Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-14832

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the response to the debate on motion S5M-04086 (Safe Drive, Stay Alive Project) by the Minister for Transport and the Islands on 1 March 2017 (Official Report, c. 100), what support (a) it and (b) Transport Scotland plans to give to this project in each of the next three years.

To date, Safe Drive, Stay Alive has been funded by the various Local Authorities as decisions on which interventions are delivered in each area are a matter for road safety delivery partners. The Scottish Government’s role is to work collaboratively – via the Road Safety Framework which offers structure and guidance – to support partners in reducing risk through a range of educational interventions.

Through the Framework we also regularly provide an opportunity for organisations to apply for funding. It is for the Strategic Partnership Board and the Operational Partnership Group to assess each application against specific criteria.

The current application process has recently concluded without an award to the Safe Drive, Stay Alive Project.

Question reference: S5W-15199

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle a reported decline in educational attainment in Fife, and whether it will commit to providing additional funding for Fife Council in this regard.

Scottish Government Official Statistics on school leaver attainment show increases in the attainment of Fife school leavers in 2015-16 compared to 2009-10 as shown in the following table.

Percentage of Fife school leavers by total qualifications achieved, 2009-10 to
‎ 2015-16

Year	1+ at SCQF Level 5 or better	1+ at SCQF Level 6 or better	1+ at SCQF Level 7
2009-10	72.2	45.0	15.2
2010-11	74.2	48.5	16.2
2011-12	77.6	50.9	18.1
2012-13	79.3	50.2	17.5
2013-14	82.0	54.1	19.9
2014-15	81.3	54.9	18.4
2015-16	82.5	58.3	19.4

Source: Summary statistics for attainment, leaver destinations and healthy living, No. 7: 2017 Edition

The Scottish Government are committed to raising attainment and closing the poverty related attainment gap. This is why we committed £750m over the course of this parliament through the Attainment Scotland Fund to provide targeted support for children, schools and communities to improve attainment and close the gap.

Fife will benefit from £10.1m in Pupil Equity Funding in 2018-19, up £300k from 2017-18. Further to this nine Fife schools are participating in the Attainment Challenge Schools Programme and were allocated £965k in 2017-18.

Question reference: S5T-00975

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 March 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the effect of the Scottish income tax rate on military personnel.

Question reference: S5W-14831

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that as 36% of GPs in NHS Fife are no longer accepting new patients unless they have been allocated to them by the Practitioner Services Division.

‏Fife HSCP are working closely with GP leaders including the cluster quality leads and the LMC to improve recruitment in relation to general practice. The board will be working with them on the implementation of the new GMS contract to ease the strain on general practitioners and improve access to primary care services in line with the new contract. They have reassured the Scottish Government that all Fife residents are able to register with a GP practice.‏

‏Scotland’s first Graduate Entry Medicine programme (ScotGEM) will commence in autumn this year with 55 places; it is designed to develop doctors interested in a career in general practice with increased exposure to placements in community-based services as well as teaching and mentoring our doctors of the future.‏

Question reference: S5O-01823

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it expects to meet its commitment to offer 1,140 hours per year of free childcare by 2020.

Question reference: S5W-14235

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 20 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that people from deprived areas in Fife can access cancer and heart disease screening, and what impact an increase in such access might have in tackling health inequalities.

Cancer Screening:

We are committed to taking forward the Detect Cancer Early Programme (DCE), in which we have invested £41m with a target of increasing the number of cancers detected at the early stage of disease. The DCE programme aims to improve survival for people with cancer in Scotland to amongst the best in Europe by diagnosing and treating the disease at an earlier stage, with a particular focus on those living in the most deprived areas. In 2018, the programme will place further focus on the overall benefits of early detection for all cancers through a new pan-tumour awareness campaign and it will further encourage anyone with concerns to visit their GP.

Participating in the cancer screening programmes is one of the best ways to detect cancer early and we are investing up to £5m under the cancer strategy Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action 2016 to tackle inequalities in access to screening services. We have already funded a number of NHS Board and Third Sector pilot activities and work is underway to set up an Inequalities Network to develop innovative strategies and share learning to increase participation amongst those least likely to take part in the cancer screening programmes.

Heart Disease:

Prevention of heart disease, including championing work focused on inequalities and people at high risk of developing heart disease, is one of the six priorities in our Heart Disease Improvement Plan.

NHS Information and Statistics Division (ISD) statistics published on 30 January 2018 show a downward trend in incidence and mortality rates from coronary heart disease (CHD) across all deprivation groups. The gap in inequalities in mortality rates has closed – with a higher reduction in deaths in the most deprived communities than the least deprived in the last decade (36% and 31%).

These figures show that our strategy for tackling heart disease is delivering real results for patients. But we recognise that CHD is higher in more deprived areas and health inequalities remain. Reducing health inequalities is one of the largest challenges we face. We are taking action focussing on addressing the underlying causes of health inequalities – tackling poverty, fair wages, supporting families, and improving our physical and social environments – and to support people across Scotland to live healthier lives.

