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-26008

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the publication of an Out of Home strategy to support healthier food choices, as set out in A Healthier Future - Scotland's Diet & Healthy Weight Delivery Plan.

Question reference: S5W-26006

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish a report on progress of the implementation of A Healthier Future - Scotland's Diet & Healthy Weight Delivery Plan.

Question reference: S5W-26011

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £750 million invested in the Attainment Scotland Fund has been spent on programmes that include education on healthy eating and lifestyle.

Question reference: S5W-25781

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 31 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on implementing the 29 recommendations in the audit of rejected referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), which was published in June 2018.

The Scottish Government accepted all 29 recommendations in the Audit of Rejected Referrals report. As a direct response to the Audit’s findings, we announced the establishment of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce which produced their final recommendations on improving Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in July 2019. The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme Board, which is chaired jointly by the Scottish Government and COSLA, is currently considering the delivery of these recommendations through nine key deliverables.

In addition to the work of the Programme Board, the Scottish Government is working with Information Services Division (ISD) on a number of actions to improve the data that is collected regarding referrals to CAMHS.

Additionally, the Minister for Mental Health wrote to all NHS Boards on 19 June to seek an update on how each Board processes referrals to CAMHS, what action each Board has taken to provide clearer referral criteria, and what action has been taken to better publicise out of hours and crisis supports. Boards have responded to these queries in some detail, and we will take time to carefully consider our next steps based on what we have heard.

Question reference: S5O-03712

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many carbon credits will be generated for Shell as part of its partnership with Forestry and Land Scotland.

Question reference: S5F-03655

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 October 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 October 2019

Question to be taken in the Chamber.

Question reference: S5W-25778

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for the remaining £1 million of funding that was allocated to the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Task Force.

In December 2018 the Minister for Mental Health announced that £4 million of investment would be distributed through NHS Education for Scotland (NES), to recruit additional CAMHS staff across Scotland who would be instrumental in reducing pressure on the existing system and supporting wider changes to the system.

The remainder of the funding, also be distributed through NES, will provide additional local training, coaching and supervision of existing CAHMS staff, and an amount of funding will also be made available to enhance the number of places available to study on the MSc in Applied Psychology for Children and Young People course.

Allocations to NES over the lifetime of the Taskforce

Funding has been allocated as detailed in the following table:

	2018-19*	2019-20	2020-21
CAMHS resource	£457,994	£3,980,179	£3,980,179
Training	£0	£333,388	£310,055
APCYP Trainees	£102,790	£668,673	£887,973
Total per Year	£560,784	£4,982,240	£5,178,207

Question reference: S5W-25780

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 18 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether social prescriptions for physical activity should be available to anyone who could improve their health through exercise, at no cost to the person.

Social prescribing is an emerging practice to complement healthcare provision, so that people can make informed choices about their care in line with their preferences.

The Scottish Government recognises the many benefits of participation in sport and physical activity to physical and mental health, and supports all efforts to help everyone in Scotland to be more active.

The Scottish Government therefore welcomes initiatives being developed in a number of locations in Scotland which use social prescribing approaches to help people access opportunities to be physically active in their local communities, such as walking groups and community sport.

Question reference: S5W-25779

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 18 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to undertake a new audit of the provision of exercise referral schemes, in light of the last such audit being published by NHS Health Scotland and the University of Stirling in 2009.

Question reference: S5W-25538

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 17 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the level of public support given to the care needs of people with Alzheimer’s.

The Scottish Government is working with partners to progress a national programme to support local reform of adult social care, launched in summer 2019. This will be looking specifically at current levels of social care support and how it is funded; the current and future level of need for support and complexity of needs; and co-developing and testing new funding structures or models. Linked to this will be raising awareness of the huge value of social care support to Scotland’s people, society and economy. The reform programme will advise Scottish Ministers if national changes or interventions are required.

Free personal care for people assessed as eligible (including those with dementia) has now extended to under 65s in April this year. This was supported by £30m of investment.

Integration Joint Boards are responsible for the planning, design and commissioning of dementia services and supports in their localities (including people with Alzheimer’s disease), from overall resources allocated. The 2019/20 Scottish Budget delivers additional resource funding of over £700 million to support social care and integration, an increase of 29%.

A range of additional national support is provided for dementia workforce development, to support and enhance the impact of front-line resources outlined above.