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: S5W-01261

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils, on average, each educational psychologist has supported in each year since 2010.

Question reference: S5W-01260

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many students have been offered a place for an MSc in Educational Psychology in each year since 2010.

The number of students offered a place for an MSc in Educational Psychology in each year since 2010 is shown in the following table.

Intake Year	University	Number of Places Offered
2016	Dundee	19
2015	Strathclyde	12*
2014	Dundee	24
2013	Strathclyde	22
2012	Dundee	24
2011	Strathclyde	24
2010	Dundee	22

Source: Data provided by the University of Dundee and University of Strathclyde.

*Note: In 2015 Strathclyde University made 17 conditional offers initially which were subsequently reduced to 12 confirmed offers.

Question reference: S5W-01498

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 22 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the timetable is for the (a) development and (b) publication of its updated mental health strategy.

Question reference: S5W-01497

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 22 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will produce its final report on the outcomes of the Mental Health Strategy for Scotland 2012-15; what progress it has made toward meeting each of the 36 commitments in the strategy, and when each commitment (a) has been and (b) will be fulfilled.

Progress updates on the last Mental Health Strategy are available on the Scottish Government’s website at the following link:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Services/Mental-Health/Strategy

We will publish a new ten-year Mental Health Strategy later in 2016, following a further phase of public engagement. It will build on the successes of the previous Mental Health Strategy 2012 to 2015, with ongoing work on existing commitments being included where appropriate. We therefore have no plans to publish a separate report.

Question reference: S5W-00852

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 28 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support language development in pre-school age children.

Curriculum for excellence is setting higher standards than ever before in literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing. Results from a recent Growing Up in Scotland study show improvement in three-year-olds’ vocabulary but our ambition is to close the attainment gap altogether. We will bring forward a programme of work focusing on early intervention and improving attainment. This includes the £750 million Scottish attainment fund to boost literacy and numeracy in our most deprived areas, the new national improvement framework, attainment advisers for every local authority and the raising attainment for all programme with over 50 literacy-based school projects.

The Scottish Government recognises that parents also have a key role in supporting their children’s speech and language development and we provide support through campaigns such as Play Talk Read and Bookbug.

We know that a skilled early years workforce is also key to supporting young children’s learning, and that the most disadvantaged children benefit most, which is why First Minister announced in October 2015 that nurseries in the most deprived areas of Scotland will, from 2018, benefit from an additional graduate or teacher in nurseries with early learning expertise.

Question reference: S5W-00830

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 28 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many teachers or graduates with speech and language expertise are employed in nurseries in each local authority area, and what support it can provide to increase this.

Question reference: S5W-00717

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 24 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address the "downward trend" in the take up of cervical screening that was reported in its news release of 6 June 2016, Women urged to go for smear test.

We fully support the objective of increasing uptake in the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme and work has been taking place to help address the fall in cervical screening uptake rates.

Scottish Government officials meet cervical screening coordinators from all NHS boards on a quarterly basis to discuss a range of issues relating to the national screening programme, including increasing uptake of screening. NHS boards have responsibility for publicising screening within their local area and for working closely with their communities to increase screening uptake. Work of this nature is continually taking place within NHS boards. Recent local initiatives have included development of a toolkit which allows GP practices to benchmark their current practice and develop action plans to improve their uptake and an ongoing pharmacy prescription bag pilot which involves pharmacists targeting key cervical cancer screening promotional messages to those eligible to participate.

Following recent changes to the eligible age range and frequency of screening in the cervical screening programme an awareness raising campaign will soon be launched, this will aim to highlight to all women the importance of attending cervical screening and to address some of the barriers which prevent women attending. Furthermore, our on-going ‘Detect Cancer Early’ social marketing campaigns aim to raise awareness and encourage participation in the national cancer screening programmes.

Question reference: S5O-00070

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it is giving to reviewing the planning guidelines on the proximity of waste management facilities to residential areas and community facilities.

Question reference: S5W-00595

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that its educational attainment strategy reflects the additional challenges that young (a) BME, (b) disabled and (c) LGBTI people can face.

The Education (additional support for learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 requires education authorities to identify, provide and review the additional support needs of their pupils. An additional support need may arise for any reason and may be of short or long-term duration. The additional support provided is intended to overcome barriers to learning which may arise as a result of learning environment, health or disability, family circumstances and social and emotional factors.

The Scottish attainment challenge was established to close the educational attainment gap between young people from our most and least deprived communities. The attainment Scotland fund, currently provides funding to those primary schools and authorities identified as having the highest concentrations of The Scottish index of multiple deprivation (SIMD) one and two. We will also allocate additional funding to schools on the basis of the number of eligible children that meet the criteria for free school meals. If a BME, disabled or LGBTI child's educational attainment is affected by poverty related disadvantage, they will also benefit from increased support through the Scottish attainment challenge. This is in addition to existing policies aimed at addressing the support required by other groups of young people.

Question reference: S5W-00596

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 21 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has (a) carried out and (b) plans to take to support families affected by alcohol harm.

The Scottish Government has taken significant action to support families affected by alcohol harm. Our alcohol framework contains more than 40 measures to tackle alcohol-related harm which include actions to support families.

The Scottish Government provides funding to public and third sector organisations for this. We fund Scottish families affected by alcohol and drugs (£363,766 in the past two years 2015-16 and 2016-17) to support families. We fund Lloyds TSB Foundation and Partnership Drugs Initiative (PDI) - £1,435,000 in the past two years 2015-16 and 2016-17 - for targeting supporting for vulnerable children and families affected by substance misuse.

The Scottish Government also supports alcohol and drug partnerships whose work ensures family members of people misusing alcohol and drugs are safe, well-supported and have improved life-chances. As a result, alcohol and drug services are broadening their thinking through whole family approaches and adopting a more family inclusive practice which is in keeping with the Scottish Government’s Quality Principles: Standard Expectations of care and Support in Drug and Alcohol Services (2014).

The Scottish Government’s national guidance for child protection sets out our expectations that all services working with vulnerable children and families should have robust measures in place. We also published updated and bespoke substance misuse guidance ‘Getting our Priorities Right’ in 2013, for use by all practitioners working with children and families where substance misuse is a factor.

Our plans for further action are built on the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to tackling parental alcohol and drug misuse and its effect on children. We continue to fund public and third sector initiatives. We are also committed to a refresh of the alcohol framework during 2016 which will set out future actions in more detail. For example, we are considering the findings which were launched on 9 June 2016 by the Lloyds TSB PDI project.