Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-31988

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the current policy guidance is on the evidence and processes required by local authorities before making decisions on the demolition of listed buildings under emergency powers.

Guidance on enforcement powers for local authorities in the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 is provided in the Building Standards Enforcement Handbook and the Building Standards Procedural Handbook. The National Planning Framework 4 states that development proposals for the demolition of listed buildings will not be supported unless it has been demonstrated that there are exceptional circumstances and that all reasonable efforts have been made to retain, reuse and/or adapt the listed building.

A local authority will rely on evidence from a survey carried out by a structural engineer to advise on all options that minimise the extent of any demolition work. A local authority may engage an accredited conservation engineer on a case by case basis following advice from the structural engineer.

Question reference: S6W-31799

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04899 by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2021, how many inspections of care homes for adults have been carried out by the Care Inspectorate in each year since 2021, and how many of these were return inspections.

Inspections of care homes for adults and older people completed 2021-22 to 2024-25 (to date)

	Inspection year
	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25 (Apr24 - Oct24)
	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25 (Apr24 - Oct24)
Total number of inspections completed in care homes for adults and older people	848	1151	1034	583
of which: 'Return inspections' completed (i.e. number of second and subsequent inspections)	391	329	346	120

Source: end of year inspection data files 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and 31 October 2024 inspections completed files.

Note: the return inspections are a subset of the total number of inspections completed, not in addition to the total number.

Question reference: S6W-31800

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of any impact of ticket office closures on rail passenger numbers, and what measures it has put in place to mitigate any accessibility problems caused by closures.

There will be no ticket office closures or job losses further to the adjustments to the ticket office opening hours proposed by ScotRail and Scottish Rail Holdings.

The purpose of these adjustments is to enable ScotRail to provide assistance to passengers, where it is most required, thus enhancing passenger experience.

The Scottish Government’s acceptance to these proposals is predicated on some conditions, including that the arrangements for disabled passengers will not be affected.

Question reference: S6O-04113

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what additional support it will provide to local authorities in relation to holding public inquiries into onshore wind farms.

Question reference: S6W-31260

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will apply the consequentials it receives from any increased funding from the UK Government to children with special educational needs and disabilities directly to ASN services in Scotland.

Scottish Ministers continue to assess the full implications of the Chancellor’s autumn Budget statement and political parties are encouraged to engage with the Scottish Government on the Scottish budget ahead of 4 December 2024.

Funding for schools is provided through the local authority block grant and local authorities have a statutory duty to identify, provide for, and review the ASN support provided for pupils in their local community.

The Scottish Government is making £145.5M available to local authorities to protect teacher numbers. In addition, we remain determined to improve the educational experiences of children and young people with additional support needs with spending on additional support for learning by authorities reaching a record high of £926m in 2022-23.

We published an updated action plan and progress report on 5th November 2024, highlighting progress made to address recommendations from Angela Morgan’s Additional Support for Learning (ASL) Review (2020) and we are committed to delivering the ASL Action Plan.

Question reference: S6W-31357

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many calls to the Scottish Ambulance Service made in the last year have been taken from sites outside of Scotland.

At times of peak demand callers may have to wait longer for their call to be answered. Because of this, the Scottish Ambulance Service utilises the Intelligent Routing Platform (IRP) where, after waiting for 180 seconds, a caller is transferred to the next available call handler at another UK ambulance service.

The IRP is utilised by all other UK ambulance services.

The call is then sent back through a digital gateway to the appropriate regional Scottish Ambulance Service Ambulance Control Centre, who have local knowledge, and will dispatch the most appropriate resource.

Below is the number of calls between November 2023 and October 2024 that were transferred to another UK ambulance service from Scotland. It is important to note that over the last 12 months the Scottish Ambulance Service has answered 1,066,121 calls so the number of patients whose calls are answered by an ambulance service outwith Scotland is incredibly low.

November 2023 – 137

December - 28

January 2024 - 10

February - 6

March - 10

April - 4

May - 16

June - 13

July - 27

August - 12

September - 84

October - 183

Question reference: S6O-04029

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what correspondence it has had with the UK Government regarding its proposed reforms to electricity infrastructure consenting in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-30782

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30195 by Shona Robison on 9 October, how much funding has been provided to each of the national public awareness health campaigns that have run since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Financial Year 2023-24

*Paid-for media public health campaigns:

Detect Cancer Earlier	£360,115.02
Dentistry Reform	£213,310.79
Adult Mental Health	£450,109.58
Organ Donation	£32,609.15
Right Care Right Place	£171,433.19
Vaping	£178,292.84
Winter Vaccines	£676,346.72

**Low Cost / No cost public health campaigns:

Women & Girls in Sport Week	£34,658.40
Lyme Disease	£25,041.57
Smoking Cessation	£13,786.72

**Campaigns funded by Scottish Government working in partnership with executive agencies or other public sector organisations:

Childhood Flu – Public Health Scotland	£92,574
Sperm & Egg – NHS Scotland	£50,520

Financial Year 2024-25

*Paid-for media public health campaigns which have so far run in financial year 2024-25 are as follows. These are estimated costs which cannot be finalised until all campaign spend is reconciled:

Dementia Stigma	£410,000
Detect Cancer Earlier	£450,000
Organ Donation & Tissue Week	£30,000
Appropriate Use of NHS Services - Right Care Right Place	£250,000
Sexual Assault Referral Centres	£99,000

**Low Cost / No cost public health campaigns:

Women & Girls in Sport Week	£39,000
The Importance of Home Recovery - Home First	£47,000
Abortion Safe Access Zones	£25,500

**Campaigns funded by Scottish Government working in partnership with executive agencies or other public sector organisations:

Winter Vaccines – Public Health Scotland

£58,200

* publishable spend.

