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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: S6W-08428

Asked by: Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 19 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its most recent estimates are for how many children in the East Kilbride constituency are receiving support from (a) the Scottish Child Payment and (b) Best Start Grants.

In the South Lanarkshire Local Authority (a) 5,525 clients received one or more payments for Scottish Child Payment between April 2021 and December 2021, and (b) 3,955 clients received one or more payments for Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods between April 2021 and February 2022.

These figures are based on secondary analysis of the most recently published statistics on Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods, published by Social Security Scotland. Whilst these include information by local authority area, we do not currently produce information by Scottish Parliament constituency.

Question reference: S6W-08424

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) trade unions representing drivers and (b) ScotRail regarding drivers’ pay, and what action is being taken to avoid any further disputes.

Question reference: S6W-08404

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many training places it will provide for (a) psychiatrists and (b) mental health nurses in the next five years, and how this compares with the number in the last five years.

(a) Psychiatry

Table 1 sets out the number of established training places in each of the various psychiatric specialties. This data reflects trainee establishment levels from August 2016 – August 2022.

Table 1	Trainee Establishment
Training Programme	Trainee Establishment
Training Programme	Aug-16	Aug-17	Aug-18	Aug-19	Aug-20	Aug-21	Feb-22	Aug-22

Child and adolescent psychiatry	28	28	28	28	28	28	28	28
Core Psychiatry	163	163	161	161	161	166	171	176
Forensic psychiatry	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
General psychiatry	59	59	59	59	59	59	59	59
Intellectual Disability Psychiatry	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13
Medical psychotherapy	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Old age psychiatry	25	25	25	25	25	25	25	25
Grand Total	311	311	309*	309	309	314	319	324

* Two fewer posts were advertised in 2018 than in 2017 due to the allocation of Core Psychiatry posts to the Broad Based Training programme, which includes psychiatry as one of the four rotations.

Table 2 shows the number of psychiatric training posts advertised in each year from 2016 – 2021. The number of posts which are advertised varies year-on-year depending on how many trainees completed their training and achieved their Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in the year prior. Please note that comparative figures for 2022 are not yet available.

Table 2	Post Type*	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Specialty	Post Type*	Posts	Posts	Posts	Posts	Posts	Posts
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry	ST4	9	10	14	8	9	13
Core Psychiatry Training	CT1	59	58	65	63	68	59
Forensic Psychiatry	ST4	7	4	6	5	4	6
Forensic Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry	ST4	0	0	0	0	0	0
Forensic Psychiatry and Medical Psychotherapy	ST4	1	0	0	0	0	0
General Psychiatry	ST4	32	20	19	18	14	27
General Psychiatry and Medical Psychotherapy	ST4	1	0	0	0	1	3
General Psychiatry and Old Age Psychiatry	ST4	0	1	1	1	1	1
Medical Psychotherapy	ST4	0	3	3	1	2	2
Old Age Psychiatry	ST4	13	15	10	10	9	12
Psychiatry of Learning Disability	ST	1	3	7	8	6	4
Psychiatry of Learning Disability and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry	ST	0	0	0	0	1	1
		123	114	125	114	115	128

* CT = Core Training

*ST = Specialty Training

The number of psychiatry training places to be advertised beyond 2022 has not yet been determined. The number of training places is determined annually by Scottish Ministers, following the recommendations of the Shape of Training Transition Group (SSoTTG). The SSoTTG make its recommendations based on a number of factors, including: retiral rate of consultants, attrition rates, current and future service demand, assumed demographic changes, and training capacity within NHS Scotland amongst others. The Group receives input from Specialty Training Boards, Medical Royal Colleges, NHS Education Scotland, the British Medical Association, Medical Directors, Regional Medical Workforce Planners and other relevant parties.

The Scottish Government (SG) has been increasing the number of Core Psychiatry training places, following the recommendations of the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group (SSoTTG). Since 2014, the Scottish Ministers have created 474 additional places in a wide range of medical specialties, following the recommendations of the group. 139 of those were agreed in 2021 – the largest annual expansion to date – and are being recruited to in 2022. This includes 10 additional Core Psychiatry places. The SSoTTG continues to review the number of established training places in line with patient and service needs. All additional training places are funded by the Scottish Government.

SG officials are also currently working with NHS Education for Scotland and the Royal College of Psychiatrists Scotland to better understand and address the challenges associated with recruitment and retention in Psychiatry; an issue that is common across all four UK nations.

(b) Mental Health Nurses

In terms of training places for Mental Health nurses, student nurses entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 20% in 2022-23, to a total recommended intake of 888 students. The mental health nursing intake has nearly doubled in the past 5 years, from 465 places in 2017.

Every year, the Scottish Government undertakes a robust nursing student intake planning process to determine the target number of pre-registration students to which Scottish universities should recruit to in the following academic year to meet estimated future nursing workforce demands.

Question reference: S6W-08423

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of any work that it has carried out to ensure that gender mainstreaming approaches have been embedded into the implementation of the Child Poverty Delivery Plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling gender inequality and embedding a human rights approach to tackling child poverty.

Our second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ , is underpinned by extensive impact assessments – informed by consultation with stakeholders and individuals with direct experience of poverty. This includes an Equality Impact Assessment presenting summary consideration across policies and proposals included with the Plan focusing on how policies may impact, either positively or negatively, on different sections of the population in different ways, through the lens of Protected Characteristics, which includes sex. The above along with our Evidence Review on What Works , Cumulative Impact Assessment , Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment , Fairer Scotland Duty Impact Assessment and Islands Impact Assessment , helped inform development of the Plan and will continue to guide its implementation and delivery.

As set out in ‘ Best Start, Bright Futures ’, we are committed to focusing on the impact of all interventions through the lens of our six priority families and will seek to ensure that systems work for these families in particular. This includes a substantive focus on lone parent households, the majority of whom are headed by women, and mothers under the age 25 both of which are at greatest risk of poverty and encapsulate many of the inequalities affecting women more broadly. This includes barriers relating to entering and sustaining employment, childcare, housing and transport.

Through this focused approach, we will be able to drive down levels of child poverty whilst delivering significant progress on our wider equality and human rights ambitions – particularly in relation to advancing equality and human rights for women, disabled people and minority ethnic people.

We are committed to continue to engage with our partners, including gender representative stakeholders and women with experience of poverty, to ensure an intersectional and gendered approach is embedded in the development, implementation and monitoring of the actions set out in the plan. This includes, for example, establishing a Lived Experience Panel in Summer 2022, with members from each of the six priority family groups, including young mothers and lone parents, to help inform our employability policy.

Question reference: S6W-08427

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of council tax increases, whether the level of council tax debt is being monitored, and what support can be given to people who have arrears.

Statistics on uncollected council tax are published in the annual "Council Tax Collection" National Statistics publication. The most recent edition is available at Local government finance statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) with the next update scheduled to be published on 21 June 2022.

The Council Tax Reduction Scheme means that nobody in Scotland has to meet a Council Tax Bill they cannot be expected to afford.

Council Tax is a local tax with responsibility for all elements of administration and collection resting with individual local authorities.

Question reference: S6O-01126

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the reasonable period of time for households to install interlinked fire alarms in line with the new legislation has now passed.

Question reference: S6O-01120

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the scoping exercise into the availability of specialist services within NHS boards for miscarriage and unexpected pregnancy complications will be completed.

Question reference: S6O-01138

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how its Super Sponsor scheme takes account of the preferences of Ukrainian refugees regarding settlement locations within Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-01128

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the implications are for Social Security Scotland of the redeployment of staff to the agency from the DWP.

Question reference: S6O-01131

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the roll-out of social security benefits.