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: S6W-03168

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to ensure that NHS boards properly maintain hospital estates, and what analysis it has carried out of whether each board employs a sufficient number of estate and facilities staff.

In 2020-21, the Scottish Government delegated £140 million of the Health and Social Care Portfolio’s capital budget to be used by Health Boards on priorities such as maintenance. Over the course of the next five years, the Scottish Government intends to double the annual amount spent on maintenance, investing a total of £1 billion over those five years in enhancing or refurbishing existing facilities . The condition of NHS properties are regularly assessed with the results added to the national Estates and Asset Management System. The Scottish Government does not audit the staffing levels of NHS estates and facilities department. The scale and nature of each Health Board’s estate varies significantly and therefore the number of staff and type of skills required for estates and facilities departments also vary. It is the responsibility of each Health Board to ensure that those departments are sufficiently resourced.

Question reference: S6O-00354

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Discover Cyber Skills programme.

Question reference: S6W-02706

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has taken account of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, extended flu immunisations and COVID-19 booster vaccinations in the funding allocation for the delivery of the wider Vaccination Transformation Programme (VTP).

The Vaccination Transformation Programme (VTP) is funded via the Primary Care Improvement Fund, which began in 2018 and will have provided £250 million to health boards up to the end of financial year 2022. The extended flu programme and COVID-19 vaccination programme (including boosters) are outside the scope of this fund, however work to deliver these programmes has helped to build Health Board capacity to vaccinate and complete the VTP.

Question reference: S6W-02899

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to fill the reported 406 nursing and midwifery posts that are vacant in NHS Grampian.

The number of staff working in NHS Grampian has increased by 20.7 per cent since Sept 2006, to over 13,520 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE). This includes a 6.9 per cent increase in numbers of Qualified Nurses and Midwives, which have risen to 4,099.1 WTE.

NHSScotland Boards are required to have the correct staff in place to meet the needs of the service and ensure high quality patient care. They have fully delegated powers in relation to employment issues. The Scottish Government works closely with Boards to support their efforts in staff recruitment. The creation of posts and filling of individual vacancies will depend on the service needs of each Board, taking account of national and local priorities.

We are investing £11 million in new recruitment activity and in the creation of a National Centre for Workforce Supply. The Centre will offer NHS Boards expert advice on labour market intelligence and coordinate recruitment campaigns, providing vital additional support to health board recruitment teams.

We are also taking forward a comprehensive programme to support recovery and build further capacity. The programme will include measures to increase international recruitment, retain staff and attract more returners to the service. The Scottish Government will continue to work with partners to explore options and opportunities that allow us to best support our registered staff.

Question reference: S6W-02898

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS boards notify the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care of the Code Black status of hospitals and, if so, how (a) this is communicated and (b) many times this has happened in each of last three years, broken down by NHS board.

Each Health Board operates their own escalation policy for the management of inpatient capacity that includes well established processes with locally agreed trigger points for maintaining a safe service and ensuring patient safety.

Health Boards across the country are operating under significant pressure due to the direct and indirect consequences of the pandemic, which has been the biggest challenge the NHS has faced in its 73 year existence.

The Scottish Government is in daily contact with all Health Boards to monitor the pressures in the system and continues to support improvement work to minimise delays for patients no matter where they are in the system.

Question reference: S6W-02262

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether (a) Public Health Scotland and (b) NHS boards are collecting data on the way patients access treatment in GP surgeries in light of the changes to face-to-face appointments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

GP practices have remained open, accessible and at the forefront of our community services to deal with non-COVID-19 medical care throughout the pandemic. As outlined in the NHS Recovery Plan, a key aim is to work with our GPs to continue to restore face-to-face practice consultations as quickly and safely as possible, while ensuring everyone can continue to make use of eHealth services if that is their preference.

Public Health Scotland have published guidance on social distancing and infection control measure in health settings, changing the 2 metre social distancing rule to 1 metre, enabling more patients in waiting rooms, while continuing to ensure that vulnerable patients and staff are kept safe. In addition, specific guidance to general practices has been published making it clear that there is no longer a need to triage every patient, although they should continue to screen patients for Covid before seeing them face-to-face. We will continue to take advice from public health experts and clinicians when reviewing these measures.

With these recently announced changes I would expect the number of face-to-face appointments to increase.

While high quality data from across the health system is collected, we are working with stakeholders to improve the quality of data we can collect from GP practices to ensure it is robust.

We have continued to meet routinely with GPs and their representatives, and hear regularly from patients, to help build intelligence around appointments and pressures in GP practices throughout the pandemic, and are currently working together with NSS and PHS on a more advanced digital solution for capturing this information moving forward.

Question reference: S6W-03285

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 8 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported comments by the Chief Executive of Women’s Aid that women who have experienced domestic or sexual abuse may be deterred from reporting it because of court delays and that “there is no safety for them in calling the police or in asking for help from the public sector."

The Scottish Government advises anyone who has experienced domestic abuse or sexual violence to report crimes committed against them, regardless of the impacts of Covid-19. Police Scotland remain committed to proactively target perpetrators and protect victims and their families from domestic abuse or further harm.

Domestic abuse cases continue to feature in the court programme as a key priority, with a view to mitigating the impact of the pandemic on timescales for these types of cases. £50m of Scottish Government Covid recovery funding was allocated this year and the recruitment and training of extra justice staff has enabled additional court capacity recently. This will support the process for reducing the backlog in criminal cases through the collaborative Recovery programme.

The Scottish Government meets regularly with Scottish Women’s Aid to discuss their concerns, and to outline the approach being taken to addressing the impact of the pandemic on all court cases. We understand the pandemic has extended waiting lists for support and have allocated £4.5 million split between Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland to address this issue.

Question reference: S6W-03279

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many lower-income older or disabled homeowners have been assisted by Care and Repair Scotland in the last 12 months with the installation of smoke, fire and carbon monoxide alarms in order to comply with the new regulations.

Question reference: S6W-03283

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 7 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the statement in the Scottish Social Services Council publication, Mental Health Officers (Scotland) Report 2020, that "the last three years have seen by far the highest number of vacated posts" for Mental Health Officers (MHOs), for what reason this is the case, and what action it is taking with the 23 local authorities that reported a workforce shortfall that would require 53 full-time exclusive MHOs to fill the positions.

MHOs are critically important as they protect and safeguard the rights of vulnerable people with mental health conditions.

MHO workload pressures have no doubt been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, but we are aware of a number of issues that are having an impact. These include significant numbers of applications for guardianship orders under Adults with Incapacity legislation, supporting hospital discharges when there is an issue with incapacity, as well as the challenges of working on detention and compulsory treatment orders during the pandemic. MHOs also provide ongoing advice for other professionals, users of services and carers about the use of mental health legislation when planning care and treatment.

While it is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure they have the appropriate levels of MHOs in place, we have been working, with COSLA, local authorities, the Scottish Social Services Council and others since 2019 to improve MHO capacity across Scotland.

We are committed to addressing a shortfall in the MHO workforce by 2023 as part of our wider Integrated Health and Social Care Workforce Plan (2019) and we are investing £1.5 million over 2019-2022 to support Local Authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships in training additional MHOs. Additionally, we are currently evaluating with COSLA options to support new MHO posts and decisions will be made in due course.

Question reference: S6W-03281

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 7 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many referrals there have been to the National Referral Mechanism for human trafficking and exploitation cases in Scotland in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021 to date, broken down by (i) type of referral and (ii) demographic.