Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-14113

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has held with clinicians at the Glasgow Children’s Hospital regarding the impact of closing the Children's Ward of the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

Question reference: S5W-14112

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what impact moving services from the Children's Ward at the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) will have on waiting times and elective surgery at the RAH.

Question reference: S5W-13872

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 26 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13357 by Maree Todd on 9 January 2018, whether this work will be continued through the 2018 Year of Young People with the aim of building on previous programmes and the Race Action Plan; what additional plans it has for 2018, and what key areas of work it will aim to enhance beyond what it considers have been successes in previous years.

Community based events, alongside a programme of funded events which are taking place throughout the Year of Young People are inclusive to all and reflects our overarching Equality and Discrimination Policy aim for the Year – that young people experience greater equality and less discrimination.

The Scottish Government published our Race Equality Action Plan on 11 December which sets out our plans to advance race equality and tackle racism between now and 2020. This includes work through the Developing Young Workforce programme to tackle barriers for young people, including those with a minority ethnic background. It also includes work with Young Scot to develop a Strategic Participation Panel of minority ethnic young people - building on the Fairer Future project - to develop skills and understanding for young people to participate in local and national decision making processes.

Question reference: S5O-01722

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 24 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what financial support it plans to provide to the Scottish Sports Association.

The Scottish Government has a strong relationship with the SSA and appreciates the independent role they play and the support they provide to Scottish Sporting Governing Bodies (SGBs)

Yesterday I held a meeting with the SSA and representatives of the Cross Party Group on Sport to discuss developing a sustainable financial future for the SSA. I will consider this, and other representations I have received, before making a final decision on this matter.

Question reference: S5T-00892

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the number of disabled people on housing waiting lists.

Question reference: S5W-13357

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that race equality is being taken forward as part of the Year of Young People 2018, and how diverse young ethnic minority people are being included in the theme year.

Equality groups representing young people have been engaged from the outset of planning the 2018 Year of Young People (YoYP) and continue to be involved across each of the six themes.

Equality and Discrimination is one of the six themes for the Year and organisations from protected characteristic groups, including race equality, are represented and engaged in both policy deliverables and also through planning their own events and activities that will align to the aims and objectives for the Year.

Young Scot has recruited over 500 young people to be YoYP Ambassadors and a smaller group of co-design champions (Communic18) through the co-production strand for the year. This process has ensured that there is a fair representation of all protected characteristics set out in the 2010 Equalities Act.

Question reference: S5W-13277

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 21 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) people and (b) families in each local authority area in each of the last five years registered as homeless, also broken down by how many (i) asked for and (ii) were given emergency accommodation.

Tables (a) and (b) provide the number of (a) people and (b) families in each of the last five years that had a homelessness assessment, by local authority area.

The Scottish Government does not currently collect data on how many of these people and families (i) asked for or (ii) were given emergency accommodation. The Scottish Government collects and publishes information on the number of households in Temporary Accommodation, and the number of households with dependent children or a pregnant member in Temporary Accommodation, at the end of each quarter. This is collected from local authorities in the HL2 form which provides information, on a snapshot basis. Table (c) provides the number of households and table (d) provides the number of households with children or a pregnant member in Temporary Accommodation at 31 March each year over the last five years.

a) Number of people in households who had a homelessness assessment, by local authority area, 2012-13 to 2016-17

	Total number of people
	Financial year of assessment

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Aberdeen City	2,039	1,555	2,162	1,637	1,598
Aberdeenshire	2,452	2,018	1,870	1,774	1,526
Angus	1,356	1,197	997	1,244	1,083
Argyll & Bute	800	772	714	652	703
Clackmannanshire	793	718	696	638	678
Dumfries & Galloway	1,316	1,181	804	784	956
Dundee City	2,421	2,047	2,007	2,087	1,752
East Ayrshire	744	401	658	688	824
East Dunbartonshire	950	1,009	980	853	862
East Lothian	1,063	1,037	1,130	1,056	1,156
East Renfrewshire	460	588	563	439	464
Edinburgh	6,710	5,886	5,393	4,699	4,375
Eilean Siar	274	209	239	196	197
Falkirk	1,729	1,626	1,760	1,584	1,501
Fife	4,825	4,189	3,551	3,672	3,758
Glasgow City	12,866	9,224	8,093	7,851	7,115
Highland	1,695	1,786	1,650	1,612	1,550
Inverclyde	444	376	260	277	269
Midlothian	1,228	1,311	1,001	869	908
Moray	914	883	897	838	794
North Ayrshire	858	933	955	804	912
North Lanarkshire	3,816	3,129	3,134	2,725	2,822
Orkney	176	155	97	143	159
Perth & Kinross	1,662	1,531	1,329	1,544	1,394
Renfrewshire	1,470	1,115	915	846	783
Scottish Borders	1,068	1,029	1,014	970	1,099
Shetland	231	210	199	170	152
South Ayrshire	1,283	953	895	956	898
South Lanarkshire	3,552	3,511	3,224	2,876	3,131
Stirling	497	540	664	823	838
West Dunbartonshire	2,151	1,762	1,504	1,280	1,360
West Lothian	2,401	2,127	2,177	2,080	2,022
Total (ALL)	64,244	55,008	51,532	48,667	47,639

1. Source: HL1 dataset at 23 May 2017

2. Figures are based on unique households only, as published in Housing Options (PREVENT1) Statistics in Scotland: 2016-17, Figure 1 (i.e. households have been counted only once if there was more than one application in a single year).

b) Number of families (households with children) that had a homelessness assessment, by local authority area, 2012-13 to 2016-17

	Total number of families (households with children)
	Financial year of assessment

