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-21243

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 5 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to improving the general level of education and cultural liaison concerning slavery.

History is an area of the curriculum which provides opportunities to study a wide range of people and historical events, and diversity is important within that, ensuring that pupils develop a nuanced, balanced, informed understanding of past people and events and their impact on how our society has developed.

The “People, past events and societies” element of the history curriculum provide flexibility to teachers to choose the topics to meet the needs of children and young people. While it is the responsibility of individual local authorities and schools to decide how to deliver the curriculum, based on local needs and circumstances, teachers will use their professional judgement to carefully select which historical periods and topics to study.

Within both the history and modern studies areas of the curriculum pupils learn about the similarities and differences between current and past values and attitudes, as well as historical reasons behind inequality in our society.

Question reference: S5W-21000

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how the NHS educates its staff at all levels regarding LGBT issues and discrimination.

All NHS Scotland Health Boards are required to deliver mandatory equalities training to all staff, which includes LGBT issues and discrimination as outlined in the Equality Act. Guidance is available to Boards on how to develop training and what should be included, with regards to both rights and responsibilities. Our national partnership between Stonewall Scotland and NHS Scotland is supporting health boards to ensure that the workforce has the skills and knowledge of LGBT issues in the health service. Improvements to how the NHS educates its staff is underpinned by our commitment to deliver a continuously improving safe working environment, in which staff are treated consistently and fairly with dignity and respect, in an environment where diversity is valued.

Question reference: S5W-21001

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how the NHS handles the reporting and management of allegations of homophobic and transphobic abuse among its staff.

The welfare of staff in our NHS is paramount and everything must be done to eradicate bullying in the workplace. This is why we have made clear to Health Boards that bullying and harassment is unacceptable, and we expect them to ensure any reported incidents are taken seriously and fully investigated. The Scottish Government is committed to equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. All workplaces must have robust processes for reporting and dealing with harassment or bullying and there are policies in place which support Boards to tackle workplace bullying. We recognise that more still needs to be done and we are working with LGBT equality organisations, to help us eradicate discrimination and stigma in the workforce.

Question reference: S5T-01462

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the not-for-profit energy supply company, Our Power, going out of business.

Question reference: S5W-21057

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are available to deal with persistent breaches of the code of conduct by private factoring companies regarding the complaint process for individual clients.

Protections for homeowners are provided under the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011. Homeowners who are unhappy about the service provided by their property factor should, in the first instance, raise the matter with the factor directly and follow the factor’s own internal complaints procedure. If the homeowner remains dissatisfied, they can apply to have their case considered by the First-tier Tribunal Housing and Property Chamber, which can issue legally-binding enforcement orders.

Question reference: S5W-20999

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance the NHS provides to primary healthcare practitioners to help them understand and address the healthcare needs of trans people.

The Scottish Government provides policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards to allow them to deliver services that meet the needs of their local populations. All healthcare professionals receive high quality training and education on the care of trans people, as part of their respective curriculums, which are developed and informed by professional organisations, and approved and overseen by the respective regulators of each profession.

Aspects of trans people’s healthcare needs are covered in the undergraduate curriculum (sexual health, gynaecology, andrology, mental health) in addition to post graduate training.

Question reference: S5W-20785

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) diabetes- and (b) obesity-focused (i) health psychologists specialising in behaviour change and (ii) clinical psychologists specialising in mental health there are; what action is being taken to increase the number, and how many newly-qualified specialists it expects to enter the workforce in each of the next six years.

The workforce data collected on psychologists in Scotland does not provide a breakdown on their areas of work in respect of diabetes or obesity. However, all psychologists have general psychology training which includes behavioural change.

There are currently 765.5 WTE clinical psychologists in post. Since September 2017, the clinical psychology workforce has grown by 36.0 WTE (4.9%). In addition,
‎ 237 individuals are training for various post-graduate qualifications in applied psychology, including 181 on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, who will be fully qualified to become Clinical Psychologists upon course completion. On average, ten years after graduating, 70.8% of graduates are still employed in NHSScotland Psychology Services.

Question reference: S5W-20788

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time between referral and first appointment weight management services has been in each of the last three years.

Information on waiting times for weight management services is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government continues to fund NHS Boards to deliver adult and child weight management services through the Outcomes Framework (£3m in 2018-19). While it is for individual Health Boards to determine the provision required to meet local needs, NHS Health Scotland and Boards are in the process of developing guidance on minimum standards and pathways in order to improve the quality and consistency of services, and equity of access.

This work is one of a wide range of actions for helping people eat better and achieve a healthier weight set out in the Scottish Government’s delivery plan, ‘A Healthier Future’. The plan also reflects the commitment to invest an additional £42 million over 5 years in integrated weight management services for people with, or at risk of, type 2 diabetes.

The full delivery plan can be accessed here: www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781787810556 .

The full Type 2 Diabetes prevention framework can be accessed here: https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0053/00538389.pdf

Question reference: S5W-20787

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many psychologists in weight management services there are; what action is being taken to increase the number, and how many newly-qualified specialists it expects to enter the workforce in each of the next six years.

The workforce data collected on psychologists in Scotland does not provide a breakdown on their areas of work in respect of weight management. In terms of the expected number of psychologists, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-20785 on 17 January 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-20786

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have (a) applied for and (b) enrolled in postgraduate (i) health psychology and (ii) clinical psychology courses in each of the last two years.

Information on enrolments at Scottish Higher Education Institutions (“HEIs”) is collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (“HESA”), which uses the Joint Academic Coding System (“JACS”) codes to record the chosen field of study. These provide specific information on ‘Health Psychology’ and ‘Clinical Psychology’ disciplines. However, other psychology disciplines have also been included as some Health & Clinical psychology courses will be grouped in the more ‘general’ categories.

Postgraduate enrolments in psychology disciplines at Scottish HEIs, 2015-16 to 2016-17

	2015-16	2016-17

Health psychology	10	15
Clinical psychology	75	155
Psychology of mental health and health & medicine	65	30
Psychology	640	570
Other psychology	445	580
All psychology	1,230	1,355

Source: HESA student data

Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5.

‘Other Psychology’ contains a range of subjects including child psychology, developmental psychology, and ‘psychology not elsewhere classified’, some of which will contain health and clinical studies.

All postgraduate courses are included, including Masters (taught and research), PhD research, and postgraduate diplomas.

Information on the number of applications for postgraduate study is not held centrally.