Miles Briggs

22 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government which employment agencies it is using to employ COVID-19 contact tracers, and what information it has on how much these agencies are charging it for these workers per hour compared with how much the workers themselves receive.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: Contract tracers working as part of NHS Scotland’s Test and Protect service are employed by the NHS, either within local Health Boards or by NHS National Services Scotland, they are not employed by an agency or agencies. These workers are paid on NHS terms an…

22 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how busy COVID-19 telephone contact tracers have been since the test and protect scheme launched; how many calls per week they are making, and what its response is to reports that some tracers have been making only a small number of calls per week and have had …

Answer · Jeane Freeman: The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Public Health Scotland publishes weekly statistical information on the Test and Protect system every Wednesday. The most recent publication is available at: https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publication…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many charitable trusts are registered in Scotland, and how much money each holds.

Answer · Aileen Campbell: The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested. The Scottish Charity Register is maintained by the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and charities registered are required to submit their accounts to OSCR. OSCR operates independently of the S…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what funding has been allocated under the £20 million COVID-19 resilience fund.

Answer · Aileen Campbell: The £25 million Third Sector Resilience Fund is part of the £350 million Communities Fund. As of 30 June 2020:Investment has helped save organisations that have a collective annual turnover of c£0.5bn.Close to 14,000 jobs have been saved.There were 3253 appl…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to establish COVID-19 recovery taskforces across the local authorities in the Lothian parliamentary region.

Answer · John Swinney: A recognised structure for supporting recovery is already in place and supported by local authorities through Regional and Local Resilience Partnerships. The Lothian region comes under the Lothian and Borders Local Resilience Partnership, the partnership supp…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) hip and (b) knee operations were performed in each NHS board in each month in 2019-20.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: The Scottish Arthroplasty Project https://www.arthro.scot.nhs.uk/ will publish their annual report providing information on the numbers of hip and knee replacement surgeries taking place during 2019 in September 2020. As there is less than 12 weeks before pub…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many distress brief interventions have taken place for people in distress during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Answer · Clare Haughey: The Scottish Government announced lockdown measures on 23 March 2020. From 25 March to 23 June 2020, there were 1,060 compassionate Level 1 interactions which resulted in referrals to DBI Level 2 service providers. This includes 41 referrals from the NHS 24 M…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the COVID-19 shielding guidance every three weeks.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: We will continually review the advice for people shielding, and we will make further changes, if , and when, it is safe to do so. We will provide further advice on how long people will be advised to shield before the end of July, as set out in the document, “…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to develop specialist respiratory nursing teams.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that those living with respiratory conditions can access clinically appropriate, safe and effective person-centred healthcare treatment and support. The draft Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland contains…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many neighbourhood watch schemes have been in operation in each year since 1999.

Answer · Ash Denham: The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of Neighbourhood Watch schemes before 2012. In 2012, there were approximately 1,500 Neighbourhood Watch Schemes in Scotland and the most recent figures to June 2020 show that there are now 1,863 …

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the current CT scanning capacity is, and what impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on this.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: It is not possible to definitively quantify the current CT scanning capacity as it is not a fixed number but is dependent on the daily availability of equipment and staff which has been affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, diagnostic services h…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what support has been provided to parents regarding mental wellbeing of young people during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Answer · Clare Haughey: As outlined to you in my letter dated 23 June 2020 we understand that this is a difficult time for parents and carers and know that many will be feeling additional pressures. The Scottish Government is working with a range of partners to support children and …

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what support it has provided to help establish new neighbourhood watch schemes.

Answer · Ash Denham: The Scottish Government has supported Neighbourhood Watch Scotland (NWS) with grant funding since it was established in 2008, and with a grant of £115,000 this year which has helped to establish 42 new watches since mid-March. This financial year, NWS has se…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what support it will provide to dental practices to help them recover from the suspension of treatment payments during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-30075 on 8 July 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what investigation has been undertaken into power of attorney being overruled by local authorities and NHS boards.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: The Scottish Government has no role in individuals’ power of attorney arrangements. Where an individual has concerns about handling of a power of attorney, these are dealt with via local authorities’ and NHS complaints procedures, and through the Scottish Pu…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the use of visors for teachers and children in schools.

