- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its resonse is to reported concerns that elements of the new Parkhead Hub facilities in Glasgow are not a friendly environment for dementia patients.
Answer
It is the responsibility of local authorities, health boards and health and social care partnerships to manage and provide appropriate services in their area, and to engage with their communities on how this is provided.
The Scottish Government is committed to improving the dementia experience, and the 10-year Dementia Strategy for Scotland recognises the critical role of community services and supports in enabling people to live well for longer following a dementia diagnosis. We are now working to realise the ambitions of this Strategy through initial activities set out in the first 2-year Delivery Plan. This includes efforts to deliver the SIGN dementia guidelines, which provides evidence-based guidance on where and how care and support should be provided across primary and secondary care settings.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential impact on passenger numbers in Scotland, what discussions it has had with National Rail regarding its current Railcard terms and conditions, including that tickets must be bought before boarding the train.
Answer
The terms and conditions of all GB-wide railcards are set by National Rail, part of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) under UK Government rail industry rules. There have been no recent specific discussions concerning changes to railcard terms. ScotRail has confirmed with officials at Transport Scotland that National Railcards can be used to buy tickets online, via the app, or at TVMs. Where ticket purchasing facilities are not available at a station, passengers can use their National Rail card when purchasing a ticket from a member of staff on-board of ScotRail trains.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33091 by Ivan McKee on 14 January 2025, for what purposes the (a) heavy goods lorries and (b) light commercial vehicles in its fleet are used.
Answer
All heavy goods and light commercial vehicles are used by our Marine and Agriculture and Rural Economy directorates to support their business needs. This includes transportation of supplies and equipment to our marine research and compliances vessels, conducting field research, legislative and compliance inspections, animal welfare inspections and the transportation of livestock.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether any so-called postcode lottery in neurological care and support provision has been fully addressed through the actions set out in the document, Neurological Care and Support in Scotland: A Framework for Action 2020 – 2025.
Answer
The aims contained in the document Neurological Care and Support in Scotland: A Framework for Action 2020 – 2025 are applicable to healthcare delivery across Scotland. Through this we have supported a number of national initiatives to improve care and reduce variation, including:
- Self-evaluation by all NHS boards against the General Standards for Neurological Care and Support 2019. Development of national care pathways for headache and Functional Neurological Disorder, with care pathways for further conditions in development
- Agreement of a Business Case and funding to adopt the Scottish Epilepsy Register across Scotland, improving the safety and quality of care for people with epilepsy
- Development of a neurology nurse specialist competency framework
- Formation of collaborative improvement networks which include NHS boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships, third sector organisations and people with lived experience to encourage consistent adoption of the successful approaches funded through the Framework
- Development, by third sector partners, of a toolkit for the consistent commissioning of social support for people with epilepsy
- Improved provision of public information on individual neurological conditions through the development and/or revision of 23 NHS inform webpages
- Through national charities, development of nationally-accessible sources of self-management support for people with MS, spina bifida hydrocephalus, progressive supranuclear palsy, cerebral palsy and non-epileptic seizures
- Re-development of the internationally recognised neurosymptoms.org web resource to support people with Functional Neurological Disorder
- Dissemination of nationally-accessible clinician education resource for ME/CFS
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with law enforcement agencies to tackle the supply of pipes and other paraphernalia used to consume illicit drugs.
Answer
We remain committed to reducing harm for individuals from the use of unsafe paraphernalia and will continue collaborating with stakeholders and harm reduction services on this matter.
We acknowledge the risks posed by unsafe, makeshift inhalation pipes, often shared among drug users. We are working closely with Police Scotland, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and other law enforcement agencies through the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce to address these issues.
In 2021, the Drug Deaths Taskforce advocated for expanding drug paraphernalia provision for safer consumption and urged the UK Minister for Policing to reconsider legal restrictions. Though initially rejected, Scottish Government officials are engaging with the new UK administration to revisit this matter.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what NHS patient record digitisation projects are being taken forward.
Answer
The Digitisation of records is an operational responsibility of individual Health Boards and GP practices.
At a national level, and building on the existing use of electronic patient record systems, we are focussed on allowing medical records to be stored, linked, and shared securely. This will support our ambition set out in the 2021 Digital Health & Care Strategy to make the right information available to all appropriate staff, when and where it is needed.
To achieve this, most Health Boards have a Clinical Portal. This system works across organisational, regional, and national boundaries to provide a timely transfer of information. The key projects to improve the sharing of information within Health Boards and GP Practices is the GPIT Programme, the National Digital Platform, TRAK Care and Clinical Portal.
HEPMA (Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration) is a system that can also replace paper prescribing and medication administration systems within hospitals. It has already been successfully implemented in thirteen Health boards across Scotland with the remainder being progressed. We are also developing the Digital Prescribing and Dispensing Pathways (DPDP) programme which will replace the current paper prescription in Scotland with a digital approach.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards have not received any direct investment in neurology services since the start of the period covered by the Neurological Care and Support Framework for Action 2020-2025.
Answer
All Health Boards in Scotland receiving baselined funding from the Scottish Government toward their neurology services. As part of Planned Care funding, the Scottish Government has also invested £217,000 in total towards improving waiting times in NHS Tayside and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Through the Neurological Framework, the Scottish Government has given direct investment to numerous territorial Health Boards to undertake projects focusing on neurological care, in line with the Framework’s commitments. Health Boards that have received direct investment are:
- NHS Ayrshire and Arran
- NHS Forth Valley
- NHS Grampian
- NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
- NHS Lanarkshire
- NHS Lothian
- NHS Orkney
- NHS Tayside
Third sector organisations have also been awarded funding to work in partnership with a number of statutory organisations to better integrate services, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Fife. The Migraine Trust has worked in partnership with seven NHS boards to improve treatment for migraine in community pharmacy.
A full list of projects funded through the Neurological Framework can be found here.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the priorities from the Neurological Care and Support Framework for Action 2020-2025 that will not have been reached by the end of the framework period.
Answer
A final report on the Neurological Care and Support in Scotland: A Framework for Action 2020-2025 will be published by the Scottish Government when the Framework reaches the end of its agreed lifespan. An assessment of future priorities for neurological conditions will be included.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of the reported emerging trend of unaccompanied young people arriving in Glasgow, and whether it is gathering any data on this issue.
Answer
The Scottish Government is aware that unaccompanied young people have arrived in Glasgow in significant numbers in recent years.
Asylum processes are reserved to the UK Government, and therefore local authorities are not asked to routinely provide data to the Scottish Government on the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking people arriving in their area. However in November and December 2023, the Scottish Government asked local authorities to provide information about their services for unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people. Glasgow City Council's returns show that at that time, it was looking after a total of more than 350 unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people.
In addition, the Scottish Government funds Guardianship Scotland, which provides support and advocacy for children and young people at risk of trafficking. The majority of people supported by Guardianship Scotland arrive in Scotland as unaccompanied asylum-seeing children. The figures below show the number of young people living in Glasgow who have been referred to Guardianship Scotland in each of the last three years.
- 2022 - 86
- 2023 - 56
- 2024 - 48
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it monitors the number of redundancies among oil and gas contractors in Scotland, and, if so, how many redundancies were made in 2023-24, and, based on asset owners' decommissioning schedules, how many it estimates will be made in each year from 2024-25 to 2029-30.
Answer
There is no obligation on private companies to inform the Scottish Government of their redundancy figures, therefore we do not hold this information centrally. However, the Scottish Government engages regularly with the oil and gas industry and the relevant trade unions and monitors company announcements.
In the unfortunate event of any employees facing redundancy, the Scottish Government will always offer and provide support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.
