Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-20092

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 3 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has received regarding site fee increases for park homes.

Question reference: S5W-20090

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 3 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring of water conditions are being undertaken at Pow Burn in Powfoot, in light of the recently reported incidents.

SEPA's water quality monitoring programme requires that routine sampling of invertebrates is undertaken twice a year, every third year. This routine monitoring was carried out on the Pow Burn at Hurkledale, upstream of Powfoot, in 2017.

SEPA has advised that as a result of a fish kill in the Pow Burn reported on 5 August 2018, an invertebrates survey was undertaken on 7 August both upstream and downstream of the suspected source. The report suggests that the invertebrates were unaffected.

SEPA has also noted that the water flows in the Pow Burn were extremely low at that time and fish would have been under considerable stress due to high temperature and fluctuating oxygen levels; and it is possible that a relatively small amount of pollution in addition may have resulted in the reported fish kill. It is conceivable that invertebrates may not have been affected in the same way.

To verify whether there are any long term effects of this incident, a further invertebrates sampling exercise will be carried out in 2019.

Question reference: S5O-02646

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve educational provision and experiences for young people with autism.

Question reference: S5W-19083

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 11 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on providing interview feedback on request to applicants for government jobs who are disabled.

Question reference: S5W-19035

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what defines a "remote rural settlement" for the purpose of wind development.

Question reference: S5W-18894

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 4 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of concerns raised by pupils at St Mungo Primary School, whether it will confirm what plans it has to improve broadband in rural communities around Kettleholm.

I welcome the feedback from the pupils of St Mungo Primary School which raises the importance of broadband provisions in the Kettleholm area, for the perspective of young people in a region that, for obvious reasons is close to my heart.

Regulation and legislative competence in the area of telecommunications is the responsibility of UK Government Ministers. The Scottish Government shares the concern of local communities at the poor coverage that resulted in rural areas and the Scottish Government has choose to step in to accelerate the roll out.

To date, the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme has delivered fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connectivity to around 60 premises in the Kettleholm area, including St. Mungo Primary School and the school house. Further deployment in the area is planned, with around 70 more premises due to be connected via the DSSB programme by March 2019. Site survey and planning work has still to be completed, however, so these timescales are subject to change.

Any premises in the area which remain unable to access superfast broadband services will be included in the intervention area for the Reaching 100% (R100) programme, which will deliver the Scottish Government's commitment to extend superfast broadband access to every home and business across Scotland. We are investing £600 million in the initial phase of the programme. Despite repeated requests, the UK Government's contribution to this investment remains just £20.99 million (3.5% of the total).

Procurement for this initial phase is well underway, and we will announce further plans in 2019, once contracts have been awarded.

Question reference: S5O-02438

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support school pupils with autism.

We want all children and young people to receive the support needed to reach their full learning potential.

We will continue to work closely with local authorities to secure more positive experiences for pupils with autism.

We will do this by improving consistency of support, career pathways and professional development for support for learning teachers, and building further capacity.

I will also be meeting with third sector organisations involved in the publication of ‘Not Included, Not engaged, Not involved’ to determine what further action may be needed to strengthen support for pupils with autism in schools.

Question reference: S5W-18473

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many days the A7 has been subject to road closures in the last 12 months.

Question reference: S5W-18888

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it takes to (a) assess the quality and (b) monitor the provision of the care call services that are provided by local authorities.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the quality of care in Scotland and wants to ensure that everyone who requires care has access to the highest standards of care in every setting, whether in their own home or in residential accommodation. Although the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, the statutory responsibility for delivering, commissioning or monitoring care call services (also known as telecare) at a local level lies with local authorities.

Each Telecare organisation will perform a yearly survey for citizens in receipt of services, however, results are kept internally. The Scottish Government's Technology Enabled Care Programme continue to work closely with Local Authorities in driving forward the uptake of telecare services and continue to closely monitor the number of people known to have benefitted from telecare services.

Question reference: S5W-18878

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what national standards it has introduced regarding the level of care call services that should be provided by local authorities, and how it monitors the effectiveness of these standards.

Jeane Freeman : Operational standards are the responsibility of the LA providing the service and there are no regulatory requirements. The Scottish Government have always promoted standards bodies (of which there are several) so around a third of organisations are signed up to these (Such as The Technology Enabled Care Services Association - TSA) and are assessed on these processes, however this is voluntary.

Where telecare is provided as part of a care service registered with the Care Inspectorate, the whole care service is regulated by the Care Inspectorate and evaluated through their normal inspections of care services.

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