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-12897

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many calls have been received by the long COVID support advice line, and how much funding has been allocated to the advice line through the long COVID Support Fund.

Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland indicate that as of the end of November 2022, a total of 3,444 referrals have been made to the charity’s long COVID Support Service since its inception in February 2021.

Scottish Government funding of £156,924 has been made available to Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland to support the continuation and development of the service over 2022-23. This funding has not been drawn from the long COVID Support Fund.

Question reference: S6W-12894

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much NHS Scotland’s new National Digital Platform (NDP) cost to build.

Question reference: S6W-12830

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether only local authority staff will potentially be transferred to the National Care Service, and not NHS staff, and, if so, what the reasons are for this.

Question reference: S6W-12825

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the value of any liabilities, including pensions, to be of any staff transferred to the National Care Service.

Question reference: S6W-12843

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether Anne’s Law will be included in legislation related to the National Care Service.

Question reference: S6W-12836

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its preferred (a) geographical and (b) membership makeup of care boards in the National Care Service would be.

Question reference: S6W-12829

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to seek external legal advice on the transfer of staff to the National Care Service under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations.

Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) / Cabinet Office Statement of Practice (COSOP) principles will apply if the delivery of services is transferred from local authorities to care boards. If that is the case, the TUPE process would be followed. Decisions on whether any staff transfers take place will depend on decisions taken at a local level. Legal advice will be sought as required and external legal advice commissioned as necessary.

Question reference: S6W-12898

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported comments by Donald Macaskill, of Scottish Care, that between 30% and 40% of care homes could be on the verge of closure by spring 2023.

The Scottish Government are aware of the severe pressures that exist in our health and social care system and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has established the Ministerial Advisory Group to ensure that we collaborate effectively to meet the challenges. Scottish Care are represented on this group.

Many of the policy and economic levers that would alleviate pressures on care homes and other businesses are reserved to Westminster and the Cabinet Secretary recently wrote to the UK Government (and the other UK nations) to again raise these matters. Within our remit, we are increasing our support for SMEs by investing £300,000 to expand the capacity of the Business Energy Scotland advice service, and doubling the energy efficiency cashback element of the SME Loan Cashback scheme to £20,000. The Scottish Government has also set out £600 million of total investment to support winter resilience across our health and care system. This includes £144 million to support the December 2021 uplift to £10.02 per hour, as well as a further £200 million to increase the minimum rate of pay to £10.50 per hour for adult social care workers in commissioned services.

Question reference: S6W-12823

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, for what reasons it determined that the period of a strategic plan by the Scottish Ministers must not exceed three years, and how it arrived at that decision.

The National Care Service (Scotland) Bill requires Ministers to have a strategic plan if they are delivering, or arranging for the delivery of, national services.

In order to ensure that national services remain aligned with changing population need it is important that Ministers regularly review, with partners, stakeholders and people, the strategic plan.

We will continue to liaise with those who plan and deliver services to ensure that the Bill sets out appropriate national and local strategic planning requirements.

Question reference: S6W-12824

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of staff it expects to transfer from local authorities to the National Care Service, broken down by each local authority.