- 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:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 5 March 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what support it is offering to local authorities that report that they may have to reduce speech and language therapy provision.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing record funding of over £14 billion to local authorities in 2024-25, including £600.6 million of additional revenue funding for day to day services.
Subject to the outcome of the UK Government Spring Budget, the Scottish Government has committed to pass on up to £62.7 million of additional funding directly to local government alongside any consequentials received for increased teacher pension employer contributions.
Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities.
- 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 Tom Arthur on 4 March 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the community space that is available for hire to allow local community groups and clubs to run affordable sessions.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not undertake assessments of available community spaces to local community groups and clubs. This is a matter for the relevant public authorities with responsibility for the land or buildings available in their authority area and the decision to undertake an assessment would be for them to consider. Under the Community Empowerment Act (2015), communities are, however, able to request a right to buy, lease, manage or use land and buildings belonging to local authorities, Scottish public bodies or Scottish Ministers. Scottish Government encourages relevant authorities to work with their communities to make sure they can access and make use of available spaces.
- 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 Mairi McAllan on 4 March 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that Israeli military planes have used Glasgow Prestwick Airport during the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine, whether it received any prior notification that this would happen.
Answer
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that Israeli military planes have used Glasgow Prestwick Airport during the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine, whether it received any prior notification that this would happen. Glasgow Prestwick Airport operates on a commercial basis and at arm’s length from the Scottish Government.
Operational decisions regarding the day-to-day running of the airport, are a matter for the management of Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Scottish Government did not receive any prior notification.
- 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: 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 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 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 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: 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: Thursday, 08 February 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 February 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the First Minister's commitment to decriminalise abortion in Scotland, what progress has been made towards that goal since March 2023.
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 .
