- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 30 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has paid the social research agency, The Lines Between, in each year since 2021-22, broken down by project.
Answer
Answer expected on 30 May 2025
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 30 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what data is collected on the number of patients that receive home dialysis in each NHS board.
Answer
Answer expected on 30 May 2025
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 30 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce a policy to ensure that a minimum of 20% of dialysis patients in renal centres receive home dialysis.
Answer
Answer expected on 30 May 2025
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 30 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many "school hubs", for pupils to be in school but not in a classroom setting, have been in operation in each local authority in each year since 1999.
Answer
Answer expected on 30 May 2025
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 30 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of utilising home dialysis for patients with chronic kidney disease on (a) alleviating pressure on the NHS, (b) improving economic productivity and (c) delivering better patient outcomes.
Answer
Answer expected on 30 May 2025
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 21 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the setting of budget allocations, what discussions the finance secretary has had with NHS boards regarding the National Resource Allocation Formula.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 21 May 2025
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 12 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to develop a single passporting system of support for students in (a) further and (b) higher education to support widening access.
Answer
The final report of the Commission on Widening Access was published in 2016. A lot has changed since 2016 and we are now considering what has worked well and what we could do better.
The Scottish Government recognises the need to simplify the support landscape for students as it can be difficult for young people and their parents and carers to identify what support is available particularly in non-linear learning pathways.
The Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) currently provides living cost support to higher education students whilst the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) provides bursary support to further education students via individual colleges. The Scottish Government is pressing ahead with the proposal to consolidate all student support funding within SAAS. Bringing student support responsibilities together unlocks opportunities and enables new ways of administering student support, collecting data and providing coherent information and guidance to learners and institutions.
Through the Student Mental Health Action Plan Scottish Government has committed to working with institutions, Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), CoSLA, and prospective students to explore what information institutions require to inform continuity of support for newly-enrolled students, and how students and their families can be supported to request and share this information with colleges and universities. This action is being driven forward by the Plan’s Delivery Group, which met recently, and includes consideration of the use of the Getting it Right for Everybody (GIRFE) practice model to support a more person centred offer of support.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 9 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported announcement that £3 million will be allocated to Adoption England to help deliver more multidisciplinary teams to support young adoptees up to 26 years of age and their families, whether it will consider providing funding to deliver similar action in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s Adoption Vision Statement, published in November 2024, highlights the need for continued and lifelong support for all those affected by adoption.
Adoption support should include a range of multi-disciplinary universal and specialist services. Under the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, local authorities have a duty to assess someone’s needs for adoption support services and then provide that support.
In 2024-25, the Scottish Government provided £790,000 to organisations delivering support to those affected by adoption, including adopted children and young people and their families, adult adoptees and those working in the adoption sector. This funding has supported: a national helpline and support for adoptive families; national good practice guides on permanence; support for professionals and practitioners working in the adoption sector, as well as delivery of the Adoption Contact Register. The Adoption Vision Statement makes clear our commitment to work in collaboration with stakeholders to improve the availability and consistency of post-adoption support in Scotland.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 9 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how the public sector equality duty is reducing inequalities for people (a) in housing need and (b) who are homeless.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to tackling inequalities and equality is the thread running through our homelessness strategy, Ending Homelessness Together.
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is not a duty to achieve any particular results, but a duty to have ‘due regard’ to the need to achieve the three goals of:
- eliminating discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the 2010 Act;
- advancing equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;
- fostering good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
The Scottish Government expects all public bodies in Scotland which are subject to the PSED to pay due regard to the duty as they carry out their functions The duty applies to local authorities in their role as housing and homelessness support providers. The duty also applies to bodies who are not public authorities but who ‘exercise public functions’.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 9 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many people under the age of 65 have received free personal care in each year since the instruction of the policy in 2002, broken down by local authority.
Answer
The extension of Free Personal Care to people under the age of 65, also known as Frank's Law, came into effect in April 2019.
The Scottish Government do not hold data on how many adults aged 18-64 were paying for or receiving personal care prior to 2019.
The Scottish Government began collecting data on the number of adults receiving Free Personal Care in each local authority from late 2018-19 (prior to the introduction of Frank’s Law). This information is published annually on the Scottish Government website.
Local Authority | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
Aberdeen City | 320 | 320 | 300 | 330 | 350 | 360 |
Aberdeenshire | 70 | 280 | 300 | 360 | 600 | 550 |
Angus | 240 | 270 | 280 | 320 | 340 | 360 |
Argyll and Bute | 190 | 210 | 210 | 230 | 210 | 210 |
City of Edinburgh | 1,330 | 1,480 | 1,300 | 1,290 | 1,450 | 1,470 |
Clackmannanshire | 110 | 130 | 140 | 140 | 170 | 170 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 620 | 710 | 750 | 770 | 790 | 830 |
Dundee City | 160 | 200 | 230 | 230 | 290 | 330 |
East Ayrshire | 230 | 270 | 280 | 410 | 370 | 360 |
East Dunbartonshire | 120 | 100 | 110 | 140 | 130 | 130 |
East Lothian | 150 | 180 | 190 | 200 | 190 | 200 |
East Renfrewshire | 80 | 100 | 80 | 100 | 110 | 100 |
Falkirk | 190 | 210 | 210 | 180 | 200 | 250 |
Fife | 630 | 1,020 | 820 | 770 | 590 | 600 |
Glasgow City | 1,980 | 2,000 | 2,170 | 1,900 | 1,980 | 2,100 |
Highland | 290 | 280 | 310 | 290 | 300 | 340 |
Inverclyde | 220 | 270 | 270 | 290 | 300 | 300 |
Midlothian | 180 | 200 | 210 | 200 | 200 | 190 |
Moray | 220 | 200 | 220 | 230 | 240 | 250 |
Na h-Eileanan Siar | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 |
North Ayrshire | 310 | 380 | 430 | 440 | 420 | 400 |
North Lanarkshire | 320 | 280 | 340 | 340 | 330 | 300 |
Orkney Islands | 20 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 20 |
Perth and Kinross | 290 | 330 | 370 | 390 | 390 | 430 |
Renfrewshire | 130 | 130 | 220 | 220 | 260 | 270 |
Scottish Borders | [NR] | [NR] | [NR] | [NR] | [NR] | 230 |
Shetland Islands | 60 | 40 | 70 | 50 | 40 | 50 |
South Ayrshire | 420 | 390 | 420 | 410 | 430 | 440 |
South Lanarkshire | 530 | 600 | 630 | 640 | 680 | 700 |
Stirling | 200 | 210 | 230 | 180 | 200 | 230 |
West Dunbartonshire | 160 | 180 | 180 | 170 | 170 | 180 |
West Lothian | 740 | 690 | 800 | 700 | 730 | 760 |
SCOTLAND total | 10,550 | 11,690 | 12,100 | 11,950 | 12,480 | 13,110 |