Question reference: S5W-14177

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report in The Press and Journal on 22 January 2018, which suggests that local authorities face an £86 million reduction in their budgets following an accounting error; what action has been taken to resolve this; when this issue will be resolved, and whether it considers that the £86 million figure no longer applies and, if so, for what reason.

The recent press claims that the 2018-19 local government finance settlement will be reduced by £86 million were completely untrue. Not a single penny was removed from the provisional local government finance settlement that was issued for consultation on 14 December 2017. The total amount of funding provided to local government remained unchanged.

COSLA, on behalf of local authorities requested adjustments to the provisional individual local authority allocations but within the same total sum. I agreed to COSLA’s request and the revised figures were issued to COSLA and individual local authorities on 23 January. Since then I have announced an extra £170 million for local government as part of Stage 1 of the Budget Bill debate held on 31 January.

Question reference: S5W-14291

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-01736 by Kevin Stewart on 31 January 2018 (Official Report, c. 10), what discussions have taken place to ensure that community councils are empowered to (a) support community engagment with and (b) play an active role in the planning process.

Representatives of community councils gave written and oral evidence to the independent planning review panel; responded to Places, People and Planning, our consultation paper published in January 2017; and took part in and contributed to the associated working groups supporting the programme.

Community councils already play an active role in the planning process both in development planning and development management. Our proposals on local place plans and enhancing engagement at both development planning and development management stages will allow community councils a more active role in the planning process.

Question reference: S5W-14165

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-01694 by Humza Yousaf on 25 January 2018 (Official Report, c.1), what its response is to reports that customers at Markinch station have been receiving a poor service, with 42% of trains arriving on time at the station between November 2017 and January 2018.

The recognised rail industry standard for the industry in Great Britain is the Public Performance Measure (PPM). This measure counts all trains planned to run, which run and arrive within five minutes of their scheduled arrival time. Trains which are cancelled, either in full or in part, or which do not stop at stations at which they are meant to stop, are counted against this measure. The equivalent PPM for the trains arriving at Markinch, is 67.6 percent for the year ended 6 January 2018.

There are occasions when train services need to allow more time to allow those with disabilities or impairments, or parents with prams, to board the trains. With this in mind, the PPM measure offers a balanced and sensible view of train performance.

You may be aware that ScotRail has appointed a railway industry expert to undertake an independent review of train service performance across the network and propose steps for improvement.

I welcome this independent review as part of ScotRail’s recovery measures. The sooner performance can be addressed the sooner customers can enjoy the level of service they desire and deserve.

In addition ScotRail is developing a plan to identify actions targeted towards delivering improved performance in the areas which have particularly contributed to the recent problems with performance.

Question reference: S5W-13968

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 31 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress to improve (a) mobile phone coverage, (b) superfast broadband and (c) DAB radio signals in rural parts of the Mid Scotland and Fife region, and what action it is taking to speed up their implementation ahead of the target date of 2021.

Despite the reserved nature of telecommunications in the UK, the Scottish Government has chosen to take action to improve broadband and mobile coverage across Scotland, rather than wait for the UK Government to act. We do not have any formal role in the delivery of DAB radio coverage, which is being taken forward by the UK Government, local radio multiplex operators and the BBC. However, Ofcom produces a yearly report on digital radio, and the 2017 report can be found at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/tv-radio-and-on-demand/radio-research/digital-radio-reports.

Our Mobile Action Plan – the first of its kind in the UK – outlines the steps we are taking with industry and other partners to improve mobile coverage across Scotland. In July 2017, we made changes to planning regulations to make it easier for mobile network operators to deploy new or upgraded infrastructure. We are piloting a scheme to trial non-domestic rates relief for new mobile masts in non-commercial areas; and we will shortly begin the procurement for the Scottish 4G Infill Programme. This will see up to £25 million invested to deliver new masts in selected areas affected by mobile notspots. We will announce more details later in the year.

Our investment through the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme has seen substantial improvements to broadband access in Mid Scotland and Fife. As at 31 December 2017, over 118,000 additional premises in the region had access to fibre broadband, thanks to DSSB, with over 105,000 of those able to access speeds of 24 megabits per second (Mbps) and above.

We recognise that more needs to be done and this is why the Scottish Government recently announced a £600 million investment in the initial phase of the R100 programme, which will extend superfast broadband access to 100% of premises by the end of 2021. This is the biggest public investment ever made in a UK broadband project; and underpins the first universal superfast programme in the UK. Of course, of this £600 million, the UK Government is contributing a mere £20.99 million - just 3.5% of the total investment - and I would hope that I can rely on your support in seeking a fairer, more substantial contribution from your colleagues in Westminster.

Procurement to deliver this investment is underway. It is expected to last around 12 months, and we will announce plans for delivery in early 2019, once contracts have been awarded.

Chamber and committees