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: S5W-34887

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how the funding for mental health "in excess of" £1.1billion in its Budget for 2021-22 will be allocated, broken down by Level 3 budget categories.

Question reference: S5W-34886

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the (a) frontline NHS budget and (b) total expenditure for the Health and Sport portfolio has been spent on mental health in (i) 2019-20 and (ii) 2020-21, and what the equivalent figures are projected to be in 2021-22.

Detail on mental health spending and the NHS budget is made available each year as part of the annual NHS Costs Book publication and the Scottish Budget.

In tracking our achievement on shifting the balance of care in mental health, focus is on overall spending increases rather than share of the budget. 2019-20 expenditure figures for mental health will be set out in the forthcoming Costs Book due to be published shortly.

Question reference: S5F-04791

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 February 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 February 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S5W-34771

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 8 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether student loans will be topped up beyond the current academic year for social work students whose course placements have been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students studying a course of Higher Education (HE) who require to repeat a full year of study are able to access an additional year of funding known as a ‘+1’. Care Experienced students studying in HE are able to access two additional years of funding. HE students who have exhausted their funding options and require to repeat a year of studies due to Covid-19 will have their requests considered under compassionate grounds by the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS). This includes undergraduate social work students.

We are actively considering the issue of part-year repeat or extended study as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic for all Further and Higher education students and the associated financial support to students.

The Scottish Government is also working with the Social Work Education Partnership to ensure that there are sufficient social work student placements for our future workforce. The Social Work Education Partnership comprises HEIs’, employers, Cosla and stakeholder organisations and works to ensure the quality and consistency of practice learning. It has been working closely with all HEIs to find solutions to the placement issues caused by Covid-19 and a number of measures are already in place including the prioritisation of the provision of final placements, the piloting of a simulated placement module for first placements and the roll out of national Link Worker training.

We have also provided £430k at a national level for a resumption of placement fee to HEIs which will help employers with the costs that may be incurred in providing a placements which now involves increased homeworking (to assist with IT costs or additional training for practice educators).

Question reference: S5W-34776

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government who it engaged to provide training for civil servants in preparation for their appearance at the Committee on the Scottish Government’s Handling of Harassment Complaints; how much the training cost, and what the content of the training was.

Question reference: S5W-34772

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 3 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the deaths related to COVID-19 that occurred in hospitals were care home residents who had been admitted to hospital, broken down by NHS board area.

NRS published one-off analysis in June 2020 regarding deaths of care home residents involving COVID-19 which included deaths in hospital at a Scotland level. In week 20 (week ending 17 th May 2020) there were 154 COVID-19 deaths of people whose usual residence was a care home and who died in hospital. The represents 9.3% of COVID-19 hospital deaths involving people resident in care homes.

The analysis is available here:

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/covid-deaths-care-home-residents.xlsx .

Question reference: S5W-34389

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether state aid limits will apply to (a) recent and (b) future grants awarded to businesses under its Strategic Framework Business Fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S5F-04772

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 February 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S5W-34360

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has encouraged former NHS staff that can give COVID-19 vaccinations to return to the workforce and, if so, how many have been recruited.

The Scottish Government has welcomed support from former NHS staff who have offered to assist in the delivery of the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. Individuals can offer their support at: Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on offering support - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

In October we shared information with Health Boards from nurses, registered on our Accelerated Recruitment Portal, who expressed an interest in supporting the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. We have provided 188 prospective vaccinators to Health Boards through this route.

We have also written to regulatory bodies (HCPC, GPhC, GMC and NMC), to help connect temporary registrants with their local Health Boards in order that they may register an interest in returning to support the delivery of healthcare services.

Question reference: S5W-34362

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of (i) care home residents, (ii) care home staff, (iii) NHS staff, (iv) social care staff and (v) people over 80 have been given a COVID-19 vaccination each week.