Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-12229

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided specifically for smoking cessation services, in each NHS board in each year since 2017-18.

The Scottish Government provides funding annually to Health Boards for smoking cessation and prevention services. The funding is provided as part of a wider Outcomes Framework allocation whereby budget is provided to Health Boards to cover a range of outcomes. It is then up to Health Boards to decide on the amount spent on each of those outcomes.

The following table sets out estimated funding for smoking cessation and prevention which is calculated on the basis of smoking rates and deprivation, however as above it is for Health Boards to determine final spend on this outcome.

	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Outcomes Framework Board allocations for smoking cessation and prevention	9,814	9,814	9,324	8,879	9,145

It is not possible to provide a breakdown by Health Board.

Question reference: S6W-12228

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on smoking cessation promotional campaigns via (a) media and (b) social media each year since 2017-18.

The Scottish Government publishes an annual report on marketing spend in each financial year, which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ .

The Scottish Government ran a smoking cessation campaign in 2017-2018. The costs for this campaign totalled £370,978.50. The total media spend for this campaign was £253,352.78 across TV, radio, digital and outdoor advertising. The digital advertising included £23,252 on Facebook advertising in support of the campaign. No other social media advertising was used as part of the campaign.

Question reference: S6W-12227

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on tobacco control overall in each year since 2017-18.

Local Authorities undertake tobacco control through tobacco sales enforcement and tobacco and electronic cigarette control.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on tobacco control, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government has increased local government funding by over £1 billion in 2022-23, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent, despite a 5.2 per cent real terms reduction in the overall Scottish Budget.

Question reference: S6O-01628

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to address any issues of damp and mould in social housing.

Question reference: S6W-11578

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 17 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the (a) consumer benefits, (b) eligibility criteria and (c) longevity of delivery of the Warmer Homes Scotland programme, and how this compares in each respect to the UK Government's Home Upgrade Grant (i) Phase One and (ii) Phase Two.

(a) Warmer Homes Scotland Customers save £230 on average on their annual fuel bills. In the period from April – September 2022, Warmer Homes Scotland Customers saw an average SAP increase of 6.7, with 5402 heating and energy efficiency measures installed in 2503 households.

(b) Warmer Homes Scotland is a national scheme which primarily targets support at owner occupied households. A range of proxies which indicate that a household are in or likely to be in fuel poverty are used as eligibility criteria to target support at those who need it the most. The eligibility criteria has recently been widened to allow a further 100,000 more households to become eligible.

(c) The current contract for Warmer Homes Scotland ends on 30th June 2023, and the procurement process is currently underway for a successor scheme which is due to begin on 3rd July 2023. The successor scheme will run for a minimum of 5 years, the contract includes the option to extend a further 2 years which would see the programme run until July 2030.

(a) (i) The consumer benefits for Phase One of the Home Upgrade Grant have not yet been published. However in the period from March – August 2022, 155 heating and energy efficiency measures were installed in 121 households. This data can be found here . (ii) The consumer benefits for Phase Two of HUG have not yet been released.

(b) (i)/(ii) The Home Upgrade Grant is delivered by Local Authorities who will set out their own individual eligibility criteria within parameters.

(c) (i) The Home Upgrade Grant Phase One has ended, (ii) Phase Two is due to end in March 2025.

Question reference: S6O-01585

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is investing in rural broadband.

Question reference: S6W-11587

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its response to the FOI request FOI/202200278002, in which it stated that it had not ruled out establishing dedicated Long COVID clinics across the country, whether it can provide an update on any developments on the matter across the country, including in each NHS board.

All NHS Scotland Boards are providing assessment and support for people with long COVID. This is being delivered across the full range of services delivered by our NHS and includes local primary care teams, community based rehabilitation services and referrals for further investigation delivered in secondary care settings where clinically appropriate.

It is for each NHS Board to develop and deliver the best models of care for assessment, diagnostic tests, and support for the treatment or management of symptoms, tailored to the needs of their local population. This will involve strengthening the co-ordination of existing services, or establishing dedicated services where appropriate.

To support this, we have made available an initial £3 million from our long COVID Support Fund over this financial year to provide NHS Boards and partners with additional resource to respond to the needs of people with long COVID in their areas. While none of the services being delivered by NHS Scotland Boards are termed ‘long COVID clinics’, initiatives being supported by the funding include key elements of care that are also offered by post COVID assessment clinics elsewhere in the UK; such as the introduction of care co-ordinator roles to provide a single point of contact for people with long COVID and their families and the introduction of a multi-disciplinary assessment service to provide a person-centred assessment of people’s needs.

We have also established a National Strategic Network for long COVID to ensure the continued development of our national approach is informed by evidence and expertise.

Question reference: S6W-11586

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 October 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress regarding the (a) research into and (b) diagnosis and care of Long COVID.

( A)Within the Scottish Government funding of health and care research falls under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

As part of the Scottish Government response to the pandemic, in October 2020 CSO launched a funding call seeking applications which aimed to investigate the longer-term effects of COVID-19. Following an independent expert review process, 9 projects were funded with a total funding commitment of £2.5 million. The funding outcome was announced in December 2020.

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/funded-research/long-covid-call/

All of the above 9 projects have completed their 6 month and 1 year progress reports. On 31st March 2022 CSO hosted a virtual symposium where the lead investigators for each of the 9 projects presented the results obtained to date to an audience of researchers, policymakers and patient groups.

(B)Currently, there is no single diagnostic test that health professionals can use to identify long COVID. In the first instance, clinicians will try to rule out any other possible causes for symptoms as part of a thorough clinical assessment, tailoring tests and investigations in line with the person’s presenting signs and symptoms.

All NHS Scotland Boards are providing assessment and support for people with long COVID, delivered across the full range of services provided by our NHS. This includes local primary care teams, community based rehabilitation services and referrals for further investigation delivered in secondary care settings where needed.

We are providing NHS Boards and partners with additional resource to deliver the best local models of care for assessment, diagnostic tests, and support for the treatment or management of symptoms.

Question reference: S6O-01502

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help GPs manage their workloads.

Question reference: S6W-11325

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 October 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 26 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the conclusion of its consultation on tightening the rules on advertising and promoting vaping products on 29 April 2022, what progress it has made to date on the matter.

Our recent consultation proposed restrictions on vaping products that strike a balance between protecting all non-smokers from the potential harms of vaping, while still providing existing adult smokers with the information they need to make an informed choice on cessation. The responses from this consultation together with the analysis report and responses from the consultation as part of the 2016 Act are informing and shaping the final vaping restriction regulations. In addition findings from the consultation will be used to inform the refreshed Tobacco Action Plan, which is due to be published in 2023. In the meantime we will be working to ensure people better understand the risks around vaping. We will also continue to work with the UKG over joint approaches such as further regulation of flavourings.

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