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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: S6O-01783

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any investment arising from the Tay Cities Deal.

Question reference: S6O-01774

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of a new report by the Resolution Foundation stating that the average household will be £2,100 worse off by the end of next financial year, how ministers across government are working to prioritise support for low-income households, as set out in its Covid Recovery Strategy.

Question reference: S6O-01786

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comments by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce regarding the Budget 2023-24 that it represents “a clear disadvantage for Scotland’s businesses and workers”.

Question reference: S6W-13476

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on its Enhanced Psychological Practice (EPP) programme.

The majority of spend relating to the Enhanced Psychological Practice programme relates to salaried posts in NHS Health Boards, creating additional capacity within the workforce and enabling delivery of evidence based psychological interventions at enhanced level. The allocated spend to date is as follows (please note numbers of learners/practitioners are cumulative and there are ongoing discussions with partners about the programme for future years):

2021-22 - £377,446

£224,538 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for 20 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
£152,908 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, eLearning development, teaching support and consultancy, learning resources

2022-23 - £2,193,767*

£1,925,908 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for up to 81 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
£267,859 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, teaching support and consultancy, eLearning development, SQA fees and learning resources

*salary costs included in this figure are based on 2021-22 Agenda for Change rates and will need to be amended on confirmation of the Pay Award for 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-13206

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many graduates are expected to qualify in the 2022-23 academic year from the Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM) course.

Question reference: S6W-13242

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an estimate of the average daily cost of delayed discharge in (a) 2020-21 and (b) 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-13498

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional dedicated staff it has hired to help (a) grow community mental health resilience and (b) direct social prescribing, in each year since 2007.

Staff across a wide range of services play a role in growing community mental health resilience and directing social prescribing, While it is not possible to quantify the total number of staff contributing to this objective, Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27 outlined our commitment to funding 800 additional mental health workers in key settings, including A&Es, GP practices, police station custody suite and prisons – ensuring local provision and support is at the heart of our plans. At the end of the commitment, an additional 958.9 whole time equivalent (WTE) mental health roles have been filled using Action 15 funding. This exceeds the original commitment and includes an additional 356.1 WTE mental health workers recruited to GP practices.

We have also prioritised investment through the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF). At March 2022, 260 WTE mental health workers had been recruited to primary care settings. The PCIF also funds Community Link Workers (CLWs) as part of primary care multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs). CLWs also play a role in social prescribing by enabling people to identify and access relevant resources within their community. At March 2022, 249 WTE CLWs had been recruited to support GP practices.

Since 2021, we have invested £36 million in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults. We have made over 1,800 awards to grassroots community projects focused on prevention and early intervention, with the aim of building capacity within community organisations to support the mental health and wellbeing of individuals.

We are continuing to invest in community-based supports for children, young people and families, with a further £15 million being provided this year. These services benefitted over 38,000 children, young people, parents and carers in the first six months of this year alone. Many of these services include links to local sport and recreation activities, which capitalise on the benefits of young people being active.

Question reference: S6W-13472

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to increase the number funded places for (a) nursing and (b) midwifery.

The target intake for nursing and midwifery have seen 10 consecutive years of increases but we recognise that undergraduate entry programmes are just one route into these two critical professions in our NHS.

The Scottish Government alongside a wide range of stakeholders including NHS Boards, Higher Education Institutions and Skills Development Scotland is taking forward work to develop alternative career pathways into these professions including potential apprenticeship models and other ‘earn as you learn’ routes that will widen access into the profession to those individuals who may not choose the undergraduate route. These developments will allow people to study and work at the same time as they progress their career. These new routes aim to attract new employees to NHS Scotland and at the same time offer existing staff opportunities to develop and progress towards registered roles.

Question reference: S6W-13743

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made by the Independent Oversight and Assurance Group on Tayside’s Mental Health Services on ensuring that partners across Tayside are making improvements to the delivery of mental health services, and that progress has been made on responding to the findings and recommendations in the report, Trust and Respect, published in February 2020.

The Final Report from the Oversight Group has been published today on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805254362

Overall, the report is positive. It highlights where progress has clearly been made but also states a number of areas where further work is required.

The Scottish Government will continue to support sustainable change and improvements in Tayside, to ensure the safe and effective delivery of mental health services. We will work with partners in Tayside to ensure a detailed improvement plan is in place, with clear milestones and deliverables which progress the key areas for action detailed within the Oversight Group’s Final Report.

We will measure progress against agreed key deliverables in this plan, working closely with NHS Tayside, Local Authorities, Integration Joint Boards, the Chief Officer for Mental Health and other Chief Officers in Tayside. These arrangements will inform whether NHS Tayside can be deescalated from Level 3 to Level 2 for Mental Health Services in the future.

The Scottish Government will provide additional support to colleagues across Tayside, including access to advice and support from Professional Advisors and Senior Officials in the Mental Health Directorate to support progress.

I would like to thank the Oversight Group for the meticulous approach to this work. I have particularly welcomed the wide engagement the Chair and Members have had with staff and people with experience of using mental health services across Tayside, which has been a critical aspect in the successful delivery of this very challenging, but extremely important, programme of work.

Question reference: S6W-13392

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to continued thrombectomy funding in its draft Budget 2023-24.