- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the development of the Community Asset Register to better assist local response arrangements and enhance prioritisation and mutual aid across the country.
Answer
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has responsibility for the development of the Community Asset Register (CAR) and confirmed in October 2023 that a CAR ‘Action Plan’ has been developed to monitor progress of the actions required towards its improvement. SFRS also reiterated its intention to continue to develop the digital platform currently being used for the CAR with the necessary improvements being tabled for discussion as a priority for inclusion in its ICT workplan for 2024-2025.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what online resources and training it (a) has provided and (b) plans to provide to help individuals, community groups and the voluntary sector to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.
Answer
Our emergency planning portal, ready.scot, was updated in June 2022 to include a new "Learn" section to support the public, community groups and voluntary sector partners by raising awareness of emergency resilience structures and processes, and helping them to understand how they may participate in an effective and joined up response to an emergency. Between March and April 2023, we also ran a series of 4 online community resilience workshops which were attended by approximately 240 participants.
We will continue to work with the sector, and in particular Local Authorities, who have the lead role on engaging with local communities, to understand their training needs and provide additional resources if required.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 27 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the joint work that it has done with the Scottish Resilience Partnership, COSLA, the Improvement Service and local authorities to implement the Persons at Risk Distribution (PARD) system.
Answer
Scottish Government and the Improvement Service continues to support Local Authorities with their local implementations of PARD. Support ranges from guidance on data preparation, through to examples on when PARD can be used.
Scottish Government and the Improvement Service are also drafting a ‘quick start guide’ that will be distributed to Local Authorities by the end of October 2023. The guide answers frequently asked questions.
Scottish Government Digital Directorate has engaged with the Society of Local Authority Lawyers & Administrators in Scotland (SOLAR) FOI, Data Protection & Human Rights Group working group to brief them on the Data Protection requirements around PARD. The working group will provide support to Local Authorities when preparing Data Protection documentation relating to PARD.
Additionally, Scottish Government Digital Directorate presented PARD to a Public Engagement Panel that was looking at public acceptance and Data Ethics around the use of personal data by the Public Sector. The panel was very supportive of the use of personal data in PARD and in general for incidents and emergencies.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 27 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities and health and social care partnerships are participating in the Persons at Risk Distribution (PARD) system.
Answer
It is a matter for Local Authorities to decide whether they want to adopt PARD or use a different system. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places a duty on Category 1 and 2 responders to share and access information to support decision making.
To date, Scottish Government and the Improvement Service have held workshops with colleagues from Social Work and Emergency Planning in all Scottish Local Authorities. These workshops have focused on how PARD data can be used to identify people at risk during and to support decision making during incidents.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 26 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of (a) its Bee Health Team and (b) the Bee Health Improvement Partnership (BHIP), and on how the public can engage with each.
Answer
The Bee Health Team’s bee heath inspectors have been conducting a programme of apiary visits across Scotland during this year’s beekeeping season, inspecting colonies for signs of notifiable pests and diseases as well as monitoring for incursion of exotic pests. Our diagnostics and science team at SASA continues to provide a free diagnostic service to beekeepers in Scotland to identify and confirm the presence of bee diseases and pests. The Scottish Government also provides funding for a Bee Health Advisor post at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) who provides education and practical advice to beekeepers on honey bee health and good management with the aim of improving bee health in Scotland.
The Bee Health Improvement Partnership (BHIP) has developed a 10 year Honey Bee Health Strategy which aims to achieve a healthy and sustainable population of honey bees in Scotland, supported by an Implementation Plan detailing specific actions to deliver the Strategy’s outcomes. The Plan is updated and published after each quarterly BHIP meeting. Links to both the Strategy and the Implementation Plan are below:
Strategy: The Honey Bee Health Strategy 2022 - 2032 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Implementation Plan: Scotland’s Honey Bee Health Strategy: implementation plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Scottish beekeepers and members of the public can contact the Bee Health Team direct by emailing Bees_mailbox@gov.scot to discuss any issues, seek advice, and request items to be raised at the BHIP meetings.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 1 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of onshore wind farms approved in the past year had majority support from the local community.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 1 November 2023
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20887 by Richard Lochhead on 19 September 2023, whether there are any contractually provided consequences for non-performance regarding the delivery of the R100 programme.
