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-03820

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the level of anti-depressant prescribing has been in each year since 2007.

The Information and Statistics Division (ISD) annual report “Prescribing in Mental Health” provides summary information on antidepressant use in Scottish Health Boards. This report is published online and is available at: http://www.isdscotland.org/Publications/. Included within the data tables as part of this publication is a summary of the number of patients and a frequency count of the items by patient at NHS Scotland level – this data is published from 2009-10 onwards.

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

Number of Dispensed Items	Number of Patients	Number of Dispensed Items	Number of Patients	Number of Dispensed Items	Number of Patients	Number of Dispensed Items	Number of Patients	Number of Dispensed Items	Number of Patients	Number of Dispensed Items	Number of Patients
1,249,599	204,119	1,388,211	219,071	1,510,193	234,899	1,604,047	246,925	1,726,141	259,747	1,843,352	273,903
4,023,964	633,791	4,444,925	675,948	4,806,276	718,330	5,059,941	747,158	5,377,924	778,180	5,710,539	814,181

The figures for antidepressants for 2015-16 in the latest publication by ISD are for high level national figures for number of items and Gross Ingredient Cost(GIC)only, following the identification of a data processing issue. More detailed analysis and a supplementary data excel file in line with the analysis presented for other classes of medicines for mental health in this publication will be published in due course.

Question reference: S5F-00411

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 November 2016

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the new living wage rate.

Question reference: S5W-03522

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 31 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what gender-specific training is provided for (a) Business Gateway advisers and (b) Scottish Enterprise account managers.

Ensuring that Business Gateway Advisers have the training they need to deliver the Business Gateway Service is the responsibility of local authorities which are responsible for the operational delivery of the service.

Training for Scottish Enterprise account managers is an operational matter for the enterprise agency. I have asked the Chief Executive to contact you with the information you have requested and my understanding is that this will be with you in the near future.

Question reference: S5W-03527

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 31 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the equality impact assessment it carries out of spending by (a) Scottish Enterprise and (b) Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are responsible for carrying out Equality Impact Assessments of their own policies and practices. They publish the assessments on their respective websites.

Links to the relevant pages are provided below:

https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/about-us/transparency/equality-and-diversity

http://www.hie.co.uk/about-hie/equality-and-diversity/equality-impact-assessment.html

Question reference: S5W-03759

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 31 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the 44 performance measures are for Scottish Enterprise.

Scottish Enterprise (SE) use performance measures to help monitor the contribution they make in terms of their economic impact focused on the longer-term goals of Scotland’s Economic Strategy and highlighting their future direction over the 2015-18 period. These performance measures are set out in their Business Plan.

Their 2015-18 Business Plan can be found here:

https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/about-us/what-we-do/business-plan

Question reference: S5W-03384

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter of 27 September 2016 from the Director of Health and Social Care Integration to the integration joint boards regarding the new arrangements for the payment of the Scottish Living Wage to social care workers from 1 October 2016, what its position is on the reported concerns that the decision to exclude hours of work spent during sleepovers from the Scottish Living Wage commitment is evidence that the funding for the policy in 2016-17 was inadequate, and what plans it has to address this for future years.

Scottish Government allocated a further £250 million to health and social care partnerships to protect and grow social care services and deliver on our shared priorities, including paying the Living Wage to adult care workers.

We recognise the challenges of implementing this commitment and in particular in sleepover hours and took action to ensure continuity of care for some of the most vulnerable would not be impacted whilst still enabling a pay increase for some of the lowest paid workers caring for adults.

This is for a transitional period to allow for constructive reform to take place and our expectation is that in the future sleepover hours will be paid at the Living Wage. In providing this flexibility, for a transitional period, our central concern was, and is to maintain continuity of care for vulnerable people. This approach has been agreed with our partners group, including UNISON.

We are aware that the on-going delivery of the Living Wage commitment has implications for future budgets and this will be considered in our future spending review negotiations with COSLA.

Question reference: S5W-03383

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter of 27 September 2016 from the Director of Health and Social Care Integration to the integration joint boards regarding the new arrangements for the payment of the Scottish Living Wage to social care workers from 1 October 2016, what its position is on the reported concerns that these arrangements will be disadvantageous to workers who are required to work sleepovers with the most vulnerable clients compared with those who work day shifts.

Our commitment will see care workers being paid the Living Wage for all ‘waking’ hours including holiday and travel time. What we have agreed with stakeholders is that hours where an individual is sleeping (sleepovers) must be compliant with the 2014 Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling and therefore within working time directive. Due to an outstanding appeal on this ruling not all providers had implemented this. Therefore our commitment will provide a pay increase to those who were currently receiving less for these hours. This approach has been agreed with our partners group, including UNISON.

This is a positive step which will increase pay for care workers whilst maintaining the continuity of care for some of the most vulnerable care users. However, this is for a transitional period and our expectation is that in the future sleepover hours will be paid at Living Wage.

Question reference: S5W-03525

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the growth of women's enterprises, including how much funding it provides toward this.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all of Scotland’s people are able to benefit from participation in enterprising activity. To this end, we launched a co-developed policy framework and action plan for women in enterprise in March 2014. This is the only one of its kind in the EU. We are working with partners across all sectors, including Women’s Enterprise Scotland, to deliver this framework. This financial year (2016-17) £200,000 has been committed to projects underpinning the Women in Enterprise Framework. More broadly, delivered by local authorities, Business Gateway offers a first point of contact for all publicly funded business support to pre-start, early stage and growth businesses regardless of location, gender, age, ethnicity, ability or type of business. The service includes a nationally consistent start-up and growth service with flexibility and discretion to meet local needs and opportunities.

Question reference: S5W-03519

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what gender-disaggregated data on the economy it collects, and what plans it has to fill any data gap.

Within the Economy Theme the Scottish Government holds a range of gender-disaggregated data on the Labour Market including: The Labour Force Survey, Annual Population Survey and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. The Scottish Government also collects information on employment in local government by gender. These sources provide gender disaggregated estimates of economic status and earnings alongside a range of other socio-economic characteristics.

Further information disaggregated by gender is published on the Scottish Government Equality Evidence Finder.

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Equality/Equalities/DataGrid

The Scottish Government reviews statistical data requirements on the Economy through the Scottish Economic Statistics Consultants Group and fills evidence gaps where required.

Question reference: S5W-03389

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when the Energy Jobs Taskforce last met; who attended, and what was discussed.

The Energy Jobs Taskforce last met on 14 September 2016. During the meeting there was a substantive discussion on the longer term vision for the sector, work which the Oil and Gas Authority is leading alongside Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) and the Energy Jobs Taskforce. This was followed by a discussion on the work undertaken through the Support to Individuals and Retaining Talent and Skills work stream, an update was also provided by the UK Government’s Department of Work and Pensions detailing their support to the sector in Scotland.

The minutes of this meeting will be approved at the next Taskforce meeting, due to take place in Winter, and will then be published on the Scottish Government website. The minutes of the previous Energy Jobs Taskforce meetings are published on the Scottish Government website for viewing and can be accessed through the link below:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Business-Industry/Energy/resources/working-groups/energy-advisory-board/Energy-Jobs-Taskforce/Minutes

The First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work and the Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy continue to engage with stakeholders within the oil and gas sector on a regular basis. The First Minister most recently met senior industry leaders at the opening of Statoil’s new headquarters, and at a meeting with Oil and Gas UK’s board in Aberdeen on 19 September 2016.