Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-23483

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in publishing statistical information regarding the devolved employment service, Fair Start Scotland.

Fair Start Scotland (FSS) is Scotland’s devolved employability support service and is designed to offer personalised support on a voluntary basis to help people, including those who are further removed from the labour market, who want help to find work and stay in work.

The Scottish Government has proactively published information on its devolved employability services since December 2017. Today we are publishing the third set of statistics on Fair Start Scotland, outlining performance during the first twelve months of operation. In addition, for the first time the Scottish Government will report on employment outcomes for this new service.

These statistics show a total of 10,063 people joined Fair Start Scotland in its first year.

The publication also provides further information on the transitional services introduced in April 2017 and the Health & Work Support Pilot, which launched in June 2018.

We will continue to publish statistics on Fair Start Scotland on a quarterly basis.

Question reference: S5O-03275

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting youth employment in the Almond Valley constituency.

Question reference: S5W-22638

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 2 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of spending each year in relation to its autism strategy.

The Scottish Government remains committed to improving the lives of autistic people, their families and carers through the Scottish Strategy for Autism. The funding allocated to the strategy, as detailed below, has been spent and used to help embed the strategy across local and national services and has focussed on key outcomes including diagnosis, education and transitions. This funding has also been used to support local and national projects working with autistic people, their families and carers through the Autism Innovation and Development funds.

Information on funding is included in the Budget Bill which is published annually. Current funding is provided to the strategy on an annual basis subject to the UK wide spending review in line with all other Scottish Government departments. It is expected that £3m will be allocated to the strategy in financial year 2019-20.

YEAR	BUDGET
2011-2012	£2.6m
2012-2013	£3.6m
2013-2014	£3.6m
2014-2015	£3.6m
2015-2016	£3.5m
2016-2017	£3m
2017-2018	£3m
2018-2019	£3m

Question reference: S5W-22653

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 2 May 2019

To ask Scottish Government for what reason it stopped funding the network of One Stop Shops for autistic people and their families; what its position is on reports that local authorities have not prioritised funding for these, and whether it will consider reintroducing funding for such a network.

The Scottish Government has set out its commitment to autistic people and their families through the Scottish Strategy for Autism. In 2012, as part of this strategy, the Scottish Government provided funding to the three national autism charities to work jointly to deliver six one-stop shops in Scotland and develop local support services for people with autism.

Each One Stop Shop (OSS) was set up with seed funding from the Scottish Government. The expectation was that One Stop Shops would be sustainable in each locality by the end of government funding.

Strategy funding was intended to encourage the development of innovative services in localities and is not a source of funding for core local services, which are the responsibility of Health and Social Care Partnerships (H&SCP). They determine the services that are required to meet local needs.

It is regrettable that the valued One Stop Shops have not been sustained in all the localities where they were piloted or replicated in other localities with H&SCP funding. However, the Scottish Government respects that local services are the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards, who are aiming to deliver better care for people by making better use of the significant resources we invest in health and social care services. Their strategic commissioning approach ensures that partnerships must work with local communities, including families, and listen to their views and opinions as they seek to improve the quality and sustainability of services in their area.

In South Lanarkshire they have developed an Autism Resource Coordination Hub. It is a ‘hub’ for all autism services and support groups within South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership area. Whilst we welcome the continued funding of current OSS and the development of further OSS or Autism Hubs, we respect that this is a matter for individual Integration Joint Boards.

Question reference: S5W-22652

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 2 May 2019

To ask Scottish Government what the role of Autism Network Scotland is; how much funding it receives; how its income is used, and how this is monitored.

The role of Autism Network Scotland is to support the implementation of the Scottish Strategy for Autism. Their outcomes and conditions of grant are agreed annually and monitored quarterly by the Scottish Government. Their main outcomes are to:

deliver a hub of professional autism support,
highlight and share best practice across Health and Social Care Partnerships,
support Health and Social Care Partnerships in the implementation of autism action plans across Scotland
provide support to the Scottish Strategy for Autism priorities
and act as administrator for strategy governance and events.

Funding for financial year 2018-2019 was £450,000.

Question reference: S5O-03218

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting suicide prevention work in the Almond Valley constituency.

Question reference: S5O-03174

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its response to the report on food poverty, Dignity: Ending Hunger Together in Scotland.

Question reference: S5O-03147

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports research into and the treatment of endometriosis.

Question reference: S5W-22288

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe QC on 17 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21307 by the Lord Advocate on 11 February 2019, what (a) internal and (b) external evaluation it used to support the assertion that "the system works well".

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-21307 on 11 February 2019 to which she refers. As previously advised the Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit of COPFS and the Death Certification Review Service (DCRS) are in frequent contact regarding relevant deaths. This is often as a result of discussions between the offices of the Head of SFIU and the Senior Medical Reviewer at DCRS. There has been no internal or external evaluation of this relationship; the experience of the Crown is that it works well.

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/28877.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-22285

Asked by: Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 17 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21307 by the Lord Advocate on 11 February 2019, how many cases have been reported each year to (a) the Death Certification Review Service and (b) its predecessor organisations; how many were subsequently referred to the Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit, and how many post mortems were instructed by the Crown.

The following table provides the total number of repatriations registered each year with the Death Certification Review Service (DCRS). It also sets out the number of repatriations reported by DCRS to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and the number of post-mortem examinations subsequently instructed by COPFS.

The Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 came into force on 15 June 2017. Prior to that date COPFS could not carry out investigations into deaths abroad and accordingly no cases were reported by DCRS to COPFS. Since 2015 COPFS and DCRS have been in frequent contact regarding deaths, including repatriations, and the system works well.

Prior to DCRS being established, the Scottish Government was responsible for examining the death certification of individuals repatriated to Scotland who were to be cremated, and, where appropriate, authorising the cremation to take place. In cases where the Scottish Government found paperwork to be incomplete, cremation would not be authorised.

Unlike DCRS, which examines all repatriations whether for burial or cremation, the Scottish Government did not review paperwork where a burial was to take place, nor did it refer cases to COPFS. Information on the total number of repatriations prior to the establishment of DCRS is, therefore, not held centrally.

Year	Number of repatriations registered with DCRS	Number of repatriations reported by DCRS to COPFS	Number of post-mortem examinations subsequently instructed by COPFS
13 May 2015 – 31 March 2016	170	-	-
1 April 2016 – 31 March 2017	174	-	-
1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018	183	0	0
1 April 2018 - 31 March 2019	140 (part year to 31 December 2019)	*	*

* Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure.

- Indicates years prior to the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 coming into force.

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