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-02034

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statistics published in August 2016 that reported a record number of drug-related deaths in 2015, and whether it will increase the funding for drug and alcohol services as a result.

Any drug related death is a tragedy - for the individual, family and community involved. We are continuing to tackle the damaging impact of drugs in Scotland and making recovery a reality through our national drugs strategy, the Road to Recovery.

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) drug related death report shows that we have an ageing group of drug users who are experiencing increasingly poor health. To help address this, we have funded the Scottish Drugs Forum to investigate the issues associated with older drug users and report back to the Scottish Government.

We have invested over £630 million to tackle problem alcohol and drug use since 2008. Alcohol and Drug Partnerships are to maintain services and performance in 2016-17 at 2015-16 levels utilising the funding available. Drug taking in Scotland is falling, the number of young people taking drugs is the lowest in a decade and the NRS report confirms that the number of people under the age of 24 dying from a drug related death has fallen.

Question reference: S5W-02038

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time to begin drug or alcohol treatment (i) was in each year since 2011-12 and (ii) has been since April 2016.

Table one includes information on the average wait for treatment and the length of time that 95 and 99 people out of 100 waited to begin their first treatment, between 1st April 2011 and 31st March 2016.

The requested information for longest waiting times could not be provided as the quality of the data could not be assured. Instead, data has been provided that gives a more accurate representation than the longest wait figures as it excludes any outliers which may be due to data quality issues.

Table 1

Year	Average wait (Days)	95 out of 100 waited (days)	99 out of 100 waited (days)
2011-12	13	41	95
2012-13	9	27	46
2013-14	8	21	35
2014-15	8	21	37
2015-16	8	21	49

Source: ISD Scotland Ref: IR2016-01751

Question reference: S5W-02094

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish information gathered from the GP test pilot in Inverclyde.

Question reference: S5W-02095

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish details of the new GP contract that comes into force in 2017.

Question reference: S5W-02037

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 13 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been (a) referred to and (b) treated by each alcohol and drug partnership in each year since 2011-12.

Table one shows the number of (a) referrals to drug and alcohol treatment services and (b) the number of clients who have started first treatment for drug or alcohol misuse between 1 April 2011 2016 and 31 March 2016.

The figures given are for total number of referrals and treatments not number of individuals, as many clients will be referred and treated multiple times in different Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs). The figures also only include data for first treatments not for any subsequent treatments the client may have.

Table 1

Financial Year

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

Area	Number of referrals	Number starting first treatment	Number of referrals	Number starting first treatment	Number of referrals	Number starting first treatment	Number of referrals	Number starting first treatment	Number of referrals	Number starting first treatment
Scotland	76912	45671	70676	45245	72797	48073	71144	47591	67181	46451

