- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance has been issued to local authorities to highlight current best practice in local roads maintenance to achieve improved outcomes and increased value for money, and how often any such guidance is updated.
Answer
The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including structures, improvements, maintenance and repair with local roads authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas.
SCOTS (the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) – www.scotsnet.org , are responsible for developing guidance and good practice on local road maintenance which is published on their website. Local authority asset management processes and procedures are led by the SCOTS Asset Management Group. Transport Scotland does share knowledge and best practice with local authorities through a number of forums. Local authorities also align with the national guidance and tools produced by the Department for Transport through the UK Roads Leadership Group, UK Roads Board and the UK Asset Management Board.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what support is being provided to clinically vulnerable households for their ongoing PPE needs, including air filters, FFP3 masks, and hand sanitiser.
Answer
As a result of the pandemic, local PPE Hubs were set up all over Scotland to provide free PPE to people providing social care support including to people at highest risk, who need it. The Scottish Government continues to offer free PPE to unpaid carers and provision has been extended to September 2022. Unpaid or family carers who think they require PPE due to their caring role should contact their local carer’s centre and they will advise on how to access supplies locally. If their local carers’ centre is unavailable, they can call the Social Care PPE Support Centre on 0300 303 3020.
With regards to the point on air filters and ventilation I have attached a link to HSE guidance here Overview - Ventilation in the workplace (hse.gov.uk) . You can also find further guidance from Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) CIBSE - Emerging from Lockdown (CIBSE.org) .
Hand-washing and wearing face coverings in indoor public places and on public transport are two of the key things we’re still asking people to do as part of our Covid Sense (gov.scot) campaign.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent by NHS boards on operations carried out by the independent sector in each year since 1999.
Answer
Scottish Ministers are absolutely committed to a publicly owned and operated NHS, and for the people of Scotland to have free and timely access to health services. Our NHS in Scotland makes very limited use of the independent sector for targeted services and to supplement NHS capacity, where necessary.
In 2020-21, use of the independent sector in NHS Scotland represented just 0.5% of the frontline health budget. For NHS England, use of the independent sector was 7%, £12.2 billion, of the English health budget for the same period.
Total spend with independent providers is published annually in NHS Board accounts which are available on each Board’s website. Detail not included in the accounts would require to be requested from Health Boards.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what data is held on the number of people who died alone in hospital in each year since 1999.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it issues guidance to local authorities on how to make it easier for the public to report local road defects.
Answer
The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including structures, improvements, maintenance and repair with local roads authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas including the format of public reporting and no formal guidance is issued on this matter.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities have registered their interest in introducing the workplace parking levy.
Answer
The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 introduced a discretionary power for local authorities to implement workplace parking licencing (WPL) schemes. It will be for local authorities to decide whether they wish to implement WPL locally and to shape proposals to suit local circumstances.
The Workplace Parking Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2022 require local authorities to notify Scottish Ministers when publishing notification of a scheme proposal. There is no requirement for local authorities to register their interest in introducing a WPL scheme with Scottish Ministers before they have formally published a scheme proposal (such as during initial scoping or exploration of a scheme).
While no notifications of scheme proposals have yet been received, I am aware that local authorities may be considering how best to use the new powers. For example, the City of Edinburgh Council has included plans to take forward a WPL scheme as part of its published City Mobility Plan 2021-2030 and have recently re-affirmed that they will continue exploration of such a scheme. I am also aware that WPL is under consideration in Glasgow as part of their Local Transport Strategy policy framework.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made of the use of low carbon warm mix asphalt in allowing local roads to be reopened more quickly after repair, in order to achieve reduced operational time and public disruption, and whether any such assessment has been communicated to local authorities.
Answer
The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including structures, improvements, maintenance and repair with local roads authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas and no formal guidance is issued on this matter. Transport Scotland does however share knowledge and best practice through a number of forums. In particular the benefits of Warm Mix Asphalt has been discussed at a number of Transport Scotland Pavement Forums and representatives of SCOTS (Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) attend these meetings.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to extend free travel for under-22s and over-60s to include the Edinburgh Trams.
Answer
We currently have no plans to extend the statutory free bus schemes to include Edinburgh Trams.
We are, however, undertaking a Fair Fares Review that will look at look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 2 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many families have been able to access support through the families affected by drug deaths funding.
Answer
The information is not held centrally. You may wish to contact Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol & Drugs directly to request additional information. An evaluation of the National Development Project Fund is also available on the Scottish Government website.
The whole family approach framework, launched in December 2021, sets out principles of how we will improve support for families affected by substances. A £3.5 million uplift per year is provided to ADPs to implement this framework by allocating funding to local family support services.
We also fund Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol & Drugs for family support services while the Children and Families Fund, administered by Corra, provides £3 million for family support each year to front-line and third-sector organisations.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to extend free travel for under-22s and over-60s to include the Glasgow Subway.
Answer
We currently have no plans to extend the statutory free bus schemes to include the Glasgow Subway.
We are, however, undertaking a Fair Fares Review that will look at look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry.