- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how and (b) when the outcomes of the Scottish Ambulance Service's demand and capacity review will be implemented.
Answer
Since agreement of phased funding, SAS have been actively recruiting staff at pace and increasing vehicles on the ground on a transition basis into priority locations across the country. Seven additional satellite stations have already been established, with a further three still to be established, enabling resources to be spread across busy urban areas to better match patient demand.
Alongside this, the service having been working in partnership to design new rosters. SAS are expecting new rosters to be implemented in April 2022 for the majority of locations across the East and North Regions. The West Region full implementation is expected to be concluded by the end of July.
Recruitment for phase 3 of the review has commenced and will enable SAS to increase their establishment by a further 162 staff as well as further increase our station locations and vehicles on the ground.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when the Scottish Ambulance Service's demand and capacity review was (a) started and (b) completed.
Answer
The Service commissioned an independent Demand and Capacity Review in 2017. Funding has since been approved on a phased basis, with the third phase of the review scheduled to be concluded and changes implemented by November 2022.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic have been taken into account in the Scottish Ambulance Service's demand and capacity review.
Answer
The Scottish Ambulance Service continues to provide data each year to Operational Research in Health (ORH) to continually update the model. This enables resourcing requirements to be modelled each year to take account of changes in the data and wider health and social care system, therefore the most recent modelling includes the impact of COVID 19.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Scottish Ambulance Service has had with trade unions regarding its demand and capacity review.
Answer
The Demand and Capacity programme and core principals have been designed and delivered in partnership with unions - with representatives of GMB, Unite the Union and Unison all being members of the steering group which meets monthly.
A staff engagement and consultation process, also agreed in partnership with Unions at the outset, is being conducted in all regions.
SAS continue to hold regular discussions with staff side representatives, including weekly meetings with the Project Team on this review.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02085 by Maree Todd on 23 August 2021, whether a date has been set for the resumption of over-70s breast cancer screening, and, if not, (a) for what reason and (b) whether it will commit to this service restarting in any form in 2022.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to resuming the pause to self-referrals for those aged 71 and over as soon as it is feasible. The Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) agreed that the option for women over 70 to self-refer into the breast screening programme should resume once all screening centres are able to offer those aged 53-70 their breast screening appointments within 39 months of their previous screening. However, in recognition of the anxiety the pause is causing, the screening programme is exploring whether there are other options that will accelerate the restart without unduly impacting appointment times for the eligible screening population. Any decision will be informed by clinical advice and the on-going pandemic.
In the meantime, the programme is working hard to increase capacity, including by deploying additional mobile units and offering appointments at evenings and weekends.
Regardless of their age, women should remain symptom aware and report any symptoms to their GP immediately for these to be investigated.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many women aged 50 to 70 are currently waiting to be invited for breast cancer screening.
Answer
As of 31st January 2022, 54,726 women in Scotland have waited more than 36 months since their last breast screen. Data presented in relation to S6W-06127 on 28 February 2022 sets out the average length of time between screening appointments by screening centre. Historically, the Scottish Breast screening Programme has invited around 260,000 women per year. In 2019-20 just under 270,000 women were invited.
The programme continues to recover from the March 2020 Covid-19 related pause, and the National Screening Oversight, Scottish Screening Committee and Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) continue to work with health boards to increase the number of available appointments, including through deploying additional mobile breast screening units and providing additional appointments during evenings and at weekends.
It should be noted that the data provided is management information that has not been subject to quality checks applied on an official publication.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) average and (b) longest current waiting time is for breast cancer screening for women aged 50 to 70.
Answer
a) There are six breast screening centres across Scotland. For women aged 53-70 years who were screened between 1st April 2020 and 31st January 2021, the average interval between screening episodes was 41 months across Scotland.
The average interval between screening episodes, broken down by screening centre, was as follows:
East – 46 months
North – 40 months
North East – 42 months
South East – 41 months
West – 38 months
South West – 39 months
b) It is not possible to provide information on the current longest interval between screening episodes; however, within the period between 1 April 2020 and 31 January 2021, 2% of those screened had an interval between screening rounds of greater than or equal to 51 months.
It should be noted that the data provided to answer this question is management information that has not been subject to quality checks applied on an official publication.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05606 by Michael Matheson on 17 January 2022, what commitment it will make to review the Water Charges Reduction Scheme, in light of the potential erosion of its value to the least affluent customers with each year that Scottish Water increases charges above the rate of inflation.
Answer
The expansion of the water charges reduction scheme (WCRS) from April 2021 is worth £86m across the 2021-27 period and it will provide support for over 470,000 households. The increase in discount from 25% to 35%, again from 2021, means that customers in receipt of the WCRS will be protected from price increases over the regulatory period. There are therefore no plans to review the scheme at this time but it will be part of the strategic review of charges ahead of the next regulatory period.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the assumption was for Scottish Water's capital spending for new capital works required in the 2021-22 period and funded as part of the 2021-27 regulatory period.
Answer
Scottish Water set out in its 2021 Delivery Plan its expectation that it would invest between £570m and £650m (excluding responsive repair activity) in 2021-22. Scottish Water forecasts that it will outturn in the upper half of this range.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05610 by Michael Matheson on 17 January 2022, whether Scottish Water is the only shareholder in Scottish Water Business Stream Holdings Ltd; whether Scottish Water Business Stream Holdings Ltd is the only shareholder in Scottish Water Business Stream, and whether the £10 million equity obtained in Scottish Water Business Stream by Scottish Water Business Stream Holdings Ltd was in effect a grant to strengthen the balance sheet of Scottish Water Business Stream.
Answer
Scottish Water is the only shareholder in Scottish Water Horizons Holdings Ltd, Scottish Water Horizons Holdings Ltd is the only shareholder in Scottish Water Business Stream Holdings Ltd and Scottish Water Business Stream Holdings Ltd is the only shareholder in Scottish Water Business Stream Ltd.
The £10m of equity invested by Scottish Water Business Stream Holdings Ltd in Scottish Water Business Stream Ltd (SWBS) was part of the precautionary funding facilities which were put in place for SWBS during 2020-2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and will be eligible to receive future dividends from Scottish Water Business Stream Ltd.