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-22136

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 22 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what requirement there is on its directorates to explain and address any reported race and ethnic disparities.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the representation of minority ethnic employees. We are a signatory of the Race at Work Charter which reflects our commitment to improve race equality at all levels.

There is no requirement on each directorate to report on race and ethnic disparities. Directorates are provided with their diversity data as part of organisational assurance processes and use this information to inform Directorate workforce planning and recruitment activity. Directors are accountable to their Director Generals for decisions they take in relation to diversity and inclusion in support of an overall outcome to increase the diversity of our workforce to reflect the general Scottish population by 2025 and fostering an inclusive workforce culture and valuing the contribution of employees from all backgrounds.

The Scottish Government’s progress towards achieving its stated outcomes for diversity and inclusion are published in an equality mainstreaming report. The next report is due to be published on April 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22135

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 22 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on using external bodies to assist with its monitoring of race and ethnic disparity.

The Scottish Government are open to engaging with external bodies to shape the data used for monitoring race and ethnic disparity. A range of race equality partner organisations were invited to contribute to Scotland’s Equality Evidence Strategy and to shape Scotland’s new Equality Evidence Finder. A workshop on data and how the Equality Evidence Finder is used was held within Scotland’s recent Race Equality Action Plan Conference, and the Scottish Government intends to engage further with race equality partner organisations on data in the spring.

Question reference: S5W-22133

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 21 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that its directorates have a consistent approach in collecting and presenting race and ethnicity data; how such information is collated; whether it expects each directorate to carry this work out on a continual basis; which directorate has overall responsibility for (a) overseeing this work and (b) the monitoring of all of the data that it collects on race and ethnic disparity in public life, and how it ensures that this is published in an open and transparent manner.

The Scottish Government ensures a consistent approach to the collection of race and ethnicity data by recommending that the same question is used in Scottish Government surveys and administrative collections, and in those across the wider public sector. The recommended question is the one that was used in the 2011 Census and Scottish Government equality analysts have developed and published guidance for its use. It is likely that this guidance will be reviewed if there is a new question in the 2021 Census. The data tends to be collected on a continual basis. The form the presentation of the data takes, including the amount of detail that can be disclosed, usually depends on the size of the sample. The data on ethnic group is normally published initially within individual official statistics publications and is brought together and presented in a consistent manner on the Scottish Government's Equality Evidence Finder website. The website is managed by Scottish Government equality analysts.

Question reference: S5W-22139

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 21 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what data on race and ethnicity it collects, and how this is made public.

The Scottish Government collects and publishes a wide range of data on race and ethnicity across a number of policy areas, including the labour market, education, health, justice and others. The data on ethnic group is normally published initially within individual official statistics publications and is also brought together and presented in a consistent manner on the Scottish Government's Equality Evidence Finder website.

Question reference: S5O-03008

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will carry out a review of the car park booking system.

Question reference: S5T-01544

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital faces a repair bill of up to £50 million.

Question reference: S5O-02995

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to publish an up-to-date timetable for the introduction of legislation included in its Programme for Government.

Question reference: S5W-21582

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 5 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when the responses to its consultation on a female genital mutilation (FGM) bill will be published.

Question reference: S5W-21486

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in each NHS board area have received treatment for an eating disorder in each year since 2016-17.

The analysis provided contains information on the number of individuals discharged from NHS hospitals after being admitted with eating disorder diagnoses, broken down by health board of treatment and financial year from 2016-17 to 2017-18. As the figures do not include people treated in private facilities, they may present an undercount of the total number treated for eating disorders.

Health Board	Financial Year
	2016-17	2017-18	Total
Ayrshire & Arran	25	14	39
Borders	12	10	22
Dumfries & Galloway	19	20	39
Fife	21	29	50
Forth Valley	11	19	30
Grampian	50	66	116
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	121	115	236
Highland	22	40	62
Island Boards 2	6	8	14
Lanarkshire	39	39	78
Lothian	106	98	204
Other 3	49	48	97
Tayside	36	30	66
Total	517	536	1,053

Sources: Information Service Division (SMR01, SMR04)

Notes:

1 - An eating disorder diagnosis is based on current classifications in Chapter V of the International Classification of Diseases -10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders.

2 - Due to small numbers, the Orkney, Shetland, and Western Isles health boards have been grouped under Island Boards to protect patient confidentiality.

3 - Due to small numbers, the National Facility, Non-NHS Provider/Location, and State Hospital health boards have been grouped under Other to protect patient confidentiality.

Question reference: S5W-21472

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 28 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to figures published by Information Services Division (ISD), which record 46.7% of new dementia diagnoses being referred for automatic 12-month support packages, and what action it is taking to increase this figure.

The Scottish Government continues to take national action to support local partnerships in improving the number of referrals into and the quality of post-diagnostic support services, as part of the 2017-2020 National Dementia Strategy. This includes action to support service innovation and modernisation, action to train the post-diagnostic workforce, and to improve the consistency of the application of the national service offer. We recently commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to lead work on a new locality-based project to test the delivery of home-based post-diagnostic services to a high volume of clients with a high level of additional care needs. This will involve innovations in terms of service design, professional roles and technology. A test site will be selected in coming months.

In addition, we have extended by 12 months the projects in East Edinburgh, Nithsdale and Shetland to test the re-location of post-diagnostic services in primary care. We also continue to deliver post-diagnostic training as part of the national Promoting Excellence dementia skills and knowledge framework.

Many people are diagnosed in very old age with other chronic or terminal conditions and for some their dementia support – including in residential or acute settings– will be an addition to existing care packages and not reflected in the post-diagnostic figures. Others will not wish to take up the service straight away while they process their diagnosis. We are doing more work to understand the array of reasons individuals might not complete the service.

Integration Joint Boards are responsible for planning, commissioning and delivering dementia post-diagnostic services. The Scottish Budget delivers additional resource funding of almost £730 million (5.5%) for health and care services. Our budget includes £160 million of additional health and care investment in local authorities – which will support social care and mental health measures, including those delivered by Integrated Joint Boards.