Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-09008

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason £97 million has been removed from the Scottish Water budget in 2022-23, and then £98 million in each of the next four years, in the Resource Spending Review.

The Scottish Government Budget for 2022-23 sets out that during this financial year, the Scottish Government intends to lend £170m per annum in capital funding and to receive some £105m income per annum which is the interest on loans issued to Scottish Water. Across the 2021-27 period Ministers have committed to lend Scottish Water up to £1.03bn. Lending in future years will be agreed in future Budget Acts.

The quoted figure of -£97m is the resource budget for the Water Industry portfolio. This reflects some £105m income of interest payments by Scottish Water less amounts of spend on Hydro Nation and Private Water activities. The breakdown of spend is included within table 9.16 of the Budget.

Scottish Water is financed through revenue raised from customer charges and loans issued by the Scottish Government. The spending review has simply confirmed the intention to lend £170m per annum to Scottish Water and hence it has no impact on customers’ bills.

Question reference: S6W-08924

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been diagnosed with an eating disorder in each year since 1999.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) does not hold comprehensive data on the number of people diagnosed with an eating disorder since 1999.

However, we can provide data on the number of child and adult patients admitted in NHS psychiatric or general/acute hospitals, either as day cases or inpatients, with an eating disorder in any diagnostic field, for the period 2007-2021. The data is disaggregated by age group (child or adult), calendar year, and health board of residence.

Child Patients 2007 -2021

Number of child 1 patients 2 admitted to a general/acute or mental health specialty 3 , either as an inpatient or day case, with an eating disorder 4 ; by year of admission and NHS health board of patient residence, 2007 - 2021.

	Year of Admission
NHS Board	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Ayrshire and Arran	*	5	*	5	*	*	8	*	5	5	*	*	7	13	*
Borders	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	5	5	15	5	5	9
Dumfries and Galloway	*	*	*	*	-	*	*	8	6	*	*	6	*	*	9
Fife	*	*	6	*	6	5	*	*	*	*	6	10	9	9	16
Forth Valley	-	*	*	-	*	8	*	*	*	7	8	8	9	19	16
Grampian	7	*	9	7	11	16	7	12	10	9	14	9	10	14	22
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	16	7	7	8	9	10	17	25	13	13	16	14	17	32	38
Highland	5	11	5	*	*	14	9	14	17	6	7	*	8	17	26
Lanarkshire	*	6	*	6	7	8	12	7	*	10	11	12	19	17	26
Lothian	15	12	16	17	17	14	18	25	35	25	22	23	28	31	45
Orkney	*	*	-	-	*	*	*	*	*	-	-	-	*	-	*
Other	*	-	*	-	-	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	-	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	-
Tayside	*	7	11	9	8	10	12	12	9	12	6	11	7	22	18
Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	*	*	-	*	*	*	-	-
Total	60	62	69	61	72	94	98	119	109	102	108	122	125	184	233

Notes

* - Denotes values which have been suppressed to protect patient confidentiality.

1. A child is defined as someone whose age on admission was less than 18

2. Patients will be counted multiple times if they have been admitted within the same board in different years, or different boards in the same year, or both. A patient will be counted as both an adult and a child in the year they turn 18 if they had an episode when they were 17 and a subsequent episode that year aged 18.

3. The numbers represented show those who have been admitted to hospital and do not include those diagnosed in other settings. Therefore, these figures are likely to be undercount of the total number of people diagnosed with an eating disorder

4. Patients identified are those with an ICD-10 code of F50 in any of 6 diagnostic fields. Further information can be found on the ICD-10 website: https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en.

5. The "Other" category is a combination of the following health board categories: "Rest of UK (Outside Scotland)", "Outside the UK", "No Fixed Abode" and "Unknown residency".

Adult Patients 2007 - 2021

Number of adult 1 patients 2 admitted to a general/acute or mental health specialty 3 , either as an inpatient or day case, with an eating disorder 4 ; by year of admission and NHS health board of patient residence, 2007 - 2021.

	Year of Admission
NHS Board	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Ayrshire and Arran	19	17	17	18	20	13	16	15	15	23	19	21	19	23	23
Borders	7	7	*	7	8	11	11	7	*	10	*	9	10	14	9
Dumfries and Galloway	7	9	9	11	13	6	10	14	13	17	17	15	12	14	17
Fife	22	15	21	10	14	14	17	18	17	17	26	21	21	21	23
Forth Valley	7	7	8	9	17	10	15	11	9	13	19	19	24	34	28
Grampian	36	30	35	27	31	36	33	47	41	32	40	41	37	38	28
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	47	53	51	45	37	61	58	68	67	63	67	65	80	64	71
Highland	17	11	24	23	36	21	26	34	27	24	34	41	41	37	23
Lanarkshire	24	17	17	20	26	34	26	23	27	41	34	47	39	36	40
Lothian	57	56	48	46	32	69	62	60	58	63	49	58	66	91	77
Orkney	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	-	*	-	*	*
Other	*	*	*	*	*	5	*	22	39	50	29	20	23	30	22
Shetland	*	*	*	*	-	*	*	*	-	*	-	*	*	*	*
Tayside	17	15	15	23	22	29	22	26	19	21	23	21	16	17	27
Western Isles	-	-	*	*	-	*	*	-	-	*	*	*	*	*	*
Total	264	241	261	249	261	313	307	349	345	379	368	387	391	424	392

Notes

* - Denotes values which have been suppressed to protect patient confidentiality.

