- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 20 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to provide vehicles and equipment under the Accessible Vehicles and Equipment Scheme, from organisations other than Motability, it has (a) approved and (b) rejected in each of the last five years, and what steps it is taking to broaden the range and scope of such providers, in particular those that are independent businesses or social enterprises.
Answer
Answer expected on 20 March 2025
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the outcomes of the long COVID support service pilot that took place across Edinburgh in 2022-23, including whether it considers it to have been successful.
Answer
Information on the outcomes of the long COVID pilot project undertaken by Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, Pogo Digital Healthcare and NHS Lothian is not held centrally. This is a matter for those organisations.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the outcomes of the £10 million that it designated in 2023-24 to support people with long COVID, including how this was spent.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s £10 million long COVID Support Fund was announced in September 2021 and resource has been allocated from the fund from the financial year 2022-2023 onwards. The following table provides an overview of funding recipients from the start of the financial year 2022-23 to 28 February 2025. Allocations to NHS boards are made in tranches across the financial year to account for any slippage in programme delivery. It is anticipated that further allocations will be made to NHS boards from the fund before the end of this financial year, and in the financial year 2025-26.
The 2025-2026 budget outlines £7.586 million for the ‘Long Covid, ME, Chronic Fatigue and other similar conditions’ budget line. This represents a £4.5m uplift to the 2024-2025 long COVID budget line.
Organisation | Purpose | Funding allocated 2022-2023 | Funding allocated 2023-2024 | Funding allocated 2024-2025 (as of 28 Feb 2025) |
NHS Ayrshire and Arran | Assist provision of healthcare support to people with long-term effects of COVID-19. | £131,288 | £143,152 | £131,288 |
NHS Borders | £35,509 | £50,727 | £38,319 |
NHS Dumfries and Galloway | £55,598 | £55,598 | £55,598 |
NHS Fife | £124,636 | £124,636 | 124,636 |
NHS Forth Valley | £99,414 | £133,896 | £99,414 |
NHS Grampian | £178,393 | £254,847 | £178,393 |
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde | £416,618 | £583,446 | £416,618 |
NHS Highland | £83,749 | £167,586 | £117,310 |
NHS Lanarkshire | £320,007 | £320,007 | £224,005 |
NHS Lothian | £260,551 | £378,412 | £268,168 |
NHS Orkney | £14,716 | £14,716 | £10,301 |
NHS Shetland | £9,573 | £9,573 | £9,573 |
NHS Tayside | £194,620 | £194,620 | £138,330 |
NHS Western Isles | £19,988 | £19,988 | £13,992 |
NHS National Services Scotland | Operation of National Strategic Network for long COVID. | £101,498 | £180,916 | £126,641 |
NHS National Services Scotland | Procurement of C-19 YRS digital tool. | 0 | 0 | £124,781 |
NHS National Services Scotland | Clinical safety assessment of C-19 YRS digital tool. | 0 | £49,728 | 0 |
NHS National Services Scotland | Evaluation of data gathered through C-19 YRS digital tool. | 0 | £62,500 | 0 |
Smarts | Production and editing of NHS inform case study videos. | £5,112 | £5,676 | |
Progressive Partnership | Recruitment of participants for NHS inform user experience research and case study videos. | £9,450 | | |
Leith Agency | Development of creative brief and options for potential marketing campaign | £9,174 | | |
Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland | Integration of long COVID support application within Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland’s case management system. | £28,904 | | |
Covid Aid | Delivery of long COVID advertising and signposting activity, development of mobile phone application for Covid Aid Support Community, delivery of Covid Aid/ Let’s Get on With it Together (LGOWIT) Self-Management Programme, development of online support community for people with long COVID | £144,095 | | |
Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland | Delivery of long COVID Support Groups within Glasgow City and West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership areas. | £13,345 | | |
Long Covid Scotland | Investment in systems and equipment required to widen organisation’s impact. Administrative capacity to support development of educational resources. | £25,000 | | |
Scottish Ballet | Delivery of the ‘Emerge’ programme. | £3,035 | | |
Scottish Opera | Expanding course capacity on the ‘Breathe Cycle II’ project. | £86,892 | | |
Thistle Foundation | Delivery of a ‘Good Conversations’ training programme for healthcare staff and expansion of national Self-Management and Rehabilitation programme. | £106,343 | | |
Total | | £2,477,508 | £2,750,024 | £2,077,367 |
An analysis of Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROM) data provided by 701 patients accessing NHS long COVID support showed they reported that they got somewhat better in symptoms and abilities over the first six months. Despite improvements, many reported that they still had major health issues compared to before having COVID.
The report notes that long COVID can be a fluctuating condition, meaning there is not necessarily a linear trend of improvement or deterioration in the symptom burden, functional disability, and overall health of patients. Therefore, care needs to be taken in drawing any conclusions changes in PROM scores, particularly when over a short space of time. The full report is accessible at NHS Scotland Service Evaluation of Long-COVID Services – Long COVID.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what support is currently in place for people with long COVID.
Answer
Since April 2022, we have allocated over £6.2 million to territorial NHS boards to supplement core funding and support their responses to meeting the healthcare needs of people with long COVID. This has supported boards to undertake a range of activities including the development of long COVID rehabilitation pathways and providing additional capacity to existing services supporting people with symptoms resulting from long COVID.
