Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-07418

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it will take to ensure the safeguarding of Ukranians living in Scotland who experienced domestic abuse in Ukraine and are concerned that their former partner or family member may be given leave to remain in the UK as a result of the Russian invasion.

Asylum and immigration are reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. This includes decisions relating to leave to enter and remain in the UK. The Scottish Government has no control of these processes.

However, the Scottish Government is clear that all forms of gender based violence are completely unacceptable. We are committed to eradicating it within Scotland. We work to protect all women who flee abusive partners within Scotland and those who come here seeking refuge can expect the same level of protection that we provide to all women.

Police Scotland is committed to working with local authorities and partners to support the individuals and families who are fleeing the atrocities caused by the conflict in Ukraine. Where a report of domestic abuse is made, it will be taken seriously, victims will be listened to and it will be thoroughly investigated. This is a developing situation that requires a flexible approach, with examples of ongoing engagement including the:

Creation and circulation of a Scots Law booklet translated to the Ukrainian language to advise on how, why and when to call the Police;
Review of translation provisions to ensure we have Ukrainian language coverage;
Participation in key strategic groups to ensure delivery of a coordinated response;
Engagement with the Scottish Refugee Council to understand specific needs of displaced Ukrainians.

Within the first 100 days of this government we provided £5 million to rape crisis centres and domestic abuse services to help them cut waiting times, on top of £5.75 million we allocated in 2020-21 to help redesign frontline services. In addition, our Delivering Equally Safe (DES) Fund is providing £38 million over the next two years to organisations helping to prevent abuse and to aid recovery where it does happen. This includes funding to front line services across Scotland who provide a range of counselling, outreach and peer support to women and children experiencing domestic abuse.

Question reference: S6W-07523

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to (a) review and (b) update the National Care Standards for children and young people, and when the standards were last reviewed or updated.

The new Health and Social Care Standards came into effect in April 2018. These replaced the National Care Standards and are applied to a diverse range of services, including early learning and childcare and services for children and young people. The Health and Social Care Standards were updated on 31 March 2022, following a public consultation, to include two new standards on visiting rights for care homes for adults.

Question reference: S6W-07530

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on replacing the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh.

NHS Lothian is currently developing plans for The Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion replacement project which is one ten new National Treatment Centres that form part of the National Treatment Centres (NTC) Programme.

NHS Lothian reports that progress of Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion replacement project continues at pace. Recent progress includes the successful appointment of the senior project team and work to complete the exemplar building design.

The NTC Programme, which is supported by a significant investment of over £400 million investment, will create the biggest single increase in ring-fenced elective care capacity in NHS Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-07487

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps have been taken to improve data collection for metastatic breast cancer.

Question reference: S6W-07486

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with representatives of (a) NHS Scotland and (b) the charity sector on improving data collection on metastatic breast cancer.

The Scottish Government has had several discussions with lead breast clinicians. The most recent was on 18th March at a meeting with the group leading on quality performance indicators for breast cancer. The group has indicated an interest in improving data on breast cancer recurrence and metastatic disease.

The Scottish Government met with the charity Breast Cancer Now on 3rd November 2021 and requested updated evidence of need for improved data. This was received on 26th January 2022 followed by email exchanges over the recent months.

Question reference: S6W-07578

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many places have been provided in the National Clinical Skills for Pharmacists Programme for (a) 2021 and (b) the first three months of 2022.

From November 2020 to October 2021 a total of 551 delegate places of clinical skills training for pharmacists were delivered. 126 delegate places of clinical skills training for pharmacists were delivered from November 2021 to end of December 2021 and a further 316 delegate places of clinical skills training for pharmacists were delivered between January and March 2022.

These clinical skills training days are delivered by NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) as part of the Pharmacist Clinical Skills training contract. NES organise and run courses to support pharmacist prescribers and those in training to develop appropriate clinical skills, at both core and advanced levels.

In 2021-2022 NES have also to date commissioned a total of 244 Independent Prescriber training places (116 for Community/78 for Primary Care/50 for Hospital).

Question reference: S6W-07358

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on a plan B for achieving the equivalent abatement should Negative Emission Technologies fail to deliver, as recommended in the response to the Draft Updated Climate Change Plan by the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, published on 4 March 2021.

The updated Climate Change Plan (CCPu) introduced a chapter on Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs), and accompanied this with a commitment to review progress for developing NETs. Policies in this chapter place a focus on developing the evidence base for NETs to be deployed at the end of the decade, and assessing the feasibility of various technologies.

We are making progress on developing our evidence base. As we made clear to the committee in our response in March 2021, should a need arise for a ‘Plan B’, there is flexibility to adjust sector pathways and reassign any abatement to other sectors.

We will continue to review our progress and evidence as we work towards the next full Climate Change Plan, a draft of which we will make available to Parliament by November 2023 at the latest.

Question reference: S6W-07348

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether boys born before 2007 can be vaccinated for HPV via NHS services in order to protect against the spread of HPV and, if not, whether it has any plans to expand the availability of HPV vaccination for boys.

Vaccination policy in Scotland, is based on recommendations from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Following the Committee’s recommendation, from August 2019 the HPV immunisation programme in Scotland was extended to adolescent boys entering their first year of secondary school (S1).

The JCVI has not recommended a catch up for older boys as evidence suggests they are already benefitting from the indirect protection built up in the population over 10 years of the girls’ HPV vaccination programme.

From 2016 HPV vaccine has been available to men who have sex with men (MSM) up to and including 45 years of age who attend sexual health or HIV clinics. The HPV MSM programme is opportunistic and offers direct protection.

The JCVI keeps its recommendations under review and if the advice on HPV vaccination was to change we would of course give this due consideration.

Question reference: S6T-00628

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 28 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent action it will undertake to resolve waiting time delays in A&E following recent reported estimates from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine that the delays have contributed to 240 avoidable deaths this year.

Question reference: S6W-07331

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 28 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether any Hikvision cameras are currently installed in or around any Scottish Government building.

Tell us your views

Chamber and committees