Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-00956

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 15 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with groups representing grandparents regarding their right to access their grandchildren following family breakdown.

We held a number of meetings with a range of stakeholders during the parliamentary passage of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 (the 2020 Act), which gained Royal Assent on 1 October 2020. This included Grandparents Apart UK and Shared Parenting Scotland who provide support to those seeking contact with their grandchildren.

Section 11ZA(3)(f) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act), as inserted by section 16 of the 2020 Act, introduces additional factors for the court to consider before making an order under section 11 of the 1995 Act. The 1995 Act is the key legislation on parental responsibilities and rights, contact and residence. This includes that the court must consider the effect that an order might have on the child’s important relationships with other people, which could include grandparents.

We have also engaged with Shared Parenting Scotland and Grandparents Apart UK during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6W-00957

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 15 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the viability of changing legislation to allow grandparents greater rights regarding accessing their grandchildren following family breakdown.

The Scottish Government appreciates that grandparents can often play an important and valuable role in a child’s life. Grandparents can currently apply to the court for contact rights. A decision will be made taking account of the child’s views and according to the best interests of the child.

The Scottish Government consulted in 2018 on the review of Part 1 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act). The consultation sought views on whether there should be a presumption in law that grandchildren benefit from contact with their grandparents. Page 56 of the Family Justice Modernisation Strategy which was published on 3 September 2019 sets out why the Scottish Government did not proceed to introduce a presumption that grandchildren benefit from contact with their grandparents. This is available at:

As a result of the consultation the Scottish Government included in the Bill for the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 an amendment to the 1995 Act inserting section 11ZA(3)(f) which will require the court to have regard to the effect that the order they are deciding whether or not to make might have on the child’s important relationships with other people. This could include grandparents.

Section 11ZA of the 1995 Act is not yet in force as implementation is reliant upon the register of child welfare reporters being established. The Scottish Government has consulted on the register of child welfare reporters and plans to lay regulations in spring 2022 on the register. Once the regulations are in force there would need to be a lead in time for the register to be fully operational. Our indicative timetable for this is April 2023.

Question reference: S6W-00955

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 15 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on updating (a) the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 and (b) Section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to allow greater rights for grandparents to access their grandchildren.

The Scottish Government is satisfied that no further change is required to the legislation in relation to the rights for grandparents to access their grandchildren. The Scottish Government appreciates that grandparents can often play an important and valuable role in a child’s life. Grandparents can currently apply to the court for contact rights. A decision will be made taking account of the child’s views and according to the best interests of the child.

Section 11ZA(3)(f) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act) as inserted by the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 will require the court to have regard to the effect that the order they are deciding whether or not to make might have on the child’s important relationships with other people. This could include grandparents.

Section 11ZA of the 1995 Act is not yet in force as implementation is reliant upon the register of child welfare reporters being established. The Scottish Government has consulted on the register of child welfare reporters and plans to lay regulations in spring 2022 on the register. Once the regulations are in force there would need to be a lead in time for the register to be fully operational. Our indicative timetable for this is April 2023.

Question reference: S6W-00959

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 15 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on revising the Charter of Grandchildren to give greater consideration to the role that grandparents play in a child’s life.

The Charter for Grandchildren was originally published in April 2006. We republished the Charter of Grandchildren in April 2018 as part of our Your Parenting Plan resource. The Scottish Government has no plans to revise the Charter at this time.

The Charter for Grandchildren is available at the following link:

The Scottish Government has committed in the Family Justice Modernisation Strategy to further promote the Charter for Grandchildren.

The Family Justice Modernisation Strategy is available at the following link:

Question reference: S6W-01059

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) children and (b) adults have been diagnosed with an eating disorder in each year since 2007, also broken down by NHS board area.

Information is not centrally held on numbers diagnosed with an eating disorder. However, Public Health Scotland (PHS) holds information on inpatients admitted with an eating disorders diagnosis.

The number of patients admitted to a mental health or general/acute specialty for an eating disorder is shown in the following table for the calendar years 2007 to 2020, broken down by year of admission, NHS Board of residence and age group (child: < 18; adult: 18+). Please note that complete figures for 2021 cannot yet be provided.

Number of child (1) patients (2) admitted to a general/acute or mental health specialty (3), either as an inpatient or day case, with an eating disorder (4); by age, year of admission and health board of residence, 2007 - 2020.

