Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-08499

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a survey by the primary care publication, Pulse, which found that GPs are struggling to secure support for people experiencing poor mental health, including children with suicidal ideation.

The Scottish Government recognise that GPs are often the first port of call for people in distress, or those seeking mental health and wellbeing support. We are already investing to meet our commitment to ensure that every GP Practice will have access to a mental health and wellbeing service by 2026. This will create 1,000 additional staff who can help grow community mental health resilience and direct social prescribing. £1.5 million was allocated in 2021-22 to support local planning and development and we will continue to invest in this.

This new commitment builds on the significant investment already made to recruit additional mental health workers in primary care settings. At 1 January 2022, 263.5 WTE additional Mental Health Worker posts had been created in GP settings through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy and, at the 31 March 2021, 215.7 WTE Mental Health Worker posts had been created under the Primary Care Improvement Fund.

The implementation of these multi-disciplinary mental health and wellbeing services will ensure more timely access to assessment, support and treatment and they will be available to all age groups, including children and young people. These services will interface with wider community support, such as the Distress Brief Intervention model which provides an innovative alternative for staff in Primary Care who encounter people in distress who are assessed as not requiring emergency clinical intervention, but need emotional and practical support. DBI is now available nationally to those aged 16 or over, and we are also trialling DBI for 14/15 year olds.

Additionally, in 2021-22, we allocated around an extra £40 million to NHS to support implementation of the National Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Specification. However, not all children and young people who require mental health and wellbeing support require treatment by CAMHS. That is why we provided local authorities with £15 million last year to deliver a range of mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people experiencing emotional distress in their communities. There are now over 230 new supports and services available across Scotland that supported over 18,500 children and young people between June-December 2021. We have committed to double the investment in children and young people’s community mental health support by the end of this Parliament.

We know that providing emotional support to school age children is vital. As a result of our £16 Million per annum investment, every secondary school now has access to counselling support.

The National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group is setting up a Youth Advisory Group to bring together young people with lived experience of suicide, self-harm and poor mental health. This Group will ensure suicide prevention policies and approaches are designed to reach, and support, children and young people. This includes informing the new suicide prevention strategy which will publish in September. Finally, the NSPLG is planning a social media campaign over the coming months aimed at young people, with the objective of encouraging young people to talk more openly about suicide, and to seek help.

Question reference: S6W-08548

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) public, (b) private and (c) third sector care homes have (i) been closed and (ii) changed provider in each of the last five years.

In relation to (a), (b) and (c)(i), the Care Inspectorate does not hold data in relation to care homes that have closed. However, the number of adult care home services in the public, private and third sectors which have had their registrations cancelled in each of the last five years is in the following table:



Service Type	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23 (as at 01-05-2022)	Grand Total
Public	12	7	8	6	5		38
Private	58	32	27	55	34	2	208
Voluntary or Not for Profit	18	26	12	7	16	1	80
Grand Total by year	88	65	47	68	55	3	326

In relation to (a)(b) and (c)(ii), the Care Inspectorate does not hold data in relation to care homes who have changed provider in the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-08546

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in (a) South Ayrshire and (b) East Ayrshire who have been (i) charged with and (ii) found guilty of possessing child pornography since 2010 were not given a prison sentence.

COPFS collates data based on reports to each Procurator Fiscal (PF) office, not by local authority area and so, based on geographic proximities, for (a) South Ayrshire the relevant PF office is Ayr and (b) East Ayrshire, the data is based on reports received at PF office Kilmarnock.

COPFS can provide the number of charges reported to COPFS and of those, the number that were convicted. A further breakdown of charges convicted excluding any with a prison sentence has also been provided.

Although most charges were prosecuted with the majority convicted, others resulted in no conviction or no further action and a number are still live and ongoing.

Other charges received an alternative to prosecution such as diversion to social work department or referral to children’s reporter or were marked “no action” for example, in cases where there was insufficient admissible evidence.

