- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 5 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out any review of the value for money of its newspaper subscriptions in the last five years and, if so, what the outcome was.
Answer
The Scottish Government has a contract with Office Papers to supply newspapers on an ad-hoc rather than a subscription basis. This contract was renewed in February 2022 to run for three years. Review meetings with the contractor take place on a quarterly basis. Business units making purchases under the contract are expected to ensure these are justified.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32613 by Angus Robertson on 14 January 2025, what tangible benefits are delivered by its international network, and how these benefits are (a) measured and (b) reported.
Answer
The International Network annual report 2023-24, published on 18 November 2024, demonstrates how our network delivers tangible benefits across the three main pillars of work set out in the International Strategy. The International Network annual report is available at the following URL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-international-network-annual-report-2023-24/
We are committed to a process that ensures our work is measurable, transparent and available to the public. We will publish the 2024-25 annual report later in the year.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what funding has been allocated to community-led health initiatives in rural areas over the last five years, and what the outcomes were.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the particular health challenges faced by those in rural areas. In addition to the support outlined in response to S6W-33562 on 3 February 2025, we have invested in a number of funding streams which have included allocations for community-led health initiatives in rural areas, including:
- £66 million in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults since 2021, with more than 4,800 grants made to local projects across Scotland over the first three years. Of these more than 900 grants were made to community projects supporting people disadvantaged by geographical location (including rural areas) - Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults Year 3 – Monitoring and Reporting Summary
- Over £65 million since 2020 to fund community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children, young people and their families, including those in rural areas -
Independent-Evaluation-of-Community-Mental-Health-Supports-and-Services-April-2023.pdf
Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services: summary report - January to June 2023 - gov.scot
- Over £29 million of Community-led Local Development (CLLD) funding since 2021 to deliver over 1000 grassroots community-led projects across rural & island Scotland in partnership with rural organisations. Some of which have health related benefits ranging from mental health and wellbeing to physical health. Communities are empowered and supported to design and implement the solutions to the challenges and opportunities they identify in their local area, which may include community led health and social care provision
- A further £11.4 million in 2024-25 to support Community-led Local Development and similar initiatives in our rural and island communities.
Links to the most recent evaluation reports of each of these initiatives, including information on outcomes, are included above where available. A review of CLLD funding began in 2024-25, and will continue throughout 2025-26.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the frequency and severity of storms that have affected Aberdeenshire over the last five years, and what plans it has to improve infrastructure resilience in the region.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold data on the frequency and severity of storms. This information is collected and held by Met Office.
We have recently made available £5m per annum capital budget over 4 years to fund the extension of the public water network to enable the removal of Private Water Supplies which should improve resilience to affected water supplies during power outages. Milton of Cushnie in Aberdeenshire has been shortlisted as one of the communities who will benefit from this funding.
The Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) published in December 2022, provides guidance on long term investment in Scotland’s strategic transport network. STPR2 recommends future investment to ensure that Scotland’s trunk road network remains safe (Recommendation 30), adapted to deal with the impacts of climate change (Recommendation 31) and resilient (Recommendation 32).
Recommendation 31 provides a basis for identifying, prioritising and implementing transport infrastructure improvements. Measures could include but are not limited to strengthening or replacing sea walls, upgrading coastal fences and stabilising embankments, slopes and hillsides.
Scottish Government have also initiated a Significant Local Infrastructure process in which Local Resilience Partnerships are mapping infrastructure within their geographic areas. This will allow better understanding of this local infrastructure and will collate a rich picture to support further work, including identifying dependencies and interdependencies and allow improvements to business continuity and emergency response plans.
We would recommend that, should you require further information on storms and infrastructure in Aberdeenshire, you contact Aberdeenshire Council.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) plastic, (b) paper, (c) metal and (d) glass straws it has procured in each of the last 10 years, and what the average cost was.
Answer
As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to reducing single use plastics, the use of plastic straws was discontinued in Scottish Government buildings in February 2018.
Since August 2022, there has only been one purchase of 1,500 paper straws in 2023 at a cost of £17.21.
Due to a change of catering contractor following a contract re-let, information is not available prior to August 2022.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of lost or stolen government-issued mobile phones have been reported in the last five years, and what actions were taken in response.
Answer
In the five calendar years from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2024 134 mobile phones were reported lost or stolen. The Scottish Government has robust processes and procedures in place when mobile phones are reported lost or stolen. This includes removing access to corporate data and suspending or cancelling the mobile number.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2025
-
Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025
To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the Court of Session’s decision regarding the Rosebank oil field and the Jackdaw gas field.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors the (a) accuracy and (b) completeness of patient medical records, and what steps are being taken to address any discrepancies.
Answer
It is the legal responsibility of the assigned Health Board or GP practice to act as the data controller for an individual's medical record. The data controller will monitor the data and rectify any discrepancies, in line with existing Data Protection legislation and processes.
Each NHS Scotland Health board has a privacy notice to inform the public of why and how they use information they are in control of and this can be accessed via their individual website.
Guidance is publicly available on NHS inform at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/care-support-and-rights/health-rights/confidentiality-and-data-protection/health-records/#viewing-your-health-records.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is implementing to ensure that rural NHS boards have the necessary infrastructure to manage electronic medical records effectively.
Answer
Scottish Government implements a number of measures to support rural NHS Boards’ digital infrastructure. These include:
- The Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN)
- A Strategic Digital Fund -For a number of years the Scottish Government has provided additional non-recurring funding to support local strategic digital developments, with a particular emphasis on ensuring continued funding for Highlands and Islands Boards to protect rural services
- Access to the Scottish Government/COSLA Digital Maturity Assessment platform - a standardised management tool for digital transformation. This platform enables NHS Boards to document progress, analyse results, identify priorities, and align with local and national digital and data strategies.
- Recent analysis of data from the Scottish Government/COSLA Digital Maturity Assessment shows both progress in electronic records management and areas for development at organisational and system wide level.
- The Scottish Government and COSLA have also developed a range of resources to increase the digital capabilities of the leadership and workforce thereby improving the ability to identify digital transformation opportunities and implementation.
- A Records Management Code of Practice was published in August 2024.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the criteria that the new owner of Glasgow Prestwick Airport must maximise the employment potential of the airport means that there would be no immediate redundancies, should the airport be sold.
Answer
I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.
Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.
The process is ongoing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.
