Friday 16 August 2019 SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT Economy Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23827 by Derek McKay on 15 July 2019, when it plans to next meet the European Commission, and whether the European Social Fund is on the agenda. (S5W-24480) Derek Mackay: Officials from the Scottish Government met officials from the European Commission in Brussels on 14 June 2019 to discuss the European Social Fund. Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23827 by Derek McKay on 15 July 2019, when it last met the European Commission, and what was discussed. (S5W-24481) Derek Mackay: Scottish Government officials from the European Structural Funds and State Aid Division maintain regular dialogue by email, phone and in person with the European Commission regarding the European Social Fund. Maurice Golden (West Scotland) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that councils comply with their statutory duty to keep a register of contaminated land. (S5W-24515) Roseanna Cunningham: Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 requires all Local Authorities, as the primary regulators, to produce inspection strategies for their area which are publically available and are subject to periodic review. When Local Authorities formally identify a site as contaminated land they are required to notify SEPA and to place the site on a public register. In addition, the Scottish Government has specific powers under Part IIA to request SEPA to produce a ‘State of Contaminated Land in Scotland’ report. Local Authorities are required to provide information on the condition of contaminated land sites to SEPA for inclusion in the report. Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its analysis of the wildlife crime penalties’ consultation, which closes on 16 August 2019, and by what date it will introduce any subsequent legislation. (S5W-24534) Roseanna Cunningham: An analysis of the responses to the consultation on wildlife crime penalties will be published on the Scottish Government website as soon as practicable after the consultation closes on 16 August 2019. We will set out our future legislative plans in due course. Education, Communities and Justice Neil Findlay (Lothian) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update regarding what specific action is being taken to protect prison staff from inhaling new psychoactive substances. (S5W-24394) Humza Yousaf: I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows: As detailed in the response to PQ S5W-23105 on 29 May 2019, SPS continues to work alongside justice sector partners to understand the risks of psychoactive substances. In addition, SPS is working collaboratively with the University of Dundee to analyse illicit articles recovered from our prisons in order to better understand the changing nature of drug misuse. Further planned research will improve understanding of transdermal transfer and second hand ingestion. SPS is committed to ensuring that all staff guidance is evidenced based and mitigates the risk of exposure. 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 Edward Mountain (Highlands and Islands) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21823 by Clare Haughey on 6 March 2019, whether it plans to produce a tailored mental health training package specifically for school staff and, if so, when it will do so. (S5W-24520) John Swinney: The Scottish Government is committed to strengthening the resources available to all school staff to support the mental health and wellbeing of our children, young people and our teaching workforce. In addition to the commitments contained in the 2018 Programme for Government, we are developing a comprehensive suite of mental health resources which will equip all school staff to support children and young people. This will enhance the strategies already available to schools and will be published by the end of 2020. The recent pay agreement for teachers also commits the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers to addressing issues relating to teachers’ health and wellbeing. Our work with teachers and teacher organisations will continue to identify where there is action that we can take to improve the daily lives of teachers. Health and Social Care Mark McDonald (Aberdeen Donside) (Independent): To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any plans to improve the sharing of relevant patient information between primary and secondary care, beyond that which is covered by the Key Information Summary (KIS). (S5W-24490) Jeane Freeman: The Digital Health and Care strategy sets out the vision for a national digital platform through which relevant real-time data and information from health and care records, and the tools and services they use, is available to those who need it, when they need, wherever they are, in a secure and safe way. This work is being taken forward by the NES Digital Service (NDS). NDS will develop services such as ‘need to know’ services, which includes information summaries to better meet the needs of person- centred practice, with an overall aim to deliver the information professionals and citizens need at the point of care. Daniel Johnson (Edinburgh Southern) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government what the annual budget is for Autism Network Scotland. (S5W-24492) Jeane Freeman: The budget for Autism Network Scotland is provided by a grant, the following provides a breakdown of funding since March 2017: • 2017-2018: £497,022 • 2018-2019: £450,000 • 2019-2020: £450,000 Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (Scottish Liberal Democrats): To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on what the suicide rate within the veterinary profession has been in (a) 2016, (b) 2017, (c) 2018 and (d) 2019. (S5W-24523) Jeane Freeman: The Scottish Government holds no information on the suicide rates within the veterinary profession for the years 2016 – 2019 as the annual published statistics do not include a breakdown by individual occupation. The Scottish Suicide Information Database publication shows that for the period 2011 - 2017 the total number of people aged 16-64 years old and in a professional occupation is 315 - this will include those in the veterinary profession. Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what support is being provided to help identify and support school pupils with ADHD. (S5W-24558) John Swinney: We want all children and young people, including those with ADHD, to receive the support needed to reach their full learning potential. Education authorities and other agencies have duties under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004 (as amended) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils, which includes those with ADHD. Education authorities can ask other agencies (including social work services, health boards and skills development Scotland) for help in carrying out their duties under the Act. Organisational Development and Operations Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is for responses by Social Security Scotland to queries on Universal Credit Scottish Choices. (S5W-24491) Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) delivers the Universal Credit (UC) Scottish choices on behalf of the Scottish Government. The DWP does not collect management information on waiting times relating specifically to UC Scottish choices as it is currently unable to disaggregate call waiting time data into individual topics. Mark Griffin (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government what restructuring of Social Security Scotland (a) is planned and (b) has taken place, and what the reasons are for this. (S5W-24500) Shirley-Anne Somerville: Social Security Scotland has grown in scale since its launch in September 2018. It currently employs around 400 staff - mainly across its Dundee head office and second Glasgow site. Once fully operational, that will grow further to in excess of 1,900 people. The staffing and structure will continue to grow and change as new functions, local face- to-face delivery and further devolved benefits are launched. Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has not published expanded accounts for 2017-18, which were due to be published by the end of March 2019. (S5W-24505) Derek Mackay: The Scottish Government complies with all financial reporting and auditing requirements and is developing its financial reporting to support transparency and the understanding of the increasingly complex financial picture. There have been improvements each year to the timing and presentation of the sets of accounts which make up the full reporting on the Scottish Budget. The Foreword to the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts explained the 2018 developments: https://beta.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-consolidated-accounts-