- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with representatives from Lothian Buses.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2025
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 19 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34349 by Maree Todd on 28 February 2025, whether it anticipates that its reported trend of increases in spend on mental health and child and adolescent mental health services as a proportion of NHS board spending will continue at their present rate, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
Decisions around how much is spent on mental health and child and adolescent mental health services is dependent on the financial decisions taken by NHS Boards and their partners, on the continued local investment needed to achieve the targets. It is important that Boards retain flexibility in their spending decisions to meet specific demands, including making progress towards the 1% and 10% targets
Boards should be commended for the increases in spend on mental health. While some have gone above the 10% and 1% targets.
Looking forward we expect spending on Mental Health between the Scottish Government and NHS Boards, to be around £1.5 billion in 2025-26 based on recent Health Service cost book data.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 18 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34366 by Shona Robison on 28 February 2025, for what reason there was a decrease in the number of contingent workers recorded under the Director General for Corporate Services between 2022 and 2023.
Answer
The use of contractors in SG is largely accounted for by resourcing requirements to strengthen key professional skills such as expanding our digital capabilities. Employing temporary and agency workers provides the flexibility required to meet immediate business and access specialist and other skills quickly.
Having grown the workforce to respond to the Covid-19 epidemic, the Scottish Government reviewed its workforce plans at the beginning of the 2022-23 financial year and the Resource Spending Review. Recruitment controls were introduced in 2022 and the Scottish Government has continued to prioritise reductions in contingent workers as an initial means of reducing the workforce size and cost. This approach has been in partnership with recognised Trade Unions. The number of contingent workers is now 39% lower than in March 2022.
One of the areas in which this was delivered was the Digital Directorate within DG Corporate. A number of roles were identified that would be needed on a long term basis which were currently occupied by contingent workers. An intentional cost saving strategy was implemented to replace some posts being held by contingent workers with directly employed staff. It is estimated that this process has saved Scottish Government £3.2m.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 18 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34366 by Shona Robison on 28 February 2025, for what reason more contingent workers are consistently recorded under the Director General for Communities than any other Director General, and what the cause was of the decrease in the number of contingent workers recorded under the Director General for Communities between 2022-23 and 2024.
Answer
The programme to devolve social security powers sits within DG Communities and accounts for the majority of its contingent worker headcount. This programme employs both directly employed and contingent workers to ensure it has the right blend of skills and experience to deliver ministerial commitments on social security at any one time. In addition, using contingent workers means headcount is increased on a temporary basis when the work of the programme has been at its greatest and allows resources, and therefore costs, to be quickly and easily reduced as the programme moves towards closure. This is why the figures for contingent workers have increased in the period identified (which correlates with the run up to and delivery of the bulk of the devolved benefits, including disability benefits for both children and adults) and now show a significant decline, given the programme comes to an end in the next financial year.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 18 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34780 by Shona Robison on 26 February 2025, what its response is to reported concerns that its approach to aiming to help first time buyers does not work towards increasing the underlying supply of housing units, and whether it has done or commissioned any work to analyse the impact of (a) the non-proceeding of the Additional Dwelling Supplement transactions referred to on supply in the private rental sector and (b) each of its changes to the Additional Dwelling Supplement and Land and Buildings Transaction Tax to the overall supply of housing units in the Scottish housing market.
Answer
As set out in the response to question S6W-34780, increasing the rate of the Additional Dwelling Supplement is intended to support increased opportunities for first-time buyers and home movers while raising vital additional revenue to support public services. This takes account of the latest Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts for Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and its assumptions regarding the behavioural effects of the rate increase.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 18 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34366 by Shona Robison on 28 February 2025, what value was provided by employing 989 contingent workers in the 2021-22 financial year.
Answer
A Contingent Worker is defined as non directly employed workers that are engaged in any capacity for the Scottish Government. Contingent worker statistics published include consultants, contractors, interim managers, inward secondments/ Service Level Agreement, temporary workers, short-term youth initiatives, other contractors and Government UK Fast Stream.
