The average annual investment for 2035-36 and 2039-40 and the level of borrowing at that time will be determined in future Strategic Review of Charges processes. In the long-term modelling carried out by WICS for their Decision Paper “Prospects for Prices”, they have assumed that total investment, including refurbishment and repair capital, in 2035-36 will be between £1.1billion and £1.2billion and in 2039-40 will be between £1.3billion and £1.5billion in 2017-18 prices, and that borrowing will be £120million in each of these years.

Question reference: S5W-31469

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 7 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-30852 by Kate Forbes on 10 August 2020, whether it expects each of its agencies to have policies on the personal use of frequent flyer schemes and, if so, whether these schemes should be consistent with its policy that they should not be used for personal gain by employees.

Question reference: S5W-31466

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 7 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-30854, S5W-30856 and S5W-30857 by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 August 2020, what the daily rate is at which the Chief Executive of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland's time is being charged out on contracts undertaken.

Question reference: S5W-31468

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 7 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the annual average investment spending of Scottish Water that has been planned will have been met through (a) government borrowing during the 2015-16 to 2020-21 period and (b) the modelled logarithm that underlies the approach to future water charges created by the Water Industry Commission.

I refer the member to the answer to S5W-23180 on 22 May 2019 for previous information on borrowing and investment and can confirm that (a) The Final Determination for the period 2015-21 was based on an investment programme of £3.036million in 2012-13 prices, and £720m of this investment was to be met through net new borrowing. (b) The financial modelling for the forthcoming 2021-27 regulatory period, set out in the WICS ‘Prospects for Prices’ paper, assumes borrowing of £170million per year and total investment over the period, including refurbishment and repair capital, of between £4.3bn and £4.4bn in 2017-18 prices.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx
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