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-25279

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to assess Tier 4 child and adolescent mental health services.

We have recently developed a data set with partners to track progress in developing intensive community treatment teams and other tier 4 child and adolescent mental health services activity, and how the adolescent inpatient units are working. NHS National Services Scotland will be starting to collect the data in autumn 2015, and this should provide us with a comprehensive picture of how services are functioning nationally.

Question reference: S4W-24753

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it would cost to extend free personal care to people under 65 with Alzheimer’s or dementia.

Question reference: S4W-24789

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 09 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 20 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it took to increase the level of completions for (a) social housing, (b) housing association properties and (c) affordable housing in 2014, and for what reason the number of completions was smaller than in 2013.

The Scottish Government has set a five year target to deliver 30,000 affordable homes, 20,000 of which are for social rent.

In response to (a) and (b), in July 2013 the Scottish Government, in recognition of the financial pressures facing councils and housing associations, took decisive action by increasing all social housing grant benchmarks by £16,000 per unit. This action was backed up with an increase in the affordable housing supply budget and we now plan to spend over £1.7 billion over the lifetime of this Parliament to deliver our target of 30,000 affordable homes.

In response to (c), the Scottish Government remains committed to helping people on low to moderate incomes access homeownership, or a home at a mid-market rent, and it is easing housing pressures by continuing to work with partners to develop innovative funding approaches, including our National Housing Trust initiative and investment programme in charitable bonds.

Since 2011-12, the Scottish Government has exceeded its commitment to deliver over 6,000 affordable homes each year, of which at least 4,000 must be for social rent.

Quarterly housing statistics published on 3 March 2015 reflect the period for the year to December 2014. Statistics for the financial year 2014-15 are scheduled to be published around the end of May 2015. The Scottish Government remains on track to achieve its target for the financial year 2014-15.

Question reference: S4W-24791

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 09 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 20 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it will allocate in the 2015-16 draft Budget to socially-rented housing, and what its position is on the evidence submitted to the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee by Shelter Scotland, which recommended that at least £200 million in addition to the already allocated budget should be committed toward this.

The Scottish Government does not have a separate budget for social rented housing. Funding for the provision of social rented housing is included within the budget for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.

It is up to each local authority to put forward to Scottish Government its strategic local proposals for social and affordable housing developments, based on their local housing strategy.

The housing supply budget for 2015-16 is £597.63 million which is an increase of £229.13 million on the previous year’s budget of £368.50 million.

Question reference: S4W-24790

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 09 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 20 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many socially-rented homes it plans to build each year, and what its position is on the comment by Shelter Scotland that "at least 10,000 new homes for social rent need to be built each year to start meaningfully to tackle Scotland's housing crisis".

The Scottish Government’s five year target is to deliver at least 30,000 additional affordable homes of which 20,000 are for social rent.

We are working with councils and partners to deliver our target and they are doing this to excellent effect. Three quarters of the way into its five year target, the Scottish Government has delivered 23,979 affordable homes of which 16,679 are for social rent which is 83% of its social rent target.

Now is not the time to change the high level target. However, we continue to give priority to housing supply and regard the existing 6,000 affordable homes per year target, not as the height of our ambition, but as a baseline to be exceeded.

Question reference: S4W-24804

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 19 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications were made to educational psychology courses in Scotland in each year between 2010 and 2014 and how many people took up the course, broken down by institution.

The University of Dundee and the University of Strathclyde run, with an intake in alternate years, two year Master of Science (MSc) courses in educational psychology. The number of applications and number taking up a place is shown in the following table:

Intake Year	University	Number of applications ⁽¹⁾	Number taking up a place
2014	Dundee	46	24
2013	Strathclyde	69	16
2012	Dundee	105 (92)⁽²⁾	21
2011	Strathclyde	212	22
2010	Dundee	127	22

Source: Data provided by Dundee University and Strathclyde University

Notes: (1) Number of applications received by closing date

(2) 105 applicants reduced to 92 following the announcement of withdrawal of funding

Question reference: S4W-24752

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on extending free personal care to people under 65 who have Alzheimer’s or dementia.

The Scottish Government and COSLA are working together to create a fairer system of charging for social care.

It is important to consider charging as part of the wider social care system. We need to ensure that resources are in place so we have the quantity and quality of social care that our people require.

It would be inappropriate and unfair to base decisions on charging on the basis of specific conditions.

Question reference: S4W-24802

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) educational and (b) clinical psychologist posts there were in each year between 2010 and 2014.

The numbers of educational psychologist posts are a matter for education authorities and numbers are not held centrally. The numbers of full-time equivalent (FTE) educational psychologists in post from 2010 to 2014 are shown in Table 1.

The numbers of clinical psychologist posts in NHSScotland are not held centrally. The numbers of clinical psychologists employed from 2010 to 2014, in headcount and whole time equivalent (WTE), are shown in Table 2.

Table 1: Number of FTE educational psychologists in Scotland 2010-14

Year	Full-time equivalent (FTE)
2010	401
2011	390
2012	411
2013	407
2014	405

Source: Teacher Census Supplementary data

Table 2: Clinical psychologists employed in NHSScotland from 2010-14

Timepoint	Headcount	Whole time equivalent (WTE)
30 September 2010	656	578.2
30 September 2011	688	580.1
30 September 2012	711	592.7
30 September 2013	741	619.0
30 September 2014	808	674.1
31 December 2014	844	705.3

Source: NHS Education for Scotland-Information Services Division National Psychology Workforce Database.

Data are published quarterly as national statistics at the following website: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Psychology/.

Question reference: S4W-24877

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 17 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4O-04069 by Maureen Watt on 4 March 2015 (Official Report, c.12), in light of the minister's comment that "there are no plans to close the CIC [Glasgow Centre for Integrative Care], which we see as having a role for patients across Scotland”, what its position is on NHS Lanarkshire's decision to no longer refer patients to the centre from April 2015, and whether it will ask the board to review its decision.

Health boards are required to involve local stakeholders in designing, developing and delivering the health care services they provide for them. This should be done in line with national guidance on informing, engaging and consulting people in developing health and community care services. The guidance can be accessed at the following link:

http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2010_04.pdf.

In line with this guidance, only proposals for major service change in the NHS are subject to ministerial approval. NHS Lanarkshire’s proposals were not designated major service change. As such, this was a decision for the board of NHS Lanarkshire to make, following careful consideration of all the available information, evidence and representations.

Question reference: S4O-04105

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what rail investment plans it has for South Scotland.