Chamber and committees

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: S6W-26196

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many capital funding awards have been made from the Scottish Dental Access Initiative, broken down by (a) NHS board, (b) dental provider and (c) amount awarded.

In the following table I have outlined the amount of grant money awarded to each board since 2007. We are unable to confirm the amount to each dental provider as it would potentially breach commercial in confidence.

NHS Board	Number of grants	Total amount awarded
Ayrshire and Arran	13	£1,770,058.00
Borders	7	£753,501.00
Dumfries and Galloway	7	£740,000.00
Fife	25	£2,336,573.00
Forth Valley	7	£1,000,000.00
Grampian	24	£2,915,000.00
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	39	£4,279,112.00
Highland	17	£1,770,865.00
Lanarkshire	24	£2,656,272.00
Lothian	25	£2,239,215.00
Orkney	2	£225,000.00
Shetland	1	£175,000.00
Tayside	24	£2,275,000.00
Western Isles	1	£175,000.00
Total	216	£23, 310,596.00

Question reference: S6W-26265

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the Childsmile programme in each of the last five financial years, also broken down by NHS board area.

Childsmile funding is provided annually to Boards through i) the Outcomes Framework and ii) direct allocation from the General Dental Services (GDS) budget.

The Outcomes Framework is a single source of funding to NHS Boards which provides for local flexibility on resource allocation to deliver clearly defined outcomes. The Framework has a strong focus on delivering strategic priorities such as prevention and reducing health inequalities.

Following years of non-recurring funding, £72 million was provided to NHS Boards in 2023-24 on a recurring basis to deliver all Outcomes, including deliverables on Childsmile. Funding for individual components of the Outcomes Framework, including Childsmile, is not separately identifiable within the total allocation and therefore no meaningful disaggregation can be provided.

In addition to Outcomes Framework funding which is provided to every Board, some Boards also receive direct programme allocations from the GDS budget to support Childsmile activities on a national and/or regional basis. Allocations provided to these Boards are therefore not indicative of activity undertaken within the geographic location given the co-ordinating role they undertake, and have not been provided in breakdown although they are included in total programme allocation.

The total value of allocations associated with Childsmile in each of the last five financial years is set out in the following table:

Year	Programme Allocation (£m)	Total Outcomes Framework (£m)
2019-20	2.3	62.9
2020-21	2.2	68.9
2021-22	1.4	74.1
2022-23	2.4	74.1
2023-24	2.7	72.2

From 2022-23, additional funding has been provided to all Territorial Boards and National Services Scotland to scale up Childsmile activity through the provision of additional toothbrushing packs and recruitment of additional Dental Health Support Workers. A breakdown of this funding by NHS Board for 2022-23 and 2023-24 is provided in the following table.

	2022-23 funding (£)	2023-24 funding (£)
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	113,739	113,739
NHS Borders	37,387	34,637
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	38,963	38,963
NHS Fife	98,984	88,834
NHS Forth Valley	79,240	68,271
NHS Grampian	108,700	90,338
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	475,008	475,008
NHS Highland	62,647	53,203
NHS Lanarkshire	226,952	213,812
NHS Lothian	203,482	189,267
NHS Orkney	21,068	18,068
NHS Shetland	21,068	16,068
NHS Tayside	99,509	92,338
NHS Western Isles	21,067	20,867
National Services Scotland	242,000	337,000
Total	1,849,814	1,850,413

Question reference: S6W-26839

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason short-term let operators reportedly benefit from the Small Business Bonus Scheme to the extent that 80% of those paying non-domestic rates pay nothing towards local services.

Question reference: S6W-26795

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-26225 by Fiona Hyslop on 8 April 2024, what the estimated capital expenditure on the M8 Woodside Viaduct project is expected to be during the 2024-25 financial year.

Question reference: S6W-26346

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what practical measures it is taking to sustain the expertise and learning curves developed by the project team on the Edinburgh Trams to Newhaven project in order to optimise the delivery of the Clyde Metro project.

