Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-08448

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2017
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Alasdair Allan on 29 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress made in relation to its International Development Small Grants Programme funding round 2017-18.

The Scottish Government is pleased to announce that funding amounting to a total of £479,157 will be provided to 10 organisations, from our Small Grants Programme 2017-2018, for projects to commence in April 2017.

Total amount of Recommended funding - Programme Year 2017-2018

Type of Grant	Number	Total Recommendation
Project	8	£459,169
Feasibility	1	£10,000
Capacity Building	1	£9,988
TOTAL	10	£479,157

Recommendations for funding after assessment by country and grant type - Programme Year 2017-2018

Country	Project	Feasibility	Capacity Building	Total
Malawi	3	-	-	3
Zambia	1	1		2
India (Madhya Pradesh)	1	-	-	1
Tanzania	3	-	1	4
Bangladesh	-	-	-	-
Rwanda	-	-	-	-
Total	8	1	1	10

The Small Grants Programme 2017-2018 attracted 22 applications before the deadline of Noon, on 28 November 2016. Two applications were rejected as outwith our eligibility criteria, and therefore were not part of the full assessment process. The remaining 20 applications were fully assessed, 10 of which did not meet our assessment criteria and were therefore not awarded funding.

The full list of the grants can be found in the following tables:

Project Grants

Organisation	Country	Summary info	Award detail	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Total
Youth for Economic Justice	India, Madhya Pradesh	Through mentoring, partnership and skills transfer, Youth for Economic Justice helps local organisations in developing countries to effectively respond to economic exclusion of young people. This project will contribute to the economic empowerment of young women from minority Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes living in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh, through enterprise development and financial inclusion, helping with business set-up and finance management.	For the “Business Women” project -building a roadmap for economic empowerment with marginalised young women residing in slum communities in Madhya Pradesh.	£20,000	£20,000	£20,000	£60,000
Balmore Trust	Malawi	The project aims to combat the adverse effects of climate change on rice farming by providing farmers with increased access to and better management of water resources in the Karonga area of Malawi. The plan is to install wells and pumps (solar and diesel) and supply water to 4,500 farmers who will be trained in the integrated use of ground and surface water and the maintenance of wells and pumps. The work will be carried out in conjunction with Strathclyde and Mzuzu Universities, as well as in partnership with the Kaporo Smallholder Farmers’ Association.	For the “Developing improved Management of water resources in Karonga” project in Malawi. This award is conditional upon satisfactory clarification of costings.	£21,300	£22,700	£15,750	£59,750
Cerebral Palsy Africa	Malawi	Children born with cerebral palsy and other disabilities can often manage in school, but many in Malawi are excluded from school because of the lack of early support. Fit for School is an early intervention programme designed to provide essential early support to young children with complex physical and learning disabilities (such as cerebral palsy) to enable them to be fit for school at 6 years of age and give them the best chance of remaining in school.	For the “Fit for School” project to support young children with disabilities into school in Malawi.	£30,524	£18,989	£10,038	£59,551
Malawi Fruits	Malawi	The “Inspiring Youth in Agriculture” project will provide training and support for young people to enable them to grow a variety of low input/high value crops; take the crops to local processing facilities; receive processed crops and then sell them both locally and outside their communities through contract markets.	For the “Inspiring Youth in Agriculture” project to promote farming business among young people in Malawi.	£17,800	£15,600	£11,400	£44,800
Big First Aid Project	Tanzania	This project aims to develop a more complete solution to the challenge of emergency health care in Tanzania by training taxi responders to an advanced level of first aid to enable them to treat casualties and transfer them to hospital quickly.	For the “First Aid for Everyone” project – a motorbike ambulance service for Northern Tanzania.	£14,440	£21,989	£21,830	£58,259
Lake Victoria Disabled Centre	Tanzania	Following a feasibility study in 2015, this project will develop a fully functioning prosthetics workshop where 3D printing will enable the creation of artificial limbs for children and adults in the Mara region on Tanzania.	For the “3D Printing of Prosthetics and Orthotics” project in Tanzania.	£21,470	£16,400	£19,800	£57,670
Twende Pamoja	Tanzania	This projects builds on a feasibility study in 2016 and will offer support to improve the ICT skills of teachers, and in turn pupils, in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. It is estimated that over 200 teachers and 8,000 students will have connection with the project.	For the “ICT for Better Futures 2” project, working with 23 schools in Tanzania.	£23,460	£17,340	£18,340	£59,140
Friends of Chitambo	Zambia	The project aims to contribute to reducing mortality and morbidity due to common medical emergencies by developing and scaling-up a model of medical communication and support for ‘hard to reach’ clinic areas in Zambia. In addition, the project will create a Knowledge Broker network to source, summarise and communicate emergency healthcare information which will strengthen South/South support for point of care decision-making at district, national and regional level.	For the project focused on communication and decision support systems for emergency medical care in Chitambo District, Zambia.	£37,714	£22,285	-	£59,999
Total							£459,169

Feasibility Grants

Organisation

Country

Summary info

Award Detail

Amount

Zambia Therapeutic Art

Zambia

Current approaches to treatment in Mental Health in Zambia are dominated by pharmacology. However, this approach alone has limited efficacy: research by WHO and NHS Scotland indicates that psychological approaches are also needed for optimum care. Frequent drug shortages further highlight the need to introduce non-pharmacological approaches.

