Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-07637

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what source or calculation it uses for the rate of inflation in relation to its spending decisions; what this rate of inflation currently is, and what it estimates the rate of inflation will be over the current financial year.

The Scottish Government takes the rate of inflation into account when making its spending decisions, but does not index or base all its spending decisions on a single specific measure of inflation.

The most frequently used measure of inflation is the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), prepared by the Office of National Statistics. The most recent data shows that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 7.0% in the 12 months to March 2022, up from 6.2% in February 2022.

Scottish Government's official forecaster is the Scottish Fiscal Commission, who in their December 2021 publication stated that CPI inflation for 2022 Q3 will be 3.9%. They will publish an updated forecast in May of this year.

Question reference: S6W-07499

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many operational Test and Protect testing centres there will be in each local authority area from 1 May 2022.

Question reference: S6W-07500

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated cost is of continuing to manage the NHS Scotland COVID Status app.

The ongoing costs of the COVID Status App are publicly available via Public Contracts Scotland . The costs of developing and maintaining the App are broken down between Netcompany and Jumio who provide the core App and Identity Verification systems respectively.

The most recent update from Public Contracts Scotland as of 4 March 2022 places the total value of development of the core App from Netcompany at £2,400,000.00 and the Identity Verification systems from Jumio at £4,373,360.00.

The ongoing and future costs of the COVID Status App will be published as and when these figures are available.

Question reference: S6W-07468

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the total number of Test and Protect testing centres was on 1 March 2022, and how many will remain operational from 1 May 2022.

On 1 March 2022, there were 71 UK Government-operated test centres, 39 Scottish Ambulance Service-run mobile test centres, and around 50 temporary local authority and health board-run asymptomatic test sites across Scotland. There were also 23 operational small-scale test sites in NHS Highland and NHS Grampian, resulting in a total of around 180 test sites.

As the First Minister said in her 15 March statement when she announced the Test and Protect Transition Plan, the primary purpose of testing is changing from population-wide testing to reduce transmission, to targeted testing to support clinical care. It will also be required on an ongoing basis for surveillance, outbreak management and health and care workforces.

Until the end of April, we will continue to advise those with symptoms to get a PCR test. PCR test sites will remain open during this period, though opening hours and locations may change during the transition. Test sites will close at the end of April – although a small number of mobile testing units and lab capacity will be retained for our longer term contingency and testing purposes.

A copy of the Test and Protect Transition Plan can be found here: Supporting documents - Coronavirus (COVID-19): Test and Protect - transition plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-07467

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has paid private contractors to recruit Test and Protect staff.

We do not hold this information centrally. Private contractor costs that have been incurred relating to Test & Protect staff would be held by the Boards recruiting the relevant staff members. In addition, costs relating to private contractors for staff working at test sites were awarded and managed by the UK Government as part of the National Testing Programme, and are not managed by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-07344

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve awareness of ovarian cancer symptoms (a) in general and (b) during Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month in March 2022.

The NHS Recovery Plan, published August 2021, commits an additional £20m for the Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme, to provide greater public awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer and support the development of optimal cancer pathways to improve earlier diagnosis rates. Research is currently being undertaken to better understand the possible barriers and levers to early diagnosis that any new DCE campaigns should focus on, with results expected in April.

A symptom-checker tool is included on our public facing website (getcheckedearly.org) to raise awareness of the early signs and symptoms of cancer, including ovarian cancer. A survivor’s story and a link to the ovarian cancer page on DCE’s website will also be shared on wee c social media pages during Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.

On 30 March, the Scottish Parliament will hold a members business debate for ovarian cancer awareness month to raise awareness of the common symptoms.

Question reference: S6W-07466

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many Test and Protect staff have been employed since the start of the pandemic, broken down by the number recruited by (a) the Scottish Government and (b) external contractors; how many staff are currently employed, and how many staff are expected to be employed on 1 June 2022.

Whilst the Scottish Government is provided with management information on the scheduled capacity of the contact tracing element of Test and Protect only, the management of the workforce including all recruitment to the Test and Protect service throughout the pandemic has been managed by individual employers, not the Scottish Government directly.

External contractors who have supported the Test and Protect system consist of: those who have supplemented the core and fixed-term workforce and have been recruited by NHS National Services Scotland for the National Contact Centre; and those appointed by the UK Government to support contracts associated with testing. The Scottish Government was not directly involved in the process to recruit or manage either of these groups of contractors and therefore does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government is actively working with NHS Health Boards, Local Authorities and private employers to understand the exact current number of staff employed across Test and Protect which at the moment is more than 7,000. This exercise will allow us to ensure we maximise our support to each individual member of staff to sustain employment with their current employer to have access to support to move to other opportunities across the public or private sector.

In line with the timescales set out in the Test and Protect Transition Plan published on 15 March, we are in the process of engaging across the Test and Protect system to identify future resource needs.

Question reference: S6F-00984

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 March 2022

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will provide an update on what the £10 million Long COVID Support Fund has been allocated for and how much has been spent.

Question reference: S6W-07150

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made on the establishment of stoma fora in NHS boards, as recommended by the Stoma Care Quality and Cost Effectiveness Review, in 2016, and the National Stoma Quality Improvement Short Life Working Group, in 2019.

The Stoma Care Quality and Cost Effectiveness Review, in 2016, and the National Stoma Quality Improvement Short Life Working Group (NSQIG), in 2019 recommended that NHS Boards who currently do not have an established Stoma Forum should consider this. The Scottish Government was not represented on the NSQIG and the recommendation was for NHS Boards to consider.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information and we expect individual NHS Boards to consider and implement this recommendation locally.

Question reference: S6W-07153

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much was spent on the (a) Stoma Care Quality and Cost Effectiveness Review and (b) National Stoma Quality Improvement Short Life Working Group, and which recommendations from each of these have been actioned.

The Stoma Care Quality and Cost Effectiveness Review was undertaken by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde on behalf of NHS Scotland. The only cost incurred in producing the report was £858.40 for publishing the document. There were no costs incurred by Scottish Government for the National Stoma Quality Improvement Short Life Working Group.

While the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality health care in Scotland, it is for each NHS board to decide how best to deliver those services to meet the needs of the population to ensure they can provide safe, effective care for their patients. It is for boards to decide which recommendations from the reports to prioritise to meet these objectives.

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