Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-02602

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many social workers have been employed by each local authority in each year since 1999.

The information requested by Mr Briggs MSP is readily available on the SSSC website, and a detailed breakdown by local authority can be obtained directly from the official source.

Every year in August, the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) publishes the ‘Scottish Social Service Sector: Report on 2020 Workforce Data’. This year's edition was the 10th set of official statistics. Official figures, therefore, only go back to 2011.

According to the most recent data, published in August this year, as of December 2020, there were 6,049 social workers employed in local authorities, the highest number recorded, representing a 1.5% increase since the previous year, 2019, or a 6% increase since 2011.

Question reference: S6W-02941

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 22 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many community centres there have been in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-02958

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid out in legal fees by each local authority in each year since 1999.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.

Question reference: S6W-02871

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what training has been provided to staff in its Clinical Priorities Unit in relation to engaging with people on issues such as disabilities, equality measures, fairness and human rights, including with people with long-term conditions, and when any such training was provided.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all our staff have the necessary training/skills to fulfil our commitments to equalities and diversity and dealing with specific groups of stakeholders. Diversity and inclusion capability building, including learning and development, for Scottish Government staff is set out in our Mainstreaming Equality Outcomes Report 2021. In July 2021, we launched new mandatory diversity and inclusion training. This aims to ensure everyone working within the Scottish Government develops and maintains a foundational level of knowledge about inclusion and supports individual self-reflection and personal development.

Question reference: S6W-02959

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid out in compensation by each local authority in each year since 1999.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.

Question reference: S6W-02933

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid by each local authority to arms-length external organisations in each year since 2007.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.

Question reference: S6W-02615

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it will provide to NHS Lothian to maintain the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion while a new eye hospital is being built in Edinburgh.

As announced in our Programme for Government, we are investing £10 billion in health infrastructure over the next decade, to renew and replace health facilities across Scotland. The Scottish Government provide NHS Boards with over £140 million of capital funding each to invest in maintaining their existing estate and replacing and upgrading equipment. Over the next five years, as detailed in the Infrastructure Investment Plan published in February 2021, we will double our annual funding for maintenance, so that in total £1 billion will be invested in enhancing or refurbishing existing facilities, and updating and modernising key equipment.

The Scottish Government have asked NHS Lothian to submit a Full Business Case for the new Eye Pavilion following our approval of their Outline Business Case. It is for NHS Lothian to manage their local budget and determine where their maintenance budget is directed, but we would expect them to maintain a safe and compliant facility, until the new eye hospital opens.

Question reference: S6W-02610

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients returned with suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT) within 90 days of discharge following (a) orthopaedic and (b) any type of surgery in (i) 2010, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2020.

The following table presents the information requested.

Table 1 : Number of readmissions with a diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis readmitted within 90 days of discharge following an orthopaedic or any type of surgery.

Year	Number of readmissions after orthopaedic surgery	Number of readmissions after any surgery, including orthopaedic
2010	93	265
2015	87	243
2020	53	164

1. Year based on the date of admission when the surgery was carried out.

2. Surgeries have been defined as clinical procedures occurring in a surgical specialty excluding diagnosis imaging, testing and rehabilitation procedures. This may misclassify a few procedures, and there might be a slight overestimation of the number of procedures, as this leads to the inclusion of some procedures that may not be perceived to be ‘surgery’ – such as those not requiring anaesthetic or any incision.

3. A readmission has been counted when a patient has undergone a surgical procedure and within 90 days of discharge they have been re-admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis (DVT). A patient may have multiple ‘readmissions’ for any reason during the 90 day period following surgery but only the first readmission of the year for a patient has been counted. It is not possible to determine if the DVT was caused by the surgical procedure.

Source: Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6W-02612

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people died from a pulmonary embolism due to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) within 90 days of discharge following (a) orthopaedic and (b) any type of surgery in (i) 2010, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2020.

The following table presents the information requested.

Table 1 : Number of people that died within 90 days of discharge following an orthopaedic or any type of surgery, with pulmonary embolism and deep-vein thrombosis among the causes of death.

Year	Number of deaths after orthopaedic surgery	Number of deaths after any surgery, including orthopaedic
2010	16	35
2015	9	25
2020	7	16

1. Year based on the date of the hospital admission when the surgery was carried out.

2. Surgeries have been defined as clinical procedures occurring in a surgical specialty excluding diagnosis imaging, testing and rehabilitation procedures. This may misclassify a few procedures, and there might be a slight overestimation of the number of procedures, as this leads to the inclusion of some procedures that may not be perceived to be ‘surgery’ – such as those not requiring anaesthetic or any incision.

3. A death has been counted if both pulmonary embolism (PE) and deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) were recorded on the death certificate, either as the underlying cause of death or in the contributory causes of death, and the patient had a hospital admission with a surgical procedure recorded in the prior 90 days to their date of death. The patient may have had an unrelated underlying cause of death but have DVT and PE recorded in the contributory causes of death. We are not able to determine if the deep-vein thrombosis was the cause of the pulmonary embolism.

Source: Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6W-02609

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what post-operative guidance and information on venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention was provided to patients, or their carers, as part of the discharge process following orthopaedic surgery in (a) 2010, (b) 2015 and (c) 2020.

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