To conduct a feasibility study to explore ‘Therapeutic Art’ as an alternative psychological intervention for those experience mental health issues in Zambia.

£10,000

Total

£10,000

Capacity Building Grants

Organisation

Country

Award Detail

Amount

Yes! Tanzania

Tanzania

YES! Tanzania helps community sports organisations located in the most disadvantaged urban areas of Tanzania be sustainable, more effective and to reach more young people.

This second capacity building application will support two aspects: Development of their Community Sports Programme & Improving Funding

To carry out capacity building focused on Operational Management Systems & Income Generation and Fundraising

£9,988

Total

£9,988

Question reference: S5W-07935

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the number of staff working in the NHS.

Under this Government, the number of staff working in NHSScotland has increased by over 12,000 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) to a record high total of 139,262.0 WTE.

This includes record high numbers of qualified nurses and midwives, which have increased by 6.8 per cent to 43,820.9 WTE, and a 45.7 per cent increase in consultants, which have increased to 5,299.6 WTE.

Further information on the most recent NHSScotland workforce statistics is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following link:- http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/data-tables2017.asp?id=1870#1870

Question reference: S5W-07384

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03160 by Shona Robison on 7 October 2016, whether it has reached a decision on how it will take forward its response to the consultation on the proposed amendments to the National Health Service Central Register (Scotland) Regulations 2006.

Ministers have listened carefully to the arguments made during the consultation on proposed amendments to the LEARS Act Regulations, and have concluded that it would not be appropriate to broaden the range of bodies prescribed in legislation who can share data with the National Health Service Central Register, even subject to strong controls. Ministers therefore do not intend to take forward the amendments to this effect originally proposed.

Ministers do believe that it is desirable that a member of the public, who wants to access public services online, can be given the chance to demonstrate their identity easily – and be confident that no-one else is able to pretend to be them, and that their privacy is guaranteed. This becomes ever more important as the Scottish Government takes on new powers, prepares to deliver new services, and aims to make these services as convenient, accessible and user-centred as possible.

Ministers therefore intend to work with stakeholders, privacy interests and members of the public to develop a robust, secure and trustworthy mechanism by which an individual member of the public can demonstrate their identity. Any such mechanism will have to be entirely consistent with the Scottish Government’s Privacy Principles, so that members of the public can be confident that their privacy is being protected.

Question reference: S5O-00611

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is confident that the UK Government will lay its commencement order in time for the Scottish Government to take forward its social security plans.

Question reference: S5O-00604

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the roll-out of fibre-optic cables across the Rutherglen constituency.

Question reference: S5O-00507

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding projects in Scotland have received through the Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation grant scheme.

Question reference: S5W-05677

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 19 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its NHS delivery plan.

Question reference: S5O-00482

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it can give to customers who signed Solar Energy Green Deal agreements with Home Energy and Lifestyle Management Systems, which ceased trading in April 2016, in light of reports that some have found their energy bills increasing by up to three times and the value of their homes being adversely affected.

Question reference: S5O-00408

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to encourage more blood donations over the festive period.

Each year the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service – (SNBTS) - makes robust plans to raise awareness of the need for blood donations during the festive season and maintain supplies of blood across Scotland.

To ensure they maintain support from blood donors, SNBTS employs various strategies to boost the public response. For example:

Throughout the period, SNBTS will be contacting existing donors to build supplies of each of the eight major blood groups to maintain their target stock levels.

As O Negative is the only blood group that can be given to everyone in an emergency, donors of this blood group will receive special letters asking them to make an extra special effort to give blood.

A television campaign commenced on 28 November 2016, supported by a digital campaign. This aims to boost attendances and recruit new donors.

SNBTS is also working with gyms in the central belt to encourage people to make giving blood their New Year resolution and promote giving blood as part of healthy living.

I would like to thank all donors for their support. New, committed donors are obviously important to safeguard blood supplies and I would encourage everyone who can to participate.

Question reference: S5O-00372

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with South Lanarkshire Council regarding the building of secondary schools.

Chamber and committees