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: S6W-25602

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many instances of long child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) waiting times have been raised by the public with (a) each NHS board and (b) the Scottish Government, in each of the last three years.

Information on enquiries to Boards about CAMHS is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Each NHS Board in Scotland has their own system in place for managing complaints raised by the public.

The Scottish Government records and processes enquiries and correspondence addressed to Scottish Ministers on its Ministerial and Corporate Correspondence (MiCase) System and any correspondence related to CAMHS is answered via this system. Over the last 3 years, 27 cases specifically mentioned CAMHS waiting times.

Question reference: S6W-25598

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been invested in clearing any long waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and how any such targeted support has affected waiting times, in each NHS board in each of the last three years.

The NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 refers to the support for CAMHS included in the £120m Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund. In total, £34m of the Fund was invested in 2021/22 to improve access to and quality of CAMHS services.

This fund was superseded in 2022-23 by the Mental Health Outcomes Framework, which bundled funding to Boards for improvements to CAMHS, psychological therapies, eating disorder care, primary care and children and young people’s neurodevelopmental services, as well as ongoing innovation and service reform.

The intention behind bundling was to allow Boards flexibility to align spending to local priorities, based on this it is not possible to separate out the specific CAMHS funding provided to each Board from 2022-23 onwards. We have allocated £48.6 million of supplementary funding to Boards so far this year via the Mental Health Outcomes Framework. This is in addition to £36.7 million allocated to Health Boards via the Outcomes Framework in 2022-23; and to the total package of core funding that Health Boards receive.

So far 13 out of 14 CAMHS services have effectively eliminated their long wait lists (where 3% or fewer of all waits are over 1 year). Full data information on for each Board on CAMHS patients starting treatment is publicly available via Public Health Scotland: PHS CAMHS Waiting Times .

Question reference: S6W-25601

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) staff have (a) been recruited and (b) left the health service, in each NHS board in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S6W-25600

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what tailored support it is providing to NHS Tayside, in addition to headline funding, to reduce any long waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

Question reference: S6W-25599

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has been advised by NHS Tayside that child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) waiting times are expected to worsen.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials are aware of the current challenges faced by NHS Tayside in meeting waiting time standards set out for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

NHS Tayside are receiving additional support which includes providing access to professional specialist advice, making sure that they have robust improvement plans place and are continually monitoring their implementation. Regular and structured engagement with NHS Tayside at both Ministerial and official level is continuing. This is in addition to requesting formal quarterly written updates.

In addition all Boards have been asked to submit trajectories setting out a timeline for clearing long waits. These will be updated annually and used to inform further targeted improvement work to ensure all Boards meet CAMHS waiting times standards.

Question reference: S6O-03176

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the number of assaults by pupils in schools.

Question reference: S6W-25445

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 28 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the proposed introduction of a similar ban in Scotland, what meetings (a) it has and (b) its agencies have had with (i) the French government and (ii) other relevant stakeholders in France regarding banning the disposal of unsold goods.

Neither the Scottish Government nor its agencies have had meetings with the French government or other relevant stakeholders in France regarding banning the disposal of unsold goods. Officials have, however, met a representative of the Ellen McArthur Foundation to provide insight into the operation of the ban in France.

We intend to engage with a wide range of stakeholders in developing any regulations.

Question reference: S6W-25337

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 27 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it currently supports to provide those in the heritage restoration sector with opportunities to develop expertise and skills in climate resilience.

One of the key priorities identified in Our Past, Our Future, Scotland’s revised historic environment strategy which was commissioned by Scottish Ministers, is “Delivering the transition to net zero.” Actions identified to deliver this priority include improving the delivery of heritage skills training by revising and expanding the Skills Investment Plan for Scotland’s historic environment to identify the opportunities and actions needed to create a sustainable skills ecosystem. And also improving and enhancing the research and development infrastructure for heritage in Scotland by creating new national centres for skills and innovation.

The Scottish Government delivers support for the historic environment through its sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland. Historic Environment Scotland, along with key partners, have consulted with 340 individuals and 160 organisations as part of the refresh of the Skills Investment Plan which is due to be published in April this year. As part of this refresh, a net zero roundtable was held on the 26 October 2023 to specifically look at the priority actions needed to support a skilled workforce to deliver the transition to net zero.

On behalf of the Scottish Government, Skills Development Scotland published a new report which has assessed the known investment, the skills demand now and in the future, and current training and learning support for green skills in Scotland. This report is available at https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/news-events/2023/november/90-billion-of-investment-in-green-industries-signals-need-for-net-zero-skills .

We are also continuing to effectively integrate sustainability and green skills into apprenticeships in Scotland to ensure the system remains flexible and relevant as we transition to net zero.

Question reference: S6W-25241

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much food waste has been produced in Scotland in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S6W-25287

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 22 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government Office for the Internal Market (OIM) regarding the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill, and whether it has asked the OIM if the proposals in the Bill for (a) restricting the disposal of unsold goods and (b) charges for single-use items could affect the UK internal market.

In my letter of 18 January 2024 to the Convener of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport committee (see at this link Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity (parliament.scot) ), I confirmed that Scottish Government officials regularly meet with the Office for the Internal Market (OIM) to discuss a range of issues related to its functions, including horizon scanning of potential legislation across the UK. These discussions are open dialogues where either party can raise any issue for discussion. They can involve high level intelligence sharing, as well as more detailed discussions of specific policy areas.

To date, there has not been a specific discussion on the proposed provisions of the Scottish Circular Economy Bill as part of this engagement. Wider circular economy issues such as deposit return schemes and single-use plastics policies across UK nations have been discussed.