Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-26224

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider closing the M74 Junction 1 Kingston Interchange, in light of its reported duplication with the M8 Junction 21 at Seaward Street, and dispose of the large amount of land that its slip road to Paisley Road West takes up for residential/mixed-use development.

There is currently no reason for Transport Scotland officials to consider the closure of the M74 Junction 1 Kingston Interchange, which is likely to have significant adverse impacts on the wider local road network given the volume of traffic on the M74 and M8. A clear rationale for changes to the strategic transport network, such as this, need to emerge from a robust business case in line with Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance and Transport Scotland's Guidance on the Development of Business Cases . If this change was for planning or land use change purposes, I would expect this to be initiated by Glasgow City Council.

Question reference: S6W-26265

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the Childsmile programme in each of the last five financial years, also broken down by NHS board area.

Childsmile funding is provided annually to Boards through i) the Outcomes Framework and ii) direct allocation from the General Dental Services (GDS) budget.

The Outcomes Framework is a single source of funding to NHS Boards which provides for local flexibility on resource allocation to deliver clearly defined outcomes. The Framework has a strong focus on delivering strategic priorities such as prevention and reducing health inequalities.

Following years of non-recurring funding, £72 million was provided to NHS Boards in 2023-24 on a recurring basis to deliver all Outcomes, including deliverables on Childsmile. Funding for individual components of the Outcomes Framework, including Childsmile, is not separately identifiable within the total allocation and therefore no meaningful disaggregation can be provided.

In addition to Outcomes Framework funding which is provided to every Board, some Boards also receive direct programme allocations from the GDS budget to support Childsmile activities on a national and/or regional basis. Allocations provided to these Boards are therefore not indicative of activity undertaken within the geographic location given the co-ordinating role they undertake, and have not been provided in breakdown although they are included in total programme allocation.

The total value of allocations associated with Childsmile in each of the last five financial years is set out in the following table:

Year	Programme Allocation (£m)	Total Outcomes Framework (£m)
2019-20	2.3	62.9
2020-21	2.2	68.9
2021-22	1.4	74.1
2022-23	2.4	74.1
2023-24	2.7	72.2

From 2022-23, additional funding has been provided to all Territorial Boards and National Services Scotland to scale up Childsmile activity through the provision of additional toothbrushing packs and recruitment of additional Dental Health Support Workers. A breakdown of this funding by NHS Board for 2022-23 and 2023-24 is provided in the following table.

	2022-23 funding (£)	2023-24 funding (£)
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	113,739	113,739
NHS Borders	37,387	34,637
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	38,963	38,963
NHS Fife	98,984	88,834
NHS Forth Valley	79,240	68,271
NHS Grampian	108,700	90,338
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	475,008	475,008
NHS Highland	62,647	53,203
NHS Lanarkshire	226,952	213,812
NHS Lothian	203,482	189,267
NHS Orkney	21,068	18,068
NHS Shetland	21,068	16,068
NHS Tayside	99,509	92,338
NHS Western Isles	21,067	20,867
National Services Scotland	242,000	337,000
Total	1,849,814	1,850,413

Question reference: S6W-26240

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been distributed in each local authority area from the £50 million Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund since 2020.

Funding for Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services for children, young people and their families has been distributed to each local authority area as follows:

	2019-20 £	2020-21 £	2021-22 £	2022-23 £	2023-24 £
Aberdeen City	62,500	144,000	576,000	585,000	577,000
Aberdeenshire	62,500	197,500	790,000	797,000	809,000
Angus	62,500	81,500	326,000	322,000	324,000
Argyll and Bute	62,500	61,250	245,000	246,000	247,000
City of Edinburgh	62,500	34,750	139,000	135,000	136,000
Clackmannanshire	62,500	108,250	433,000	430,000	430,000
Dumfries and Galloway	62,500	111,250	445,000	434,000	427,000
Dundee City	62,500	83,000	332,000	326,000	328,000
East Ayrshire	62,500	67,000	268,000	270,000	271,000
East Dunbartonshire	62,500	73,500	294,000	290,000	291,000
East Lothian	62,500	65,250	261,000	268,000	271,000
East Renfrewshire	62,500	335,750	1,343,000	1,361,000	1,339,000
Falkirk	62,500	22,250	89,000	88,000	89,000
Fife	62,500	104,750	419,000	419,000	419,000
Glasgow City	62,500	261,750	1,047,000	1,040,000	1,036,000
Highland	62,500	434,250	1,737,000	1,759,000	1,755,000
Inverclyde	62,500	178,000	712,000	707,000	713,000
Midlothian	62,500	50,500	202,000	192,000	191,000
Moray	62,500	62,000	248,000	249,000	254,000
Na h-Eileanan Siar	62,500	68,750	275,000	274,000	276,000
North Ayrshire	62,500	92,500	370,000	360,000	359,000
North Lanarkshire	62,500	234,500	938,000	935,000	940,000
Orkney Islands	62,500	17,500	70,000	71,000	71,000
Perth and Kinross	62,500	103,500	414,000	418,000	423,000
Renfrewshire	62,500	113,500	454,000	453,000	452,000
Scottish Borders	62,500	82,250	329,000	334,000	335,000
Shetland Islands	62,500	20,750	83,000	84,000	85,000
South Ayrshire	62,500	70,750	283,000	283,000	282,000
South Lanarkshire	62,500	210,250	841,000	835,000	840,000
Stirling	62,500	73,250	293,000	291,000	281,000
West Dunbartonshire	62,500	58,250	233,000	231,000	231,000
West Lothian	62,500	144,000	511,000	513,000	518,000
Total	2,000,000	3,750,000	15,000,000	15,000,000	15,000,000
Total				£50,750,000

A further £15 million has been committed for financial year 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-26266

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much the fluoride varnish aspect of the Childsmile programme has cost in each of the last five financial years.

