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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: S5W-24019

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it proposes to work with companies to best deliver e-health technology in the NHS.

The development of Scotland’s National Digital Platform offers a unique opportunity to produce new products which will support service improvement, service change and emerging consumer demand. Part of this work will be to provide a standard route for companies to interface with the digital platform in a consistent way making it easier for new technology to support digital health and care.

One of Scotland’s Innovation Centres, the Digital Health and Care Institute (DHI) continues to support product innovation with a wide network of capabilities, allowing them to evaluate and invest in new solutions from across a wide range of suppliers aligned to prioritised health and care challenges. The DHI are able to act as a bridge between companies, industry, academia and our health and care services.

Question reference: S5W-23245

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 11 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the NHS budget has been spent on mental health in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-23733

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 21 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much revenue it has received from the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy, and how it is spending this in Scotland.

The rules for how the Scottish Government is funded are set out in the Statement of Funding Policy. Changes in Scottish Government funding are determined by applying the Barnett formula to changes in UK government departmental spending, rather than allocating a proportion of revenues raised through the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy. There is therefore no direct link between the revenue raised by the UK Government through the Soft Drinks Industry Levy and any element of the funding allocated to Scotland. The Scottish Government spends its money in accordance with the published budget as agreed by the Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S5W-23729

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 14 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the results of its consultation, Reducing health harms of foods high in fat, sugar or salt: consultation, and what action it plans to take in response to restrictions on the promotion and marketing of products that are high in fat, sugar and salt.

Question reference: S5W-23730

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 14 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it will define products that will be subject to restrictions on the promotion and marketing of products high in fat, sugar and salt.

Question reference: S5W-23731

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 14 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish a business and regulatory impact assessment for its proposed legislation to restrict the promotion and marketing of products high in fat, sugar and salt.

Question reference: S5W-23732

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 14 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the effect on Scottish businesses of its proposed legislation to restrict the promotion and marketing of products high in fat, sugar and salt.

The consultation paper Reducing health harms of foods high in fat, sugar or salt included questions on business impact and support. In parallel, officials have engaged with industry to support the development of a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), providing industry with an opportunity to explain and quantify the economic impact of the proposals. This work is ongoing.

The Scottish Government will reflect on the responses to its consultation and ongoing work to develop impact assessments, including the BRIA, in considering what actions to take.

Question reference: S5O-03422

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it is meeting the objectives of its Equally Safe Strategy.

Question reference: S5W-23562

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 12 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23071 by Joe FitzPatrick on 29 May 2019, how much it will cost to match the EIBSS scheme payments in cases in which they are higher than the SIBSS, without reducing any other existing payments from the Scottish scheme.

It is not possible to provide a precise cost estimate given that the numbers of beneficiaries registered with SIBSS changes constantly, in particular as new applicants join the scheme. It is also important to note that not all categories of beneficiary are the same in the two schemes and therefore, in particular for those with chronic hepatitis c where there are three SIBSS categories, EIBSS does not have directly equivalent categories.

Question reference: S5W-23375

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people from ethnic minorities have been victims of crime in each of the last five years, also broken down by ethnicity.

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) is the main source of evidence on the extent of victimisation in Scotland. It provides information on the proportion of adults experiencing crime, including incidents not reported to the police, rather than the number of victims.

Results from the SCJS on the proportion of adults experiencing crime over the last five years, broken down by ethnicity, and any changes in the victimisation rate over time are shown in Table 1. The sample sizes for each group are shown in Table 2.

SCJS results are not released for groups where the underlying sample size is less than 50. As such, some groups must be aggregated in order to provide results by ethnicity – although where possible more detailed breakdowns are provided. Survey results are estimates with associated margins of error, rather than precise values. Generally where sample sizes are smaller the margin of error around results is larger. Statistical tests are used to assess whether apparent differences between results are statistically significant. There was no SCJS conducted in 2013-14 or 2015-16

The SCJS finds:

In 2017-18, an estimated 15.2% of adults from minority ethnic groups experienced crime, unchanged from 2012-13 – the apparent decrease from 18.0% is not statistically significant.

In 2017-18, the estimated proportion of adults from each ethnic minority group experiencing crime was no different to the proportion of White Scottish adults who were victims of crime – any apparent differences shown in Table 1 are not statistically significant.

Table 1: Proportion of adults experiencing crime by ethnicity.

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	Percentage point change 2012-13 to 2017-18		Percentage point change 2016-17 to 2017-18
White – Scottish	17.0%	N/A	14.4%	N/A	13.4%	12.8%	-4.3	*	-0.6

White - Other British	15.2%	N/A	13.7%	N/A	12.0%	10.4%	-4.8	*	-1.6

White – Other (i and ii combined)	18.7%	N/A	16.7%	N/A	12.1%	10.4%	-8.3	*	-1.6
(i) White Polish	21.7%	N/A	20.6%	N/A	16.4%	12.4%	-9.3		-3.9
(ii) All other white groups	17.7%	N/A	14.9%	N/A	10.2%	9.7%	-8.0	*	-0.5

Minority Ethnic (iii and iv combined)	18.0%	N/A	16.3%	N/A	18.5%	15.2%	-2.9		-3.3
(iii) Asian	15.8%	N/A	16.0%	N/A	14.1%	18.6%	2.8		4.5
(iv) All other ethnic groups	23.3%	N/A	16.7%	N/A	25.5%	10.2%	-13.1	*	-15.3	*

Total	16.9%	N/A	14.5%	N/A	13.4%	12.5%	-4.5	*	-1.0

Source: Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, 2012-13 to 2017-18

1. Statistically significant changes over time are indicated by ‘*’.

2. The ‘All other white groups’ sub-group contains: people who identify as Irish, Gypsy/Traveller or ‘any other white ethnic group’.

3. The ‘All other ethnic groups’ sub-group contains adults who identify as having a mixed or multiple ethnic background and adults who describe their ethnicity as: African, Caribbean or Black, Arab or ‘other’ (i.e. their ethnicity is not listed in the pre-defined answer options).

Table 2: Sample sizes for results shown in Table 1

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
White - Scottish	9657	N/A	8932	N/A	4343	4199

White - Other British	1533	N/A	1531	N/A	725	725

White – Other (i & ii combined)	521	N/A	625	N/A	281	343
(i) White Polish	132	N/A	183	N/A	78	92
(ii) All other white groups	389	N/A	442	N/A	203	251

Minority Ethnic (iii and iv combined)	318	N/A	364	N/A	210	197
(iii) Asian	208	N/A	210	N/A	115	105
(iv) All other ethnic groups	110	N/A	154	N/A	95	92

Total	12045	N/A	11472	N/A	5567	5475

Source: Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, 2012-13 to 2017-18

1. The ‘All other white groups’ sub-group contains: people who identify as Irish, Gypsy/Traveller or ‘any other white ethnic group’.

2. The ‘All other ethnic groups’ sub-group contains adults who identify as having a mixed or multiple ethnic background and adults who describe their ethnicity as: African, Caribbean or Black, Arab or ‘other’ (i.e. their ethnicity is not listed in the pre-defined answer options).