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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-05599

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy procedures have been (a) cancelled or (b) postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6W-05728

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what mechanisms are in place to embed core human rights principles into the use of COVID-19 emergency powers.

Question reference: S6W-05598

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in each year since 2017, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-05727

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the monitoring process is for the use of COVID-19 emergency legislation.

Regulations made using Covid-19 legislation must be reviewed at least every 21 days by Scottish Ministers. This review process ensures that the measures they provide continue to be necessary and proportionate.

Any new or revised regulations are set out to the Scottish Parliament in plenary and are considered by the Parliament's Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee and the Covid-19 Committee Recovery Committee.

Regulations made under Covid-19 legislation are considered through the Four Harms approach which draws on evidence and analysis to assess both current and future direct and indirect health impacts and the social and economic impacts of the pandemic and of proposed regulations. This approach is underpinned by Scotland’s Strategic Framework which sets out our approach to managing the pandemic.

Scottish Ministers also produce a report to Parliament every two months with regard to the status and operation of the Scottish and UK Coronavirus Acts – confirming that they have undertaken a review of whether the provisions continue to be necessary and proportionate.

Question reference: S6W-05476

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the British Academy of Audiology’s report into NHS Lothian Paediatric Audiology, how many families have been contacted out of the 22,900 patients identified as possibly needing to be retested due to service failures between 2009 and 2018.

NHS Lothian have, as part of their action plan agreed with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, the British Academy of Audiology and the Scottish Government, contacted 92 children identified in the review as being of clinical concern and requiring possible retesting.

The Board continues to undertake work to review children known to the service who have risk factors for hearing loss and, based on the outcome of each review, recall children where appropriate in line with national guidance.

Question reference: S6F-00720

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 January 2022

To ask the First Minister how much has been spent on private sector contracts in the preparation of the proposed national care service.

Question reference: S6W-05131

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to invest in the introduction of an electronic single patient record across Scotland, in order to save time and improve patient safety.

It is our intention to make it easier for health & care professionals to access relevant information about the person being cared for, regardless of organisational boundaries. We also intend on providing patient access to their health & care information, as set out in our Digital Health & Care Strategy and in the Programme for Government. The ambition is to enhance and improve existing investments in technology to provide digital views on patient records for both clinicians and citizens to access relevant information when and where they need it. This will support urgent care, decision making and improve patient safety.

Question reference: S6W-05525

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many eligible people have not received anti-viral medication because of the time taken for them to (a) receive the result of their COVID-19 PCR test and (b) be contacted by Test and Protect meant that they could not receive the medication within the five-day treatment window.

From 22 December 2021, adults and children (aged 12 years and above) are eligible to be assessed for their suitability for new COVID-19 treatments if they:

have received a positive PCR test for COVID-19 in the last five days; and
have symptoms of COVID-19 that started in the previous five days; and
are associated with one of the patient groups considered at high risk from coronavirus and with a clinical condition prioritised for treatment.

Health Boards can accept a positive lateral flow device (LFD) test result from eligible individuals whilst waiting for confirmation of a positive PCR test in certain circumstances. The LFD test is not complete until eligible individuals report their result, either online or by phone, and receive a result confirmation notification.

Some COVID-19 positive individuals who meet the eligibility criteria will decide not to receive anti-viral treatments, or may be unable to, for example due to other medications they are taking. Patients are asked to contact their local Health Board if they believe they are eligible for treatment.

There is also ongoing work to proactively contact (e.g. by text message) individuals who may be eligible with a reminder of the access arrangements at the point of a positive PCR test result.

Question reference: S6W-05524

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what supplies of anti-viral medication are held by each NHS board, and how many people these supplies can treat.

The UK Government has secured a further 4.25m patient courses of antiviral treatments to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant across the UK. This includes 2.5 million patient courses of Paxlovid (PF-07321332+ritonavir (co-packaged)) from Pfizer and 1.75 million patient courses of molnupiravir from Merck Sharp and Dohme.

This is in addition to the 730,000 patient courses of these COVID-19 antivirals already secured - 480,000 courses of molnupiravir and 250,000 courses of PF-07321332+ritonavir (co-packaged), as announced on 20 October 2021. These treatments are a further measure to protect against COVID-19, in addition to vaccinations, which remain our best defence against this virus.

The UK Government takes initial receipt of stock, with proportionate supplies distributed to the four UK nations. In Scotland, NHS National Procurement allocates supplies to Health Boards depending on local need. There is sufficient supply to meet this current deployment, in line with need.

Question reference: S6W-05521

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will review the eligibility for anti-viral medication for people with COVID-19.

The eligibility criteria for direct access to new COVID-19 treatments was developed by an independent expert working group commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Social Care and is based on detailed clinical evidence. The criteria are set out in a UK-wide clinical commissioning policy . The policy targets those higher risk individuals who have the potential to both be least likely to generate a material immune response to vaccines and be at highest risk of disease progression, hospitalisation and death.

From 22 December 2021, adults and children (aged 12 years and above) are eligible to be assessed for their suitability for new COVID-19 treatments if they:

have received a positive PCR test for COVID-19 in the last five days; and
have symptoms of COVID-19 that started in the previous five days; and
are associated with one of the patient groups considered at high risk from coronavirus and with a clinical condition prioritised for treatment.

Further information is available on NHS Inform .

In addition to the direct access arrangements described above for the most vulnerable, coronavirus oral antiviral treatments are being evaluated through a UK-wide study called PANORAMIC, run by the University of Oxford.

The outcomes from the study will enable the NHS to fully understand how best to make use of these treatments in the future.