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-08668

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 10 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has made to Ineos regarding the working practices, terms and conditions and pension arrangements of employees on the Forties pipeline following the company's purchase of it, and whether any guarantees were given.

Question reference: S5W-08741

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 9 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made regarding Commitment 29 in its Mental Health Strategy 2012-15 to publish guidance setting out the evidence base for employability and mental health.

Question reference: S5W-08793

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position will be on any recommendation for a reduction in neonatal services in NHS Lanarkshire arising from the consultation, Achieving Excellence.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with NHS Boards to provide the best neonatal care for babies and families in Scotland. This is reflected in the Scottish Government review - The Best Start - a five year forward plan for maternity and Neonatal are in Scotland. Scottish Government continues to work with NHS Boards through the implementation of The Best Start to ensure appropriate cot capacity and the best care for babies.

Question reference: S5W-08669

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many statutory notices have been served on the Grangemouth refinery by the Health and Safety Executive in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-08667

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what SEPA rating for pollution control has been given to the Grangemouth refinery in each of the last five years.

Petroineos Manufacturing Scotland Limited holds the licence that covers the oil refining activities at Grangemouth. SEPA's Compliance Assessment Scheme is designed to demonstrate the level of compliance associated with specific licence conditions and is assessed annually.

The Compliance Assessment Scheme Assessment Reports for regulated sites available at http://apps.sepa.org.uk/compliance/ and the results for the last 5 years are set out in the following table.

Year	Compliance Assessment Scheme	Comments
2016	Poor	Petroineos received a score of Poor for 2016, due primarily to a significant incident in May, with the release to air of approximately 40 tonnes of sulphur. The Operator carried out an investigation and SEPA is satisfied that an appropriate action plan is in place to prevent recurrence. A number of other minor incidents also occurred throughout the year. Despite this the site should receive due credit for minimising flaring and sulphur emissions and continuing to invest in maintaining and upgrading the complex equipment in use there.
2015	Poor	Petroineos's performance was very good in 2015 in terms of maintaining the improvement in sulphur dioxide emissions due to significant reduction from the sulphur recovery plant aided by reduced sulphur flaring due to good reliability. Hydrocarbon flaring was the lowest total ever recorded indicative of good performance to reduce emissions from flaring. Compliance was recorded as poor owing to a prolonged offensive odour from the site affecting a wide area of Grangemouth during December which was considered a significant breach of the odour condition in the permit Compliance was restored and SEPA has continued to monitor the situation.
2014	At Risk	Whilst the refinery had made significant improvements to reduce total sulphur dioxide emissions from the site, SEPA remained concerned with the poor sulphur flaring performance in 2014. In addition to this poor process control associated with an incident on the site resulted in the low performance score for the site. Following discussions with the Operator, SEPA was satisfied that an appropriate action plan had been put in place to prevent recurrence.
2013	Broadly Compliant	SEPA assessed the licence holder as broadly compliant with licence conditions but highlighted several areas for improvement.
2012	Broadly Compliant	SEPA assessed the licence holder as broadly compliant with licence conditions but highlighted several areas for improvement.

Question reference: S5W-08744

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the impact of the Mental Health Strategy 2012-15 on the employment rate of people with mental health problems.

Question reference: S5W-08740

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress was made on employability by the implementation and monitoring group responsible for that aspect of the Mental Health Strategy 2012-15.

Question reference: S5W-08749

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people with mental health problems it expects to be supported into employment in 2017 through the devolved Work Programme.

Our one year transitional employment programmes were launched at the beginning of April 2017. Work First Scotland will deliver employment support for up to 3,300 disabled people, including those with mental health conditions. Work Able Scotland will provide employment support for up to 1,500 clients with a disability or a health condition, including those with mental health conditions, who are at risk of long term unemployment.

While one of the key target groups for support through these services, as they are both wholly voluntary, we cannot state how many people with a mental health condition we expect to volunteer to participate or achieve job outcomes. However, we are collecting customer information on type of health condition and aim to include this in the Scottish Government statistics publication due for release later in the year, which will report on the transition year employability services.

From April 2018, we will introduce a new Scottish employability service - Fair Start Scotland. It is expected that the programme will support a minimum of 38,000 people over 3 years of referrals. People with mental health conditions are one of the key client groups we aim to support into work through Fair Start Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-08751

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it offers to employers to make reasonable adjustments to support their employees to recover from mental health problems.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives, part of NHS Health Scotland, to provide information and advice on workplace health and wellbeing. The Centre, and the network of advisers in territorial NHS Boards, offer free and confidential advice on a wide range of issues relating to health, safety in the workplace. This includes promoting wellbeing in the workplace, managing sickness absence and supporting employees to return to work.

Health Working Lives runs training courses for employers on managing and promoting good mental health in the workplace.

Question reference: S5W-08748

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the integration of health and social care has had on services that aim to support people with mental health problems find and retain paid employment.

The Scottish Government holds the principle that care services should be as well-coordinated and seamless as possible. Our programme of health and social care integration, which brings together NHS and Local Authority care services, is helping to deliver this. With a greater emphasis on community-based and more joined-up, anticipatory and preventative care, integration aims to improve care and support for people who use health and social care services. Improving the wellbeing of people with mental health problems is a key priority for Integration Authorities, who recognise that employment is an important factor in promoting wellbeing and recovery.

The Mental Health Strategy 2017 – 2027 focuses on the important role of getting a job and staying in work. In particular, action 37 commits to exploring with others innovative ways of connecting mental health, disability, and employment support in Scotland.