- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government on what date the Social Security Scotland headquarters in Dundee will become fully operational.
Answer
Social Security Scotland has secured interim accommodation within Dundee City Council’s administrative Headquarters, Dundee House. This facility is fully operational, delivering Carer’s Allowance Supplement and Best Start Grant.
The capacity of Social Security Scotland’s headquarters will continue to grow in line with the programme to deliver new and non-reserved benefits to the people of Scotland.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 20 December 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many people it expects to participate in Fair Start Scotland in each six-month period of the programme’s operation.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s ambition for Fair Start Scotland is to support a minimum of 38,000 individuals to progress towards and into work between now and the end of the contract.
The Scottish Government does not set targets for six-month periods on Fair Start Scotland.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 9 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to increase productivity, in light of a report from the Scottish Fiscal Commission, which suggests that it will fall.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 9 January 2019
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to remove different accountability frameworks in the delivery of public services, as recommended by the Christie Commission, in order to improve local authority integration.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2018
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 December 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it being the fastest growing local authority, what support it is offering to Midlothian Council to ensure there is adequate infrastructure in place to cope with increased demand.
Answer
The Scottish Government is supporting Midlothian through major infrastructure investment in for example, affordable housing, superfast broadband and the expansion of early learning and childcare.
Additionally, we are investing £300 million in the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal. In Midlothian, this means the development of University of Edinburgh's Easter Bush campus, investment in the Food and Drink Innovation Campus at Craighall and £120 million to upgrade the Sheriffhall Roundabout. This major investment in transport infrastructure will benefit all users of that part of the Edinburgh bypass.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 4 December 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Borders is meeting the national 18-week Referral to Treatment standard and, if not, what action is taking to ensure that it does.
Answer
NHS Borders’ current (September 2018) 18 week Referral to Treatment time is 90% Which meets the national Standard that 90% of planned / elective patients commence treatment within 18 weeks of referral.
Officials are working closely with NHS Borders to support them to implement sustainable improvements with a focus on a number of key specialities including general surgery and orthopaedics. In addition robust winter planning will support the treatment standard as any significant changes in referral patterns can have a significant impact on the delivery of local services.
To support their waiting times improvement activities, NHS Borders have received £1.052m additional non-recurring funding from the Scottish Government in 2018-19. This will help to achieve all waiting times targets and standards.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 4 December 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that (a) day cases or inpatients and (b) outpatients at NHS Borders are treated within 12 weeks, and how the board's current performance compares with the national standard.
Answer
The Scottish Government are committed to ensuring all patients have swift and safe access to NHS services but we recognise that some aspects of NHS Borders’ performance is below the level required. That is why we made an additional £50 million available to NHS Boards during this financial year to improve waiting times. NHS Borders have received £1.052 million of this funding to improve waiting times in the key specialties of general surgery and orthopaedics.
In addition, we launched the Waiting Times Improvement Plan in October. This Plan will ensure that all patients have swift and safe access to the full range of services from NHSScotland. The Plan will direct investment of more than £850 million to substantially and sustainably improve waiting times in the face of rising demand for services. Officials are working with all territorial Health Boards to ensure that they have appropriate plans in place to support the implementation of the Improvement Plan.
The latest published data for the quarter ending September, shows that in NHS Borders there were 2,072 inpatient or daycase patients who waited less than 12 weeks and 467 patients who had waited over 12 weeks (77.5% seen within 12 weeks). For outpatients, 5,262 were waiting within 12 weeks and 639 patients were waiting over 12 weeks (87.9% waiting less than 12 weeks). This compares to the national position of 72.9% for inpatient/daycases and 70.5% for outpatients at the end of September.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 29 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports of East Lothian Council's roads maintenance budget reducing with the result that a third of roads are in disrepair, what impact it considers reductions to local authority budgets are having on local roads, and what action it will take to address this.
Answer
The Scottish Government has treated councils fairly despite cuts to the Scottish budget by the UK Government. In 2018-19, councils received funding through the local government finance settlement of £10.7 billion. This represents an increase in day-to-day spending of £175 million with an increase in capital spending of £89.9 million.
In the case of East Lothian Council, its funding allocation for 2018/19 was £184 million. Taken together with the council’s decision to increase the council tax by 3 per cent, East Lothian Council has an extra £5.8 million or 3.4 per cent more to spend on day-to-day services this year compared with 2017-18.
It is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and allocate financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 28 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to implement each of the recommendations in the Audit Scotland report, NHS in Scotland 2018.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the challenges facing the Health and Social care system and decisive action is already being taken to deliver the recommendations set out in Audit Scotland’s report.
The Health and Social Care Medium Term Financial Framework sets out the range of reform activities being undertaken to ensure sustainable services. The Waiting Times Improvement Plan will see more than £850 million of investment through phased, focused and decisive action to secure substantial and sustainable improvements to performance. Further detail on workforce planning will be set out in the Integrated National Workforce Plan (to be published in January 2019).
Our forthcoming Capital Investment Strategy will set out the further steps we will take to support all Boards in continuing to improve and maintain their estates. Our reviews of progress on integration and corporate governance, which are already in progress, will enable us to pursue the adoption of good practice as well as considering areas where governance and accountability can be improved.
We remain committed to transparency and will continue to publish regular reports on the financial position of NHS Boards and Integration Authorities.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government by what date the Universal Credit flexibility in Scotland that allows the mitigation of the so-called spare room subsidy at source will be fully operational.
Answer
We are committed to abolishing the bedroom tax at source as soon as possible using the Universal Credit flexibility powers, however, we are disappointed that the UK Government made the decision to delay the ability for us to do so.
UK Government have confirmed that they will now not be able to implement the solution through the Universal Credit (UC) system before May 2020. We will work with DWP to deliver this as soon after this date as we can.
We will continue to mitigate the bedroom tax through Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) until abolition and expect to spend £51 million this year to achieve this.
We are also calling on DWP to take active steps with us to support Local Authorities with the administration of DHPs, which has the potential to become more difficult as UC rolls out, to ensure that around 70,000 households affected by the bedroom tax will continue to benefit from the additional support the mitigation provides.
