- Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recommendations of the Feeley Review of Adult Social Care that "priority is given to the establishing of the sector level body as a means to take forward the Fair Work recommendations in partnership" and "that body should also take the lead in creating national sector level collective bargaining of terms and conditions".
Answer
The Scottish Government have fully accepted the findings of the Feeley Review and we are working in partnership with stakeholders to implement its key recommendations. The Scottish Government are not waiting for the National Care Service to be established before we take action and we have continued to progress a number of key projects to take forward and improve Fair Work principles, including providing an additional £100m to increase the minimum rate of pay for adult social care workers to £10.90 per hour. Work is already underway to develop pay and bargaining arrangements ahead of the introduction of the NCS.
Through the National Care Service (NCS), The Scottish Government is going to continue to take forward its commitments to Fair Work for the social care sector, and to improve pay and conditions for workers, including through of national sectoral bargaining.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 11 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been carried out of the potential benefits of including air-to-air, as well as air-to-water, heating systems in schemes available for grant and loan support through Home Energy Scotland.
Answer
The renewable heating element of the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme provides funding for well-established technologies to support households to decarbonise heating their homes.
The Scottish Government has previously commissioned research to understand how heat pumps currently, or are likely to, perform in practice in Scottish buildings. A copy of this research is available here: Heat pump use in Scotland: an evidence review (climatexchange.org.uk)
There are a range of grant funded heating measures available through the scheme, including air to water heat pumps and other electric heating measures which can be complemented by installation of solar panels and battery storage.
The measures delivered through the scheme are kept under review and the Scottish Government will consider future changes in line with developments in new and improved technologies.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 11 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many Drug Treatment and Testing Orders have been imposed on people in each local authority area in each year since 2011-12.
Answer
Information about national and local numbers of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) is published annually. The relevant spreadsheet can be accessed directly online via this link: justice social work local authority tables up to 2021-22 for drug treatment and testing orders
Alternatively, this spreadsheet (“JSW local authority tables up to 2021 - 22 for drug treatment and testing orders”) can be found on the following page on the Scottish Government website: www.gov.scot/publications/criminal-justice-social-work-statistics-additional-tables-back-to-2004-2005/
Within the spreadsheet, the information for each relevant year can be accessed by selecting ‘Orders and Individuals: Number of Orders, Number per 10,000 Population and Number of Individuals’. Contextual information is contained in the footnotes of the table in relation to each year.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by George Adam on 11 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has had since he was appointed, broken down by month, and how many of those meetings had (a) civil servants present and (b) minutes prepared.
Answer
Information on Ministerial meetings is routinely published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/ .
Civil servants should be present for all discussions relating to Government business. Where that is not the case any significant content should be passed back to the Private Office as soon as possible after the event, who should arrange for the basic facts of such meetings to be recorded.
We are unable to provide a breakdown of minutes prepared. The basic facts of formal meetings between Ministers and outside interest groups are recorded, setting out the reasons for the meeting, the names of those attending and the interests represented. Routine meetings with policy officials may only require a short note setting out the reasons for the meeting, the names of attendees and any action points or decisions taken. For courtesy conversations where no policy decisions arise it may be sufficient to record within the official diary that the meeting has taken place.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that CalMac’s new Ar Turas ticketing system no longer offers the option of a season ticket for residents of the Isle of Cumbrae, what plans are in place to offer suitable and appropriate discounts in line with historic benefits.
Answer
CalMac are focussing their efforts on the Ar Turas Go-Live event. However, TS officials have had an initial meeting with CalMac to investigate potential options for eBooking of multi-journey tickets. This is at an early stage. It is important to note the wider benefits that the Ar Turas System will bring for both customers and staff.
Wider fares policy will be considered as part of the Islands Connectivity Plan and future fares options will be considered through that process.
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of ScotRail staff have received (a) first aid, (b) CPR and (c) defibrillator training.
Answer
a) At ScotRail, First Aid requirements are assessed on a First Aid Needs Assessment that aligns with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance. This has highlighted the importance of engineering locations due to the level of risk of employee injury and likely severity of possible injury at these locations should an accident happen.
