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: S4W-02575

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 21 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many social services staff registered with the Scottish Social Services Council have had conditions placed on their registration in each year since 2001.

Question reference: S4W-02503

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many beds there are for inpatient services for young people with mental health issues.

In patient services for adolescents are provided by three regional units in Scotland. These are the South of Scotland, based at Royal Edinburgh Hospital with 12 beds serving Lothian, Fife & Borders, West of Scotland based at Stobhill Hospital Glasgow with 24 beds serving Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Forth Valley, Lanarkshire, Dumfries & Galloway and Ayrshire & Arran; and the North of Scotland based at in Dundee with six beds, serving Tayside, Grampian, Highland, Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles.

To meet demand the North of Scotland planning group are currently developing an outline business case for rebuilding of the Dundee unit to include the addition of another six beds.

Question reference: S4W-02578

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 21 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how disclosure information is checked for migrant workers in care at home services and care homes.

Disclosure Scotland do not have access to information about migrant workers from the criminal records of their home jurisdictions. It is the responsibility of the worker to provide information from her or his home country if that is sought by an employer.

Individuals recruited from overseas to work in a care home or care service are doing regulated work in Scotland. As such, they should be asked by their prospective employer to join the Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme. There is guidance on this matter in the Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme: Guidance for individuals, organisations and personal employers published in June 2010. The guidance can be accessed at:

http://www.disclosurescotland.co.uk/guidance/index.html.

When a PVG application is made, Disclosure Scotland will carry out checks to discover whether the person is known to UK information sources and, if vetting information is found, that will be made available to the individual and the prospective employer. Membership of the scheme also means that any new vetting information that gives cause for concern will be considered by Disclosure Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-02577

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 21 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason registration with the Scottish Social Services Council will not commence for support workers in care at home services until 2017.

One of the conditions of registration is that a worker will have, or be working towards, an appropriate qualification for the job they undertake. This was designed to raise standards of practice in key groups of the social services workforce. Registration has been taken forward in a phased and clearly timetabled approach making it possible for employers to strategically plan their workforce development and allowing time for employers and staff to meet the training requirements linked to registration. Within that approach, ministers announced in March 2011 that all workers in care at home services would be included in the groups of workers that are required to register with the Council, with registration currently planned to commence in 2017.

Question reference: S4W-02502

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many beds are required for inpatient services for young people with mental health issues.

We are working closely with NHS boards to ensure that the number of specialist beds matches the need and demand of children and adolescents. We are also encouraging NHS boards to develop their community based intensive outreach services in order to enable children and young people to return to their own communities at an earlier stage of their recovery.

Since 2009 the Scottish Government has invested an additional £2 million annually to support these developments which shorten the time young people have to be in hospital and free up capacity for others who require admission.

The Scottish Executive Inpatient Working group recommended in their 2005 document Psychiatric Inpatient Services for Children and Young People in Scotland: A way Forward, that planning should commence for a phased increase to 60 psychiatric inpatient places for young people in Scotland, with ongoing review of need and demand.

Due to the significant investment to deliver faster access to specialist child and adolescent mental health services in the community, the developments in community based intensive outreach services and the increase in the CAMHS workforce (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), the number of psychiatric inpatient beds has been revised to 48.

Question reference: S4O-00221

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment has had with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth regarding using distillery by-products for bio-friendly renewable energy.

Question reference: S4W-02308

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 20 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on improvements to the A95 in each year since 2007-08.

In the last four financial years, Transport Scotland has spent almost £5 million on improvements to the trunk road section of the A95 (between Aviemore and Keith). Yearly totals are provided in the following table. These figures include accident investigation and prevention, structural maintenance, minor improvements and bridges.

2007-08	£1,534,857
2008-09	£847,342
2009-10	£863,272
2010-11	£1,248,980

Question reference: S4O-00173

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 15 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning or his officials have met local authorities in the Highlands and Islands to identify school building projects for the third phase of the Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme and what the outcome was.

Ministers and Scottish Government officials meet local authorities on a regular basis to discuss a range of issues related to the school estate, including the Scotland’s Schools for the Future building programme. Although there have been no specific meetings about the next tranche of the school building programme, where this subject has been raised, authorities have been informed that any decisions with regard to the next phase would be predicated on the outcome of the spending review and would focus on worst schools first.

Question reference: S4O-00177

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what safeguards there are to protect NHS staff who raise concerns regarding the quality of care and treatment.

Question reference: S4W-02307

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 September 2011

Year	No. of Conditions
2008	1
2009	10
2010	4
2011	2 (both recently issued and still within 14 day appeal period)