- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 21 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how it helps schools prevent pest infestations.
Answer
The health, safety and wellbeing of school pupils in Scotland is of paramount importance to the Scottish Government and it is the statutory responsibility of all local authorities to ensure they are providing safe and clean environments for our young people.
Our £1.8 billion Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme will see the construction or refurbishment of 117 schools and will benefit over 60,000 pupils by March 2020. At least one new school project is being delivered in every local authority area in Scotland.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 21 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many times have pest controllers been sent to schools in each local authority area in each of the last five years, also broken down by what information it has regarding how many (a) pupils, (b) staff and (c) visitors were harmed by infestations.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information.
The health, safety and wellbeing of school pupils in Scotland is of paramount importance to the Scottish Government and it is the statutory responsibility of all local authorities to ensure they are providing safe and clean environments for our children and young people.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported shortage of (a) chronic pain and (b) other specialist staff in the NHS.
Answer
It is not possible to accurately identify from centrally held data all staff working in this discipline, as ‘chronic pain specialists’ is not a recognised speciality. Due to the multi-disciplinary roles involved in the delivery of chronic pain services, this can be delivered as part of their role caring for patients suffering from e.g. Cancer, Stroke, Dermatitis. However total numbers of Consultants(including Consultant Grade Directors) (up over 47% between September 2006 & December 2017) Consultant Anaesthetists (up over 37% between September 2006 and December 2017) and Clinical Nurse Specialists categorised as working specifically in pain management (up almost 39% between September 2009 and September 2017) have increased during the lifetime of this government.
The Scottish Government recognise that Scotland does experience particular recruitment and retention difficulties due to the remote and rural nature of parts of the geographic landscape. We work closely with all NHS boards to support their recruitment efforts and assist them in meeting their obligations to deliver safe and effective services. This includes searching globally, where appropriate, to recruit at all levels.
When undertaking international recruitment, we encourage all health boards to make use of the UK and Scotland Only Shortage Occupations Lists (SOL) which lists all nursing occupations and certain medical specialties, including all grades of anaesthetist. When using either of these lists, Boards are free to recruit internationally without first undertaking a Resident Labour Market Test. Further, we are currently trialling new approaches to international recruitment in areas of acute shortage.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 20 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action Transport Scotland has taken to notify and engage with local communities (a) during the construction of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR), (b) following the delay to the project and (c) regarding higher than normal levels of traffic experienced on local roads while the project is ongoing.
Answer
A range of communications methods have been used on the AWPR/B-T project. Local road users are kept informed with weekly traffic management updates on the project website and, as of 1 March 2018, 151 media releases have been issued and are used alongside Twitter to inform local communities of on-going works.
Additionally, a monthly ezine, which has over 7,800 subscribers, and quarterly newsletters are found on the project website. This is alongside the engagement undertaken by the contractor which includes letter drops, leaflet or one-on-one meetings, and speaking with local businesses and groups.
Furthermore, over 90 presentations have been given, with quarterly updates arranged for MSPs, MPs, Councillors and Community Councils, and bespoke meetings with Community Councils, business groups and professional organisations.
Following my announcement to Parliament and significant coverage in the media and Twitter, the Transport Scotland website was updated to show the expected date of completion had changed to Spring 2018. The decision to change the date of completion was also covered at a recent quarterly update for MSPs and MPs, held on 26 February 2018. This was also due to be discussed at the quarterly meeting for Councillors, but this event had to be postponed due to weather.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 16 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government which universities offer teacher training courses, and for what subjects.
Answer
There are 9 institutions currently offering Initial Teacher Education programmes. These are :-
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has committed to the Beef Efficiency Scheme, and how does this compare with the total amount available for this scheme through Pillar 2 payments.
Answer
To date approximately £5.8 million has been committed to the scheme. The overall indicative budget through pillar 2 payments is £25.4m.
However, it is important to note that this is an indicative budget, and we will continue to monitor scheme performance and demand along with the impact of future Spending Reviews to ensure that the SRDP continues to deliver towards our commitment to build growth all across rural Scotland.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the total funding for the Beef Efficiency Scheme will be spent on (a) administration and (b) payments to participating farmers.
Answer
To date approximately £4.1 million has been directly paid to farmers through the Beef Efficiency Scheme with a further £1.2 million being spent on the cost of the advisory services and the genotyping test which forms an integral part of the scheme for which farmers directly benefit.
£534k has been spent on the administrative development and maintenance of the Beef Efficiency Scheme database hosted by ScotEID. Over the lifetime of the scheme the proportion of the administration is currently forecast to reduce to 4% of total spend as the amount of payments made to farmers increases.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with ScotRail regarding the introduction of automatic compensation for delayed passengers.
Answer
ScotRail’s Passengers’ Charters currently includes ‘delay = repay’ compensation scheme based on delays to journeys where customers can claim online using ScotRail’s website or by post. This complies with the requirements specified in the ScotRail Franchise Agreement effective from 1 April, 2015. As is normal in any long term service contract my officials at Transport Scotland through discussion with ScotRail are investigating altering delay repay threshold timings to any delay over 15 minutes, and the process to refund affected passengers.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on (a) whether compensation from Network Rail to rail operators should be passed on to customers and (b) what should be done with compensation that is paid to rail operators but not claimed by customers.
Answer
Train Operating Companies (TOC’s) are compensated via standard industry processes whereby the principle of compensation reflects the direct loss of ticket sales as a result of the works, aiming to leave the operator in a financially neutral position. However, the monies received from Network Rail under the standard industry process do not just cover customer compensation, it covers all of the costs and lost revenue that is borne by the train operator as a result of disruption on the network. This includes staff costs, overtime and other elements such as provision of replacement transport.
As required under the terms of the current Franchise Agreement ScotRail introduced ‘Delay Repay’ which is compensation paid to customers if they face disruption on their journey. It is one of the types of compensation Train Operating Companies offer if journeys don’t go to plan, as well as paying for alternative transport, whole or part refunds or other goodwill gestures. Abellio ScotRail is required to publicise this delay-repay compensation scheme using all available methods including, station announcements, Customer Information screens, website and social media.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many fewer seats are available on ScotRail services as a result of the delay in rolling out 385 HST stock, and the consequent reduction to the number of carriages, and how this compares with the total number of seats normally available.
Answer
There are 124 weekday services, 62 in each direction, on the Edinburgh-Glasgow via Falkirk High route. The allocation of carriages which are planned to operate until the introduction of the class 385 trains has taken account of measured passenger demand on particular services. 30 of the very busiest services are now running with more carriages and 100 extra seats per journey since December 2017, with seven carriages instead of six.
33 of the services are now running with fewer carriages than in December 2017: 18 with four carriages instead of six and 15 with three carriages instead of six. Across both weekday peak periods 6,758 seats are now being provided on Edinburgh-Glasgow via Falkirk services rather than 7,476 which were scheduled to operate up until the end of February.
