Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-26445

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 18 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-26073 by Lorna Slater on 21 March 2024, how much targeted funding it has provided to SMEs in the construction sector to provide retraining and upskilling for workers.

The Scottish Government invests significantly in skills development, including through a £2.4 billion investment in the post-school education and skills system. This includes £200 million for Skills Development Scotland to deliver against Scottish Government priorities, including our net zero ambitions.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on what proportion of this support is targeted to SMEs in the construction sector.

Question reference: S6O-03325

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting culture in the North East Scotland region.

Question reference: S6W-26512

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the research used as the basis for the reported comments of the Minister for Energy, Just Transition and Fair Work, during the March 2024 Scotonomics Festival of Economics, that Scotland will "potentially not even have the population capacity to deal with the amount of jobs" created by the energy transition away from fossil fuels.

The Scottish Government has not conducted any specific research on the question of whether Scotland’s population has the capacity to deal with the number of jobs created from the energy transition.

However, it is clear that Scotland is facing a set of long-term demographic challenges, including an ageing workforce, and perhaps the most stark projection is that as of 2033 Scotland’s overall population will begin to decline, and this is exacerbated by the impact of the UK's exit from the EU and subsequent loss of freedom of movement of EU members wishing to live, study and work in Scotland.

Scotland’s long-term demographic challenges will have impacts for sectors, particularly those that are expected to be fast growing, like net zero. Independent analysis commissioned by the Scottish Government and conducted by Ernst and Young (EY) suggests that with the right support there could be almost 80,000 jobs in the low carbon energy production sector and a net-positive impact for overall energy production jobs by 2050.

In our forthcoming Just Transition Plans, the Scottish Government will set out how we intend to support existing workers and new entrants to the workforce to take advantage of these opportunities and deliver a just transition to net zero by 2045.

Question reference: S6W-26214

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many electric school buses it has supported each local authority to purchase, in each of the past three years.

Local authorities receive funding via the local government block grant to enable them to meet their statutory obligations, including the provision of home to school transport. Local authorities are responsible for decisions about the purchase of vehicles. The Scottish Government’s guidance on home to school transport encourages local authorities to procure zero emission vehicles for use in home to school transport services. Local authorities and bus operators that provide home-to-school transport services were eligible to apply to our recent round of ScotZEB 2 funding. This programme provides funding to increase the number of zero emission vehicles and their supporting infrastructure by encouraging collaborative working within the bus sector.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on the number of electric school buses purchased by local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-26213

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what targeted funding it is providing to local authorities to purchase electric school buses.

Local authorities receive funding via the local government block grant to enable them to meet their statutory obligations, including the provision of home to school transport. Local authorities are responsible for decisions about the purchase of vehicles. The Scottish Government’s guidance on home to school transport encourages local authorities to procure zero emission vehicles for use in home to school transport services. Local authorities and bus operators that provide home-to-school transport services were eligible to apply to our recent round of ScotZEB 2 funding. This programme provides funding to increase the number of zero emission vehicles and their supporting infrastructure by encouraging collaborative working within the bus sector.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on the number of electric school buses purchased by local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-26212

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what material support it plans to provide towards a pilot scheme proposed by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh to establish air quality monitors in select schools in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of effective and comprehensive air quality monitoring. Although there are no specific plans to provide material support for this project, we welcome research which contributes to the evidence base around the health impacts of poor air quality.

All air quality objectives at each site in the Scottish automatic monitoring network are currently being achieved, and we are continuing efforts to further reduce air pollution through a comprehensive range of actions set out in our Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 strategy, including the introduction of Low Emission Zones in our four biggest cities.

Question reference: S6W-26253

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the number of canine breeding services operating in Scotland over the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-26252

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to strengthen the ability of (a) local authorities and (b) other relevant bodies to enforce animal welfare regulations.

Question reference: S6W-26077

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25597 by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024, in light of it stating that "information...on patients starting treatment within 10 weeks is not available", how it is also able to state that "1 in 2 people referred to CAMHS [child and adolescent mental health services] start treatment within 10 weeks".

In question S6W-25597 part of the question asked:

To ask the Scottish Government…. What proportion of [CAMHS] patients have started treatment within 10 weeks of referral…. In each NHS Board for the last three years

Data on patients starting treatment is divided into wait bands. These are divided into 4-wait bands of 0-18 weeks, 19-35 weeks, 36-52 weeks and 53 weeks plus. Information on patients starting treatment within 10 weeks is therefore not recorded and as such, is not available. This is why the answer to question S6W-25597 indicated that it was not possible to provide this information.

However the statistic that 1 in 2 people referred to CAMHS start treatment in 10 weeks, is determined using a separate data point. This states that the median treatment time (ie the point at which half of patients begin treatment) for quarter ending September 2023 is 10 weeks. This data is published quarterly and monthly and changes frequently, as such the answer to S6W-25597 cannot be derived using this data point.

As indicated in the previous answer, this information is compiled and held by Public Health Scotland and as such they may hold further data which may be able to help given the technical nature of your query.

Question reference: S6W-26076

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25599 by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024, what the current trajectory and timeline are for clearing long waits for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in NHS Tayside.

Boards are being commissioned to produce updated trajectories for 2024-25 and these are expected to be submitted throughout April and May.

In the most recent data published on 5 March 2024, covering the quarter ending December 2023, Tayside had zero patients waiting over 52 weeks to start treatment in CAMHS and a total of 5 patients waiting over 18 weeks to start treatment, which accounts for 3.2% of the total waiting list (156).

Chamber and committees