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: S5O-04272

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support the #DontTolerateHate campaign.

Question reference: S5W-27228

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to ensure that bereaved people receive appropriate care and support.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact bereavement can have on people’s lives and is taking forward work to improve the care available for people experiencing bereavement. However, it is important to recognise bereavement support should be reflective of the circumstances of the individual and their family.

There is therefore a broad spectrum of work underway across Scottish Government to support people who have experienced a bereavement. These include:

Work across NHS Scotland to improve training and education for staff, patients, families and carers. Led by NHS Education Scotland, education resources and a bespoke “Support Around Death” website for professionals are in place.
Our Suicide Prevention Action Plan: Every Life Matters, contains an action to develop a Scottish Crisis Care Agreement to help ensure that timely and effective support for those affected by suicide is available across Scotland.
Promoting bereavement support and information for those affected by pregnancy loss or the death of a baby. We have provided funding to develop the National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP), led by Sands UK, in Scotland. Sands UK are working in collaboration with other charities, Royal Colleges and bereaved parents to develop the pathway. There will be five experiences of pregnancy or baby loss included in the NBCP which are miscarriage, termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly, stillbirth, neonatal death and the sudden unexpected death of an infant.
The establishment of more efficient and receptive support services around services for bereaved children and young people are being taken forward through the work associated with appointing a childhood bereavement coordinator.
Taking forward work via the auspices of the Mental Health Strategy, to help ensure that people have good mental health and that agencies act early enough when issues such as grief and bereavement emerge.

Question reference: S5W-27567

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 3 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the City Administration Committee of Glasgow City Council agreeing on 28 November 2019 with the recommendation in the report, Glasgow Homelessness Services Update, that it should “write to the Scottish Government in relation to future funding arrangements”, what correspondence it has received since that date from the committee or the council concerning these arrangements.

On 8 January 2020, Councillor Mhairi Hunter wrote to me inviting me to meet with her to discuss the delivery of homelessness services across the City.

I replied on 15 January 2020, agreeing to meet with Councillor Hunter as soon as possible and asking to be provided with a comprehensive progress update so that further steps in working together to improve the Council’s response to addressing homelessness could be identified prior to meeting. A meeting has been arranged for 24 March.

Question reference: S5O-04225

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to young disabled people in their transition to adulthood.

Question reference: S5W-27393

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the River Clyde bursting its banks, what impact and risk assessments it has undertaken regarding Glasgow’s flood defences.

A National Flood Risk Assessment (NFRA) is carried out by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to identify where significant flood risk exists in Scotland and to designate Potentially Vulnerable Areas (PVAs). There are 14 Flood Risk Management Strategies that set objectives and measures for the management of flood risk for the PVAs. Local Flood Risk Management Plans set out in more detail how measures in the Strategies will be delivered. Flood Risk Management in Scotland is reviewed every six years and the current Strategies and Plans are valid until 2021 and 2022, respectively.

An interim report on progress on the Clyde and Loch Lomond Flood Risk Management Plan was published in March 2019 and is available on Glasgow City Council’s website.

Locally, Glasgow City Council is in the process of updating the Lower River Clyde tidal model and South Lanarkshire Council are developing the Upper River Clyde fluvial model. These models will be used to inform the Flood Risk Management Strategy and flood defences along the River Clyde.

SEPA and Glasgow City Council are also working in partnership under the umbrella of the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership to bring forward development control / planning principles for the regeneration of brownfield sites along the river corridor.

SEPA is beginning to review and update the 14 Flood Risk Management Strategies This work is taking into account all new evidence and information, including a revised NFRA published in December 2018 and information from modelling and flood studies such as those described above.

The revised Strategies will be published in December 2021, followed by revised Plans in June 2022.

Question reference: S5W-27230

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 25 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government which health and social care partnerships do not have a lead for bereavement care and support, and for what reason.

Question reference: S5W-27229

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 20 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether every health and social care partnership is expected to have a lead for bereavement care and support.

The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014, makes clear that it is the responsibility of Integration Authorities to plan and commission services for their area using the integrated budget under their control, including community bereavement services.

To support them in this duty, in May 2018, the Scottish Government produced a guidance note to support Integration Authorities in the commissioning of Palliative, End of Life and Bereavement Care. The guidance note stated that Integration Authorities may benefit from having a lead person for both palliative and bereavement care, however, it remains the responsibility of individual Integration Authorities to determine how best to commission services to meet the needs of their local populations.

Given that NHS Boards remain responsible for the delivery of services, each NHS Board is expected to ensure that it has a nominated lead for bereavement care. Integration Authorities can make use of NHS Board expertise when planning and commissioning services.

Question reference: S5W-27231

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 20 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to commission a survey of bereaved people using the VOICES (views of informal carers, evaluation of services) model.

An NHS Lothian project team took forward a pilot VOICES project in 2018-2019. Last year the team reported that despite completing the significant preparatory work required to take forward this project, it was unable to progress as initially planned due to a number of complicating factors.

These include the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation which increased costs significantly, the difficulty in gathering a suitable sample size to make the findings useful for service improvement, the need to put in place support arrangements for those contacted, and most significantly the ethical requirement for the benefit of those findings to outweigh the distress caused by surveying the recently deceased.

Officials have therefore asked the project team to take forward additional work to provide alternative options on how best to establish a more coherent picture of the quality of end of life care, including the views of the bereaved, which can also be used for improving service delivery.

Question reference: S5O-04127

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Get Glasgow Moving petition calling for publicly-owned buses.

Question reference: S5O-04089

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has had from Glasgow City Council regarding local government funding.