Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-04377

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many secondary school teachers have stopped teaching as a career in each year since 2017-18, broken down by subject taught.

Question reference: S6W-04202

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have (a) successfully downloaded Covid Vaccination Status QR codes via the NHS Scotland Covid Status App, (b) been issued paper Covid Vaccination Certificates, (c) downloaded PDF Covid Vaccination Certificates and (d) obtained proof of COVID-19 vaccination status through NHS Scotland in total.

Public Heath Scotland publish a weekly COVID-19 statistical report every Wednesday which includes this information.

As at 15 November 2021 the:

COVID Status app had been downloaded over 1.5 million; and separately
vaccination status letter has been requested in paper copies 478,014 times; and
downloaded in PDF format over 1.2 million times.

A single user may choose to download the App or PDF on multiple devices, and may request a replacement of paper copies so it is not currently possible to identify the total number of people who have obtained proof overall.

Question reference: S6W-04214

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the privacy information on the NHS Scotland COVID Status App, which states that personal data of users will be shared with NetCompany, Service Now, Jumio, iProov, Albasoft, Amazon Web Services, CFH Docmail, Microsoft Azure, Gov.uk Notify Service and Royal Mail, relates to as yet inactive app functionalities, and for what purpose these permissions were sought.

No. If, and when, any additional functions are added to the NHS Scotland Covid Status App then the privacy information will be updated accordingly. For more detail on the current privacy information, I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-04212 and S6W-04213 on 25 November 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-04468

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been convicted of (a) an alcohol-related and (b) a drug driving offence in each of the last two years, broken down by Police Scotland operational division.

The Scottish Government criminal proceedings database does not hold information based on Police Scotland operational divisions.

The latest available information on the number of people convicted for ‘driving under the influence’ is published in the ‘Criminal Proceedings in Scotland – 2019-20’ statistical bulletin, table 4(b). A breakdown of the various crime types that make up this category is provided in the following table, please note that we are unable to separate alcohol related offences from drug related offences in some crime groups.

People convicted of offences related to driving under the influence¹, by crime type, 2018-19 to 2019-20

Main crime or offence	2018-19	2019-20
Total convicted	3,552	3,385
Driving motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs	315	303
Driving motor vehicle with blood alcohol content above prescribed limit	2,548	2,451
Driving motor vehicle while under influence of controlled drug above prescribed limit	-	4
In charge of motor vehicle while unfit through drink/drugs	34	42
In charge of motor vehicle while blood alcohol content above limit	209	178
Failure to provide breath specimen at the roadside	42	43
Failure to provide breath, blood or urine specimen at police station	404	364

1. Where main charge.

Source: Scottish Government criminal proceedings database

Information on the number of people convicted for ‘causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink/drugs’ can be found under the 'Supporting documents' to the aforementioned bulletin at this link Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2019-20 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Question reference: S6W-04419

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people have been removed from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting lists under the Choice and Partnership Approach (CAPA) model, broken down by NHS Board.

Question reference: S6W-04417

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been declared homeless in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government publishes information on “Homelessness assessment decisions” which provides data on the number of homeless applications which are assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness. Information has been collected and is available by local authority for the years 2002-03 to 2020-21.

The data can be found in Table 11 of the Main Tables (June 2021) associated with the latest Homelessness in Scotland: 2020-21 publication.

Question reference: S6W-02492

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in advance of the development of a national care service, whether it will provide additional funding for health and social care partnerships' recruitment campaigns, including to fund initiatives in attracting new staff that have been deemed successful in other sectors.

On the 5 October, the Health Secretary announced our £300 million NHS and care winter package.

We announced funding of:

£40m for ‘step-down’ care, so that hospital patients can temporarily go into care homes, or can receive additional care at home support;
£62m to maximise the capacity of care at home services;
Up to £48m to increase the hourly rate of frontline adult social care staff to at least £10.02;
£20m to enhance Multi-Disciplinary Teams, so that more social work assessments can be carried out, and to support joint working between health and social care.

This new funding will support increases in social care capacity in the community and in primary care.

As set out in the announcement, £62 million for 2021-22 has been allocated for building capacity in care at home community-based services. This is recurring funding intended help to fulfil unmet need, and deal with the current surge in demand and complexity of individual needs, also helping to ease pressures on unpaid carers.

On the 8 November we launched a further national marketing campaign to attract more people to the sector. We are doing things differently to previous campaigns, focusing on social media, a younger target audience, and we are working with schools and colleges, and linking to the medium term work we’re doing with the SSSC and NES on career pathways and learning and development.

We have approved funding to extend the MyJobScotland recruitment website to all third and independent sector organisations until March 2022, which will mean that all social care vacancies can be advertised on one platform at no additional cost to providers.

We are also working at pace with SSSC and NES to develop a national induction programme to support new entrants into Adult Social Care.

Question reference: S6W-02491

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide immediate additional funding to support health and social care partnerships in meeting the needs of their service users, including with the (a) hiring of additional temporary staff and (b) commissioning of additional third, independent and community sector care providers.

On the 5 October, the Health Secretary announced our £300 million NHS and care winter package.

We announced funding of:

£40m for ‘step-down’ care, so that hospital patients can temporarily go into care homes, or can receive additional care at home support;
£62m to maximise the capacity of care at home services;
Up to £48m to increase the hourly rate of frontline adult social care staff to at least £10.02;
£20m to enhance Multi-Disciplinary Teams, so that more social work assessments can be carried out, and to support joint working between health and social care.

This new funding will support increases in social care capacity in the community and in primary care.

As set out in the announcement, £62 million for 2021-22 has been allocated for building capacity in care at home community-based services. This is recurring funding intended help to fulfil unmet need, and deal with the current surge in demand and complexity of individual needs, also helping to ease pressures on unpaid carers.

Health Boards have already commenced recruitment activity to meet the commitment to recruit an additional 1,000 Health and Care Support staff at AfC Bands 2, 3 & 4 to provide additional capacity across a variety of services both in the community and in hospital settings. Funding of up to £15 million is being provided in-year to fully fund all costs associate with recruitment to these posts. We are directly supporting boards to fill these posts as quickly as possible within that time frame, through securing an accelerated pre-employment process and supporting the delivery of employability initiatives such as the ‘Skills Boost for Health Care’ training for staff new to health and care.

On the 8 November we launched a further national marketing campaign to attract more people to the sector. We are doing things differently to previous campaigns, focusing on social media, a younger target audience, and we are working with schools and colleges, and linking to the medium term work we’re doing with the SSSC and NES on career pathways and learning and development.

We have approved funding to extend the MyJobScotland recruitment website to all third and independent sector organisations until March 2022, which will mean that all social care vacancies can be advertised on one platform at no additional cost to providers.

Question reference: S6O-00468

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish, in full, details of its engagement with GFG Alliance in relation to operations at the Lochaber smelter site.

Question reference: S6O-00471

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the Tay Cities Region Deal is having on Dundee.

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