- Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any potential benefits of increasing funding for anti-spiking policing or campaigns.
Answer
The Scottish Government has taken a proactive approach to understand the prevalence, raise awareness and address concerns about the incidence of reported spiking in Scotland.
Several roundtable meetings have taken place to help steer the joint Scottish Government and public sector response to the act of spiking. These meetings have been designed to discuss the range of initiatives and information available on spiking. Significant work was undertaken to raise awareness and heighten vigilance in the run up to the return to college and university campuses. Information has also been made available on the safer.scot website, to inform and support the public around the subject of spiking. This has been promoted through the roundtable membership and by the representative organisations and sectors.
Furthermore, Police Scotland has prioritised its response to incidents of spiking. A comprehensive Investigative Strategy has been developed and circulated to provide guidance and direction to staff responding to and investigating incidents of spiking. A Detective Superintendent has national investigative oversight and Senior Investigating Officers have been appointed within each policing division to lead on all spiking related investigations locally.
- Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any potential benefits of providing spiking test kits and associated training to licensed premises, including nightclubs and bars.
Answer
Several roundtable meetings have taken place to help steer the joint Scottish Government and public sector response to the act of spiking. These meetings have been designed to discuss the range of initiatives and information available on spiking.
Roundtable discussions have and will continue to include the consideration of spiking test kits. It was discussed that strips vary widely in terms of what they can test for and are not a reliable diagnostic tool.
Key outcomes from roundtable discussions focussed on messaging, training and prevention, with the Violence Reduction Unit supporting Police Scotland and businesses within the night-time economy sector to continue roll out of the bystander training to raise awareness for staff to help keep people safe.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has put in place a regular assurance process for reporting and regular discussions to support health and care organisations with planning, strategy development and other key decision making as appropriate.
Answer
The Health Planning process is intended to provide Scottish Government with confirmation that NHS Boards and their partners have plans in place to continue to deliver safe and accessible treatment and care and fully deliver Ministerial priorities. Plans are submitted by NHS Boards and reviewed internally by policy, finance, and workforce officials.
The plans represent the agreement between SG and NHS Boards setting out how Boards will deliver Ministerial priorities and work towards a more sustainable model of care; and, in doing so support Scottish Government to hold Boards to account for their contribution over the year. Progress is reviewed and reported on quarterly, and NHS Boards have the opportunity to formally update their plans on an annual basis.
Scottish Government leads and/or attends regular meetings with Board Chief Executives, Functional Directors, and other clinical and non-clinical stakeholders to discuss planning, strategy development and other key decision making as appropriate.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to develop career development opportunities within the specialist digital, data, design and technology (DDAT) professional workforce within health and social care.
Answer
We are in the process of exploring the feasibility of how we can embed the DDaT Framework into all NHS Scotland Health Boards. This is being discussed collaboratively across health and social care in Scotland and with NHS England to share experiences of ongoing developments and avoid potential duplication of effort.
The DDaT Framework will help provide consistency across health and social care organisations in ongoing development and access to learning resources. It will also enable us to explore a common definition of job roles and align to workforce competition across all sectors in recruitment and retention.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how much it has spent on introducing new fully digital clinical and care services, treatment and support since October 2021, broken down by service.
Answer
In addition to spend set out in the answer to question S6W-14087 on 27 January 2023 in 2022-23 as part of the overall health portfolio investment, Scottish Government are investing £99.6 million in digital health and care. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to enable people to (a) book/rearrange appointments, (b) order prescriptions, (c) update their details and (d) generally conduct all routine "transactions" online, and how many people have made use of these services in the last two years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13979 on 30 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what work it has done with the digital identity programme to adopt a common approach to online identity where personal data is controlled by the individual.
Answer
The Digital Identity Programme is also a Scottish Government Programme. The first phase of adopting a common approach to online identity for health & care services is through the Digital Front Door programme. The two programmes are working collaboratively as the Digital Front Door application is developed. The application will be built on a common approach to identity and be aligned with the DIS programme.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its approach is to (a) national infrastructure and (b) data (i) hosting and (ii) architecture across the health and care system.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14125 and S6W-14130 on 2 February 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to expand the specialist digital, data, design and technology (DDAT) professional workforce within health and social care.
Answer
Whilst recruitment is the responsibility of the employing health and social care organisation, the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Local Government Digital Office are currently considering how to best apply the DDaT Professional Framework to the health and social care sector.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many new (a) social and (b) affordable homes have been built in the Highlands and Islands region since 2021-22.
Answer
The Scottish Government holds this information by local authority area and not by constituency area. A table showing the number of social and affordable completions by local authority area can be accessed using the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/affordable-housing-supply-programme-completions-updates/
The homes provided through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme comprise homes for social rent, for mid-market rent and for low cost home ownership. These homes take various forms including; new build homes, rehabilitation projects, conversions and off-the-shelf purchases of both new and second hand homes.