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-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-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-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-26200

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 27 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can request that Police Scotland introduces biodegradable barrier tape to mitigate littering of the environment.

Question reference: S6W-26238

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will increase (a) enforcement action and (b) maximum fines to be levied on any road works authorities and undertakers that fail to reinstate street surfaces and associated streetscape to the original standard within the six-month statutory requirement, particularly in cases that scar or damage high-quality municipal public realm surfaces, such as granite paving.

In 2019 the Scottish Government instituted a period of legal reform for the framework underpinning Scottish road works, expanding and strengthening the range of existing powers roads authorities have.

Since 2023 Scottish Ministers have taken action on enforcement powers, through empowering roads authorities by endorsing a new Code of Practice for reinstatement, which introduced a UK leading six year guarantee for utility works. We have committed to a review of road works Fixed Penalty Notices (the fines to be levied), due to start in 2024.

Authorities already have an existing power to undertake any outstanding work directly and recharge all costs, should the utility fail to act. These are all discretionary powers, and it is for each roads authority to determine whether it is appropriate to use those powers in each situation.

Question reference: S6W-26198

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the fluoride varnish aspect of the Childsmile programme, and whether it plans to continue with this element of the scheme.

Specific evaluations of the Childsmile programme are undertaken by the University of Glasgow. Publications can be viewed online at https://www.gla.ac.uk/ .

More broadly, the National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP) monitors the general oral health of children in Scotland. The latest NDIP statistics published in October 2023 showed that 82% of P7 children have no obvious decay, compared with 53% in 2005. In addition, the difference in the percentage of children with no obvious decay in the most and least deprived areas decreased from 26.3 percentage points in 2009 to 16.1 percentage points in 2023.

This shows the success of our flagship Childsmile Programme. Fluoride varnish is a key element of Childsmile and there are no plans to remove this aspect of the programme.

Question reference: S6W-26199

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to a supplementary to question S6O-03191 by Jenni Minto on 13 March 2024, whether the ADHD medication, lisdexamfetamine, may be considered a specialist medicine so that NHS National Services Scotland could potentially explore alternative procurement options within devolved competence through its national procurement service.

The Scottish Government has no plans to designate lisdexamfetamine (Elvanse ® ) as a specialist medicine or to explore options for commissioning the direct procurement of this medicine through National Services Scotland’s NHS National Procurement.

Manufacturing issues and increased global demand are the main reasons for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medicine supply issues and as such it is unlikely that a central procurement of lisdexamfetamine (Elvanse ® ) or of any other ADHD medicine would offer an effective solution. This is anticipated to be a short term problem.

The regulatory powers on the supply of medicines, are reserved to the UK Government and the Department of Health and Social Care’s Medicines Supply Team are co-ordinating the shortage of ADHD medicines at a UK level. Advice has been issued to healthcare professionals including on the availability of unlicensed imports. In addition, the UK Government has added lisdexamfetamine (Elvanse ® ) to the restricted medicines lists – which means it cannot be exported out of the UK.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact of these global shortages on people living with ADHD and their families. Scottish Government officials continue to engage with the UK Government on this supply issue and other shortages. NHS Scotland has robust systems in place to manage medicine shortages when they arise. Anyone affected by this issue should speak to their clinical team.