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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-04350

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to provide patients who have been hospitalised with COVID-19 with a structured, multidisciplinary rehabilitation package that includes specialist psychological services in both hospital and community settings.

Last year, the Scottish Government commissioned Dr Nadine Cossette, a liaison psychiatrist, to examine the mental health needs of people hospitalised due to COVID-19. Dr Cossette’s report was published on Friday 2 October and is available online .

Work is well underway to implement the recommendations from Dr Cossette’s report. Funding of £4.5 million has been approved to enable Health Boards to set up local networks of mental health clinicians across Scotland, supported by a national strategic advisory group offering clinical expertise and guidance. These local networks will proactively contact all patients who have been hospitalised as a result of COVID-19. At this stage it is anticipated that roughly 3,000 people will benefit directly from treatment.

We are also working to implement our ‘Framework on recovery and rehabilitation from COVID-19’, which puts in place clear principles, priorities and objectives to support planning to meet increasing demand and provide high quality person-centred rehabilitation in different settings. We will develop and implement a rehabilitation pathway that will ensure everyone who requires rehabilitation will be able to access it.

Question reference: S6W-04351

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with (a) NHS Scotland, (b) NHS Education for Scotland and (c) other relevant partners to develop a coherent workforce strategy that incorporates psychologists across the public sector.

As announced in the NHS Recovery Plan, by the end of 2021 the Scottish Government will publish a National Workforce Strategy that supports the remobilisation, recovery and renewal of Health and Social Care Services. The strategy is being developed in collaboration with NHS Health Boards, COSLA and a wide range of partners, through cross-sectoral reference groups that include NHS Education for Scotland. The strategy establishes a framework and sets out principles which will guide the design and implementation of service-specific workforce plans.

The Scottish Government has committed to develop a long-term Mental Health Workforce Plan in the first half of this Parliament. The Plan will take a system-wide approach to workforce planning for mental health workers, including psychologists, across sectors.

The Scottish Government is working with NHS Education for Scotland to grow the Psychological Therapies workforce, as demand for Psychological Therapies continues to increase.

Question reference: S6O-00431

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to help tackle the reported affordable housing crisis in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S6O-00253

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure the future workforce can have access to vocational skills training, in light of the current staff shortages in certain sectors.

Question reference: S6T-00184

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of staffing shortages at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital leading to health professionals warning about patient safety.

Question reference: S6O-00165

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Scotland's Mental Health First Aid is reportedly not running any training courses at present.

Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid programme is delivered as a face-to-face training event. In order to comply with the Scottish Government’s COVID-19 guidance and to protect public health, the delivery of these training courses was paused by Public Health Scotland (PHS), which holds the licence for this training to operate in Scotland. A range of online resources was made available by PHS and NHS Education for Scotland throughout the pandemic. In recognition of the changing context, PHS is working to ensure that the delivery of the Mental Health First Aid programme can resume safely. These courses will restart in November 2021.

Question reference: S6W-02481

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to reimburse payments made by local authorities and assessment centres to the SQA for exam-related services that were not provided in academic year 2020-21.

Charges for National Qualifications have remained unchanged since 2012-13 despite changes in costs. While charges contribute towards the cost of awarding National Qualifications they do not cover the full costs. In addition, 2020 and 2021 late entry fees have been waived and there have been no charges for appeals. There are therefore no plans to reimburse National Qualifications payments.

For 2021, SQA estimates that the costs of providing certification for national qualifications was £41.7m, while income from local authorities, colleges and independent schools is expected to be £30.5m. The remaining cost is covered by SQA’s grant in aid budget from the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6T-00139

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the use of face-to-face GP appointments.

Question reference: S6W-02098

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the current service provider submitted a bid for the new contract for the provision of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments and, if so, whether the bid it submitted was higher or lower in value to the bid submitted by the provider that has been selected.

ACER UK Limited was one of three companies to submit a tender for the contract for phase two delivery of the national standardised assessments in Scotland – incorporating both the Scottish National Standardised Assessments and their Gaelic equivalent, the Measaidhean Coitcheann Niseanta airson Foghlam tron Ghidhlig.

ACER’s tender did not progress to the Price Analysis stage of the evaluation as it did not achieve the minimum requirements for the Quality Analysis stage. Cost comparisons with the successful tender cannot therefore be drawn.

Question reference: S6W-02099

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the new contract for the provision of Scottish National Standardised Assessments, including details of any differences that exist between the new contract and the previous contract.

The new contract will see the continued provision of online assessments for children and young people in P1, P4, P7 and S3. The Specification of Requirements published as part of the Invitation to Tender identified the areas in which continuity of provision is required (general assessment principles, presentation policy and coverage; reports coverage; training coverage; branding), and highlighted some areas around which enhancements were sought. The primary difference between the phase 1 contracts and the phase 2 contract is that rather than continuing to deliver two online systems through two separate contracts, phase two will see the establishment of a single assessment platform, which will provide access to both the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) and their Gaelic Medium Education equivalents, the Measaidhean Coitcheann Niseanta airson Foghlam tron Ghidhlig (MCNG).