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-09153

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is on track to meet the target to clear (a) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and (b) psychological therapies waiting lists by March 2023, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026.

The Scottish Government remain committed to meeting the standard that 90% of patients start treatment for CAMHS and Psychological Therapies within 18 weeks of referral by March 2023.

There have been obvious operational difficulties caused by Covid-19 and the restrictions necessarily put in place over the pandemic. However, latest statistics for both CAMHS and Psychological Therapies (PT) published on 7 June 2022, Publications - Public Health Scotland , for the latest quarter ending 31 March 2022 show that there has seen an all-time high number of children and young people beginning treatment for CAMHS. It is also the highest number of children beginning treatment within 18 weeks under this measure since quarter ending June 2016. It is also encouraging to see significant progress with Psychological Therapies waiting times with a significant decrease in long waits over one year and a decrease for those waiting over 18 weeks.

This reflects the effects of the Scottish Government’s improvement work with Health Boards and the additional investment – which is growing the workforce and reducing backlogs resulting in shorter waiting times and a better experience for individuals and families supported by our NHS.

We are working with Boards closely and will continue to monitor their performance against the waiting times standard.

Question reference: S6W-09149

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitment in the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland to recruit 320 additional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) staff, how many such staff it has recruited in 2022 to date; whether it has set a timeline for this commitment to be fulfilled; how this interacts with targets to clear both CAMHS and psychological therapies waiting times by March 2023, and what specific targets it has in place to recruit these workers.

Responsibility for the recruitment of CAMHS staff lies with NHS Boards. In the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 , the Scottish Government committed to provide sufficient funding for around 320 additional staff in CAMHS over the next 5 years, with the potential to increase capacity for CAMHS cases by over 10,000.

The additional funding for CAMHS from the Scottish Government’s Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund is designed to provide sufficient support for Boards to increase capacity, reduce long waiting lists and improve CAMHS services. The delivery expected includes implementation of the National CAMHS Service Specification, increasing age range for CAMHS services from 18 to 25, and clearing waiting list backlogs by March 2023.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) publishes quarterly statistics on the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) workforce . The most recent publication on 7 June 2022 shows data from quarter ending 31 March 2022. These statistics show, as of 31 March 2022, there were 1172 whole time equivalent (WTE) CAMHS staff employed. This compares to 1078 WTE CAMHS staff employed in March 2021, prior to the 2021-22 additional investment of around £40 million to CAMHS from the Scottish Government’s Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund. Therefore, following investment in 2021-22, the CAMHS workforce increased by 94 WTE in 2021-22. Specifically, in the final quarter of 2021-22, the CAMHS workforce increased by 73 WTE.

Question reference: S6W-09148

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what interim targets it has set to clear (a) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and (b) psychological therapies waiting times by March 2023, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026.

Question reference: S6O-01301

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the rural affairs secretary last met with Crown Estate Scotland.

Question reference: S6F-01248

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 June 2022

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6W-08799

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-07966 by Humza Yousaf on 17 May 2022, how much of £12 million made available in 2021-22 to support the mental health and wellbeing of the NHS workforce has been spent, broken down by where it has been allocated.

From the £12 million we made available to support the wellbeing of the health, social work and social care workforce in 2021-22, we:

Used £3.5 million to assist in the continuation of our national wellbeing resources
Allocated £2 million to Health and Social Care Partnerships to provide evidence-based support to meet the needs of those working in primary and social care
Allocated £2 million to Health and Social Care Partnerships to be used by Chief Officers of Integration Authorities (IA's) to support staff wellbeing during the winter pressures
Allocated £2 million to Health Boards to support NHS staff wellbeing during the winter pressures
Allocated £1.5 million to Health Boards to provide additional practical support that staff needed due to increased pressure from the Omicron variant
Made £1 million available to support wellbeing projects for staff working in Adult Social Work and Social Care

Question reference: S6O-01238

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has now published all the legal advice it has received in relation to a second independence referendum.

Question reference: S6W-08319

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish all information that it (a) provided and (b) received in relation to the decision to set the maximum fee per km2 of seabed under the ScotWind leasing process at £100,000, as announced by Crown Estate Scotland on 24 March 2021.

Crown Estate Scotland (CES) is responsible for the ScotWind seabed leasing process and the management and collation of the information used to support its decision to review and, ultimately, change the option fee prices for seabed leasing. The Scottish Government has already released the advisory note procured from Strathclyde University ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200277291/ ) and did not provide any further information to CES.

CES also procured additional advice that the Scottish Government do hold but these have not been released due to the ongoing nature of ScotWind clearing process and applications.

Question reference: S6W-08310

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can request the consent of Crown Estate Scotland (CES) to disclose the two reports commissioned by and received from CES that discuss the net present value analysis and/or any other value for money analysis of the ScotWind auction, as referred to in the response to freedom of information request FOI/202200277291 of 14 April 2022.

As per the FOI (FOI/202200277291) referred to in the question, CES have already been asked about disclosure of the document and at that time did not consent to it due to the ScotWind clearing process still being underway. Publications of those documents at this time may, unduly, influence the application process. Once the process of granting option agreements is over, CES’s assessment of what can and cannot be released may change .

Question reference: S6W-08313

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the reasons for Crown Estate Scotland’s position, as stated in the ScotWind Pre-Launch Summary, published in July 2019, that it was “currently minded” that applicants should not pay more than £10,000 per km2 of seabed.

Crown Estate Scotland is responsible for the ScotWind seabed leasing process, including setting Option Agreement fees and rent prices. Crown Estate Scotland informed Scottish Government of its pricing structure based on its own evidence gathering and information available at the time. Once projects are under seabed leases and wind farms are generating energy, rental payments are annual – these are separate from the Option Agreement payments.