- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the adequacy of non-emergency kidney patient transport service provision for patients travelling to and from in-centre dialysis appointments across each NHS board, and when it made any such assessment.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery and treatment. All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services and must ensure Patients have access to all information on any relevant patient transport (including community transport) and travel reimbursement entitlement.
Individual Boards are responsible for developing and applying their own policies, including determining eligibility and reimbursement rates, whilst ensuring patient care and safety.
A requirement has been placed within the NHS Territorial Boards annual delivery guidance to bring attention to the requirement for the Boards to consider transport to health for patients and ensure patients have access to information.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the average time that kidney patients wait for non-emergency patient transport services to and from in-centre dialysis appointments.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery and treatment. All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services and must ensure Patients have access to all information on any relevant patient transport (including community transport) and travel reimbursement entitlement.
Individual Boards are responsible for developing and applying their own policies, including determining eligibility and reimbursement rates, whilst ensuring patient care and safety.
A requirement has been placed within the NHS Territorial Boards annual delivery guidance to bring attention to the requirement for the Boards to consider transport to health for patients and ensure patients have access to information.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2024
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to incorporate the ownership and management of community assets in urban areas into its Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2024
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 1 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the development of a national framework for school swimming following the School Swimming Phase 1 Pilots in 2023.
Answer
The Phase 1 pilot programmes have now been fully evaluated and a report produced on the strengths of each approach, as well as considerations for the future. The Phase 1 evaluation is available here: https://sportscotland.org.uk/about-us/our-publications/archive/school-swimming-in-scotland-phase-1-evaluation
Phase 2, which is already underway, will further develop each approach and test the implementation of the school swimming framework, and is expected to be completed by the end of the academic year 2023-24.
The Scottish Government will continue to work with sportscotland, Scottish Swimming, and various local and national partners to support Phase 2 of the school swimming pilot, and will continue to consider the best approach for a continued roll out of a National Framework for school swimming over the coming years.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024
To ask the First Minister what recent discussions the Scottish Government has had with environmental groups and communities regarding how it plans to deliver strong action on climate change, following the removal of the 2030 climate target.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what funding it is currently providing for anti-racism education, and what organisations it is funding that carry out anti-racism education.
Answer
The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to embedding anti-racism in education. As part of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme for financial year 2023-24 the Scottish Government provided the following funding aimed at providing anti-racist education. Funding streams for 24-25 will be published in due course.
Funding recipient | What is being funded? | Amount of funding in 2023-24 |
General Teaching Council for Scotland | This funds a specialist race equality post within the GTCS. | £97,708 |
Education Scotland | Delivery of the Building Racial Literacy Programme | £62,803 |
Education Scotland | This funds a specialist race equality post within education Scotland. | £25,200 |
Intercultural Youth Scotland | Delivery of a programme of engagement with children and young people on behalf of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme. | £37,818 |
Scottish Association of Minority Ethnic Educators | Delivery of the Leadership, mentoring and wellbeing course for minority ethnic educators | £58,900 |
Calabar Education Consultants Ltd. | Development of an action guide for the anti-racist recruitment, retention and progression of minority ethnic teachers. | £9520 |
Intercultural Youth Scotland | IYS School Education Partnerships in secondary schools | £200,000 |
ScotDEC Global Citizenship Education | Development of two new resources for anti-racism in education on health and wellbeing and early years | £60,000 |
Over 30 schools and education settings | Small Grants Fund for Children and Young People-led anti-racism in education | £25,000 |
Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling | Teaching Slavery in Scotland Programme of Professional Learning for educators | £45,000 |
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 24 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the power of attorney rights of care home residents are upheld.
Answer
The Scottish Governments Foreword - Health and Social Care Standards: my support, my life - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) set out what people should expect when using health, social care or social work services in Scotland including care homes. They seek to provide better outcomes for everyone; to ensure that individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and that the basic human rights are upheld. Standard 2.12 states that if residents are unable to make their own decisions, the views of those who know their wishes, such as carers, independent advocates, formal or informal representatives must be sought and taken into account.
The Care Inspectorate is the regulator of care services in Scotland and is a non- departmental body and independent of the Scottish Government. Using the Health and Social Care Standards, they inspect services to ensure the safety, protection and wellbeing of residents. Through their inspection process, they review personal plans to determine the capacity status of individuals in receipt of care and support. If a valid s47 certificate of incapacity is in place they will review that the legal proxy advocate is involved in pro-active decision making about the care and support in accordance with the individual.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, when it is designing new policies, how it ensures that an assessment is made of any potential impact that a policy may have on older people.
Answer
The Scottish Government carries out Equality Impact Assessments on all new policies as required under the Equality Act 2010 and the associated Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). PSED requires public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations across all the protected characteristics, including age. These assessments draw upon existing research and data on equality issues, as well as the lived experience of those impacted. Specifically for older people, the assessments analyse and identify any potential impacts using evidence from relevant sources and direct feedback from older people's organisations.
Where relevant impacts on older people are identified through this evidence-based process, mitigating actions are carefully considered. The Scottish Government also directly engages with stakeholder groups representing older people, such as our trusted partners in the Older People’s Strategic Action Forum (OPSAF), to ensure their real-world views and experiences inform policymaking from the outset.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 23 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment was made of the potential risk to firefighter health, safety and wellbeing resulting from any fire contaminants at the Breadalbane Street fire in Edinburgh on 14 March 2024.
Answer
Assessment of risk at the attendance of any incident is entirely an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
The safety and wellbeing of firefighters is a priority for both the Scottish Government and for the fire service.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 23 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what decontamination procedures were carried out by Scottish Fire and Rescue Service personnel (a) during and (b) after the Breadalbane Street fire in Edinburgh on 14 March 2024.
Answer
Decontamination both during and after any incident is an entirely operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
The safety and wellbeing of firefighters is a priority for both the Scottish Government and for the fire service.