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Aberdeen City	325	259	418	280	269
Aberdeenshire	461	386	349	313	266
Angus	249	228	154	196	168
Argyll & Bute	155	121	122	100	125
Clackmannanshire	118	107	113	101	99
Dumfries & Galloway	180	169	110	103	155
Dundee City	500	339	350	394	325
East Ayrshire	111	48	90	110	137
East Dunbartonshire	217	211	215	195	178
East Lothian	184	185	202	188	214
East Renfrewshire	83	97	101	79	83
Edinburgh	1,173	1,035	926	792	773
Eilean Siar	44	34	42	26	34
Falkirk	336	306	351	296	237
Fife	982	819	699	733	773
Glasgow City	2,112	1,438	1,278	1,262	1,139
Highland	315	352	327	313	310
Inverclyde	60	51	29	33	42
Midlothian	268	273	213	191	211
Moray	164	170	172	155	151
North Ayrshire	99	103	110	89	116
North Lanarkshire	812	621	615	515	561
Orkney	30	29	15	28	31
Perth & Kinross	362	318	263	337	296
Renfrewshire	202	127	115	104	109
Scottish Borders	176	158	186	166	196
Shetland	35	31	27	23	17
South Ayrshire	192	129	142	168	176
South Lanarkshire	804	757	721	649	684
Stirling	75	105	122	147	144
West Dunbartonshire	448	299	229	191	216
West Lothian	462	372	384	355	375
Total (ALL)	11,734	9,677	9,190	8,632	8,610

1. Source: HL1 dataset at 23 May 2017

2. Figures are based on unique households only, as published in Housing Options (PREVENT1) Statistics in Scotland: 2016-17, Figure 1 (i.e. households have been counted only once if there was more than one application in a single year)

c) Number of households in Temporary Accommodation, by local authority area, at 31 March each year since 2013

Total number of households in Temporary Accommodation

	As at 31 March 2013	As at 31 March 2014	As at 31 March 2015	As at 31 March 2016	As at 31 March 2017
Aberdeen City	324	362	456	462	447
Aberdeenshire	447	398	419	407	367
Angus	139	126	122	121	132
Argyll & Bute	138	129	116	109	116
Clackmannanshire	130	133	119	131	101
Dumfries & Galloway	273	274	273	240	199
Dundee City	317	285	279	283	252
East Ayrshire	28	40	31	49	73
East Dunbartonshire	161	144	153	169	210
East Lothian	300	319	366	410	440
East Renfrewshire	36	41	50	55	55
Edinburgh, City of	840	972	943	1,026	1,246
Eilean Siar	72	75	71	71	65
Falkirk	335	288	334	186	195
Fife	565	565	525	502	515
Glasgow City	1,814	1,738	1,831	2,010	2,071
Highland	477	458	626	541	658
Inverclyde	72	72	56	51	46
Midlothian	522	514	491	527	467
Moray	131	133	145	159	165
North Ayrshire	190	196	186	218	214
North Lanarkshire	525	555	568	553	570
Orkney	33	37	27	23	37
Perth & Kinross	406	334	333	240	118
Renfrewshire	205	179	176	173	197
Scottish Borders, The	89	94	82	82	87
Shetland	131	125	146	132	119
South Ayrshire	298	266	243	188	191
South Lanarkshire	654	654	671	640	651
Stirling	216	222	197	187	208
West Dunbartonshire	283	221	215	243	248
West Lothian	320	332	317	355	413
Scotland	10,471	10,281	10,567	10,543	10,873

Source: HL2 dataset at 23 May 2017

d) Number of households with children or a pregnant member in Temporary Accommodation, by local authority area, at 31 March each year since 2013

Total number of households with children or a pregnant member in Temporary Accommodation

As at 31 March 2013

As at 31 March 2014

As at 31 March 2015

As at 31 March 2016

As at 31 March 2017

Aberdeen City	56	54	79	44	74
Aberdeenshire	192	151	147	139	98
Angus	3	5	7	10	5
Argyll & Bute	44	38	33	30	25
Clackmannanshire	23	20	11	20	35
Dumfries & Galloway	54	43	43	48	26
Dundee City	69	49	46	59	64
East Ayrshire	4	2	3	6	10
East Dunbartonshire	49	33	45	57	71
East Lothian	75	87	107	140	156
East Renfrewshire	6	9	11	13	14
Edinburgh, City of	238	224	254	295	436
Eilean Siar	22	16	14	12	14
Falkirk	83	68	49	51	48
Fife	219	150	156	162	175
Glasgow City	656	537	608	697	740
Highland	103	81	101	102	142
Inverclyde	12	8	8	8	13
Midlothian	188	152	149	136	190
Moray	34	37	46	46	42
North Ayrshire	27	34	26	25	17
North Lanarkshire	120	120	136	151	166
Orkney	3	4	5	7	4
Perth & Kinross	118	75	51	45	21
Renfrewshire	22	15	15	22	27
Scottish Borders	26	25	21	20	16
Shetland	15	17	30	29	23
South Ayrshire	53	47	47	36	38
South Lanarkshire	229	205	232	254	284
Stirling	37	48	43	42	39
West Dunbartonshire	33	28	34	30	37
West Lothian	123	97	118	147	200
Scotland	2,936	2,479	2,675	2,883	3,250

Source: HL2 Dataset at 23 May 2017

Question reference: S5F-01875

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 December 2017

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to protect vulnerable people from rogue money lenders over the festive period.

Question reference: S5O-01409

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that there is an adequate supply of ground floor properties in the social housing sector for people with accessibility needs.

Question reference: S5W-11883

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 31 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are in place to ensure that Syrian refugees are receiving the necessary support as set out in its strategy, New Scots: Integrating Refugees in Scotland's Communities, and whether there has been any review or assessment of how support from the assigned integration support teams is meeting their needs.

Chamber and committees