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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: S5O-04702

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when Skills Development Scotland will reopen its training provider register.

Question reference: S5W-32156

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the role played by the UK Government regarding the delivery of Royal Navy ships for yards on the River Clyde, whether it has sought the advice of UK ministers regarding procuring ferry construction at Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab), and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S5W-31829

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what dispensation or alternative visitation guidance is being given to families of patients who are receiving palliative care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visiting guidance in health and social care settings recognises that visits to those nearing the end of life are deemed essential and as such we would expect those working in clinical settings to accommodate such visits where it is safe to do so. This provision has been in place since restricted visiting was introduced earlier this year.

Visiting guidance (including information on essential visiting) in acute settings and a leaflet for members of the public are available on the Scottish Government and NHS Boards' websites.

Measures to restrict visiting are being continually monitored and will be further relaxed when it is safe to do so.

Question reference: S5W-32040

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 6 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter of 10 September 2020 to the Member from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of the £25 million investment in the provision of devices and connectivity for disadvantaged or digitally excluded children and young people.

Funding has been allocated to local authorities as set out in the following table. We are considering how best to invest the remaining £1m to further support digital inclusion.

LA	Total allocation
Aberdeen City	£503,633
Aberdeenshire	£1,320,234
Angus	£511,133
Argyll and Bute	£447,007
City of Edinburgh	£943,823
Clackmannanshire	£225,168
Dumfries and Galloway	£733,257
Dundee City	£761,110
East Ayrshire	£742,413
East Dunbartonshire	£314,648
East Lothian	£469,946
East Renfrewshire	£211,436
Falkirk	£651,885
Fife	£1,847,197
Glasgow City	£3,123,122
Highland	£1,393,009
Inverclyde	£433,829
Midlothian	£396,645
Moray	£488,001
Na h-Eileanan Siar	£152,880
North Ayrshire	£551,172
North Lanarkshire	£1,612,911
Orkney Islands	£142,900
Perth and Kinross	£721,467
Renfrewshire	£706,764
Scottish Borders	£631,807
Shetland Islands	£180,151
South Ayrshire	£524,128
South Lanarkshire	£1,468,744
Stirling	£454,473
West Dunbartonshire	£448,170
West Lothian	£844,736

Question reference: S5W-32070

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £11 million allocated for the Scottish Child Payment in 2020-21 will be spent on administration costs.

The £11 million is the updated forecast published by the Scottish Fiscal Commission https://www.fiscalcommission.scot/forecast/supplementary
-costing-scottish-child-payment/ this will go directly to the recipients of the Scottish Child Payment.

The administration costs of Scottish Child Payment are met by Social Security Scotland’s 2020-21 resource budget allocation of £169.2 million, which was most recently published in the Autumn Revision to the Scottish Budget 2020-21.

Question reference: S5W-31944

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 2 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government by what date mobile therapists, including massage and beauty therapists, who attend clients in their own homes will be allowed to resume business.

We recognise that this is a difficult time for mobile therapists. However, our primary driver is safeguarding public health and wellbeing and preventing transmission of the virus.

While we are not yet able to provide a date for when these services will be permitted to resume, we will aim to do so as soon as is it safe. We have developed guidance in partnership with sectoral trade bodies and health specialists to support mobile close contact services when it is safe for them to return to work.

In the meantime, therapists who operate from a fixed premises – including the practitioner’s own home – are currently permitted to do so provided they follow the relevant guidance.

Question reference: S5W-32069

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when NHS chiropodist services will recommence.

Throughout our response to the Covid 19 Pandemic, where an urgent clinical need has been present access to Chiropody/Podiatric services has remained.

Since the publication of the Scottish Government’s framework on how those services which had been paused could be restored, “Remobilise, Recover, Redesign” on 31 May, local Health Boards have been gradually reintroducing those services, including Chiropody/Podiatric services, where it is safe do so, following local and national clinical advice.

Question reference: S5W-31814

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the number of false positives that have been included in the COVID-19 statistics, and what impact their inclusion has on the accuracy of the data.

In the case of weakly detected positive results (i.e. not true current infection), the sample is reprocessed and if, when more detailed virology analysis has been undertaken, it is assessed that there is no current infection or infectivity present, then the original test will be taken as a false positive, de-notified, and removed from the confirmed case tally. However, where it is not possible to reprocess the test or carry out more detailed analysis, then the original test cannot be de-notified and the weak positive will remain recorded in the case tally.

This process is undertaken in relation to statistics published for daily and weekly tests carried out through both the NHS and the UK Government Extended Testing Programme in Scotland (here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/ .

Question reference: S5W-31777

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 30 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will announce the roll-out order and delivery timescale for each of the remaining communities that are yet to be connected to Lot 1 of the superfast broadband programme.

We are focused on finalising the R100 North Lot (Lot 1) contract award with BT as soon as possible to enable us to progress delivery of access to superfast broadband to people, businesses and communities in some of the most remote parts of Scotland.

We anticipate that the contract will be signed by the end of this calendar year. Once contract signature is achieved, work will then be undertaken, as in Lots 2 and 3 previously, to update the speed coverage template for Lot 1, to finalise the intervention area, and to enable survey work at a local level to be undertaken. Parliament will, of course, be kept informed.

Our Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS), which has now launched, will ensure that everyone who requires a superfast broadband connection by the end of 2021 can have one - including those in the R100 North Lot. I am pleased to be able to report strong supplier participation in the SBVS.

Question reference: S5W-31828

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it measures the impact on children’s psychological and developmental wellbeing of its current measures to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

We recognise the impact that the COVID-19 measures will be having on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. We are taking a number of steps to understand those impacts, and take action to address them.

We established a Covid-19 Children and Families Collective Leadership Group to review regular intelligence on children, young people and families with vulnerabilities, identify issues requiring action, and to provide local and national leadership in delivering a response.

A weekly data collection has been established to provide intelligence to the Leadership Group, bringing together intelligence from the 32 Chief Officer Groups, national agencies and delivery partners, including the third sector, Police Scotland and the NHS. Three evidence and intelligence reports were published in April, May and July which provided an overview of the research evidence about the impact of COVID-19 on children and families available at the time and reported on service responses based on intelligence gathered from local partnerships and third sector organisations. The July report can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/children-young-people-families-covid-19-evidence-intelligence-report/ .

We have also established the Mental Health Research Advisory Group which is following research developments to understand the medium and long term impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health and will help us to put evidence-based services and support in place to meet the mental health needs of the population.

In addition, in response to the mental health impacts of Covid-19 we will publish a Transition and Recovery Plan in Autumn 2020. The plan has been developed in partnership with mental health stakeholders and informed by emerging evidence, including a variety of sources that explore the impact on children, young people and families. It will lay out a set of actions to support population mental health, respond to distress and renew mental health services.

Schools have a key role to play in supporting children’s and young people’s mental health. During this pandemic, the Scottish Government has engaged with every education authority in Scotland to ensure that mental health support is currently in place as well as appropriate support in place for the return to school.

The Scottish Government continues to prioritise the support for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing through support for school staff in responding to children’s needs; and also the counselling through schools programme. It is expected that the access to school counselling service commitment will be in place by the end of October 2020.

As part of Programme for Government 2018 we committed to have an additional 250 school nurses in place by the end of 2022, the first cohort of students commenced in 2019-20 and we expect a further 50 students to commence in the 20-21 academic year. Local authorities also confirmed that where required, significant family support was also in place.