- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a timetable for the establishment of the ten-year £500 million Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray.
Answer
We will work collaboratively with partners, communities and other stakeholders to take forward the ten-year £500m Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray. The delivery of the Fund will exemplify our co-design and co-delivery approach that will be supported by a programme of broad engagement in the area. This Fund is a new commitment which will require detailed policy design work and implementation planning. We will provide further information on the process in due course.
The Just Transition Fund will support and accelerate energy transition, create good, green jobs and maximise the region’s future economic potential. We are determined to tackle climate emergency and mitigate the impacts of the transition on communities across Scotland, and we will work at pace to deliver our sectoral plans for a just transition.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it carried out a gender impact assessment in relation to its Green Jobs Fund.
Answer
The Green Jobs Fund is not a skills or training fund. Over the next 5 years, the £100m Fund will provide businesses with capital investment towards improved green products and services and related research and development. All individual funding applications are subject to a detailed appraisal process that includes an equality impact assessment and evaluation of fair work practices. We will also ensure that larger consortia projects produce plans which help diversify their sectors and will use appropriate monitoring and evaluation frameworks to ensure successful companies and their net zero supply chains provide positive economic and employment impacts that raise skill levels and close skills gaps.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what the projected outcomes and targets are for the ten-year £500 million Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray.
Answer
We will work collaboratively with partners, communities and other stakeholders to take forward the ten-year £500m Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray. The delivery of the Fund will exemplify our co-design and co-delivery approach that will be supported by a programme of broad engagement in the area. This Fund is a new commitment which will require detailed policy design work and implementation planning. We will provide further information on the process in due course.
The Just Transition Fund will support and accelerate energy transition, create good, green jobs and maximise the region’s future economic potential. We are determined to tackle climate emergency and mitigate the impacts of the transition on communities across Scotland, and we will work at pace to deliver our sectoral plans for a just transition.
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Current Status:
Withdrawn
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid out in compensation by each local authority in each year since 1999.
Answer
Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.
Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 21 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the anticipated breakdown by (a) role and (b) starting year of the 320 additional staff that it has committed to delivering to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) workforce by 2026.
Answer
The breakdown of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) workforce is published on a quarterly basis through the NHS Education for Scotland (NES) CAMHS Workforce publication. This data can be found on the NES Turas Data Intelligence platform and provides a breakdown of staffing per NHS Board in CAMHS, including breakdown of professional role.
In May 2021, we allocated £16.4 million to support NHS Boards to implement the National CAMHS Service Specification. In addition, on 14 September, we announced £10.83 million funding to further support the implementation. Through this funding, NHS Boards have started to recruit additional staff to implement the Specification and to build professional capacity to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs. NHS Boards will recruit a variety of staff in different roles, based on individual service needs.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what training has been provided to staff in its Clinical Priorities Unit in relation to engaging with people on issues such as disabilities, equality measures, fairness and human rights, including with people with long-term conditions, and when any such training was provided.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all our staff have the necessary training/skills to fulfil our commitments to equalities and diversity and dealing with specific groups of stakeholders. Diversity and inclusion capability building, including learning and development, for Scottish Government staff is set out in our Mainstreaming Equality Outcomes Report 2021. In July 2021, we launched new mandatory diversity and inclusion training. This aims to ensure everyone working within the Scottish Government develops and maintains a foundational level of knowledge about inclusion and supports individual self-reflection and personal development.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with BT regarding the removal of its obsolete network of KX and KX+ series of telephone boxes in Scotland.
Answer
The removal of public call boxes (PCBs) is subject to the rules in the telephony universal service obligations. In order to remove PCBs BT has to go through a consultation process with local authorities. There is no direct role for Scottish Government. As telecoms regulator, Ofcom is in the process of reviewing these obligations and intend to publish a consultation in the coming weeks.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the COVID-19 Delta variant, what its position is on the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control statement that "children appear to be equally susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to other age groups".
Answer
We welcome and have noted the technical report on ‘COVID-19 in children and the role of school settings in transmission – second update’ from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The COVID-19 Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children’s Issues has previously recognised that the Delta variant is more transmissible than the previously dominant variants, including among children. However, compared to adults, children are at much lower risk of severe COVID-related health outcomes. Once infected, they are more likely to experience mild or asymptomatic infection. Severe illness, hospitalisation and mortality are rare. Moreover, the evidence base continues to suggest that children transmit the virus at lower rates than adults, are more likely to transmit among themselves than to adults, and that cases in education settings follow and mirror transmission rates in the community where adult to adult transmission is more common. The summary report of the evidence on children, schools, early learning and childcare settings and transmission from COVID-19 provides more detail.
From w/c Monday 20 September all 12-15 year olds will be eligible for one dose of the vaccine which should help reduce transmission in children 12 years old and above.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its policy that schools remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic, what its position is on whether (a) significant mitigations are needed in schools and (b) community transmissions must be kept to a minimum; what additional policies it will implement to ensure that children and young people do not face disproportionate risks to their long-term health as a result of COVID-19, and what the timescales are for any such action.
Answer
Our focus has been, and remains, on keeping our school communities safe including minimising the risk of any long-term impact of the pandemic. The First Minister confirmed in her update to Parliament on 14 September, that we are retaining the current suite of mitigations in schools for the time being. This decision follows the latest recommendations of the advisory sub-group on education and children’s issues, and was taken after very careful consideration. The measures in place in schools and across wider society are crucial in reducing infection but we will continue to keep the requirements under very close review.