The information requested is provided in the following table: -

Possession of Child Pornography charges reported to COPFS
Procurator Fiscal Office - Ayr

Financial Year Reported	Total Charges Reported	Total Charges Convicted	Charges Convicted (excluding any with prison sentence)
2010-11	8	4	2
2011-12	10	4	3
2012-13	15	1	0
2013-14	13	4	4
2014-15	7	0	0
2015-16	13	2	1
2016-17	9	5	3
2017-18	6	3	3
2018-19	18	7	5
2019-20	10	7	6
2020-21	14	9	7
2021-22	9	0	0


Possession of Child Pornography charges reported to COPFS
Procurator Fiscal Office - Kilmarnock

Financial Year Reported	Total Charges Reported	Total Charges Convicted	Charges Convicted (excluding any with prison sentence)
2010-11	11	7	6
2011-12	10	5	1
2012-13	26	7	5
2013-14	32	11	8
2014-15	14	5	5
2015-16	17	5	3
2016-17	14	13	9
2017-18	16	13	11
2018-19	20	11	8
2019-20	12	8	2
2020-21	22	14	12
2021-22	20	0	0


Other sentences include: - Admonished, Community Payback Order, No Order, Probation Order,
Restriction of Liberty Order, Sex Offenders Register, Sexual Offences Prevention Order

Question reference: S6W-08561

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 13 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the publication, RentBetter: Research on the impact of changes to the private rented sector tenancy regime in Scotland: Wave 2 Final Report.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication of Wave 2 of the ‘RentBetter’ research programme. This research provides a valuable insight into the experiences of households living in, and landlords providing, rental properties in Scotland.

We will consider the findings as part of the evidence to inform policy development for the Year 2 Housing Bill and in finalising the Rented Sector Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-08547

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in (a) South Ayrshire and (b) East Ayrshire who have been charged with the offence of fire-raising since 2010 were not given a prison sentence.

COPFS collates data based on reports to each Procurator Fiscal (PF) office, not by local authority area and so, based on geographic proximities, for (a) South Ayrshire the relevant PF office is Ayr and (b) East Ayrshire, the data is based on reports received at PF office Kilmarnock.

COPFS can provide the number of charges reported to COPFS and of those, the number that were convicted. A further breakdown of charges convicted excluding any with a disposal of prison sentence has also been provided.

Although most charges were prosecuted with the majority convicted, others resulted in no conviction or no further action and a number are still live and ongoing.

Other charges received an alternative to prosecution such as diversion to social work department or referral to children’s reporter or were marked “no action” for example, in cases where there was insufficient admissible evidence.

The information requested is provided in the following table: -

Fire-raising charges reported to COPFS
Procurator Fiscal Office - Ayr

Financial Year Reported	Total Charges Reported	Total Charges Convicted	Charges Convicted (excluding any with prison sentence)
2010-11	11	3	3
2011-12	24	9	5
2012-13	18	3	0
2013-14	17	6	5
2014-15	12	1	0
2015-16	17	3	2
2016-17	15	2	0
2017-18	30	18	14
2018-19	8	4	2
2019-20	16	3	2
2020-21	22	2	0
2021-22	11	1	1


Fire-raising charges reported to COPFS
Procurator Fiscal Office - Kilmarnock

Financial Year Reported	Total Charges Reported	Total Charges Convicted	Charges Convicted (excluding any with prison sentence)
2010-11	26	3	1
2011-12	34	10	7
2012-13	21	6	5
2013-14	13	3	3
2014-15	10	5	1
2015-16	46	16	6
2016-17	19	7	4
2017-18	11	3	2
2018-19	13	4	2
2019-20	24	10	5
2020-21	27	6	1
2021-22	26	2	0

Other sentences include: - Admonished, Children's Hearing, Community Payback Order,
Community Service Order, No Order, Probation Order, Restriction of Liberty Order

Question reference: S6W-08500

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to research by Professor Steve Turner of the University of Aberdeen, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health, which found that a link between household income, poverty and fetal size is present in the second trimester of pregnancy, and what action it is taking to improve antenatal health and wellbeing.

We provide a wide range of antenatal support to help reduce the effects of poverty. For example, Best Start Foods provides pregnant women in receipt of benefits, with £18 every four weeks. To improve the nutrition of pregnant women, we provide free vitamins and are working, on a UK basis, to introduce mandatory fortification with folic acid. We provide £2.3m annually to NHS Boards to implement the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Framework (2011) and we have agreed standards with them to ensure early access to antenatal services where fetal growth, smoking/alcohol use, diet and maternal wellbeing is monitored.

Question reference: S6W-08533

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what major orthopaedics surgery will be available to patients at Carrick Glen Hospital following its reopening.

Question reference: S6T-00732

Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports of an outbreak of the monkeypox virus in the UK, including cases in Scotland, what action it is taking to monitor transmission of the virus in Scotland and support people affected.

Question reference: S6T-00730

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the sports and events sectors regarding alternative transport arrangements in light of the revised ScotRail train timetable.

Question reference: S6F-01149

Asked by: Jim Fairlie, MSP for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2022

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is, regarding the impact on Scotland, to comments by Ian Wright of the Food and Drink Sector Council regarding the UK’s preparedness for increasing food prices and shortages.

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