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-25011

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-01295 by John Swinney on 27 September 2017 (Official Report, c.13), what plans it has to provide additional funding from the Schools for the Future programme to allow Phase 2 of the Dumfries Learning Town project to go ahead.

Dumfries and Galloway Council did not put forward a priority project to be considered as part of the first phase of the Learning Estate Investment Programme. The Council advised that it is reviewing its estate as a whole to understand where investment should next be directed.

A second phase of the programme will be announced within 12 months and we look forward to continuing to work with the Council on which projects within Phase 2 of Dumfries Learning Town may be suitable for consideration.

Question reference: S5W-24843

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the nature of the support will be for the additional 200 projects that will be supported through the Places for Everyone programme in 2019-20; what it expects the cost of this to be, and whether this funding is additional to the existing Active Travel budget.

Question reference: S5W-24844

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 10 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria were used to assess bids to the Places for Everyone programme; how many of the bids that were received were viable; for what reason the unsuccessful bids were not selected, and what it will do to take forward the unsuccessful bids.

206 of the bids made to Places for Everyone for the 2019-20 funding year received a high enough score to be viable. There were 47 projects to which no award of funding was made because they scored zero under one or more of the five scoring criteria laid out in the Places for Everyone application guide:

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/media/3782/places_for_everyone_
application_guide_2019_2020.pdf .

To encourage applicants to resubmit applications, all unsuccessful applicants have been provided with feedback and advice on what changes could be made to the application and/or project in order to meet the Places for Everyone scoring criteria. Direct support by Sustrans officers is offered as required.

Question reference: S5F-03513

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 September 2019

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the recent disruption on ScotRail services.

Question reference: S5O-03465

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support community land ownership in the South Scotland region.

Question reference: S5W-24387

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 14 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21323 by Jeane Freeman on 20 February 2019, how it plans to measure the quality of care experienced by people at end of life.

We recognise the importance of having robust and sensitive processes for capturing and utilising feedback on the quality of end of life care.

Earlier this year, the Scottish Government asked an NHS Lothian based project team to take forward work to provide options on how best to establish a more coherent picture of the quality of end of life care, including the views of the bereaved, which can also be used for improving service delivery. The project team are undertaking scoping work which includes the National Audit of Care at the End of Life (NACEL) and are due to report back to officials by the end of the year.

Question reference: S5W-24389

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 14 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in delivering the target to double palliative and end of life provision in the community, and when this target will be met.

We do not have a single measure that captures performance against this aim, as the provision of palliative care depends on the interaction of a range of services - formal palliative care, care at home and care home services, and access to hospice and hospice-at-home services - that vary considerably in definition between local systems. Good care at end of life requires collaborative, multi-disciplinary support, which is why Integration Authorities have been given statutory responsibility for meeting this need. Integration Authorities regularly report on their progress using the 23 indicators ( https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Policy/Adult-Health-SocialCare-Integration/Outcomes/Indicators/Indicators ) that support the statutory outcomes set out in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.

The indicator currently used nationally to gauge progress on improving palliative and end of life care provision is the percentage of last six months of life spent in the community. Since the publication of the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan in 2015-16, the percentage of time spent at home or in a community setting has gradually increased from 86.7% in 2010-11 to 89.2% in 2018-19. However, we recognise that this indicator is only a measure of place of care, rather than quality or experience of care, and is not sufficient on its own. We are working with partners in local systems and health and social care professionals to develop better measures for this aim.

Question reference: S5W-24388

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 14 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21323 by Jeane Freeman on 20 February 2019, what progress officials have made in identifying options to capture the views of family and carers who have recently been bereaved.

Question reference: S5W-24296

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06770 by Shona Robison on 24 February 2017, whether it will provide the same information for each year since 2016-17.

The following table includes patients with a Key Information Summary (KIS) or Shared Clinical Data Record (SCD) which has been provided to us by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). NSS recently ran a maintenance job which removed all people from the record who had been deceased for more than 3 years which explains part of the drop off in numbers from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017 but gives us an active accumulative total to view. It should also be noted that the 2015-2016 figures provided also gave the total from 1 January 2015 - 1 January 2017 so we have again provided you with the following details by calendar year.

Includes all KIS/SCD:

Health Board	2016
Health Board	KIS or SCD Insert	Now Deceased (as at May 2019) from total with a KIS in 2016 (Patients)	Total Deceased during 2016
Ayrshire & Arran	2766	1337	522
Borders	799	424	142
Dumfries & Galloway	1937	700	216
Fife	2894	1313	422
Forth Valley	2304	1012	349
Grampian	10632	2132	591
Greater Glasgow	9630	4019	1306
Highland	4855	1183	339
Lanarkshire	4067	1777	586
Lothian	10675	2852	825
Orkney	255	78	11
Shetland	154	71	29
Tayside	3458	1597	521
Western Isles	291	130	42

Health Board	2017
Health Board	KIS or SCD Insert	Now Deceased (as at May 2019) from total with a KIS in 2017 (Patients)	Total Deceased during 2017
Ayrshire & Arran	3107	1411	809
Borders	1045	456	242
Dumfries & Galloway	1953	745	408
Fife	3115	1329	765
Forth Valley	2844	1095	545
Grampian	10565	2145	1131
Greater Glasgow	8716	3688	2140
Highland	4613	1198	600
Lanarkshire	3358	1628	958
Lothian	14031	2964	1416
Orkney	265	89	46
Shetland	286	91	43
Tayside	4575	1882	1011
Western Isles	266	101	61

Health Board	2018
Health Board	KIS or SCD Insert	Now Deceased (as at May 2019) from total with a KIS in 2018 (Patients)	Total Deceased during 2018
Ayrshire & Arran	2534	1013	777
Borders	946	350	268
Dumfries & Galloway	2118	530	388
Fife	3053	1040	740
Forth Valley	2333	719	485
Grampian	10718	1346	953
Greater Glasgow	6704	2629	1983
Highland	4234	785	562
Lanarkshire	3037	1114	864
Lothian	10749	1883	1322
Orkney	194	54	37
Shetland	148	49	37
Tayside	7013	1220	888
Western Isles	208	88	64

Question reference: S5W-24332

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether ScotRail is meeting the terms of its franchise agreement and remedial plan.

My Officials at Transport Scotland monitor ScotRail’s progress against the obligations contained in the franchise agreement through a series of regular engagement and meetings including the monthly Franchise Performance meeting. Notes of this meeting are published on Transport Scotland’s website.

Since implementation of the Performance Remedial Plan, Transport Scotland officials and it’s independent advisor have additionally met with ScotRail four weekly to review progress with delivering the commitments alongside assurance review close out sessions.