	Year of Admission
NHS Board	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Ayrshire and Arran	*	5	*	5	*	*	8	*	5	5	*	*	7	13
Borders	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	5	5	15	5	5
Dumfries and Galloway	*	*	*	*	-	*	*	8	6	*	*	6	*	*
Fife	*	*	6	*	6	5	*	*	*	*	6	10	9	9
Forth Valley	-	*	*	-	*	8	*	*	*	7	8	8	9	18
Grampian	7	*	9	7	11	16	7	12	10	9	14	9	10	14
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	16	7	7	8	9	10	17	25	13	13	16	14	17	32
Highland	5	11	5	*	*	14	9	14	17	6	7	*	8	17
Lanarkshire	*	6	*	6	7	8	12	7	*	10	11	12	19	17
Lothian	15	12	16	17	17	14	18	25	35	25	22	23	28	31
Orkney	*	*	-	-	*	*	*	*	*	-	-	-	*	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Tayside	*	7	11	9	8	10	12	12	9	12	6	11	7	22
Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	*	*	-	*	*	*	-
Other 5	*	-	*	-	-	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	-	-
Total	60	62	69	61	72	94	98	119	109	102	108	122	125	183

Notes

* - Denotes values which have been suppressed to protect patient confidentiality.

1 - A child is defined as someone whose age on admission was less than 18.

2 - Patients will be counted multiple times if they have been admitted within the same board in different years, or different boards in the same year, or both.

3 - The numbers represented show those who have been admitted to hospital and do not include those diagnosed in other settings. Therefore, these figures are likely to be undercount of the total number of people diagnosed with an eating disorder.

4 - Patients identified are those with an ICD-10 code of F50 in any of 6 diagnostic fields. Further information can be found on the ICD-10 website: https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en.

5 - The "Other" category is a combination of the following health board categories: "Rest of UK (Outside Scotland)", "Outside the UK", "No Fixed Abode" and "Unknown residency".

Number of adult (1) patients (2) admitted to a general/acute or mental health specialty (3), either as an inpatient or day case, with an eating disorder (4); by age, year of admission and health board of residence, 2007 - 2020.

	Year of Admission
NHS Board	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Ayrshire and Arran	19	17	17	18	20	13	16	15	15	23	19	21	19	22
Borders	7	7	*	7	8	11	11	7	*	10	*	9	10	14
Dumfries and Galloway	7	9	9	11	13	6	10	14	13	17	17	15	12	13
Fife	22	15	21	10	14	14	17	18	17	17	26	21	21	21
Forth Valley	7	7	8	9	17	10	15	11	9	13	19	19	24	33
Grampian	36	30	35	27	31	36	33	47	41	32	40	41	37	38
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	47	53	51	45	37	61	58	67	67	63	67	65	80	63
Highland	17	11	24	23	36	21	26	34	27	24	34	41	41	37
Lanarkshire	24	17	17	20	26	34	26	23	27	41	34	47	39	36
Lothian	57	56	48	46	32	69	62	60	58	63	49	58	66	90
Orkney	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	-	*	-	*
Shetland	*	*	*	*	-	*	*	*	-	*	-	*	*	*
Tayside	17	15	15	23	22	29	22	26	19	21	23	21	16	17
Western Isles	-	-	*	*	-	*	*	-	-	*	*	*	*	*
Other 5	*	*	*	*	*	5	*	22	39	50	29	20	23	25
Total	264	241	261	249	261	313	307	348	345	379	368	387	391	414

Notes

* - Denotes values which have been suppressed to protect patient confidentiality.

1 - An adult is someone whose age on admission was 18 or older.

2 - Patients will be counted multiple times if they have been admitted within the same board in different years, or different boards in the same year, or both.

3 - The numbers represented show those who have been admitted to hospital and do not include those diagnosed in other settings. Therefore, these figures are likely to be undercount of the total number of people diagnosed with an eating disorder.

4 - Patients identified are those with an ICD-10 code of F50 in any of 6 diagnostic fields. Further information can be found on the ICD-10 website: .

5 - The "Other" category is a combination of the following health board categories: "Rest of UK (Outside Scotland)", "Outside the UK", "No Fixed Abode" and "Unknown residency".

Question reference: S6W-00818

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made with reviewing funding arrangements and specifically bursaries for student paramedics.

Question reference: S6W-01473

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-01476

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-01130

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 14 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for how long it has committed to funding the Self-Isolation Support Grant.

Question reference: S6W-01131

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 14 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its forecasted spend on the Self-Isolation Support Grant is for each remaining month of the current financial year.

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