Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-20566

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of fraudulent applications have been detected by Social Security Scotland in each year since it was formed, and how much public money was estimated to be paid in each year as a result of such applications.

Social Security Scotland do not make decisions on whether an application is fraudulent. Where fraud is suspected, appropriate investigations would be undertaken and when complete, a report would be made to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal for their consideration. If after due process a conviction is achieved, fraud is then confirmed by the Scottish Judicial System.

Prevention of fraud is a priority, with measures and controls embedded in Social Security Scotland’s processes and systems to minimise the opportunities for fraud.

With regards to combined levels of both fraud and error these are included in the Social Security Scotland Annual Report and Accounts.

Social Security Scotland carefully considers the information on counter fraud activity that can be placed into the public domain to ensure that any information released does not undermine the ability of Social Security Scotland to prevent and detect crime.

Question reference: S6W-21190

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how much funding has been made available by NHS boards for hospices in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) hospice.

Question reference: S6W-21185

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a timeline for the development of its Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-21183

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities its ministers have met with to discuss any concerns regarding their future financial sustainability.

Question reference: S6W-21189

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress towards the health and social care elements in its 2019 publication, 5G: strategy for Scotland, particularly those relating to the adoption of 5G in hospitals and care settings.

The Scottish Government’s 2019 5G Strategy included an action to develop a series of 5G use cases across several industrial sectors, including health and social care. The Scotland 5G Centre has led this work through their network of 5G Innovation Hubs and developed the following use cases:

“Gro Health” app Dumfries is a personalised treatment platform proven to support sustainable weight loss, blood glucose control, and improvements in mental health and wellbeing.
“Care Reality VR Training Environment” is Scotland’s first Virtual Reality immersive learning platform using 5G that creates a tailored training environment for health and social care staff.
“Care Reality Virtual Choirs” is an Extended Reality therapeutic singing intervention with a mental health focus that uses 5G to enable participants to be part of a choir in real time regardless of their physical location.
“Safehouse Monitoring & Anomaly Detection device” is a 5G-based solution focusing on at-home social care that alerts carers to fall incidents.
“Smart Walls” project at The Ladyfield at the Crichton is a 5G-based solution which offers potential to improving health and well-being for residents as well as cost savings to the NHS.

The Scotland 5G Centre will also launch a Digital Healthcare Innovation challenge in partnership with the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre later in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-21187

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it will allocate to the implementation and delivery of its Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-21182

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any local authorities have expressed concerns to it regarding their future financial sustainability, and, if so, which ones.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials regularly meet with local politicians, council Chief Executives and Directors of Finance to discuss national priorities and local issues. In those meetings, in parallel with ongoing engagement with COSLA Leaders and Spokespeople, Councils routinely identify policy challenges and financial pressures locally.

Despite a decade of UK Government austerity measures, the Accounts Commission, who are responsible for holding councils and other local government bodies in Scotland to account, have confirmed that local government revenue funding is 2.6% higher in real terms than it was in 2013-14.

Scottish councils have therefore been treated fairly throughout UK imposed austerity but we recognise the challenging environment they face, alongside the rest of the public sector, and that is why we are committed to a Fiscal Framework as part of our New Deal with Local Government in order to ensure the sustainability of local services.

Question reference: S6W-21186

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it plans to run a public consultation on its Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy.

Question reference: S6O-02573

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received any recommendations from the independent reporter to consider any outstanding objections to the development of the A720 Sherrifhall roundabout, in light of the public local inquiry, which took place at the beginning of February 2023.

Question reference: S6W-21005

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 20 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many legal challenges have been brought to date regarding Edinburgh’s Low Emission Zone.

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