Answer
The R100 programme comprises of three strands of activity – the R100 contracts, R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) and continued commercial build.
The R100 contracts are gap funded meaning that the Scottish Government subsidises Openreach to deliver connections to premises which would not otherwise be commercially viable. Subsidy is only paid to Openreach once premises have been delivered and delivery milestones have been achieved.
Suppliers to the R100 SBVS can only claim their evidenced costs, up to a maximum of the voucher value, once the installation work is completed and the voucher beneficiary is able to receive, as a minimum, a superfast broadband service.
The Scottish Government does not have a remit to intervene should a broadband provider choose not to proceed with their commercial build plans.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 25 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many people with a learning disability are currently being held in mental health hospitals; of those, how many (a) are under 18, (b) were admitted to hospital for treatment or assessment following offending, (c) have been in hospital for more than a decade, and what the average number of days that they have been in hospital is.
Answer
The latest data available on admissions and length of stay for people in Mental Health Hospitals is collected as part of the Mental Health & Learning Disability Inpatient Census and Out of Scotland NHS Placements Census, 2022.
At the census point 11th April 2022, 166 adults with a diagnosis of a learning disability were inpatient within an NHS Scotland hospital. In addition, there were fewer than 5 patient(s) under 18. There were a further 33 adults with a diagnosis of a learning disability inpatient outwith an NHS Scotland hospital. These individuals also may or may not have a co-occurring autism diagnosis.
Data on the numbers of people with a diagnosis of a learning disability who have been admitted to hospital for treatment following offending is not collected.
There were 44 patients with a diagnosis of a learning disability who have been in an NHS Scotland hospital more than a decade, with an average length of stay of 19 years and 2 months. There are a further 8 patients with a learning disability who have been treated outwith NHS Scotland for more than a decade with an average length of stay of 19 years and 5 months. These individuals also may or may not have a co-occurring autism diagnosis.
The latest publication of the Mental Welfare Commissions Mental Health Act Monitoring Report covers the period 2021-22 and provides some information on compulsory treatment under criminal proceedings and you may wish to ask if they have further information.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 25 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many autistic people are currently being held in mental health hospitals; of those, how many (a) are under 18, (b) were admitted to hospital for treatment or assessment following offending, (c) have been in hospital for more than a decade, and what the average number of days that they have been in hospital is.
Answer
The latest data available on admissions and length of stay for people in Mental Health Hospitals is collected as part of the Mental Health & Learning Disability Inpatient Census and Out of Scotland NHS Placements Census, 2022 .
At the census point 11 April 2022, 152 adults with a diagnosis of autism were inpatient within an NHS Scotland hospital. In addition, there were 9 patients under 18. There were a further 11 adults with a diagnosis of autism inpatient outwith an NHS Scotland hospital. These individuals also may or may not have a co-occurring diagnosis for a learning disability.
Data on the numbers of people with a diagnosis of autism who have been admitted to hospital for treatment following offending is not collected.
There were 24 patients with a diagnosis of autism who have been in an NHS Scotland hospital more than a decade, with an average length of stay of 16 years and 10 months. There are fewer than 5 further patient(s) with an autism diagnosis who have been treated outwith NHS Scotland more than a decade. These individuals also may or may not have a co-occurring diagnosis for a learning disability.
The latest publication of the Mental Welfare Commissions Mental Health Act Monitoring Report covers the period 2021-22 and provides some information on compulsory treatment under criminal proceedings and you may wish to ask if they have further information on disaggregated data.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to resolve reported supply chain issues affecting the switchover of the LED street light network.
Answer
Streetlighting is the responsibility of local councils. We are not aware of any particular supply chain issues but we would be happy to consider this if the member can provide more information.