Funding provided to NHS Boards for the delivery of Childsmile covers the full programme, and we do not separate the cost of certain aspects of the programme, such as the fluoride varnish element.

My answer to the Member’s separate question (reference S6W-26265 on 15 April 2024) sets out how much the Scottish Government has spent on the Childsmile programme in the last five years.

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/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-05434

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government (a) what steps it is taking to ensure that (i) foster carers across Scotland are paid a living wage, adjusted in line with inflation and (ii) foster care workers in Glasgow receive a fair pay increase, (b) whether it will encourage Glasgow City Council to consider uplifting of foster care allowance to bring it in line with inflation, and (c) whether if it will encourage Glasgow City Council to introduce an annual and consistent increase for foster carers allowance.

Question reference: S6W-26242

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of how the £16 million of funding for access to counselling services in all secondary schools will be allocated in 2024-25.

All allocations in the Local Government Settlement are published on the Government Website at: 4 Tables and Interactive Dashboard - Scottish Local Government Finance - Green Book: 2024-2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The allocations for school counselling services for 2024-25 is as follows:

	£000s
Aberdeen City	513
Aberdeenshire	771
Angus	328
Argyll & Bute	372
City of Edinburgh	1,052
Clackmannanshire	165
Dumfries & Galloway	497
Dundee City	404
East Ayrshire	347
East Dunbartonshire	404
East Lothian	330
East Renfrewshire	403
Falkirk	467
Fife	1,006
Glasgow City	1,361
Highland	1,015
Inverclyde	237
Midlothian	297
Moray	279
Na h-Eileanan Siar	173
North Ayrshire	418
North Lanarkshire	986
Orkney Islands	186
Perth & Kinross	434
Renfrewshire	509
Scottish Borders	324
Shetland Islands	260
South Ayrshire	328
South Lanarkshire	959
Stirling	312
West Dunbartonshire	283
West Lothian	579
Total	16,000

Question reference: S6W-26346

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what practical measures it is taking to sustain the expertise and learning curves developed by the project team on the Edinburgh Trams to Newhaven project in order to optimise the delivery of the Clyde Metro project.

The current phase of Clyde Metro is being led by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, working alongside Glasgow City Council and with Transport Scotland providing support in a project assurance role.

I am advised that the multi-partner project team has been engaging with colleagues from the Trams to Newhaven project and across the private and public sector to learn from experiences elsewhere in the development of mass transit projects and ensure lessons learned and best practice are embedded within Clyde Metro’s future development.

Question reference: S6W-26225

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the M8 Woodside Viaduct repair project will be the largest transport capital project in Glasgow during the coming financial year.

The M8 Woodside Viaduct is a vital element of Scotland’s motorway network, carrying approximately 150,000 vehicles daily. Installation of the temporary propping system, required to enable permanent repairs, will continue through the 2024-25 financial year. It is anticipated that the project will be Transport Scotland’s largest capital-funded transport project in Glasgow during this period.

Other significant Government-led transport projects in Glasgow in 2024-25 include the East Kilbride rail enhancement project (£54.1m for 2024-25), active travel infrastructure projects and investing in Glasgow’s City Region Deal. This response does not consider projects by other authorities e.g. Glasgow City Council.

Question reference: S6W-26233

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the submissions to the Wolfson Economics Prize 2021, in response to the problem question, "How would you design and plan new hospitals to radically improve patient experiences, clinical outcomes, staff wellbeing, and integration with wider health and social care?", have influenced Scottish Government policy on the design of healthcare facilities.

Scottish Government policy for design quality in healthcare (DL(2010)19) looks to ensure that these elements are considered by designers and NHS Boards. This is assessed by the NHSScotland Design Assessment Process (NDAP) provided by NHSScotland Assure in conjunction with Architecture and Design Scotland (A&DS) is the vehicle for assessing design quality in NHSScotland Capital funded healthcare facilities developments and is an integral part of the Business Case process. The NDAP, along with the Sustainable Design and Construction (SDaC) requirements, ensures that a well rounded and measured assessment is made of the requirements of the objectives of each project they review.

This Wolfson Economics Prize competition of 2021 provided numerous innovative submissions in response to the problem question. Each of the runners up and the winner of the prize provided interesting responses to specific strands of healthcare design. The main themes featured in the Wolfson Economic Prize finalists are embeded in the NDAP and SDaC process to ensure sustainable, Person Centred Care.

Question reference: S6W-26238

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will increase (a) enforcement action and (b) maximum fines to be levied on any road works authorities and undertakers that fail to reinstate street surfaces and associated streetscape to the original standard within the six-month statutory requirement, particularly in cases that scar or damage high-quality municipal public realm surfaces, such as granite paving.

In 2019 the Scottish Government instituted a period of legal reform for the framework underpinning Scottish road works, expanding and strengthening the range of existing powers roads authorities have.

Since 2023 Scottish Ministers have taken action on enforcement powers, through empowering roads authorities by endorsing a new Code of Practice for reinstatement, which introduced a UK leading six year guarantee for utility works. We have committed to a review of road works Fixed Penalty Notices (the fines to be levied), due to start in 2024.

Authorities already have an existing power to undertake any outstanding work directly and recharge all costs, should the utility fail to act. These are all discretionary powers, and it is for each roads authority to determine whether it is appropriate to use those powers in each situation.

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