- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 August 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 28 August 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Storm Arwen review recommendations update: October 2022, whether it will provide an update on its work regarding the enhanced engagement programme between the Scottish Government, resilience partnerships, and key national organisations, which ran from October 2022 to March 2023, and was due to be evaluated in April 2023.
Answer
In response to the recommendations of the Storm Arwen review report, the Scottish Government undertook a programme of enhanced engagement with key resilience organisations which included a series of Winter Preparedness Meetings. Following the conclusion of the programme of engagement, a review was conducted which found the Winter Preparedness Meetings to have been useful, met the Terms of Reference, and recommended that The Scottish Government considers continuing to undertake season based resilience meetings. This summer, Summer Resilience Meetings have been hosted in relation to summer resilience issues.
In addition to this, the established multi-agency Resilience structures in Scotland,attended by SG officials, all considered the Storm Arwen report and recommendations for their collective and organisational preparedness.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 July 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 August 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the objective of the Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care to ensure that “by 2021 everyone who needs palliative care will have access to it”, and whether this has been met.
Answer
The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high-quality palliative care.
We are currently developing a new National Strategy for Palliative and End of Life Care for Scotland. As part of this work, we are reviewing the information and evidence we have, and need, to develop the strategy. This includes gathering data on current and projected needs for palliative care at a population level, mapping services and support across Scotland, and building on our understanding of people’s experiences of palliative and end of life care.
The outputs of this work will give us a clearer picture of the delivery and accessibility of palliative care across Scotland, and will inform a new strategy that reflects what really matters to people experiencing serious illness, dying and bereavement.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 July 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 August 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Marie Curie’s report, How many people need palliative care?, which was published in July 2023, and estimates the projected need for palliative care in Scotland will increase by 17.1% by 2048 to 64,587 people.
Answer
The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high-quality palliative care.
We are currently developing a new National Strategy for Palliative and End of Life Care for Scotland and, as part of this work, we are reviewing the information and evidence we have, and need, to develop the strategy. This includes gathering and analysing data on current and projected needs for palliative care for the population of Scotland.
We will study the Marie Curie figures in comparison to our own ongoing analysis in order to assess increased palliative care need over future years to inform the development of the new strategy.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 July 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 25 August 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the publication of the Transport Scotland report, Women's and girls' views and experiences of personal safety when using public transport, which was published in March 2023, what work is being undertaken with stakeholders to implement the report’s ten recommendations.
Answer
The research report published in March shows that women and girls are being forced to adapt their own behaviour and change their travel habits in order to feel safe on public transport – which is simply unacceptable. The research makes ten recommendations to ensure our transport network is safer and more secure for all who use it. It is my intention to bring transport operators and other stakeholders together to identify what is already being done to help address the research recommendations and actions required in the future. I will update on plans to do this once they are further developed. I also want to engage with relevant night time economy organisations, around availability of public transport and the impacts this has on women and girls’ safety.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 August 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 25 August 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported figures from ChargePlace Scotland, which shows that there were 7,977 complaints lodged from members of the public regarding the charging network for electric vehicles between November 2021 and October 2022.
Answer
The Scottish Government have invested over £65 million in ChargePlace Scotland (CPS), Scotland’s public charging network, which now has more than 2500 publicly available charge points, over 90,000 member registrations and over 2.3 million successful charging sessions recorded in the last 12 months.
The figure of 7977 does not relate to ‘complaints’. This was the total of number of customer service tickets raised by the ChargePlace Scotland helpdesk over the 12 month period.
There are many reasons why a ticket can be raised, but these are not always a complaint and do not necessarily relate to issues which affect the operation of the charge point itself. If it relates to a ‘fault’, then that fault may be reported by more than one member of the public and this will also be reflected in the figures. Ticket and fault information are published monthly on the ChargePlace Scotland website for the general public to view.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 August 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 25 August 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any discussions it has had with representatives from the care sector, in light of reports that care homes are closing at a rate of one per week.
Answer
Scottish Government regularly engages with representatives from the care sector to discuss the challenges facing social care and how we can work together to improve services.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 July 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 August 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what urgent action it is taking to reduce waiting lists for social care, in light of recent reports that 3,964 people are waiting for a social care package and 6,253 are waiting for an assessment.
Answer
The Scottish Government is aware of the pressures faced by the Social Care sector at present and while the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, it is local authorities and health and social care partnerships who have the responsibility for commissioning appropriate services for local needs. We are however, taking steps at a national level to assist in reducing these pressures.
We are continuing to invest in social care to support the people who deliver, and rely, on these services with £1.7bn being provided for social care support and integration in 2023-24.
We have invested a further 3.6 million pounds to continue the development and expansion of Hospital at Home services. This additional funding brings the Scottish Government’s total investment in Hospital at Home services to more than 10.7 million pounds since 2020 and will see the number of patients accessing Hospital at Home grow by 50%.
We are progressing our commitment to increase spend in social care support by 25% by the end of this Parliament - an increase of over £840m, laying the groundwork for the establishment of a National Care Service.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 August 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the 2023 Recruitment Scotland Fill Rates, for what reason the medical trainee recruitment fill rates for clinical oncology ST3 is at 27.78% and medical oncology ST3 is at 33.33% at this stage in the recruitment year for trainee doctors.
Answer
The number of posts advertised annually by NHS Education for Scotland is determined by two factors: (1) the number of trainees who have completed training, obtained a CCT (Certificate of Completion of Training) and whose posts are therefore vacant, and (2) whether any additional posts have been created.
We funded the creation of additional training places this year in both Medical and Clinical Oncology. This, coupled with high CCT rates, has led to lower fill rates. All unfilled posts are being readvertised in the last recruitment round of 2023, meaning these fill rates could improve. The end-year position will be known in November.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 August 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 August 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in digital health technologies in each of the past three years.
Answer
Core central funding for digital technologies across health and social care in each of the past three years is as below:
22-23 - £99,522
21-22 - £ 112,267
20-21 - £103,232
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 August 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 August 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the number of properties in (a) Aberdeenshire and (b) Angus that are still to be connected to superfast broadband under its R100 scheme, and by what date it expects these properties to be connected.
Answer
The Scottish Government is enabling access to superfast broadband through the R100 contracts (North, Central and South) and the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS).
As at 30 June 2023, the total number of properties included in the R100 contracts yet to receive a connection in the (a) Aberdeenshire and (b) Angus local authority areas are as follows:
| Number of contracted premises to be connected |
(a)Aberdeenshire | 13,516 |
(b)Angus | 6,538 |
The R100 contracts are delivering future-proofed, gigabit capable broadband connections, with build in Aberdeenshire and Angus currently underway and expecting to complete in 2028. Constituents can access the latest deployment information relating to their property via the R100 address checker ( www.scotlandsuperfast.com ).
All premises not in commercial or R100 contract plans are eligible for the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.