Care and support for people with long COVID is being provided across the full range of services delivered by our NHS. This includes assessment in a setting close to home by local primary care teams, and referral to community-based rehabilitation services or secondary care settings for further investigation of specific complications where clinically appropriate.
Scotland’s national health information service NHS inform has a dedicated long COVID microsite containing information and advice on common signs and symptoms associated with long COVID and when to seek further advice from a healthcare professional. This is accessible at Long-term effects of COVID-19 | NHS inform.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to propose scheduling time for a parliamentary debate on the fishing industry.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when Transport Scotland plans to publish the next version of its Disability and Transport report, which was last published in 2023, and whether it will commit to publishing updated versions of the publication each year, taking account of the annual data made available through the Scottish Household Survey and other transport statistics.
Answer
The next edition of the Disability and Transport publication will be published by Transport Scotland later in March this year.
It is intended that Transport Scotland will update the report on an annual basis in future. However, this is dependent on the availability of data supporting meaningful annual analysis.
Decisions on publication frequency will continue to be made in consultation with the Disability and Transport Monitoring and Evaluation Group: a steering group for Transport Scotland’s work in this area, which includes representatives from the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS), Disability Equality Scotland, and Transport Scotland.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 3 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that SportScotland
is making staff redundancies, and what its position is on whether this is in
relation to reported costs incurred as a result of internal investigations
involving Cricket Scotland.
Answer
There is no correlation between sportscotland’s voluntary severance scheme and the Changing the Boundaries report and independent referrals investigation.
The referrals process underlined the failings of the governing body over recent years, and Cricket Scotland, having fully accepted all actions and recommendations for improvement, is committed to delivering on those. We recognise the progress that has been made and sportscotland is providing continued support to Cricket Scotland to ensure the sport can move forward with confidence.
sportscotland is not making staff redundant. Their severance scheme is a voluntary scheme and it is an individual’s choice if they wish to apply. The scheme is intended to mitigate financial challenges facing the sector including the unprecedented levels of inflation experienced over the past 3-4 years, and the UK Government’s planned increase in employer national insurance contributions. The severance scheme will enable sportscotland to maximise the impact of investment in sport and physical activity.
The Scottish Government is greatly concerned by the UK Government’s planned increase in Employer National Insurance Contributions and the damaging implications for businesses, public services, and communities. We are calling on the UK Government to reverse the planned increase.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 27 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried out on the impact on its four strategic priorities of the UK Government’s decision to raise employer national insurance contributions on public and third sector bodies.
Answer
I have raised concerns with the UK Treasury about the impact on public services if this reserved tax increase is not fully funded. The Scottish Government has published updated estimates of the impact of the increase in employer national insurance contributions on the public sector in Scotland. These estimates indicate the combined impact on the public sector and commissioned services is over £700 million. If the UK Government’s reported allocation is all that is provided, the Chancellor will be short-changing services the public depend on by over £400 million. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations estimates that the third sector in Scotland will face additional costs of £75 million per year, plus wider inflation.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how important the third sector is to its priority of eradicating child poverty, and what impact (a) inflation has had and (b) the UK Government’s decision to raise employer national insurance contributions will have on that sector’s ability to achieve this goal.
Answer
Eradicating child poverty in Scotland is a national mission and this Government’s top priority.
The third sector is a key partner in this work. The Scottish Government greatly values the important role of Scotland’s third sector in providing support for children and families across Scotland – empowering people and enabling communities to thrive – and as a critical friend to both local and national government, helping to guide the action needed.
The latest wave of the longitudinal survey we support through SCVO shows that many third sector organisations are feeling the pressure of rising costs and inflation. Overall, 94% of organisations reported facing challenges, up from 92% in summer 2024.
It is not right that these organisations should be disadvantaged by UK Government policy changes. The Scottish Government has called upon the UKG to take an ‘actual costs’ approach to compensation for increased costs as a result of the increase in employer’s national insurance costs.
In the absence of full funding we will be very restricted in the extent to which we can respond.
We recognise this may mean continued challenges for our third sector partners. We are aiming to assist the sector by improving notification of continued funding to third sector organisations and increasing the number of two year grants we can offer as part of our commitment to Fairer Funding.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the potential
cost to the third sector in Scotland of the UK Government’s decision to raise
employer national insurance contributions, and what plans it has to help alleviate any additional
costs, including inflationary costs, arising from this decision that are facing voluntary organisations that are in
receipt of it grants or contracts from it.
Answer
The actual cost to the third sector of the increase in Employer National Insurance contributions is difficult to determine given the diversity in size and employment numbers across the sector. However, in the joint letter from the First Minister and President of COSLA to the Chancellor on 3 January, which was supported by SCVO and a range of third sector organisations, they refer to SCVO’s estimate that the third sector will face additional costs of £75 million per year, plus wider inflation. We will continue to monitor the impact on the sector through the longitudinal survey we support through SCVO.
The Scottish Government has called upon the UKG to take an ‘actual costs’ approach to compensation for increased costs as a result of the increase in employer’s national insurance costs. In the absence of full funding we will be very restricted in the extent to which we can respond.
We recognise this may mean continued challenges for our third sector partners. We are aiming to assist the sector by improving notification of continued funding to third sector organisations and increasing the number of two year grants we can offer as part of our commitment to Fairer Funding.
