Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-10641

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider including blood cancers as a grouping as part of the (a) Detect Cancer Early Programme and (b) Get Checked Early website.

The Scottish Government has committed to developing a new earlier cancer diagnosis vision, which will form part of the new cancer strategy under development and expected to publish Spring 2023. Based on a wealth of evidence and clinical expertise, the vision will outline the future direction of the Detect Cancer Early Programme (DCE), including the cancer types where concerted efforts are needed most.

DCE’s website, getcheckedearly.org, is currently under refresh and will feature a blood cancer section. It is expected to go live Autumn 2022.

Question reference: S6W-10643

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many haematology clinical nurse specialist posts are currently unfilled.

Question reference: S6F-01389

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that police officer numbers dropped to 16,610 at the end of June, below Police Scotland’s “full officer establishment” of 17,234.

Question reference: S6W-10966

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 22 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it is developing to address child-on-child abuse.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children who grow up in Scotland feel safe and protected. We recognise that where children and young people demonstrate harmful behaviour, the victims of their actions are often children themselves.

In June 2021 we published our Vision for youth justice in Scotland. The Vision sets out our priorities for young people who come into conflict with the law, including continuing to ensure that children, young people and their families are supported at an early stage through early intervention and preventative approaches in order to address the child’s needs and the circumstances which have led to their harmful conduct. This also includes priorities around how best to support child victims, such as improving support and information for child victims and their families, whilst respecting data protection and confidentiality, and ensuring support is trauma-informed and meets the needs of victims. We continue to work with partners to deliver the priorities within the Vision and to deliver a preventative approach which improves life chances for young people and which has seen dramatic changes in the youth justice sector.

We are also committed to preventing all types of harmful sexual behaviour and sexual offending involving children and young people. Collaborative work with statutory and third sector organisations across Scotland is underway to drive forward action in this area including initiatives to prevent children from becoming involved in harmful sexual behaviour through the publication of resources along with continued funding of services offering support.

We continue to implement the proposals from the Expert Group on Preventing Sexual Offending Involving Children and Young People and develop harmful sexual behaviour policy.

Question reference: S6W-10552

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it will do to help the hospitality sector with recruitment.

We recognise that hospitality, alongside other sectors within the economy including construction and food and drink are hampered by difficulties in attracting, recruiting and retaining workers. This has been exacerbated by Brexit and the loss of people from the EU leaving Scotland, as well as the problems caused by the pandemic.

We funded the ‘do what you love’ advertising campaign last year, to encourage people to consider a career in our valued tourism and hospitality sector, which was developed in partnership with industry. We are looking at how we build on this, as well as continuing our work to improve conditions and promote fair work in the sector, to make it more attractive to potential employees. We continue to work closely with the sector, to address the challenges it faces.

However, the Scottish Government does not have all of the levers it requires to address these challenges, and we continue to call on the UK Government to commit to establishing a Joint Task Force on Labour Market Shortages with the Devolved Governments.

Question reference: S6W-10551

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to endorse the Hospitality Rising recruitment campaign, and, if so, what specific help it will give to the campaign.

We welcome the industry-led, UK-wide Hospitality Rising recruitment campaign as an important initiative to help attract more people into the sector.

The Scottish Government recognises the acute challenges for the sector posed by the current labour shortages which have been exacerbated by a combination of Brexit and the pandemic.

Hospitality is vital to Scotland's economy and people are key to its success. While there is no action planned to support this specific campaign, we are committed to working with the sector to find solutions.

To date this has included funding for a campaign to encourage more people to consider a career in tourism and hospitality branded ‘do what you love’, in partnership with industry in 2021. We are considering how to build on this initiative, alongside the continuation of longer-term work to improve conditions and promote fair work to make it more attractive to potential employees. We continue to work with the sector cooperatively, to address these challenges.

Question reference: S6O-01356

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of energy price and inflation increases on businesses and jobs.

Question reference: S6F-01325

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2022

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government plans to take in light of reported figures showing that sexual and violent crime in Scotland has risen significantly over the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-10359

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many (a) Ukrainians who came to Scotland through (i) its Super Sponsor Scheme, (ii) the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme and (c) seasonal worker visas and (b) Afghans who came to Scotland through the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) have since become homeless, also broken down by local authority area.

Under the current constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom immigration, including data related to arrivals, is fully reserved to the UK Government and is dealt with by the Home Office.

The UK Government published quarterly immigration statistics here: Immigration statistics, year ending June 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Scottish Government do not currently correlate the visa routes and homelessness status regarding displaced individuals from Ukraine or Afghanistan.

Question reference: S6W-10175

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the reasons are for its decision to end child fares on trains at 16 rather than 18 years old.

The Scottish Government does not set the age ranges for child fares on the railway, and has not made any decision to end child fares for any group. These fares are defined in the GB-wide Ticketing and Settlement Agreement – over which the Scottish Government does not have control.

In Scotland, young people aged 16-18 (and full time volunteers up to the age of 25) can obtain discounted rail travel using their Young Scot National Entitlement Card, offering one third discount on most rail fares and a 50% discount on weekly and monthly season tickets.

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