Aberdeen City ADP	1809	1033	2053	1368	2 166	1549	1901	1367	2 135	1563
Aberdeenshire ADP	2031	1284	1817	1115	1779	1105	1747	1204	1882	1379
Angus ADP	990	497	1048	698	1041	700	910	639	892	611
Argyll & Bute ADP	887	466	809	486	794	526	756	509	770	511
Borders NHS/ADP	1 091	666	979	589	1081	633	989	580	955	538
Clackmannanshire ADP	2410	1252	2071	1186	1990	1231	2011	1169	1911	1058
Dumfries and Galloway NHS/ADP	1829	1294	1575	1183	1872	1321	1900	1320	1934	1324
Dundee City ADP	2312	1260	2602	1613	2698	1699	2214	1328	2156	1365
East Ayrshire ADP	1842	996	1482	928	1632	983	1592	915	1499	840
East Dunbartonshire ADP	391	236	571	412	662	487	550	401	606	429
East Renfrewshire ADP	377	250	442	264	392	271	412	290	370	259
Edinburgh City ADP	6413	3185	6321	3417	6336	3597	5822	3306	5471	3448
Falkirk ADP	785	338	681	324	666	370	531	293	522	348
Fife NHS/ADP	4369	3131	3343	2556	4147	3012	4451	3168	4756	3536
Glasgow City ADP	17652	11696	15552	10734	16596	11682	16556	11567	14738	10674
Highland ADP	2653	1420	2816	1474	2556	1343	2561	1460	2090	1189
Inverclyde ADP	2100	1252	1444	1070	1328	965	1166	904	1149	864
Lanarkshire NHS/ADP	10862	7007	10909	7156	11442	7741	12078	8493	10909	7831
Midlothian and East Lothian ADP (MELDAP)	1884	884	1524	934	1420	867	1169	761	1252	842
Moray ADP	1486	553	861	503	351	344	324	327	354	349
North Ayrshire ADP	1988	1084	1971	1169	1938	1146	1562	1017	1504	1040
Orkney NHS/ADP	54	35	66	36	90	68	71	49	49	39
Perth & Kinross ADP	1202	568	1227	659	1401	745	1453	733	1156	810
Renfrewshire ADP	1915	1244	1747	1212	1986	1529	2433	1910	2417	1877
Shetland NHS/ADP	190	158	154	146	142	117	108	97	112	95
South Ayrshire ADP	1405	865	1475	1014	1376	1015	1435	928	1394	888
Stirling ADP	552	305	419	235	426	275	416	307	504	348
West Dunbartonshire ADP	1725	1080	1630	997	1799	1049	1760	1044	1504	931
West Lothian ADP	3246	1263	2626	1379	2293	1358	1968	1250	1885	1187
Western Isles NHS/Outer Hebrides ADP	462	369	461	388	397	345	298	255	305	278

Question reference: S5W-02036

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 13 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff each alcohol and drug partnership has employed in each year since 2011-12.

Question reference: S5O-00123

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to protect greenbelt land from developers in order to achieve Outcome 3 of the 2020 challenge for Scotland’s biodiversity.

Question reference: S5W-01908

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 7 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what penalties can be applied to a residential care service provider when an older person is injured because of a lack of adequate protection, and under what legislation.

All care home residents are entitled to receive high-quality care, support and protection from harm in a safe and secure setting. The penalties which can be placed on a care service provider who fails to provide adequate protection for people in their care include the Care Inspectorate issuing an improvement notice or taking action to cancel registration under Part five of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010. Section 315 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 includes an offence which applies where a person with a mental health disorder (including dementia) is ill-treated or wilfully neglected in the course of provision of their care. The current maximum penalty for this offence on indictment is two years' imprisonment.

This is being extended to five years under the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016. Part three of this Act will further protect vulnerable people across our communities through the establishment of offences relating to the ill-treatment or wilful neglect of adults receiving health care or social care. There are two main offences which come into force in April 2017: an offence that applies to care workers, and an offence that applies to care providers. The Act provides penalties which are at an appropriate level proportionate with the breach of trust in such crimes.

Question reference: S5W-02092

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 6 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-01618 by Annabelle Ewing on 18 August 2016, whether it will respond to the specific issue raised in relation to children living with one parent, rather than looked-after children.

The relevant legislation makes it clear that the child must be at the centre of these cases. Section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, on court orders relating to parental responsibilities etc, provides that in considering whether or not to make an order and what order to make, the court shall regard the welfare of the child concerned as its paramount consideration. Section 11 also provides that the court shall not make any such order unless it considers that it would be better for the child that the order be made than that none should be made at all. Section 11 also makes provision on hearing the voice of the child in these cases. In relation to practicalities, the Relationships Scotland network provides contact centres. The Relationships Scotland website contains information on supported contact, where the contact centre is a venue, and supervised contact, where a trained member of staff observes and supervises the contact between the child and the non-resident parent to ensure the safety of those involved.

Question reference: S5F-00163

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 05 September 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2016

To ask the First Minister for what reason more than a quarter of training places in GP surgeries were not filled at the end of the 2016 recruitment round.