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-23071

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will bring payments under the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme in line with those in England, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Overall funding for infected blood support in Scotland remains proportionately higher than in England on a population basis and our support is based on recommendations agreed with Scottish stakeholders through both the Financial Review Group in 2015 and the Clinical Review on the impacts of chronic hepatitis c in 2018. Funding for the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme (SIBSS) was also significantly increased in December 2018 in response to the recommendations made by the Clinical Review.

While payments for some groups may appear to be higher for those on the English Infected Blood Support Scheme (EIBSS), in some areas SIBSS payments remain higher and so we would not wish to consider parity with the English scheme if that means that some SIBSS beneficiaries lose out financially. For example, those SIBSS beneficiaries with chronic hepatitis c have all received an additional £30,000 lump sum payment, with those with chronic hepatitis c and also HIV having received an additional £50,000 lump sum. Neither EIBSS beneficiaries nor those on the Welsh or Northern Irish schemes have received these payments. In addition, widows, widowers or partners of those who have died who are registered with EIBSS are only entitled to means tested payments if they are on a low income, whereas widows, widowers and partners registered with SIBSS receive higher levels of payments which are not means tested. They receive the full amount of annual payment their spouse or partner would have been receiving if they were alive for the first twelve months after their death and, from then on, 75% of what they would have been receiving.

The Scottish Government will keep payments in Scotland under review at this stage and plans to meet Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Welsh Government and officials from the Northern Irish administration to discuss what may be possible to achieve greater parity across the UK in the longer term.

Question reference: S5O-03312

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5O-03276

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the number of pupils with additional support needs who have a coordinated support plan in place is increasing.

Question reference: S5W-22700

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 2 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-22097 by Clare Haughey on 26 March 2019, how many of the new mental health workers are employed by each NHS board, broken down by job title.

The Scottish Government does not have the level of detail requested.

It should be noted that the recruitment of the additional mental health workers is being carried out by Integration Authorities (IAs) who have devolved responsibility for health and social care. Although NHS Boards are members of IAs, not all of the additional workers will therefore be employed by them.

IAs do however have a responsibility to report on this additional workforce and as advised previously through S5W-22097, a further update on the progress being made with this commitment will be available in May 2019 via the following link https://www.gov.scot/publications/mental-health-workers-quarterly-performance-reports/ .

Question reference: S5O-03201

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to further strengthen the economy of Glasgow.

Question reference: S5W-22097

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20987 by Clare Haughey on 17 January 2019, whether policy officials have completed processing and collating information relating to the recruitment of mental health workers.

Based on the information received from the Integration Authorities in respect of the first quarterly update on Action 15, 106 additional mental health workers have been recruited as of 1 January 2019.

The settings these workers are based in are as follows: A&E (27), Custody Suites (1), GP Settings (46), prisons (1), Other Settings - e.g Peer/Support workers via the third sector, (29) and through the enhanced national mental health pathway pilot, (2).

The second quarterly update will be available in May 2019. This information will also be published on the Scottish Government website via the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/mental-health-workers-quarterly-performance-reports/

Question reference: S5W-22136

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 22 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what requirement there is on its directorates to explain and address any reported race and ethnic disparities.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the representation of minority ethnic employees. We are a signatory of the Race at Work Charter which reflects our commitment to improve race equality at all levels.

There is no requirement on each directorate to report on race and ethnic disparities. Directorates are provided with their diversity data as part of organisational assurance processes and use this information to inform Directorate workforce planning and recruitment activity. Directors are accountable to their Director Generals for decisions they take in relation to diversity and inclusion in support of an overall outcome to increase the diversity of our workforce to reflect the general Scottish population by 2025 and fostering an inclusive workforce culture and valuing the contribution of employees from all backgrounds.

The Scottish Government’s progress towards achieving its stated outcomes for diversity and inclusion are published in an equality mainstreaming report. The next report is due to be published on April 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22135

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 22 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on using external bodies to assist with its monitoring of race and ethnic disparity.

The Scottish Government are open to engaging with external bodies to shape the data used for monitoring race and ethnic disparity. A range of race equality partner organisations were invited to contribute to Scotland’s Equality Evidence Strategy and to shape Scotland’s new Equality Evidence Finder. A workshop on data and how the Equality Evidence Finder is used was held within Scotland’s recent Race Equality Action Plan Conference, and the Scottish Government intends to engage further with race equality partner organisations on data in the spring.

Question reference: S5W-22133

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 21 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that its directorates have a consistent approach in collecting and presenting race and ethnicity data; how such information is collated; whether it expects each directorate to carry this work out on a continual basis; which directorate has overall responsibility for (a) overseeing this work and (b) the monitoring of all of the data that it collects on race and ethnic disparity in public life, and how it ensures that this is published in an open and transparent manner.

The Scottish Government ensures a consistent approach to the collection of race and ethnicity data by recommending that the same question is used in Scottish Government surveys and administrative collections, and in those across the wider public sector. The recommended question is the one that was used in the 2011 Census and Scottish Government equality analysts have developed and published guidance for its use. It is likely that this guidance will be reviewed if there is a new question in the 2021 Census. The data tends to be collected on a continual basis. The form the presentation of the data takes, including the amount of detail that can be disclosed, usually depends on the size of the sample. The data on ethnic group is normally published initially within individual official statistics publications and is brought together and presented in a consistent manner on the Scottish Government's Equality Evidence Finder website. The website is managed by Scottish Government equality analysts.

Question reference: S5W-22139

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 21 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what data on race and ethnicity it collects, and how this is made public.

The Scottish Government collects and publishes a wide range of data on race and ethnicity across a number of policy areas, including the labour market, education, health, justice and others. The data on ethnic group is normally published initially within individual official statistics publications and is also brought together and presented in a consistent manner on the Scottish Government's Equality Evidence Finder website.