- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding an increased windfall tax on the excess profits of large oil and gas companies, in light of reports that the income from any such tax could be used to support households struggling with the cost of living crisis, including in Scotland.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2024
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 February 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 27 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government when it last reviewed the application process for the Young Persons (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, and what its response is to reports that many young people and their families find it a complicated process and therefore do not complete the application.
Answer
The Scottish Government has listened to young people and their families about the application process and works closely with delivery partners and local councils to make improvements.
In light of feedback received, the Improvement Service, which manages the online portal getyournec.scot , delivered a number of updates to the website in June 2022 to improve the application process whilst maintaining the integrity of the child safety and identity requirements. These improvements included broadening the range of accepted proof documents, providing additional guidance, and enhancing the functionality of the website by adding a save and return feature so that applications can be made in multiple sittings.
The Year 1 evaluation - Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme | Transport Scotland found that a majority (64%) of survey respondents that had signed up for the scheme indicated that the application process had been either very or fairly easy, and those who had signed up after improvements were made were more likely to find the process easy.
Furthermore, local councils provide a variety of options for applications to be made offline or via parentsportal.scot . Many also have dedicated staff on hand to help those who may need additional support through the application process.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that NHS boards have been asked to "pause" the development of their National Treatment Centres, what action these boards will take to maintain a readiness to develop these centres when the Scottish Government publishes its revised infrastructure investment plan.
Answer
As set out in the Scottish Government's Draft budget published on 19 December 2023, the capital funding position is extremely challenging due to the UK Government’s decision to cut our capital budget by nearly 10% a cumulative capital cut of £1.6bn. That has inevitably led to some difficult decisions on what capital projects will be progressed. In common with all health capital investment projects in development, the National Treatment Centres have been paused until the necessary capital funding to complete the project becomes available.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS boards that have reportedly been asked to "pause" the development of their National Treatment Centres.
Answer
As set out in the Scottish Governments Draft budget published on 19 December 2023, the capital funding position is extremely challenging due to the UK Government’s decision to cut our capital budget by nearly 10%, a cumulative capital cut of £1.6bn. That has inevitably led to some difficult decisions on what capital projects will be progressed. In common with all health capital investment projects in development, the National Treatment Centres have been paused until the necessary capital funding to complete the project becomes available.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of access to the universal health visiting pathway, which consists of 11 home visits to all families, including eight within the first year of life, and three child health reviews between 13 months and four to five years.
Answer
All Scottish territorial Health Boards are committed to delivering the Universal Health Visiting Pathway (UHVP).
The collection of UHVP coverage data across the 11 pathway visits is managed at a Health Board level. However, Official Statistics on the coverage of 5 of those visits (first visit, 6-8 week visit and all 3 child health reviews) are published annually by Public Health Scotland (PHS) Child health pre-school review coverage 2021 to 2022 - Child health pre-school review coverage - Publications - Public Health Scotland .
Scottish Government policy officials also liaise regularly with Health Visiting leads through their national network and dedicated discussions with individual Boards.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government when it last discussed health visiting services with NHS boards.
Answer
Scottish Government are in regular dialogue with NHS Boards and senior leaders on their community nursing services, including health visiting. Scottish Government policy officials are a member of the Health Visitor Leads Network which meets bi-monthly and includes representation from all of Scotland’s territorial Health Boards. The last meeting was held on 16 January 2024.
In addition, Scottish Government policy officials are undertaking bilateral meetings with all Health Boards, between November 2023 and March 2024, to discuss their health visiting services and the outcomes of the recent Evaluation of the Universal Health Visiting Pathway:
Universal Health Visiting Pathway evaluation - phase 1: main report - primary research with health visitors and parents and case note review - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress has been made towards fulfilling its Programme for Government 2023-24 commitment to undertake a review of abortion law to identify potential proposals for reforms.
Answer
The review on abortion law will begin once the Scottish Parliament has considered the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill.
In the meantime, the Scottish Government is working towards convening an expert group, which the Women’s Health Champion, Professor Anna Glasier, has agreed to chair. The Scottish Government is also starting discussions with other stakeholders who are likely to advise the expert group on particular topics. The expert group will be asked to set out options and any recommendations for reforms. These recommendations, along with other stakeholder input, will be considered by Ministers before setting out any proposals for potential reform.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many actions it set out in its Women's Health Plan 2021-24, and what its position is on how many of those actions it has achieved to date.
Answer
The Women's Health Plan: A Plan for 2021-24 sets out 66 actions to improve women’s health inequalities across the short-term (year one), medium-term (year one to three) and longer-term (year three and beyond).
The Women’s Health Plan First and Second Annual Reports on Progress set out the progress made to date on delivering the Plan.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress has been made towards the improvement of (a) abortion services in Scotland, in particular the provision of abortions after 20 weeks of gestation and (b) the training of abortion providers.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to improving access to abortion services, underpinned by aims outlined in the Women’s Health Plan. Progress has been made in particular by updating Scottish Abortion Care Providers guidance on early medical abortions in Scotland to take account of the recommendations of the March 2023 evaluation of early medical abortion at home .
One of the actions in the Women’s Health plan is working with NHS Boards to enable all women having later stage abortions to be treated in Scotland.
The Scottish Government commissioned National Services Scotland (NSS) to develop a specification to deliver abortions between 20-24 weeks gestation, for all indications, within Scotland. This options paper was discussed at the National Planning and Delivery Board.
To enable a decision on the most feasible way of delivering this, it was agreed that a short life working group should work with key groups of staff in Health Boards and bring back recommendations to the Planning and Delivery Board. Once proposals for a service model have been agreed by that Board any staff training requirements will be considered as part of that.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what resources have been allocated to its review of abortion law.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-25368 on 26 February 2024. 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 .