The current phase of Clyde Metro is being led by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, working alongside Glasgow City Council and with Transport Scotland providing support in a project assurance role.

I am advised that the multi-partner project team has been engaging with colleagues from the Trams to Newhaven project and across the private and public sector to learn from experiences elsewhere in the development of mass transit projects and ensure lessons learned and best practice are embedded within Clyde Metro’s future development.

Question reference: S6W-26242

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of how the £16 million of funding for access to counselling services in all secondary schools will be allocated in 2024-25.

All allocations in the Local Government Settlement are published on the Government Website at: 4 Tables and Interactive Dashboard - Scottish Local Government Finance - Green Book: 2024-2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The allocations for school counselling services for 2024-25 is as follows:

	£000s
Aberdeen City	513
Aberdeenshire	771
Angus	328
Argyll & Bute	372
City of Edinburgh	1,052
Clackmannanshire	165
Dumfries & Galloway	497
Dundee City	404
East Ayrshire	347
East Dunbartonshire	404
East Lothian	330
East Renfrewshire	403
Falkirk	467
Fife	1,006
Glasgow City	1,361
Highland	1,015
Inverclyde	237
Midlothian	297
Moray	279
Na h-Eileanan Siar	173
North Ayrshire	418
North Lanarkshire	986
Orkney Islands	186
Perth & Kinross	434
Renfrewshire	509
Scottish Borders	324
Shetland Islands	260
South Ayrshire	328
South Lanarkshire	959
Stirling	312
West Dunbartonshire	283
West Lothian	579
Total	16,000

Question reference: S6W-26731

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Scotland is participating in the UK Government scheme to donate surplus medical supplies to Ukraine, or any other such scheme.

Question reference: S6W-26225

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the M8 Woodside Viaduct repair project will be the largest transport capital project in Glasgow during the coming financial year.

The M8 Woodside Viaduct is a vital element of Scotland’s motorway network, carrying approximately 150,000 vehicles daily. Installation of the temporary propping system, required to enable permanent repairs, will continue through the 2024-25 financial year. It is anticipated that the project will be Transport Scotland’s largest capital-funded transport project in Glasgow during this period.

Other significant Government-led transport projects in Glasgow in 2024-25 include the East Kilbride rail enhancement project (£54.1m for 2024-25), active travel infrastructure projects and investing in Glasgow’s City Region Deal. This response does not consider projects by other authorities e.g. Glasgow City Council.

Question reference: S6W-26233

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the submissions to the Wolfson Economics Prize 2021, in response to the problem question, "How would you design and plan new hospitals to radically improve patient experiences, clinical outcomes, staff wellbeing, and integration with wider health and social care?", have influenced Scottish Government policy on the design of healthcare facilities.

Scottish Government policy for design quality in healthcare (DL(2010)19) looks to ensure that these elements are considered by designers and NHS Boards. This is assessed by the NHSScotland Design Assessment Process (NDAP) provided by NHSScotland Assure in conjunction with Architecture and Design Scotland (A&DS) is the vehicle for assessing design quality in NHSScotland Capital funded healthcare facilities developments and is an integral part of the Business Case process. The NDAP, along with the Sustainable Design and Construction (SDaC) requirements, ensures that a well rounded and measured assessment is made of the requirements of the objectives of each project they review.

This Wolfson Economics Prize competition of 2021 provided numerous innovative submissions in response to the problem question. Each of the runners up and the winner of the prize provided interesting responses to specific strands of healthcare design. The main themes featured in the Wolfson Economic Prize finalists are embeded in the NDAP and SDaC process to ensure sustainable, Person Centred Care.

Question reference: S6W-26503

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the £1.3 billion that it has committed to spend on mental health in 2024-25, and in light of the "Mental Health Services" budget being frozen at £290.2 million, whether it will provide a breakdown of the source of the funding, including any allocated from (a) other budget lines in its Budget and (b) NHS boards; whether any funding from NHS boards will be ringfenced for this purpose, and whether it will provide a breakdown of what specific workstreams or services the funding will be spent on.