- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how much money would have been allocated to GPs through the GP Premises Sustainability Fund over the current financial year that will now not be allocated.
Answer
The Scottish Government did not allocate money to GP practices through the GP Premises Sustainability fund.
GP practices could apply for GP Sustainability Loans to their Health Boards. These were funded by the Scottish Government as and when loans were completed.
The GP Sustainability Loans scheme is currently paused while the Scottish Government reimburses Health Boards for loans that were completed in 2023-24. This is due to a greater than anticipated number of loans having completed last year.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many community children’s nurses are employed by NHS Scotland, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The information requested on how many community children’s nurses are employed by NHS Scotland, broken down by NHS board can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: 05 March 2024 Workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 22 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting local authorities to ensure that there is sufficient staff to invest in a significant scaling up of the prevention of homelessness activity.
Answer
The Scottish Government wants to see a renewed focus on the prevention of homelessness and this is underlined by the inclusion of the homelessness prevention provisions in the Housing (Scotland) Bill, introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 26 March 2024.
Alongside this, we published a Financial Memorandum which set out estimated costs for the provisions included within the Bill. This was informed by a survey of local authorities on the potential resource implications of the changes.
We will work with local authorities to develop the supporting guidance and training necessary to make the duties successful and to discuss the most appropriate timing of implementation against the background of a challenging environment.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will support the development of a Specialist Practitioner Qualification, at Masters level, for community children’s nursing in Scotland.
Answer
Access to continuing professional development and education for community children’s nursing staff in Scotland is vital as it enables children to receive specialist care within a setting that is familiar and comforting to them. However, it is the responsibility of higher education institutions to develop and deliver education at Masters level. It is the Scottish Government’s understanding that Robert Gordon University have developed a contemporary Specialist Practitioner Qualification in community children's nursing, at Masters level, which will be presented for approval by the Nursing and Midwifery Council at the end of May this year. If approved, the programme will move forward with a provisional starting date of September 2024.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns that inflationary costs for hospices and recent Agenda for Change pay awards have resulted in current funding levels being insufficient for hospices to operate sustainably.
Answer
The Scottish Government fully understands the pressures that hospices are currently facing. The Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health engages regularly with this sector, and has visited a number of hospices and met with hospice leaders over the last few months.
Integration Joint Boards are responsible for the planning, and commissioning of adult palliative care services, including hospices, using the integrated budget under their control. We have invested over £2 billion in the 2024-25 budget for social care and integration, delivering on our Programme for Government commitment to increase social care spending by 25% over this Parliament. Despite this significant investment the financial climate remains extremely challenging and we are working with partners to understand and address the challenges, within the context of a finite budget.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its reported decision to suspend the GP Premises Sustainability Fund, how many applications for such loans to GPs have been processed since the scheme was introduced in 2018, and how many applications remain outstanding.
Answer
The Scottish Government has issued £11 million of GP Sustainability Loans to 45 practices since 2018. There is a further £3.5 million of loans to 11 practices pending.
The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many applications at a less advanced stage remain outstanding as GP Sustainability Loans are agreed between Health Boards and GP practices.
- Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that users of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) are exempt from any charges under the Low Emission Zones (LEZ) that are being set up across Scotland.
Answer
Low Emission Zones are based on the Euro emission standard of the vehicle in order to reduce levels of harmful air pollution and protect public health.
Whether vehicles use diesel or hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as a fuel does not change the Euro emission standard of the vehicle. There is no LEZ exemption for vehicles using diesel fuel alternatives such as hydrotreated vegetable oil, however any such vehicle that meets the Euro 6/VI emission standard can be driven within the LEZ.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 19 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any terminated calls to the NHS 24 111 service.
Answer
The Scottish Government is not responsible for the assessment of abandoned calls to NHS 24 which is an operational matter for the Board. We monitor NHS 24 performance against a number of indicators on a weekly basis.
Calls to the 111 service can be abandoned for a variety of reasons, including callers choosing to end their call after being connected to the automated messaging service and hearing the options available to them. These include accessing self-care advice via NHS Inform, or contacting another area of the health service which may be more appropriate to meet their needs.
The Scottish Government continues to support NHS 24's ongoing work to help reduce abandoned calls, including a recent revision of NHS 24's key performance indicators to better reflect and understand the current demands on the service. This work allows the Service to capture any unmet demand, and any potential risks where callers have made multiple attempts to access 111 without success.
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to meet the Climate Change Committee’s reported recommendation that the annual rate of transport emissions reduction will need to be almost four times higher from 2021-30 than it was from 2012-21, in order to meet the sector’s contribution to the Scottish Government’s 2020 Climate Change Plan update.
Answer
The Scottish Government is grateful for the latest advice from the Climate Change Committee. We have always been clear that meeting the legislated 2030 target – agreed by Parliament on a cross party basis - will be extremely challenging, and may not be feasible. Scotland is already half way to net zero and continues to decarbonise faster than the UK average.
On the 18th of April, Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy, outlined plans for a package to accelerate our actions to achieve net zero by 2045, which include a timeline for implementing demand management, to help us achieve our much needed target to reduce car usage.
We will carefully consider the report’s recommendations and provide a Scottish Government response in due course.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 19 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to Sistema Scotland in the financial years (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25.
Answer
The Scottish Government provided £2,896,309 of funding to Sistema Scotland in financial year 2023-2024. The Scottish Government are working with Sistema Scotland to finalise their grant allocation for financial year 2024-2025.