The use of contractors in SG is largely accounted for by resourcing requirements to strengthen key professional skills such as expanding our digital capabilities. Employing temporary and agency workers provides the flexibility required to meet immediate business and access specialist and other skills quickly.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 18 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34365 by Shona Robison on 28 February 2025, whether it will provide a breakdown of its annual spend on contingent workers since 2021-22 by (a) project, (b) directorate and (c) contract name.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold all data in a way that can meet this request. The Scottish Government can provide you with a breakdown of its annual spend on contingent workers by Directorate, but is unable to provide this by Project and/or Contract name as it cannot be consistently categorised in this way.
The table containing the breakdown of expenditure by Directorate on contingent workers was too large to be incorporated into the PQ response. This has therefore been recorded as bib 65692 held in The Scottish Parliament Information Centre. To note, this data has been extracted from a different system to that which retains records on contingent worker numbers and cannot be viewed as inter-related, due to the dependency on different hierarchical structures and definitions of contingent worker. This data does not provide a comparable view of the costs attributable to the contingent workforce listed Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot
The Scottish Government implemented an Oracle Cloud enterprise resource planning system in Autumn 2024, replacing our legacy HR and Finance systems. Though the data capture of contingent workers remains an area requiring some further development, the implementation of a combined HR and Finance system will improve the data we hold on workforce costs.
The Scottish Government has prioritised a reduction in the contingent workforce such as contractors and consultants, as it has reduced its workforce size. This approach has been in partnership with recognised Trade Unions. The number of contingent workers is now 39% lower than in March 2022.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35094 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 March 2025, whether it has the capacity to (a) identify the number of distinct recipients removed from the claimant count for Adult Disability Payment in a given time frame and (b) break such data down by cause of removal.
Answer
Social Security Scotland has the capacity to identify the number of distinct recipients removed from the client count for Adult Disability Payment in a given time frame. Social Security Scotland do not hold the breakdown of such data by cause of removal.
Social Security Scotland will continue to review and prioritise any new statistics produced and will take account of users’ needs when developing future publications, in line with Code of Practice for Statistics.
The latest Adult Disability Payment official statistics publication can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Statistics. The next release of Adult Disability Payment statistics, covering the period to the end of January 2025, is due to be published on 18 March 2025.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35095 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 March 2025, how many staff are in Social Security Scotland’s counter fraud branch; whether the full and undivided work attentions of all the staff in that branch are towards the work of countering fraud in social security, and whether the Scottish Government has any way of determining what proportion of work done by Social Security Scotland’s counter fraud branch goes into identifying fraudulent applications.
Answer
Social Security Scotland carefully considers what information on counter fraud can be placed into the public domain to ensure it does not undermine the ability of Social Security Scotland to prevent and detect crime and protect the public purse. It does not disclose details of the size of the Counter Fraud Branch.
Counter Fraud Branch consists of officials who work closely together to prevent, detect, identify and investigate allegations of fraud against Social Security Scotland. The staff undertake fraud risk assessment, intelligence management and investigation activities and are located throughout Scotland.
The majority of the staff resources within the Counter Fraud Branch are fully engaged in delivering the Counter Fraud activities highlighted above. A small proportion work to understand, monitor and where appropriate investigate potential internal threats – which includes, but is not limited to, insider fraud. This team also provides specialist investigation support to other business areas within Social Security Scotland.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 17 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34348 by Maree Todd on 28 February 2025, what its position is on the extent to which it is responsible for the use of locum psychiatrists in NHS Scotland, in light of its authorities and powers regarding the relevant labour market and regulatory conditions, and its authorities and powers regarding the direction of NHS boards.
Answer
The deployment of medical agency staff, including locum psychiatrists, is a matter for individual NHS Scotland Health Boards. Health Boards should always be seeking to secure best value whenever they enter into arrangements regarding use of locums in order to maximise the impact that investment has on the quality and availability of patient care.
To address specific challenges in the recruitment and retention of permanent psychiatrist posts in Scotland, we have established a Working Group which is actively considering locum usage. The specific challenges facing psychiatry have been considered by the Medical Locums Task and Finish Group. The Psychiatry Working Group will make a series of recommendations and are expected to report to Ministers in Spring 2025.
Scottish Ministers have a number of mechanisms open to them to drive improvements in the delivery of services across NHS Scotland, with powers of direction under the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 being just one of those.
