Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-36095

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, what progress has been made in improving the involvement of families and carers in discharge planning within mental health services, and how improvements are measured.

NHS Boards have duties under the Carers Act to involve unpaid carers in decision making and planning the return from hospital of the person they care for (or will care for). More specifically, the Core Mental Health Quality Standards state that a person’s support network should be involved in their care if they wish. Progress on implementing the standards is measured by Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Local assessments were circulated in 2024 and responses are currently being analysed.

Question reference: S6W-36093

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, what steps it has taken to ensure that NHS boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships consistently follow good practice in risk assessment and discharge planning, and how it will monitor compliance.

It is for Health Boards to ensure that they are consistently following good practice in risk assessment and discharge planning, however Scottish Government regularly engages with Boards at official level to ensure they are providing a safe, high-quality service to patients. In addition to this, the Mental Welfare Commission follows up with Boards/HSCPs to ensure they implement any recommendations made in their reports.

Question reference: S6W-36096

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, what steps have been taken to ensure that any disagreements within multidisciplinary teams regarding compulsory treatment orders are formally recorded, escalated appropriately, and addressed through second opinions where necessary.

Question reference: S6W-36094

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, what progress NHS boards have made in implementing training to improve the identification and management of any risks relating to violence, substance misuse, non-engagement, and non-compliance among patients in mental health services.

The Scottish Government provide funding to NHS Education for Scotland (NES) who are responsible for developing and delivering healthcare education and training for NHS, the health and social care sector and other public bodies. We provided NES £30 million in 2024-25 to deliver multidisciplinary mental health education, training and workforce expansion for staff supporting adult and children mental health and psychological wellbeing.

This includes mental health training resources on risks relating to suicide, substance use, non-engagement and offending behaviour, as well as our trauma-informed and trauma responsive programme. These resources support implementation of the Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards and Core Quality Standards for Mental Health.

Question reference: S6W-36156

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 8 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what authority Police Scotland has to publicly announce the conclusion of investigations without further proceedings being initiated by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS); what its position is on whether it is appropriate for Police Scotland to state publicly that an individual is no longer under investigation, and what measures are in place to ensure that any such announcements do not influence or restrict any future action by the COPFS.

Question reference: S6W-36520

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many households in fuel poverty have had a whole home retrofit, as set out in the December 2021 document, Tackling Fuel Poverty in Scotland.

The Scottish Government funds two programmes targeting households living in or at risk of fuel poverty, Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based Schemes. Since 2022 these programmes have adopted a `whole house retrofit’ approach based upon national retrofit standards (PAS2035 published by the British Standards Institution). Relevant improvements are installed based upon an individual assessment of the property; in line with technical and regulatory requirements (such as building standards); as well as to reflect the different needs and circumstances of householders.

Since 2022 the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme has delivered retrofit improvements to 8,507 households to this standard (WHS2).

Year	Installed Households
2023-24	1,173
2024-25	7,334
Total	8,507

The number of retrofit improvements delivered through Area Based Schemes since 2013 is published on the Scottish Government website. Area-Based Schemes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-36087

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, whether it will introduce measures to ensure that all remand prisoners are provided with suitable accommodation and support upon unexpected release, and if this is the case, what the timeline is for implementing such measures.

Question reference: S6W-36086

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, what steps it is taking to address any gaps in throughcare services, particularly for prisoners on remand, and whether this will include revisions to the Sustainable Housing on Release for Everyone (SHORE) standards.

Throughcare services are in place to support individuals being released from custody to reintegrate into the community, which includes providing support with any accommodation needs. A new national voluntary throughcare service, Upside, with annual funding of £5.3 million from the Scottish Government, launched on 1 April 2025.

Upside replaces the throughcare services provided by the Shine and New Routes Public Social Partnerships (PSPs). The service offers one to one support to individuals leaving short-term sentences and individuals who are being released from periods of remand and who may face unexpected release from court. The support is tailored to the individual and helps to address their specific needs following release from custody, such as accessing benefits, healthcare and suitable housing. As well as helping with these immediate needs, Upside will also help individuals to identify and build any longer-term support required to reintegrate into their communities.

Under the previous PSP provision, men on remand were not eligible for throughcare support. The Upside service addresses this, with support being offered to individuals leaving short sentences or periods on remand. This support is available now for short term prisoners and women on remand, with support for men on remand commencing in the summer. Over the coming months, Upside, SPS, Scottish Government and other partners will develop and refine the service delivery for those individuals who are on remand, to ensure they are supported on their release.

The Sustainable Housing On Release for Everyone (SHORE) Standards, include steps to ensure that any existing tenancies are sustained where appropriate and that housing is available on release, including after a period of remand. Anyone who is homeless or at risk of homelessness, including individuals leaving prison, has the right to approach a local authority for advice and assistance. Local authorities are obliged by law to offer advice and assistance for people who are at risk or who are experiencing homelessness, including providing temporary accommodation if it is needed.

The SHORE standards were refreshed in November 2024 to bring them up to date with legislation and policy changes. A more thorough review of the SHORE standards, which may include the potential to develop further guidance relating to individuals who are released from remand or direct from court, as well as from police custody, is planned to be completed by the end of 2025.

Question reference: S6W-36314

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 23 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is using AI to expedite the collation and publication of responses to its consultations.

We are very aware of the significant opportunity which AI presents in relation to the delivery of better and more efficient public services, and work in this area has been on-going since the launch of Scotland’s AI Strategy in 2021.

We also have a long standing commitment to listen to the people of Scotland and through our recent CivTech challenge process, focused on delivering innovative technical solutions to real world public service challenges, we have looked for technology to help us better reach and learn from citizens.

As a result, Comhairle is a new digital platform being developed by Scottish based technology company, CrownShy. Comhairle connects existing open-source civic technologies into a unified interface that will allow the Scottish Government to scale the number, scope and quality of its public dialogues, and guide users towards best public engagement practice.

We have been working closely with colleagues in the UK Government to help to trial and improve their AI driven Consult tool. Making use of Large Language Models (LLMs) Consult can expedite the identification and collation of consultation responses, facilitating a faster and more insightful response when dealing with large response volumes.

As well as being trialled by policy teams, our social research teams have offered their statistical and research expertise to help develop and improve the products output quality. Working as part of the pilot team for this product has allowed the Scottish Government to help contribute to the development of a tool which we hope will be able to be used across the public sector.

We are also making use of externally supplied AI driven consultation tools to help transcribe lengthy interviews and then to aid with the faster analysis of their out puts. By investing in these products we are able to free up staff time to focus more effort on developing our responses and actions rather than the administrative side.

All of these tools are being delivered with a strong focus on openness about situations where AI is being used, and an infrastructure which offers the strongest possible security and protection for our citizen’s data.

Question reference: S6W-36045

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 23 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with local authorities regarding the potential for some of them to become AI investment zones.

The Scottish Government, in collaboration with the enterprise network and UK Government, held exploratory discussions with local authorities last year to establish their interest in submitting an Expression of Interest to the AI Growth Zones opportunity. We subsequently wrote out to local authorities to notify them of the launch of the UK Government’s call for sites, encouraging them to participate in the initiative. 41 Scottish Expressions of Interest were received by the UK Government in the initial call. We will continue to engage with the UK Government on this welcome interest from Scottish Local Authorities with a view to establishing at least one AI Growth Zone in Scotland and securing the economic opportunities that brings.

Chamber and committees