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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: S6W-07303

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of children and young people are currently beginning treatment for mental health within 18 weeks of referral, broken down by NHS board.

We have allocated nearly £40m additional funding in 2021-22 to NHS Boards to improve CAMHS from our £120m Recovery and Renewal fund. £4.25m of that allocation is directly focussed on offering treatment to those already on CAMHS waiting lists, with a view to clearing all backlogs by March 2023.

The Scottish Government national standard is that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral and the latest CAMHS publication reporting to quarter ending 31 December 2021 is available on the PHS website at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times-quarter-ending-31-december-2021/

Table 1 shows the total number of patients seen for first treatment following referral to CAMH Services broken down by NHS Board and the percentage seen within 18 weeks, 19-35 weeks, 36-52 weeks and 53+ for the latest published data for quarter ending 31 December 2021.

Table 1: Total number of patients seen from referral to treatment and percentage seen within 18 weeks, 19-35 weeks, 36-52 weeks, 53+ weeks by NHS Board

NHS Board	Total patients seen by CAMHS quarter ending Dec-21	Percentage seen by CAMHS within 18 weeks quarter ending Dec-21	Percentage seen by CAMHS within 19-35 weeks quarter ending Dec-21	Percentage seen by CAMHS within 36-52 weeks quarter ending Dec-21	Percentage seen by CAMHS 53+ weeks quarter ending Dec-21
NHS Scotland	4,544	70.3	10.4	12.5	6.8
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	350	93.7	6.0	-	0.3
NHS Borders	70	67.1	17.1	7.1	8.6
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	133	47.4	45.1	7.5	-
NHS Fife	363	71.9	18.2	6.3	3.6
NHS Forth Valley	111	57.7	7.2	5.4	29.7
NHS Grampian	372	95.2	4.6	0.3	-
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	1,561	57.7	10.6	28.6	3.1
NHS Highland	232	75.0	8.6	4.7	11.6
NHS Lanarkshire	239	69.5	10.0	8.4	12.1
NHS Lothian	726	65.2	9.5	5.2	20.1
NHS Tayside	329	93.0	3.3	1.8	1.8
NHS Island Boards	58	100.0	-	-	-

Source: PHS CAMHS database

NHS Island Boards comprise of NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles.

NHS Orkney are unable to submit data since October 2020 due to data quality and extraction issues.

NHS Lothian submission from December 2021 does not include Children and Young people who are waiting for or began a Neurodevelopmental assessment and do not meet the CAMHS Mental Health Specification Criteria.

Question reference: S6O-00932

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it can provide regarding the support that is given to people who attend A&E between 5.30 pm and 9.00 am with suicidal intentions.

Question reference: S6W-07294

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what companies are providing the laptops, Chromebooks, and tablets that are currently being given to schoolchildren.

Question reference: S6W-07296

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06239 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 February 2022, whether it will provide a breakdown of how many (a) laptops, (b) Chromebooks, and (c) tablets have been given to schoolchildren since 1 May 2021.

Question reference: S6W-07295

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what companies are providing the free internet connections for schoolchildren.

Question reference: S6W-06979

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will be taking further to the release of the James Hutton Institute report on the impacts of sewage sludge.

Whilst there was no new evidence in the James Hutton Institute report to suggest a significant risk to human health or wellbeing in respect to the use of sewage sludge, my officials will continue to engage with both SEPA and Scottish Water regarding the report, to ensure the risk assessment and appropriate, recommended mitigations are in place.

The legislative changes recommended by the review of the Storage and Spreading of Sewage Sludge on Land in Scotland (The Sludge Review), are being introduced via the Integrated Authorisation Framework regulations, which are currently being progressed and will be consulted on in the coming months.

Question reference: S6W-06984

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the number of people living in town centres.

Increasing the number of people living in town centres was one of the themes in the Scottish Government's Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP) and is also one of the recommendations made by the independent review of TCAP 'A New future for Scotland's Town Centres', which was published in February 2021. We are working with COSLA and partners to respond to the review with a revised action plan which will be published later in the spring.

The Draft national Planning Framework 4 contains a new policy, dedicated to town centre living, calling on planning authorities to proactively encourage and support opportunities for town centre living.

Our Housing to 2040 strategy puts ambitions for place at its core, investing in town centres and making it easier for homes to be at the heart of thriving communities by: investing in a rolling programme of demonstrator locations, providing expertise, resources and matched funding to help illustrate what future Town Centre Living and 20 minute neighbourhood models can look like. We will also continue to support partners through our Affordable Housing Supply Programme to deliver affordable housing in town centres where this has been identified as a strategic priority.

Question reference: S6W-06987

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to encourage local small businesses to set up on the high street.

The National Strategy for Economic Transformation sets out our vision to make Scotland a world-class entrepreneurial nation that encourages, promotes and celebrates entrepreneurial activity in every sector of our economy. The strategy’s programme for action details how we will make Scotland one of the best countries to start and grow a business.

We will shortly publish a refreshed Town centre Action plan and City Centre Recovery Taskforce report to support action to revitalise town and city centres respectively, and we have provided £80 million Covid Economic Recovery funding to local authorities to consider the needs of local businesses, communities and households and to target support to maximise economic recovery in their areas.

In August we announced the Scotland Loves Local Programme. The aim is to encourage people to support their local businesses and communities, to build wealth in local communities, revitalising town, city and neighbourhood centres and increasing footfall.

We have provided over £1.85 million additional support for Business Improvement Districts since the start of the pandemic, with a further £500,000 for 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-06982

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 18 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reviewed its current (a) tax, (b) funding and (c) development policies and programmes in order to ensure that wellbeing, economy, climate outcomes, fairness and equality are at their heart.

Question reference: S6W-06988

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 16 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to develop community enterprises and entrepreneurship that are based around local and circular economies within town centres.

Town centres are a key part of any local economy. Zero Waste Scotland provides a range of support and advice for community enterprises and businesses that are relevant to building circular economies within town centres. This includes partnering with Social Investment Scotland to deliver the £5m Social Enterprise Net Zero Transition Fund and delivery of the Circular Cities and Regions Programme and a business support programme for organisations exploring circular business models and services.

In addition, the Scottish Government will introduce a Community Wealth Building (CWB) Bill during the term of this parliament. The internationally recognised CWB model is a strategic approach to economic development that seeks to generate, direct and retain wealth in local communities by localising and shortening supply chains, helping local businesses to expand, creating new fair work opportunities, and placing more assets in the hands of local people and communities. CWB is about a systemic rewiring of how a local economy works and who it serves. Working in partnership with local authorities to develop local CWB action plans, we will encourage fostering of local, entrepreneurial businesses committed to reviving assets in our town centres by providing high quality goods, services and employment opportunities.