- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether the topic of Scottish independence was discussed during the meeting between the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture and United States Congressman, Steve Cohen, on 7 April 2022.
Answer
Congressman Steve Cohen and I held a positive meeting in April last year, in which we spoke about Scottish and US relations and Representative Cohen’s membership of the Friends of Scotland Caucus in the US Congress.
The subject of Scottish independence was not an agenda item in discussions, however Scottish ministers will always be polite enough during international meetings to answer any questions put to them about the Scottish Government's stated policies, including a legal, constitutionally sound referendum, as set out in our Programme for Government.
The Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and I had a constructive meeting in November last year during which he acknowledged Scottish Ministers’ need to conduct international business. I made it clear that I would continue to represent Scottish Government positions internationally, including on the constitution.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many GP practices there are in the top (a) 5% and (b) 10% of the (i) most and (ii) least deprived areas, according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).
Answer
The number of General Practices located in the most and least deprived areas in Scotland is shown in the following table, based on data published by Public Health Scotland relating to 1 January 2023.
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Total Number of Practices | |
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is on track to deliver its 2021-22 Programme for Government commitment that “by 2026, every GP practice will have access to a mental health and wellbeing service”.
Answer
As a result of the difficult decisions which had to be taken through the Emergency Budget review, recruitment of the 1,000 additional roles to support community mental health resilience, ensuring every GP Practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service has not yet commenced. We have already prioritised significant investment to build mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund.
We remain committed to improving mental health service provision in primary care settings. We are therefore working closely with stakeholders, including the Mental Health in Primary Care National Oversight Group, to develop plans to best use the resource available across the system in 2023-24, and in future years to improve support, assessment and treatment in primary care settings.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to address any regional disparities in the success of welfare applications.
Answer
Social Security Scotland’s Local Delivery service has teams based in every Scottish Local Authority, and in many cases are co-located with existing services to make sure that they bring support to places that people currently go. This localised approach to support also means that visibility of the service is tailored to meet the demands and demographics of each Local Authority area.
Through analysis of their data, Social Security Scotland are able to identify areas with low take-up or high rates of unsuccessful applications. This evidence can then be used to target engagement with local stakeholders to raise awareness of Scottish benefits and effectively support people to take up their entitlements.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many people who received Scottish Child Payment, and whose child met the age conditions, received Best Start Grant (a) Early Learning and (b) School Age Payment, following automatic checks by Social Security Scotland.
Answer
Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods including applications received, application outcomes, and payments. These are currently available on Social Security Scotland’s statistics webpage: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications
As part of data improvement, development is currently underway to include the number of Best Start Grant (a) Early Learning and (b) School Age payments made automatically to clients in receipt of Scottish Child Payment in future editions of the Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods statistics publication.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Winter Heating Payment, (a) how many
people and (b) what percentage of the total number of those eligible requested
the payment by paper form, and how many of those received the payment by 31
March 2023.
Answer
A first release of Official Statistics on Winter Heating Payment will be published on 06 June 2023, covering up to 31 March 2023. Subject to disclosure control, the publication will include breakdowns of applications and payments by channel, including paper forms. The figures will also be reported as percentages of total applications received. These will be available on Social Security Scotland’s statistics publication page at:
https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications .
In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, care will be taken to ensure that these publications are produced to a level of quality that meets users’ needs. Published data will be subject to disclosure control methods to protect the confidentiality of the data.
Data on the number of people who are eligible for the payment is not available.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the First Minister's election pledge to hold an anti-poverty summit, whether it will provide details of the proposed (a) date and (b) invitees of the summit.
Answer
The First Minister will convene an anti-poverty summit on 3 May 2023 to help guide future action to tackle poverty and inequality in Scotland.
Those invited include experts, anti-poverty campaigners, people with lived experience, representatives from the third sector, local government and business, as well as cross-party representatives of the Scottish Parliament.
The names of guests who have accepted an invitation to attend events hosted by Scottish Ministers are routinely published. This information will be made available in due course at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/ .
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve the safety of white collar boxing events in Scotland, and whether it has considered proposals for all unlicensed white collar boxing events to comply with Boxing Scotland’s minimum criteria for such events.
Answer
The Scottish Government places great importance on the safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport.
We have met with Boxing Scotland to discuss their proposals around minimum criteria for white collar boxing events.
It is the responsibility of individual boxing event organisers, and any other contact sports, to ensure that they have the appropriate procedures in places to protect the wellbeing of those taking part in their events.
We strongly urge all boxing event organisers to work with Boxing Scotland to ensure that robust measures and protocols are in place to reduce the risk of serious injury and protect the safety of those who take part.
- Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, following the announcement in August 2022 that the next ScotRail fares increase would be postponed by two months to March 2023, when it expects to announce the new fare prices.
Answer
The Scottish Government took the decision last year to freeze ScotRail fares as part of a suite of measures to tackle the ongoing cost of living crisis. More broadly the Scottish Government has committed to pilot the removal of ScotRail peak fares on all ScotRail routes from October this year.
This initiative will operate over a six-month period, following which the Scottish Government will carefully consider its impact and the long-term sustainability of such a proposition.
The Scottish Government is considering future fare options whilst taking account of the extremely challenging fiscal climate facing both rail passengers and funders and I expect to provide an update on this in due course.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what actions it is taking in response to reported statistics stating that 86% of redeterminations for the Child Disability Payment have been made in favour of the client.
Answer
Social Security Scotland’s priority is to get decisions right first time and an extremely low number of re-determinations are carried out. The re-determination request rate for Child Disability Payment decisions made by Social Security Scotland is 4.6%, which indicates that the vast majority of clients are happy with the initial decision.
Re-determinations are an important part of the decision-making process as they give clients the opportunity to ask Social Security Scotland to look at their application afresh before lodging an appeal.
Child Disability Payment decisions are usually changed at re-determination stage because the client provides additional information that was not available when the initial decision was made. Social Security Scotland staff now make additional contact with clients at the initial decision stage. While this may add to overall processing times, it will help ensure that such information is available first time round.