- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many school inspectors were employed by Education Scotland in (a) 2011, (b) 2016, (c) 2019, (d) 2020, (e) 2021 and (f) 2022 to date.
Answer
The number of school inspectors employed by Education Scotland is as follows:
Financial Year | No of HMI staff dedicated to inspection |
2011-12 | 67 |
2016-17 | 78 |
2019-20 | 67 |
2020-21 | 76 |
2021-22 | 80 |
2022 to date | 79 |
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, of the 750 additional NHS nurses, midwives and allied health professionals it plans to recruit from overseas, as set out in its publication Health and social care: winter resilience overview 2022 to 2023, how many will be based in (a) NHS Ayrshire and Arran and (b) NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Answer
Of the 750 additional NHS nurses, midwives and allied health professionals NHS boards collectively have told Scottish Government the number of international recruits they could accommodate, (a) up to 53 were indicated by NHS Ayrshire and Arran and (b) up to 217 by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many primary school children in (a) Inverclyde and (b) North Ayrshire are eligible for its school clothing grant.
Answer
The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities of over £11 million per year to provide the school clothing grant for eligible children and young people. Local authorities are directly responsible for setting the eligibility criteria at the local level, therefore the Scottish Government does not hold information about how many children and young people are eligible to receive the grant.
However, the Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics workbooks contain information about the number of school clothing grants issued by local authorities in each financial year. In 2020-21, the most recent year for which this data is available, Inverclyde Council issued a total of 1,400 school clothing grants to primary school children and North Ayrshire Council issued 3,689 grants.
In total, Inverclyde Council issued 3,282 school clothing grants to eligible pupils across all age groups and North Ayrshire Council issued 6,283 grants.
This information is available on the Scottish Government’s website through the following link: Scottish local government finance statistics (SLGFS) 2020-21: workbooks - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 11 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland report, Inspection of COPFS practice in relation
to sections 274 and 275 of the Criminal
Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, which was published on 19 October 2022.
Answer
I am grateful to the Inspectorate for doing such a thorough piece of work on this important topic. It is a priority for all prosecutors that complainers are treated with dignity and respect, and that they are not subjected to inappropriate questioning during a trial.
This is a challenging area of work and I was pleased to see that the Inspectorate noted that Crown applications under this section of law were generally good and that it has developed its practices. Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has responded swiftly to developments in case law, issuing new instructions to staff and creating a training course dedicated to sexual history and character evidence. This has led to a significant shift in practice regarding how section 275 applications are managed.
There remains improvement work to be done, and I have instructed that this is taken forward through an action plan to address the outstanding recommendations. COPFS is committed to improving the experience of complainers in serious sexual offence cases, both in enhancing its own processes, for example through their ongoing review of its Victim Information and Advice function, and in working with partners across the criminal justice sector.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether a prisoner serving a life sentence should be released on licence if a risk of serious harm assessment recommends that they should not.
Answer
Consideration for temporary releases will be undertaken by a multi-disciplinary Risk Management Team consisting of appropriate officials from SPS, Justice Social Work and key stakeholders. Temporary release and home leave form part of a phased reintegration programme which provides an opportunity to work towards safe re-integration, using a robustly risk assessed process, involving multiple key stakeholders.
Decisions as to whether or not to recommend a life sentenced prisoner for temporary release are informed by a range of assessments, including risk of serious harm assessments, where required. The risk of serious harm assessment examines the risk of serious harm that the individual would present in the community. It does not, in itself, recommend whether they should be released.
Decisions as to whether to release a life sentenced prisoner on parole are a matter for the independent Parole Board for Scotland. The Parole Board may take into account any matter which it considers to be relevant in their decision making process.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to data published by Transport Scotland on 26 October 2022 showing that drink driving fatalities increased from 10 in 2010 to 20 in 2020.
Answer
My condolences go to any families who have lost loved ones through drink-driving. The Scottish Government takes this issue very seriously and any road death, no matter what the cause, is tragic.
The Scottish Government is committed to achieving safer road travel in Scotland. Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030, launched in February 2021, sets out a compelling long-term vision for road safety, Vision Zero, where there are zero fatalities and injuries on Scotland’s roads by 2050. The journey to achieving this vision also includes ambitious interim targets where the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads will be halved by 2030.
On drink driving, through Road Safety Scotland, we have campaigned on this issue for many years. These campaigns have been developed and delivered with our partners in Police Scotland to ensure that our innovative media campaigns align with Police targeted enforcement campaigns.
In 2014, this Government introduced the lowest drink-drive limit in the UK. Working closely with Police Scotland and Transport Scotland, we will continue to support the use of police enforcement initiatives and awareness-raising campaigns to help eradicate drink-driving in Scotland.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people under the age of 16 have been admitted to an NHS hospital for a tooth extraction as a result of decay in (a) 2012, (b) 2016 and (c) 2021, in NHS (i) Ayrshire and Arran, and (ii) Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Answer
Table 1 shows the number of patients under the age of 16 with a recorded diagnosis of tooth decay who were admitted to hospital for a tooth extraction in (a) 2012 (b) 2016 and (c) 2021, in NHS (i) Ayrshire and Arran, and (ii) Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Table 1:
| Health Board of Treatment | 2012 | 2016 | 2021 |
| NHS Ayrshire and Arran | 720 | 683 | 385 |
| NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde | 2,430 | 2,251 | 1,166 |
Source: SMR01, Public Health Scotland, extract: November 2022.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on Historic Environment Scotland site closures.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2022
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Elena Whitham on 9 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many sick days were recorded for fire service personnel for mental health reasons, including anxiety, stress, depression or other psychiatric illnesses, in each year since 2016.
Answer
This information is not held centrally by Scottish Government but Scottish Fire and Rescue Service staff absence information is publicly available on the website SFRS under their People Committee meeting papers.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport last met with the Hunterston B nuclear power station director, either in person or virtually.
Answer
Whilst I have not met with the Hunterston B nuclear power station director, either in person or virtually, since taking up the post of Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport in May 2021, I did meet with Matt Sykes, the Managing Director for EDF Generation in December 2021.
The discussion focussed on various issues pertaining to EDF Generation, EDF Renewables and their role in supporting Scotland on the road to Net Zero. This included the closure of Hunterston B, which ceased electricity generation in January 2022 with the plant currently being decommissioned.
