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: S4W-22713

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 29 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many inpatient psychiatric units there are in Scotland for children and young people with (a) mental health issues and (b) severe learning difficulties.

The following table shows the three regional adolescent inpatient units operating across Scotland based in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee:

Unit	No. of beds	Area served
Royal Edinburgh Hospital	12	South East of Scotland (Lothian, Fife and Borders)
Skye House, Stobhill, Glasgow	24	West of Scotland (Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Forth Valley, Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Ayrshire and Arran)
Dudhope House, Dundee	6 (a further six beds will be available from mid-2015).	North of Scotland (Tayside, Grampian, Highland, Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles)

Severe psychiatric conditions are rare in children under 12, but those who require intensive support and treatment can be cared for in the nine bedded specialist units within the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill.

Admission for children with a learning disability would be considered on a case-by-case basis, normally only being required in the most severe and complex cases. One specialist bed is provided for children and young people with severe learning disability in Lothian, at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, staffed when required, by the intensive learning disability Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services team.

Question reference: S4W-22715

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what inpatient psychiatric provision there is in mental health services for children with autism who do not have learning difficulties.

Question reference: S4W-22720

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what specialist child and adolescent mental health service provision there is in Scotland for people with complex autism and learning difficulties.

Ensuring that child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) meet the needs of their local population is the responsibility of NHS boards. This includes meeting the needs of children and young people with mental illness and learning disability and autism. In the national mental health strategy we include a commitment to work with clinicians in Scotland to identify good models of learning disability CAMHS from across Scotland and the UK which could be used as tests in Scotland. That work, being undertaken by the University of Glasgow, is well underway, and will inform service development.

The Scottish Strategy for Autism aims to enable people with autistic spectrum disorder to access mainstream services that are appropriate to meet individual needs.

Question reference: S4W-22716

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people with (a) mental health issues, (b) challenging behaviour and (c) learning difficulties are sent to England for treatment, broken down by (i) local authority and (ii) NHS board, and who pays for such placements.

NHS National Services Scotland (National Services Division) funds placements of children and young people with mental health problems who require secure inpatient care. The following table below shows placements over the last three years and includes young people with challenging behaviour and learning disability. The information is not disaggregated to help maintain patient confidentiality.

Information about placements arranged by individual NHS boards or local authorities is not held centrally.

Year	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14
Number of placements	7	2	7

Question reference: S4O-03606

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will investigate tax breaks for sports clubs.

Question reference: S4O-03533

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce rail journey times between Perth and other Scottish cities.

Question reference: S4W-22291

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 19 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that the uptake of the Scottish Baccalaureate is low and, if so, what it is doing to increase uptake.

As a qualification designed to meet the needs of some of our most able learners in S6, the Scottish Baccalaureate was never intended to be a high uptake award. The number of pupils taking the Scottish Baccalaureate has shown an overall increase since its introduction in 2010, though the entry numbers decreased from 191 in 2013 to 176 in 2014.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority is continuing to work with schools, colleges and local authorities to promote the enhanced skills which the Scottish Baccalaureate develops. Education Scotland also has plans to promote the qualification at the next Scottish Learning Festival.

Question reference: S4W-22172

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 18 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-21945 by Aileen Campbell on 14 July 2014, whether it will provide the information that was requested and confirm when the need for a three-month delay in the legal duty was first raised with Scottish Government officials.

Question reference: S4W-22171

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 18 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-21840 by Aileen Campbell on 10 July 2014, whether it will provide the information that was requested and confirm how many two-year-olds from workless households will be eligible to receive free childcare provision from August 2014.

Question reference: S4W-22264

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 15 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the SQA regarding for what reason in session 2013-14 there were 55,000 fewer presentations by pupils for national exam qualifications compared with session 2012-13.

The Scottish Government regularly holds discussions with the SQA on many issues relating to the national qualifications.

It was to be expected that the total number of entries would be lower this year than last. This primarily reflects the changing patterns of learning which are developing as part of Curriculum for Excellence. The flexibility and personalisation offered by the senior phase enables schools to develop, in consultation with parents, curriculum models that allow for deeper attainment and a richer learning experience. This means that many pupils are now taking fewer subjects in S4. It is expected that this trend will continue in future years.