ScotRail has provided the following data which shows the figures at each depot:-
Location | Fully Trained First Aiders | As a %age of Staff on Site Training Matrix | Defibrillators on site |
Ayr Townhead Depot (Train Presentation only) | 2 | 14.3% | 1 |
Cadder Depot | 1 | 12.5% | 2 |
Corkerhill Depot | 8 | 10.5% | 1 |
Eastfield Depot | 3 | 15.8% | 1 |
Haymarket Depot | 19 | 13.2% | 2 |
Inverness Depot | 19 | 20.2% | 2 (one at Inverness station) |
Millerhill Depot | 4 | 30.1% | 2 |
Shields Depot | 15 | 10.1% | 2 |
For all areas identified as lower risk-level, ScotRail has identified that all staff receive basic life preservation training as a minimum. ScotRail’s induction pack for new staff members contains basic life preservation training and this is carried out regularly within the briefing cycle for front line colleagues.
All of ScotRail’s frontline staff receive refresher briefings three times per year and CPR and preservation of life training are included as a core topic on a two year cycle. This covers approximately 2000 staff and is due to be included in the Sept to Dec Session this year.
Therefore, 2000 of 5000 staff = 40% of the workforce.
b) CPR is also part of the First Aid training received by either Face to face training or online training. Total ScotRail staff for 2023 that completed CPR training would be 43%.
c) Straight forward step-by-step instructions are included on every defibrillator machine. As a result of this ScotRail advise that defibrillators are designed to be easy to use and therefore no specific training is required for them.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of recent public protests over the closure of the Edinburgh Filmhouse, what action it can take to ensure that the Filmhouse remains a cultural resource for the city of Edinburgh.
Answer
Following the closure of the Edinburgh Filmhouse last year, the Scottish Government continues to engage with Creative Scotland and other stakeholders to explore options for cultural cinema programme activity in Edinburgh, as well as ways to support the recently announced 2023 edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, with the associated opportunities for employment and audiences those will bring.
The administration process for the Edinburgh Filmhouse is still ongoing, so it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on these proceedings.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many staff currently work within (a) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and (b) adult psychology, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The Scottish Government remain committed to improving the mental health and wellbeing of Scotland’s population. Delivering this can only be achieved with the right workforce capacity and capability.
We have invested heavily in staffing in recent years, which is why both CAMHS and Psychology Services workforces have more than doubled under this Government.
Information on workforce numbers is publicly available through the Turas Data Intelligence system, including by NHS Boards, provided by NHS Education for Scotland: NHS Scotland Workforce Data
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how it will work with the Scotch whisky industry to restore Scotland's peatlands.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing significant funding for peatland restoration and our delivery partners are working with the Scotch Whisky industry to explore how they can contribute to this restoration work.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it provided to (a) Historic Scotland and (b) Historic Environment Scotland in each year since 2007.
Answer
Details of Scottish Government funding for Historic Scotland, from 2007-08 until it became part of Historic Environment Scotland, can be found in the following table. These figures come from the annual Scottish Budget publication.
Year | Historic Scotland Funding £m |
2007-08 | 47.7 |
2008-09 | 51.7 |
2009-10 | 49.3 |
2010-11 | 49.8 |
2011-12 | 47.0 |
2012-13 | 45.3 |
2013-14 | 43.6 |
2014-15 | 37.8 |
2015-16 | 40.1 |
Details of the Scottish Government funding for provided Historic Environment Scotland since 2016-17, the first full year of its accounts, can be found in the following table. These figures come from the annual Scottish Budget publication with the exception of the revised budget in 2020-21 which took account of the effect of pandemic closures on its commercial income.
Year | Historic Environment Scotland Funding £m |
2016-17 | 45.0 |
2017-18 | 45.5 |
2018-19 | 41.1 |
2019-20 | 39.8 |
2020-21 (pre-pandemic) | 42.8 |
2020-21 (revised) | 80.4 |
2021-22 | 75.9 (including £20m in COVID consequentials) |
2022-23 | 70.1 |
2023-24 | 72.7 |
