Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-27238

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many visitors each VisitScotland iCentre had in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-26964

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the average time that kidney patients wait for non-emergency patient transport services to and from in-centre dialysis appointments.

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery and treatment. All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services and must ensure Patients have access to all information on any relevant patient transport (including community transport) and travel reimbursement entitlement.

Individual Boards are responsible for developing and applying their own policies, including determining eligibility and reimbursement rates, whilst ensuring patient care and safety.

A requirement has been placed within the NHS Territorial Boards annual delivery guidance to bring attention to the requirement for the Boards to consider transport to health for patients and ensure patients have access to information.

Question reference: S6W-26965

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the adequacy of non-emergency kidney patient transport service provision for patients travelling to and from in-centre dialysis appointments across each NHS board, and when it made any such assessment.

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery and treatment. All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services and must ensure Patients have access to all information on any relevant patient transport (including community transport) and travel reimbursement entitlement.

Individual Boards are responsible for developing and applying their own policies, including determining eligibility and reimbursement rates, whilst ensuring patient care and safety.

A requirement has been placed within the NHS Territorial Boards annual delivery guidance to bring attention to the requirement for the Boards to consider transport to health for patients and ensure patients have access to information.

Question reference: S6O-03388

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to incorporate the ownership and management of community assets in urban areas into its Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S6W-26884

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the development of a national framework for school swimming following the School Swimming Phase 1 Pilots in 2023.

The Phase 1 pilot programmes have now been fully evaluated and a report produced on the strengths of each approach, as well as considerations for the future. The Phase 1 evaluation is available here: https://sportscotland.org.uk/about-us/our-publications/archive/school-swimming-in-scotland-phase-1-evaluation

Phase 2, which is already underway, will further develop each approach and test the implementation of the school swimming framework, and is expected to be completed by the end of the academic year 2023-24.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with sportscotland, Scottish Swimming, and various local and national partners to support Phase 2 of the school swimming pilot, and will continue to consider the best approach for a continued roll out of a National Framework for school swimming over the coming years.

Question reference: S6F-03083

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

To ask the First Minister what recent discussions the Scottish Government has had with environmental groups and communities regarding how it plans to deliver strong action on climate change, following the removal of the 2030 climate target.

Question reference: S6W-26798

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it is currently providing for anti-racism education, and what organisations it is funding that carry out anti-racism education.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to embedding anti-racism in education. As part of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme for financial year 2023-24 the Scottish Government provided the following funding aimed at providing anti-racist education. Funding streams for 24-25 will be published in due course.

Funding recipient	What is being funded?	Amount of funding in 2023-24
General Teaching Council for Scotland	This funds a specialist race equality post within the GTCS.	£97,708
Education Scotland	Delivery of the Building Racial Literacy Programme	£62,803
Education Scotland	This funds a specialist race equality post within education Scotland.	£25,200
Intercultural Youth Scotland	Delivery of a programme of engagement with children and young people on behalf of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme.	£37,818
Scottish Association of Minority Ethnic Educators	Delivery of the Leadership, mentoring and wellbeing course for minority ethnic educators	£58,900
Calabar Education Consultants Ltd.	Development of an action guide for the anti-racist recruitment, retention and progression of minority ethnic teachers.	£9520
Intercultural Youth Scotland	IYS School Education Partnerships in secondary schools	£200,000
ScotDEC Global Citizenship Education	Development of two new resources for anti-racism in education on health and wellbeing and early years	£60,000
Over 30 schools and education settings	Small Grants Fund for Children and Young People-led anti-racism in education	£25,000
Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling	Teaching Slavery in Scotland Programme of Professional Learning for educators	£45,000

Question reference: S6W-26561

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 24 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the power of attorney rights of care home residents are upheld.

The Scottish Governments Foreword - Health and Social Care Standards: my support, my life - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) set out what people should expect when using health, social care or social work services in Scotland including care homes. They seek to provide better outcomes for everyone; to ensure that individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and that the basic human rights are upheld. Standard 2.12 states that if residents are unable to make their own decisions, the views of those who know their wishes, such as carers, independent advocates, formal or informal representatives must be sought and taken into account.

The Care Inspectorate is the regulator of care services in Scotland and is a non- departmental body and independent of the Scottish Government. Using the Health and Social Care Standards, they inspect services to ensure the safety, protection and wellbeing of residents. Through their inspection process, they review personal plans to determine the capacity status of individuals in receipt of care and support. If a valid s47 certificate of incapacity is in place they will review that the legal proxy advocate is involved in pro-active decision making about the care and support in accordance with the individual.

Question reference: S6W-26563

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, when it is designing new policies, how it ensures that an assessment is made of any potential impact that a policy may have on older people.

The Scottish Government carries out Equality Impact Assessments on all new policies as required under the Equality Act 2010 and the associated Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). PSED requires public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations across all the protected characteristics, including age. These assessments draw upon existing research and data on equality issues, as well as the lived experience of those impacted. Specifically for older people, the assessments analyse and identify any potential impacts using evidence from relevant sources and direct feedback from older people's organisations.

Where relevant impacts on older people are identified through this evidence-based process, mitigating actions are carefully considered. The Scottish Government also directly engages with stakeholder groups representing older people, such as our trusted partners in the Older People’s Strategic Action Forum (OPSAF), to ensure their real-world views and experiences inform policymaking from the outset.

Question reference: S6W-26562

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress of the implementation of the recommendations made by the Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation of Social Care in Scotland.

The Scottish Government response to the recommendations made by the Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation of Social Care was published on 6 March 2024, accepting all 38 recommendations.

The response set out that significant work already underway will in part or fully address many of the recommendations. Priority work has already commenced on new workstreams that focus on implementing recommendations 15 and 33: a review of the care service types, and corresponding definitions as set out in Schedule 12 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 and a review of the Health and Social Care Standards, to help ensure the Standards are based on human rights, ethical commissioning and are outcome focused.

The implementation of the recommendations will be phased to ensure they do not place undue pressure on regulators, providers and those working in services. The Scottish Government will provide periodical updates on progress on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/groups/social-care-independent-review-of-inspection-scrutiny-and-regulation/

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely and collaboratively with regulators, providers, partners and with those who have lived and living experience of social care support and linked services in all aspects of this work.

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