Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

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 ��˿�� 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: S5W-08749

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people with mental health problems it expects to be supported into employment in 2017 through the devolved Work Programme.

Our one year transitional employment programmes were launched at the beginning of April 2017. Work First Scotland will deliver employment support for up to 3,300 disabled people, including those with mental health conditions. Work Able Scotland will provide employment support for up to 1,500 clients with a disability or a health condition, including those with mental health conditions, who are at risk of long term unemployment.

While one of the key target groups for support through these services, as they are both wholly voluntary, we cannot state how many people with a mental health condition we expect to volunteer to participate or achieve job outcomes. However, we are collecting customer information on type of health condition and aim to include this in the Scottish Government statistics publication due for release later in the year, which will report on the transition year employability services.

From April 2018, we will introduce a new Scottish employability service - Fair Start Scotland. It is expected that the programme will support a minimum of 38,000 people over 3 years of referrals. People with mental health conditions are one of the key client groups we aim to support into work through Fair Start Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-08744

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the impact of the Mental Health Strategy 2012-15 on the employment rate of people with mental health problems.

Question reference: S5W-08747

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has issued to health and social care partnerships regarding employment services for people with mental health problems.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with Integration Authorities to strengthen the links between health, social care and employability, however decisions for the delivery of services at a local level are for Integration Authorities to agree depending on local priorities.

The Scottish Government recognises the very specific challenges that people with mental health conditions can face in securing sustained employment. In designing our devolved employment support programmes, we have made sure to consult with service providers and people who use services to better understand the challenges and how they can be addressed. With devolved employment support, we have an opportunity to do things differently in Scotland and we are currently exploring ways in which we are able to join up devolved employment services with other key areas including health and social care, and justice.

The Mental Health Strategy 2017 – 2027 focuses on the important role of getting a job and staying in work. In particular, action 37 commits to explore with others innovative ways of connecting mental health, disability, and employment support in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-08751

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it offers to employers to make reasonable adjustments to support their employees to recover from mental health problems.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives, part of NHS Health Scotland, to provide information and advice on workplace health and wellbeing. The Centre, and the network of advisers in territorial NHS Boards, offer free and confidential advice on a wide range of issues relating to health, safety in the workplace. This includes promoting wellbeing in the workplace, managing sickness absence and supporting employees to return to work.

Health Working Lives runs training courses for employers on managing and promoting good mental health in the workplace.

Question reference: S5W-08743

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the employment rates for people with mental health problems are in comparison to the general population.

Information sourced from the Annual Population Survey below shows the employment rate: for the working age population overall and for those with mental health problems.

People with mental health problems are defined as those who responded to the survey reporting :

that they had a physical or mental health condition or illness lasting or expecting to last 12 months or more; and,
that their main health problem was either ‘Depression, bad nerves or anxiety’ or ‘Mental illness or suffer from a phobia, panics or other nervous disorders’.

In 2016 the employment rate for people with mental health problems was 39.0%. This compares with 72.9% for the general population.

Source: Annual Population Survey (January 2016 to December 2016)

Question reference: S5W-08740

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress was made on employability by the implementation and monitoring group responsible for that aspect of the Mental Health Strategy 2012-15.

Question reference: S5W-08746

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with the third sector to improve the employment rate for people with mental health problems.

We recognise the very specific challenges that some people with barriers to employment, including mental health conditions, can face in obtaining and securing sustained employment.

That is why we worked with the Open Doors Consortium, a partnership of Scotland’s leading Third Sector specialist employment providers, to develop a tailored in-work work support package to support the employment outcomes of those with the greatest barriers.

This support has been delivered nationally by the Open Doors Consortium since July 2015, and can include mentoring, job coaching, training, orientation visits and providing training to the employers' staff. Help towards essential equipment or work clothes can also be provided. The support package can be accessed at any point within the first 52 weeks of employment.

In recognition of the barriers to employment some young people face, including those with mental health conditions, we are also working in partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) to provide up to 12 or 18 months of supported job training through a range of third sector employers across Scotland as part of the Community Jobs Scotland programme.

Since 2011 we have invested more than £50 million in Community Jobs Scotland, which has now helped more than 7,500 young people aged 16 to 29 access paid job training and the chance to enhance their longer term job prospects through additional training specifically designed to increase employability skills.

Question reference: S5W-08669

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many statutory notices have been served on the Grangemouth refinery by the Health and Safety Executive in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-08667

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what SEPA rating for pollution control has been given to the Grangemouth refinery in each of the last five years.

Petroineos Manufacturing Scotland Limited holds the licence that covers the oil refining activities at Grangemouth. SEPA's Compliance Assessment Scheme is designed to demonstrate the level of compliance associated with specific licence conditions and is assessed annually.

The Compliance Assessment Scheme Assessment Reports for regulated sites available at and the results for the last 5 years are set out in the following table.

Year	Compliance Assessment Scheme	Comments
2016	Poor	Petroineos received a score of Poor for 2016, due primarily to a significant incident in May, with the release to air of approximately 40 tonnes of sulphur. The Operator carried out an investigation and SEPA is satisfied that an appropriate action plan is in place to prevent recurrence. A number of other minor incidents also occurred throughout the year. Despite this the site should receive due credit for minimising flaring and sulphur emissions and continuing to invest in maintaining and upgrading the complex equipment in use there.
2015	Poor	Petroineos's performance was very good in 2015 in terms of maintaining the improvement in sulphur dioxide emissions due to significant reduction from the sulphur recovery plant aided by reduced sulphur flaring due to good reliability. Hydrocarbon flaring was the lowest total ever recorded indicative of good performance to reduce emissions from flaring. Compliance was recorded as poor owing to a prolonged offensive odour from the site affecting a wide area of Grangemouth during December which was considered a significant breach of the odour condition in the permit Compliance was restored and SEPA has continued to monitor the situation.
2014	At Risk	Whilst the refinery had made significant improvements to reduce total sulphur dioxide emissions from the site, SEPA remained concerned with the poor sulphur flaring performance in 2014. In addition to this poor process control associated with an incident on the site resulted in the low performance score for the site. Following discussions with the Operator, SEPA was satisfied that an appropriate action plan had been put in place to prevent recurrence.
2013	Broadly Compliant	SEPA assessed the licence holder as broadly compliant with licence conditions but highlighted several areas for improvement.
2012	Broadly Compliant	SEPA assessed the licence holder as broadly compliant with licence conditions but highlighted several areas for improvement.

Question reference: S5O-00922

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it will publish a new anti-bullying strategy for schools.