1. An adult is someone whose age on admission was 18 or older.

2. Patients will be counted multiple times if they have been admitted within the same board in different years, or different boards in the same year, or both. A patient will be counted as both an adult and a child in the year they turn 18 if they had an episode when they were 17 and a subsequent episode that year aged 18.

3. The numbers represented show those who have been admitted to hospital and do not include those diagnosed in other settings. Therefore, these figures are likely to be undercount of the total number of people diagnosed with an eating disorder.

4. Patients identified are those with an ICD-10 code of F50 in any of 6 diagnostic fields. Further information can be found on the ICD-10 website: https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en.

5. The "Other" category is a combination of the following health board categories: "Rest of UK (Outside Scotland)", "Outside the UK", "No Fixed Abode" and "Unknown residency".

Question reference: S6W-08912

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Scottish Water setting customer charges at 4.2% for the current financial year, by how much above the Consumer Prices Index would charges need to rise in each year for the remainder of the regulatory period in order to meet the minimum income expectation of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland by the end of the current regulatory period.

The Final Determination explained that the Commission would expect that its charge caps would allow Scottish Water’s annual revenue in the final year of the current regulatory control period to be no less than £1,392m. This level of revenue was based on assuming an average charge cap of 1.5% a year above inflation over the regulatory control period 2021-27. Based on the level of charges to date, and using the same assumptions made in the Final Determination, charges would need to rise by 1.8% above the rate of consumer price index inflation in order to achieve this same level of revenue.

Question reference: S6W-08909

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what accounting provision Scottish Water has made for bad debt in each of the last 10 financial years.

This information is provided in Scottish Water’s Annual Report and Accounts which is published on Scottish Water’s website and laid before Parliament each year. The accounting provision Scottish Water has made for household bad debt in each of previous 10 financial years is set out in the following table.

Year Ending	£'000
March 21	26,000
March 20	17,000
March 19	18,300
March 18	17,000
March 17	16,000
March 16	12,800
March 15	19,803
March 14	26,046
March 13	27,900
March 12	24,000

Question reference: S6W-08916

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to bring forward a Public Debt Bill.

Question reference: S6W-08900

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will allocate any funding specifically for alcohol services, in addition to that allocated to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships for drugs services.

We are currently working in partnership with Simon Community Scotland to pilot and evaluate an innovative Managed Alcohol Programme for people who experience homelessness.

Funding allocated to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) is for both alcohol and drug treatment services. In 2021-22 ADPs and Health Boards received over £106m for alcohol and drug services.

This funding is used to ensure that services meet the needs of people who experience alcohol as well as drugs harms, including preventative approaches.

Question reference: S6W-08913

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of current projections for the rate of inflation, when it plans to increase the level of the Water Charges Reduction Scheme in order to protect people on the lowest incomes from any effect of high inflation on the amount that they pay each year in water charges.

Question reference: S6W-08911

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it calculates the average water charge in (a) Scotland and (b) England that it uses for comparative purposes.

Question reference: S6W-08869

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that near-term net-zero projects are working with Scotland's renewable energy suppliers.

In 2020, the Scottish Government set up the Scottish Energy Task Force to focus on near-term, collaborative actions, which can stimulate investment in Scotland’s energy sector to support delivery of net-zero.

The Energy Task Force consists of 12 organisations, including renewable energy companies, who have helped to develop the Joint Business Plan for Unlocking Investment in Scotland’s Energy Sector which was published in May this year.

The Plan outlines actions which can be taken to make near-term progress on working towards net-zero. The Task Force will continue to work collaboratively to deliver these actions which support net-zero.

Question reference: S6W-08868

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will deliver a supply chain plan to help support the development of the renewable energy supply chain as part of the upcoming Energy Strategy Refresh.

The Energy Strategy & Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) will be developed not only to ensure the delivery of a viable net-zero energy system but also to provide an action plan that enables the transition to that system in a fair and just way for all of Scotland and maximises the economic opportunity that Scotland’s resource provides.

To ensure the impacts of the ESJTP reflect the challenges and opportunities facing the supply chain, a co-design process is being carried out to ensure the supply chain are able to engage, contribute and help shape the ESJTP.

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