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-00484

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-22692 by Alex Neil on 29 October 2014, whether it will provide an update on how many pending litigations there are in Scotland in relation to defective mesh implants and against whom.

Question reference: S5W-00494

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment or reviews of the running of child contact centres it has (a) carried out and (b) plans.

The then Scottish Executive published three research publications focused on child contact centres on 24 March 2004. The publications were:

Scottish Child Contact Centres: Characteristics of Centre Users and Centre Staff. This report described the characteristics of families using Scottish child contact centres and the role of staff working in the centre.

Building Bridges? Expectations and Experiences of Child Contact Centres in Scotland. This report examined users’ and workers’ expectations and experiences of child contact centres.

Child Contact Centres in Scotland – Research Findings. This report drew together the key findings from the two studies described above.

The reports can be found here:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Justice/law/17867/familylawresearch

In 2010 the Scottish Government published research on Understanding Child Contact Cases in Scottish Sheriff Courts. This research included child contact centres and noted that “all the sheriffs we spoke to had found contact centres to be an important resource, particularly where they had had concerns about the non-resident parent’s ability to care for the child.” The relevant section of the research can be found here:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2010/12/08145916/8 (paragraphs 5.19 to 5.22).

Since then, the Scottish Government has worked closely with Relationships Scotland in relation to child contact centres. The Relationships Scotland Network is the largest provider of child contact centres in the country, supporting the running of 46 child contact centres across Scotland, helping around 2,000 children each year to remain in contact with their non-resident parent.

Relationships Scotland and its 22 member services receive financial support from the Scottish Government which is broadly equivalent to around 40% of total annual running costs. Relationships Scotland therefore reports to the Scottish Government on how this investment has been spent, including full details of finance, statistics, outcomes, training, continuing professional development, national standards, policies and procedures and the role that the network plays in responding to issues such as domestic abuse and child protection.

Question reference: S5W-00499

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to ensure that the rights and views of the child at child contact centres are listened to prior to them seeing their parents.

Many of those who use contact centres will have been referred there by the courts. 78% of all referrals to Relationships Scotland’s child contact centres come from the Scottish courts or solicitors. The relevant legislation when a court is considering a contact case is section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. This provides that when considering whether or not to make an order, the court shall regard the welfare of the child concerned as its paramount consideration. It also provides that the court, taking account of the child’s age and maturity, shall, so far as practicable, give the child an opportunity to express views and shall have regard to any views the child expresses. There is a presumption that a child aged 12 or above is of sufficient age and maturity to form a view.

Question reference: S5W-00496

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what regulatory controls there are there for child contact centres.

Child contact centres are not a regulated service. However, all of Relationships Scotland’s child contact centres operate within agreed national standards and are subject to quality assurance inspections.

The Relationships Scotland Child Contact Centre Committee oversees the workings of its child contact centres. Its Practitioners’ Forum considers issues from centres and learns from those experiences in order to shape and update policies and procedures. Full risk assessments, in line with Relationships Scotland national policies and procedures, are carried out in all cases prior to any contact taking place, and continual monitoring of risk is carried out at all times in each case.

Relationships Scotland also undertakes regular quality assurance inspections of all of its member services, which fully incorporates its child contact centres. All member services have to pass quality assurance assessment visits to remain in membership.

Question reference: S5W-00487

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much surplus to requirement obturator mesh devices has cost the NHS.

Question reference: S5W-00498

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what risk assessments are carried out at child contact centres prior to children seeing their parents.

In all Relationships Scotland contact centres full risk assessments are carried out in all cases prior to any contact taking place, and continual monitoring of risk is carried out at all times in each case. This is in line with Relationships Scotland’s national policies and procedures.

The risk assessment process involves the following steps:

Risks are identified during the referral or intake process;

The head of service appoints a risk assessor for each case, who makes an assessment when a potential risk is identified;

When potential risks are identified and forwarded to the risk assessor, the risk assessor will meet the head of the service and any relevant staff to: discuss the risk and its potential impact, consider actions (including gathering information); prepare a statement of the risk in terms of the nature, seriousness, likelihood of it occurring, possible outcomes and manageability; make a final decision on the most appropriate course of action; and develop manageability procedures if a decision is made to accept the referral or continue the contact; and if a decision is made to accept the referral or continue the contact, the staff member who has direct responsibility for organising and monitoring the contact is told of the nature, seriousness and likelihood of the risk; and the specific actions to be taken before, during and after the contact, and by whom.

Question reference: S5W-00493

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 14 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether any companies that have competed for public contracts since the procurement rule SPPN 4/2013, Exclusion from public contracts of companies which engage in blacklisting, came into force have acknowledged an involved with blacklisting.

Question reference: S5F-00090

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2016

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the future of paediatric services across Lothian.

Question reference: S5W-00110

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 May 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the report in the Edinburgh Evening News on 16 May 2016 that NHS Lothian is to end its commitment to meeting treatment times guarantees.

The Scottish Government has made clear to all NHS boards, including Lothian that we expect them to deliver waiting time standards and the legal treatment time guarantee for the people of Scotland. All boards have consistently had above inflation increases in front line spending and boards need to use the increase in resources to deliver waiting times. NHS Lothian has received a 6.3% increase in their budget this year taking the total budget to £1.3 billion. We will continue to work closely with NHS Lothian to support the delivery of waiting times.

To meet the future need of hospital care over the next 10 to 15 years and ensure sustainable delivery of waiting times, the Scottish Government will invest £200 million in expanding the Golden Jubilee National Hospital and establish a network of five new elective and diagnostic treatment centres in Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee, Livingston and Edinburgh.

Question reference: S5W-00112

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 May 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that NHS Lothian does not end waiting times guarantees.