Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-22154

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with energy network operators and the wider utilities sector to review their processes for (a) establishing restoration plans and timelines during times of severe weather and (b) communicating regular updates to responders and the public.

The Energy sector is reserved to the UK Government. This limits the Scottish Government ’ s ability to directly engage with energy network operators and ask for a review of their processes.

However, the Scottish Government does regularly engage with UK Government Departments and the energy network operators in Scotland along with the wider utilities, particularly during severe weather events, where we encourage and emphasise the importance of accurate restoration plans and timelines.

In addition, we continue to work closely with the UK Government lead departments when they are developing statutory reporting arrangements and will make clear the requirements of the Scottish Government during a severe weather response.

The Scottish Government also supports the three Regional Resilience Partnerships (RRPs) who coordinate communications between Scottish Government, utility companies and categorised responder organisations who are working in affected areas during emergency responses. In this role the RRP coordinators engage with stakeholders on restoration plans at a local level as well as in the statutory requirement of category one responders to communicate with the public in emergency responses.

Question reference: S6W-22162

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what online resources and training it (a) has provided and (b) plans to provide to help individuals, community groups and the voluntary sector to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

Our emergency planning portal, ready.scot, was updated in June 2022 to include a new "Learn" section to support the public, community groups and voluntary sector partners by raising awareness of emergency resilience structures and processes, and helping them to understand how they may participate in an effective and joined up response to an emergency. Between March and April 2023, we also ran a series of 4 online community resilience workshops which were attended by approximately 240 participants.

We will continue to work with the sector, and in particular Local Authorities, who have the lead role on engaging with local communities, to understand their training needs and provide additional resources if required.

Question reference: S6W-22151

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has undertaken on improving resilience plans to enable the strategic coordination of door-to-door welfare checks.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with categorised responders, who are responsible under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 for assessing the risk of an emergency occurring, maintaining plans to ensure they can continue to perform their functions in case of an emergency, and considering whether an assessment makes it necessary or expedient to add or modify plans. Scottish Government are not however responsible for, or the owners of, any of these plans.

In relation to door-to-door welfare checks specifically, our follow-up report on Storm Arwen in October 2022 confirmed that “The capability to deliver this type of large-scale response relies on a number of the issues, for example swift activation of resilience arrangements, the ability to quickly assess the impact on the ground, strong mutual aid arrangements and links to community and voluntary groups, and agile public communications plans. Resilience partnerships are however also aware that deploying a large number of people to travel on foot to carry out door-to-door checks could itself create a risk for those involved, for example if the weather conditions remain challenging. As such, these checks should always be considered as part of a range of ‘care for people’ considerations and measures which are rolled out in response to any major incident, which might also for example include the provision of rest centres.”

The Scottish Government is also supporting partners in the development of the Persons at Risk Distribution (PARD) resource which enables the swift identification of, and support to, those most at risk during an incident.

Question reference: S6W-22159

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what review it has undertaken of any arrangements for an emergency that involves the loss of both power and telecoms, and engagement with utilities companies and local planning where required to ensure linkage with national developments.

The Scottish Government’s Storm Arwen Review provided a detailed review of such a situation, and our two follow-up reports made clear that the organisations who are responsible for emergency planning and response in Scotland had formally incorporated those recommendations into their workplans.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with UK Government Departments and the utilities operators in Scotland, as well as our own emergency responders, to ensure that information relevant to emergency planning is shared between the two.

Question reference: S6W-22155

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work that it has done to review and expand the materials and training available to support the establishment and operation of local Community Resilience Groups during times of severe weather.

Our emergency planning portal; ready.scot, was updated in June 2022 to include a new ‘Learn’ section to support the public, community groups and Voluntary Sector partners, by raising awareness of emergency resilience structures and processes, and to strengthen understanding of how they might participate in an effective and joined-up response to an emergency. Between March and April 2023 a series of four online community resilience workshops took place, joined by approximately 240 participants. We will continue to work with the sector, and in particular Local Authorities who have the lead role on engaging with local communities, to understand their training needs and to provide any additional resources required.

