- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it monitors local authority adherence to the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020 and, if so, what its response is to reports of inconsistencies with menu choice across local authority education boards.
Answer
Compliance with the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020 is monitored by Education Scotland Health and Nutrition Inspectors who support local authority caterers to undertake a nutrient analysis of school lunch menus using appropriate software to assess compliance with the nutrient standards. They also support local authority teaching and catering staff to assess compliance with all other food and drink provision across the school day against the relevant specifications.
Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 each local authority is responsible for ensuring that they comply with the statutory duties set out in the Regulations. The Regulations are flexible enough to allow for local variations in menu design which helps to ensure that local needs and preferences can be taken into account. As such we would expect to see different menus between local authorities and between schools within a local authority area.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 May 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what charges will be removed from dental services, and when they will be removed.
Answer
The removal of all dental charges for NHS dental treatment is a Scottish Government manifesto commitment and will take place in the lifetime of this parliament.
As part of the 100 Days Commitment the Scottish Government, young people with care experience are to be exempted from NHS dental charges. This commitment has now been widened to include all young people between 18 and 25 years of age (inclusive).
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Friday, 04 June 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support local authorities that receive a large number of visitors to help them deal with problems related to litter, vandalism and antisocial behaviour that may increase during the summer months.
Answer
While it is for the local authority or national park authority to ensure it has sufficient services in place, the Scottish Government has in recent years supported authorities through its Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund which has helped create new toilets, car parks and waste disposal facilities. To support critical tourism projects in our more remote areas we are more than doubling this Fund to £6.2 million in 2021-22, bringing our total investment to over £15 million.
The Visitor Management Group, consisting of public bodies, National Parks and local authorities, was also established last September and has now developed an interim strategy and a list of associated actions for this year.
A number of actions are already underway including the establishment of the new Better Places Green Recovery Fund by NatureScot. This Fund has provided over £400,000 to 35 community and third sector projects so far, with a new round of £2.75m allocated to deliver additional short-term action for the 2021 season. This includes support for temporary toilets and ranger posts. We are also providing our National parks with an extra £3.6m in 2021 which will support, among other things, seasonal rangers and improved infrastructure to better manage visitors this summer.
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of (a) Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and (b) Police Scotland response times arriving to accidents on the A77 in each year since 2017-18.
Answer
Responding to incidents is an operational matter for our Emergency Services and the Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on response times to specific incidents or locations.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many inpatient beds there are for people with eating disorders, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
Children and young people who require inpatient support for an eating disorder will be admitted to either one of the 3 regional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) inpatient units, as outlined below, or be admitted to a paediatric ward.
- 24 beds - Skye House Regional Adolescent Unit, Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow
- 12 beds - Dudhope House, Dundee
- 12 beds - Young People’s Unit, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
Similarly, adults who require inpatient support will be admitted to general adult mental health wards locally, or to one of the 3 adult specialist inpatient units in Scotland:
- The Regional Eating Disorder Unit at St John’s Hospital, Livingston, which is a 12 bed unit.
- The North of Scotland Eating Disorder Unit (Eden Unit), Royal Cornhill Hospital Aberdeen, which is a 10 bedded specialist eating disorder unit.
- There are also 4 specialist eating disorder beds in general adult psychiatry ward in Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated to North Ayrshire Council to provide free school meals to primary four children from August 2021, and to primary five children from January 2022, in the financial year 2021-22.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing local authorities across Scotland with £28 million to expand the universal provision of free school lunches to include all children in primary 4 starting from August 2021, and to include all children in primary 5 starting from January 2022.
We wrote to local authorities on 14 May to inform them of their allocations and I can confirm that North Ayrshire Council will receive £651,000 in additional funding to support the expansion of universal free school meals to primary 4 and primary 5 children in 2021-22.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government when the one-off pro rata £550 payment for personal assistants that it announced on 30 November 2020 will be made available through local authority health and social care partnerships.
Answer
To clarify, the one off pro rata thank you payment for all eligible health and social care staff is £500. We are working at pace with our key stakeholders to establish an effective way to pay Personal Assistants. We will issue further details as soon as this is agreed. We are confident that we have developed an online portal to reach all eligible Personal Assistants and we are aiming to have it open very soon.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated to North Ayrshire Council to provide targeted free school meal support during school holidays in the financial year 2021-22.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing local authorities across Scotland with £21.75 million to provide targeted free school meal support during the school holidays throughout the forthcoming school year. We wrote to local authorities on 14 May to inform them of their allocations and I can confirm that North Ayrshire Council will receive £704,000 in additional funding to support the delivery of free school meal approaches in all school holidays.
This support will be available to all families who are in receipt of any of the qualifying benefits which would enable them to receive free school meals, regardless of whether their children are in primary or secondary school and this support will begin at the start of the forthcoming summer holidays.
Local authorities will be given the flexibility to support eligible families through any method which they feel will best meet local needs and circumstances within their respective areas.
- Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
-
Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 17 June 2021
To ask the First Minister what engagement the Scottish Government has had with the UK Government regarding COVID-19 business support, in light of the rise of the Delta variant.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 17 June 2021
- Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
-
Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 17 June 2021
To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will provide an update on the commitment to hold an inquiry into the malicious prosecutions concerning Rangers FC.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 17 June 2021