- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 17 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health suggestion that all COVID-19 contact tracers and swab takers should be trained on how to recognise and report the signs and symptoms of child abuse and neglect.
Answer
Testing in Scotland happens through the NHS or through the UK Government expanded testing programme. Staff undertaking swabbing at NHS testing sites are all health board staff. Every healthcare employee in Scotland is required to complete public protection training at a level appropriate to their role.
Testers at the expanded testing programme sites are trained in carrying out swab testing but are not necessarily health professionals. No specific child protection training is provided in recognition that interactions with the public are brief. Advice and resources are available for each site to ensure staff are equipped to respond sensitively and effectively if they are asked for help. The expanded testing programme falls under the remit of the UK Government.
Contact tracing is currently carried out by specialised health protection teams in local NHS health boards. A national contact tracing centre is also being established to support the contact tracing process and is due to go live later in June. All contact tracers and team leaders who will be employed by the national centre will be provided with training on child protection which is appropriate for their grade. Appropriate referral processes are also being developed within the programme should staff become concerned that a child is at risk.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Ash Denham on 10 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to ensure that private hire taxis are fitted with safety screens between the driver and passengers to ensure the safety of both during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Answer
The Scottish Government published guidance on 26 May to those providing transport services including Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle operators on how they should assess risks and implement appropriate measures to ensure the safety of themselves, their staff and passengers during the Covid-19 crisis.
The decision whether or not to install protective barriers or safety screens is for licensing authorities, operators and the firm or individual operating the vehicle to make based on their own assessment of risk. Before considering installing a safety screen, operators should contact the relevant licensing authority to check that they will permit the installation and ensure that the screen and installation will meet their requirements.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what level of routine COVID-19 testing takes place in hospital dormitory dementia wards.
Answer
Guidance on COVID-19 testing in hospital settings has been published by Health Protection Scotland and is available here:
https://hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/covid-19-guidance
-for-secondary-care/ .
Testing is currently underway to test individuals aged over 70 for COVID-19 on admission to hospital. This is in recognition that older people may present with atypical and non-specific symptoms. Those with a negative test result should then be tested every 4 days until they are discharged.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the findings of the Scottish Human Rights Commission survey of the 2017-18 budget on 29 April 2020, what plans it has to improve pre-budget scrutiny, and whether this will include legislative committees in the process.
Answer
I refer the member to my answer to question S5W-29253 on 9 June 2020. 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
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the findings of the Scottish Human Rights Commission survey of the 2017-18 budget on 29 April 2020, what plans it has to produce clear and well-advertised guidance for public engagement with the budget process.
Answer
We welcome the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) Open Budget Survey report as a contribution to understanding how the Scottish Budget process might be improved.
The 2017-18 Budget to which the SHRC report refers preceded the work of the Budget Process Review Group which reported in 2017 and resulted in changes to the budget process which have been implemented from 2018 onwards.
These changes include:
- publishing our first Medium-Term Financial Strategy in May 2018;
- publishing our first Fiscal Framework Outturn Report in September 2018;
- implementing a revised written agreement between Scottish Government and the Parliament’s Finance Committee in May 2018; and
- implementing a new Budget process in agreement with the Parliament, with initial changes for Draft Budget 2018-19 and further changes for Scottish Budget 2019-20.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the findings of the Scottish Human Rights Commission survey of the 2017-18 budget on 29 April 2020, what plans it has to implement each of the transparency recommendations.
Answer
We welcome the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) Open Budget Survey report as a contribution to understanding how the Scottish Budget process might be improved.
We are strongly committed to the principles of open government and accordingly we participate actively in the Open Government Partnership.
The current Open Government Partnership Scottish Action Plan includes Commitment 1 on Fiscal Transparency which is designed to begin to address the issues that have been raised in the SHRC report. The Action Plan is available at https://www.gov.scot/policies/improving-public-services/open-government-partnership/ . Because of the impact of COVID-19 the delivery of the Scottish Action Plan has been delayed until December 2020, but significant progress has been made.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the findings of the Scottish Human Rights Commission survey of the 2017-18 budget on 29 April 2020, what plans it has to improve public participation in the budget process.
Answer
I refer the member to my answer to question S5W-29253 on 9 June 2020. 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
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 9 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to alleviate on-street verbal sexual harassment, which is also known as catcalling.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the need to tackle on-street harassment, of which catcalling is one form. We recognise that such harassment is overwhelmingly experienced by women and girls.
Following the provisions of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill we aim to develop a standalone offence on misogynistic harassment and a Working Group will be established to take this forward. It will look at how criminal law deals with misogyny, including whether there are gaps in legislation that could be filled with a specific offence on misogynistic harassment. We are also taking forward work through the implementation of our Equally Safe strategy to tackle the underlying attitudes and inequalities that create the conditions for all forms of gender based violence, including sexual harassment.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the findings of the Scottish Human Rights Commission survey of the 2017-18 budget on 29 April 2020, what plans it has to improve feedback to participants who participate in the budget process.
Answer
I refer the member to my answer to question S5W-29253 on 9 June 2020. 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
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the findings of the Scottish Human Rights Commission survey of the 2017-18 budget on 29 April 2020, what plans it has to improve the public availability and transparency of budget information.
Answer
I refer the member to my answer to question S5W-29253 on 9 June 2020. 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