Question reference: S6W-22152

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 27 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the joint work that it has done with the Scottish Resilience Partnership, COSLA, the Improvement Service and local authorities to implement the Persons at Risk Distribution (PARD) system.

Scottish Government and the Improvement Service continues to support Local Authorities with their local implementations of PARD. Support ranges from guidance on data preparation, through to examples on when PARD can be used.

Scottish Government and the Improvement Service are also drafting a ‘quick start guide’ that will be distributed to Local Authorities by the end of October 2023. The guide answers frequently asked questions.

Scottish Government Digital Directorate has engaged with the Society of Local Authority Lawyers & Administrators in Scotland (SOLAR) FOI, Data Protection & Human Rights Group working group to brief them on the Data Protection requirements around PARD. The working group will provide support to Local Authorities when preparing Data Protection documentation relating to PARD.

Additionally, Scottish Government Digital Directorate presented PARD to a Public Engagement Panel that was looking at public acceptance and Data Ethics around the use of personal data by the Public Sector. The panel was very supportive of the use of personal data in PARD and in general for incidents and emergencies.

Question reference: S6W-22153

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 27 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities and health and social care partnerships are participating in the Persons at Risk Distribution (PARD) system.

It is a matter for Local Authorities to decide whether they want to adopt PARD or use a different system. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places a duty on Category 1 and 2 responders to share and access information to support decision making.

To date, Scottish Government and the Improvement Service have held workshops with colleagues from Social Work and Emergency Planning in all Scottish Local Authorities. These workshops have focused on how PARD data can be used to identify people at risk during and to support decision making during incidents.

Question reference: S6W-22264

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of (a) its Bee Health Team and (b) the Bee Health Improvement Partnership (BHIP), and on how the public can engage with each.

The Bee Health Team’s bee heath inspectors have been conducting a programme of apiary visits across Scotland during this year’s beekeeping season, inspecting colonies for signs of notifiable pests and diseases as well as monitoring for incursion of exotic pests. Our diagnostics and science team at SASA continues to provide a free diagnostic service to beekeepers in Scotland to identify and confirm the presence of bee diseases and pests. The Scottish Government also provides funding for a Bee Health Advisor post at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) who provides education and practical advice to beekeepers on honey bee health and good management with the aim of improving bee health in Scotland.

The Bee Health Improvement Partnership (BHIP) has developed a 10 year Honey Bee Health Strategy which aims to achieve a healthy and sustainable population of honey bees in Scotland, supported by an Implementation Plan detailing specific actions to deliver the Strategy’s outcomes. The Plan is updated and published after each quarterly BHIP meeting. Links to both the Strategy and the Implementation Plan are below:

Strategy:

Implementation Plan:

Scottish beekeepers and members of the public can contact the Bee Health Team direct by emailing [email protected] to discuss any issues, seek advice, and request items to be raised at the BHIP meetings.

Question reference: S6O-02649

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of onshore wind farms approved in the past year had majority support from the local community.

Question reference: S6W-21915

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many autistic people are currently being held in mental health hospitals; of those, how many (a) are under 18, (b) were admitted to hospital for treatment or assessment following offending, (c) have been in hospital for more than a decade, and what the average number of days that they have been in hospital is.

The latest data available on admissions and length of stay for people in Mental Health Hospitals is collected as part of the .

At the census point 11 April 2022, 152 adults with a diagnosis of autism were inpatient within an NHS Scotland hospital. In addition, there were 9 patients under 18. There were a further 11 adults with a diagnosis of autism inpatient outwith an NHS Scotland hospital. These individuals also may or may not have a co-occurring diagnosis for a learning disability.

Data on the numbers of people with a diagnosis of autism who have been admitted to hospital for treatment following offending is not collected.

There were 24 patients with a diagnosis of autism who have been in an NHS Scotland hospital more than a decade, with an average length of stay of 16 years and 10 months. There are fewer than 5 further patient(s) with an autism diagnosis who have been treated outwith NHS Scotland more than a decade. These individuals also may or may not have a co-occurring diagnosis for a learning disability.

The latest publication of the Mental Welfare Commissions covers the period 2021-22 and provides some information on compulsory treatment under criminal proceedings and you may wish to ask if they have further information on disaggregated data.

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