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: S4W-00846

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what its current estimate is of the number of people living in fuel poverty.

Question reference: S4W-00830

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the minimum (a) training and (b) qualification requirements are for volunteers working with older people.

It is an employer’s responsibility to train staff. Employers must ensure that all those working in their services have the appropriate skills and knowledge to carry out their role.

The National Care Standards clearly state that services must have policies and procedures in place which cover all legal requirements, including staffing and training. This includes having a staff development strategy and effective training plans in place for all staff.

Question reference: S4W-00833

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to improve training for care workers.

Employers are responsible for the training and continuous learning of their employees.

Bodies such as Skills for Care and Development, the sector skills council for the social services sector, the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority amongst others, support employers in training their workforce.

There is guidance and tools available to all employers in the social services sector which supports the identification, level and quality of training required for their employees. This includes the SSSC Code of Practice, National Occupational Standards, Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework and the Continuous Learning Framework.

Question reference: S4W-00800

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is ensures financial inclusion for less- well off families.

Responsibility for the delivery of financial inclusion lies with community planning partnerships and a comprehensive and responsive range of support and intervention services exists across the country funded through the Local Government Settlement.

Supporting the provision of welfare rights and money advice is a key aspect of the Scottish Government’s approach to tackling poverty. The Achieving our Potential budget funds national infrastructure for the sector, this year for example:

Citizens Advice Direct continues to receive core funding of £400,000 and an additional £80,000 to provide telephone benefit checks to those people referred through the Energy Assistance Package and Home Insulation Scheme;

The Child Poverty Action Group provides a second tier advice service and has received £408,000 this year to deliver the Second Tier Advice, Information and Training Services, and the Benefits for Students Training, Advice and Information Service. This offers advice, training and support to frontline staff that are in contact with households that are likely to be entitled to benefits and tax credits, and

MATRICS, a collaboration between Citizens Advice Scotland and Money Advice Scotland, will receive £191,600 towards training and support for the money advice sector.

Scottish Government has also invested in a number of innovative local services, for example:

Link Housing Association are receiving £300,000 to continue their Older People’s Advice Service, which provides an outreach support and advice service in Glasgow, Falkirk, Clackmannanshire, North Lanarkshire and West Lothian to vulnerable older people with a particular emphasis on clients who have health problems, or who live in remote areas, and

Macmillan Cancer Support has been allocated £406,500 this financial year to continue to provide benefits advice and support across the five cancer treatment centres in Scotland and in two NHS boards for patients with long-term conditions.

In addition, a number of organisations and initiatives receive Scottish Government funding to provide a wide range of support to individuals and families which includes welfare rights and money advice, for example the Lone Parents Helpline, Parenting in Scotland, Contact-a-Family, National Debtline and the Family Nurse Partnership programme.

Question reference: S4W-00799

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it takes to promote and develop credit unions.

Question reference: S4F-00087

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 June 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 June 2011

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government will take in response to figures showing that one in 10 care homes have been assessed by Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland as weak or unsatisfactory in at least one area of inspection.

Question reference: S4W-00756

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the cost of sending samples for laboratory testing from the Vale of Leven Hospital to the Royal Alexandra Hospital has been estimated and, if so, what the annual cost will be.

Question reference: S4W-00730

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it received in Barnett consequentials arising from spending by the UK Government on cancer services in 2010-11 and how it has been allocated.

Question reference: S4W-00811

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the BMA's view that the Scottish Government's workforce planning projections reveal "stark anticipated medical oversupply in Scotland".

Workforce planning projections indicate that over the next three to four years there are likely to be more doctors completing training than there will be consultant posts available to employ them. The issue to be tackled is not necessarily one of simple medical over-supply but one of how to employ these newly trained doctors in an affordable, appropriate, and sustainable manner.

The Scottish Government’s response to this issue has been to take steps to move towards a service predominantly delivered by trained doctors, rather than doctors in training. Moving to a trained doctor service provides an opportunity to enhance the service’s capacity to deliver high quality care and to achieve better value for money. A trained doctor service will necessarily consist of a “mixed economy” of existing and future consultants and Specialty Doctors, with a role for other healthcare professionals which makes the most of their potential.

Question reference: S4W-00798

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to protect less well-off families experiencing higher than average increases in their day-to-day living costs.

The Scottish Government is committed to reducing essential household costs for low income households via a range of measures, for example by:

Alleviating the effects of rising energy prices, through the Energy Assistance Package and Home Energy Hotline;

Working with partners through the Access and Affordability Expert Group to determine the evidence on food poverty in Scotland and to build a long term strategic programme for a stronger community food and health sector, in order to improve access to affordable and healthy food for vulnerable groups;

Extending free school meal criteria to all parents in receipt of qualifying benefits;

Committing to delivering an average 6000 affordable homes per year over the lifetime of this Parliament;

Continuing to reduce the essential costs of living through measures such as freezing council tax, and abolishing prescription charges, and

Analysing the impacts of changes to the welfare system on people in Scotland, making representations to the UK Government on these impacts, and working with stakeholders to contribute to, and influence the debate.