** non publishable spend.

Question reference: S6W-30798

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22487 by Mairi McAllan on 9 November 2023, whether it will provide an update on which of the 42 formal flood protection schemes or engineering works are (a) under construction and (b) at the planning or other stage of development, broken down by the (i) expected completion date, including the reason for any date being beyond the 2021 timeframe, (ii) number of properties that will be protected and (iii) (A) initial forecast and (B) final expected cost of each.

The responsibility for development and delivery of flood protection schemes rests with individual local authorities, who are best placed to respond to local resilience needs.

The first set of Flood Risk Management plans covering the period 2015-2021 included 42 prioritised flood protection schemes. Work was expected to start, but construction was not necessarily expected to be completed, on those schemes within this six-year timeframe.

Flood protection schemes have impacts on individuals, communities and the environment, and require careful and thorough planning. Like all infrastructure projects, it can take many years for flood schemes to progress from option appraisal to completion.

The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities to enable delivery of these important projects. £570million will be invested in flood resilience in the period 2016-2026.

40 of 42 have received funding to support development. 2 were not deemed eligible because they had previously received funding.

16 schemes are complete. The detailed status of those that remain is as follows:

4 are under construction.

Scheme	(ii) Properties protected	(i) Completion Date	(iii A) Initial cost (£ million) (1)	( iii B) Estimated final cost (£ million) (2)
Upper Garnock	600	?2024	?15.5	18.5
Hawick	970	2024	37.4	78.6
Campbeltown	770	2024	9.3	15.2
Millport Coastal	657	2024	12.1	48.6

Schemes (b) under development are as follows:

2 will commence construction in 2025.

4 have been legally confirmed as required under the FRM Act (2009) and are undergoing further development and detailed design towards construction.

5 have begun the legal notification process towards confirmation.

Scheme	Stage	(ii) Properties protected	(iii A) Initial cost (£ million) (1)	( iii B) Estimated Final Cost of Scheme (2)
Milnathort	Construction start 2025	79	1.9	0.9
Mill Burn Millport	Construction start 2025	124	1.1	1.7
Kilmacolm – Glenmosston Burn	Confirmed (3)	Not held	0.5	0.5
Comrie	Confirmed (3)	189	15.7	40.0
Dumfries - Whitesands	Confirmed (3)	166	18.9	37.5
Quarrier’s Village	Confirmed (3)	60	0.2	0.2
Dumbarton - Gruggies Burn	Legal notification complete (4)	370	14.5	20.0
South Kinross	Legal notification complete (4)	Not held	3.2	15.1
Musselburgh	Legal notification complete (4)	2500	8.9	95.9
Bridge of Allan	Legal notification complete (4)	Not held	4.4	17.0
Newton Stewart/ River Cree	Legal notification complete (4)	270	7.5	19.1

8 have been withdrawn from the cycle one funded programme (2 voluntarily and 6 because they failed to meet the notification deadline of 31 March 2024). 1 is no longer required.

(1) Note: Initial costs as provided by local authorities in 2016-17.

(2) Note: Final Scheme costs are the latest estimates provided by local authorities. Differences between these latest estimates and initial cost estimates arise as a result of inflationary pressures and because flood protection schemes are put forward for prioritisation at various stages of their development to fit with Flood Risk Management Planning cycle set out in the FRM Act. Costs are revised over time as designs are finalised and more detailed investigations are carried out and as new information emerges.

Schemes will only be taken forward for construction if they receive the necessary statutory and regulatory approvals, so the expected completion date is not yet known.

More detailed information on each of the schemes can be obtained from the relevant local authorities whose responsibility it is to develop and deliver flood protection schemes and who are best placed to answer specific questions on each of the schemes.

(3) Note: Formally confirmed under Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act (2009).

(4) Note: Notification (first stage towards legal confirmation) complete under Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act (2009)

Question reference: S6W-30295

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it (a) currently makes available and (b) plans to make available to the Scottish Parliament for the purposes of evaluating the efficacy of community mental health funding.

The Scottish Government has published the following reports relating to the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults.

Year 1 (2021-2022)

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund: year 1 - monitoring and reporting summary - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

External Evaluation of Year 1

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults: evaluation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Year 2 (2022 -2023)

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults: year 2 - monitoring and reporting summary - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Year 3 (2023-2024)

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults - year 3: monitoring and reporting summary - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Year 4 of the Fund opened for applications on 30 September 2024. As with previous years, data in respect of Year 4 will be published when it is available.

In addition, we are currently working with Third Sector Interface organisations to gather information on the impact of the Fund and we intend to make key findings available in due course.

In relation to the children and young people’s community mental health and wellbeing supports and services funded by the Scottish Government, the Scottish Youth Parliament conducted an independent evaluation which was published in August 2023 and is available at https://syp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Independent-Evaluation-of-Community-Mental-Health-Supports-and-Services-April-2023.pdf.

Local authorities also report annually on data including numbers of people accessing support, age and gender of service users, reasons for presenting at the services, and numbers of people reporting an improved outcome. Summaries of this information are published retrospectively by the Scottish Government at https://www.gov.scot/publications/access-to-counsellors-in-secondary-schools-and-children-and-young-peoples-community-mental-health-services-summary-reports/.

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