Answer · John Swinney: We have recently established a sub-group to our COVID-19 Advisory Group that specialises on education and children’s issues. The group will provide advice to support and inform the development of operational guidance for providers of learning, childcare and c…

18 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-29570 by Joe FitzPatrick on 18 June 2020, whether it will publish details of the work being taken forward with Public Health Scotland to use and develop public health surveillance data, and what revisions and improvements have been made to the progr…

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: A public health surveillance system for ongoing analysis and interpretation of alcohol and drug health-related data is being developed. Understanding the scope, scale and impact of the problem will inform action to reduce harm and prevent premature death. The…

16 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has decided not to proceed with recruitment for a third cohort of the shortened midwifery programme.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: The shortened midwifery programme was a pilot designed to meet short term workforce shortage in the North of Scotland. This is only one of the education programmes which supplies newly qualified midwives to the North of Scotland. Our latest workforce projecti…

16 Jun 2020 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to minimise waiting times for delayed operations.

15 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on links between COVID-19 and deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and what research it is undertaking or planning to undertake into any such links.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: The Covid-19 Clinical Guidance Cell, which was established by the Chief Medical Officer to rapidly develop and revise guidance on clinical management of COVID-19 for the NHS, has produced guidance on prevention of venous thromboembolism in hospitalised patien…

15 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many deaths have been attributed to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in each of the last five years, also broken down by NHS board area.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: The information that is available is given in the following table, which was supplied by National Records of Scotland (NRS). The figures were produced from NRS’s records of the deaths that were registered in Scotland in each year. The latest year for which NR…

12 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the results from the regional COVID-19 test centres are included in the number of positive and negative cases announced by it each day and, if not, what its response is to calls for these figures to be included.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29881 on 26 June 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/…

12 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) positive and (b) negative results have been recorded at the regional COVID-19 test centres.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: The COVID-19 data and trend charts for Scotland are published daily and provide a range of information, including the number of care homes notifying cases of COVID-19 and the number of suspected cases of COVID-19 in care homes. The data also includes the dail…

8 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it is providing to local authorities regarding school residential trips in 2021.

Answer · John Swinney: Decisions relating to school trips, whether to residential centres or other settings, rest with schools and local authorities. This approach allows guidance to be developed which best fits local circumstances. Scottish Government officials have been involved…

8 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its suggestion that outdoor spaces and outdoor learning will be key to schools reopening, how outdoor residential centres fit into this.

Answer · John Swinney: There is potential for outdoor settings to be utilised more often as schools reopen. The outdoors provides greater space for education to be delivered whilst physical distancing is in place. In light of this, Scottish Government officials have held discussio…

8 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the importance of youth work in the lives of young people, what it is doing to support the recommencement of face-to-face youth work.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: As we ease ourselves out of restriction, the Scottish Government’s first priority is to make sure services can resume safely. I expect some youth work activity will be able to resume quickly with appropriate measures in place. However, it will not be possible…

8 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what budget it is providing to local authorities in order for them to provide outdoor learning.

Answer · John Swinney: In accordance with the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 the responsibility for the delivery of education rests with individual local authorities. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to allocate the total financial resources available to them…

8 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with third sector organisations, including Scouts Scotland, Girlguiding Scotland and the Outward Bound Trust, to help upskill school staff in providing outdoor learning.

Answer · John Swinney: Scottish Government officials met with a number of third sector organisations including Scouts Scotland; Girlguiding Scotland; The Boys’ Brigade; and the Outward Bound Trust on Friday 29 May 2020 . The meeting focused on challenges that third sector run outdo…

8 Jun 2020 · Topical Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it did not immediately publish details of the number of patients who have contracted COVID-19 in hospital.

8 Jun 2020 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to develop the full range of community child and adolescent mental health services for those with a learning disability.

Answer · Clare Haughey: The Scottish Government is working with NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), NHS Lothian and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde on an application for a new Managed Clinical Network (MCN) for National Child and Adolescent Learning Disability Services. The responsi…