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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.

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Question reference: S6W-03735

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 29 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of any work that it has carried out to date on its proposed legislation on fair rents.

The Scottish Government has committed to delivering a new deal for tenants and to consulting on the options, deliver legislation and implementing an effective national system of rent controls by the end of 2025.

Our aim is to ensure quality, affordability and fairness for everyone who rents their homes and we will set out our proposals for taking this work forward in our forthcoming rented sector strategy which we aim to publish for consultation by the end of this calendar year.

Tenant participation is at the heart of our work to develop the Strategy and we are working in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Tenants Information Service and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, as well as existing tenant groups, to understand tenants’ lived experiences and hear their views.

Alongside the views of tenants and stakeholders who respond to the consultation on the strategy, we will consider a wide range of information, evidence and expert views on rent controls, including examining international comparisons, to inform the policy development of this important area of work.

Question reference: S6W-03734

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 29 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the timetable for its proposed legislation on fair rents.

Question reference: S6W-03733

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 29 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to engage with the work submitted to the Scottish Parliament's Non-Government Bills Unit (NGBU) on fair rents in the last parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6O-00314

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to introduce a system of nationwide rent controls.

Question reference: S6W-03382

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of cancelled appointments within NHS consultant clinics, and what guidance it has issued on this.

Any decisions to scale back elective activity, including decisions to cancel consultant clinics, are being taken on an evidence basis and where the need to support COVID-19 patients and provide urgent care exceeds capacity for elective care.

However, the NHS in Scotland continues to work to deliver appointments in new and innovative ways to avoid as many cancellations as possible. For example, Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT), which is being supported within NHS Scotland via the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, enables Senior Clinicians to triage patients to the most appropriate pathway for their individual needs. For example, some patients will receive written clinical information outlining treatment options, including self-care and the option to ‘opt in’ for a face-to-face discussion if required (e.g. EQuIP pathway for Inguinal Hernia). Other patients, where appropriate, will be offered a virtual consultation or may be sent straight onto a diagnostic test. By embedding the ACRT process within routine care, it will support clinical prioritisation and enable services to provide patients with the optimum pathway to meet their needs, and lead to fewer appointments being cancelled.

Importantly, ACRT also facilitates the continuous monitoring of patients awaiting review e.g. Endoscopy Services continue to validate both new and routine waiting lists using a 3-stage validation and clinical guidelines where appropriate.

Question reference: S6W-03379

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates the NHS will begin meeting the Treatment Time Guarantee in all instances.

The NHS Recovery Plan, launched on 25 August and backed by over £1 billion of additional investment, strives to recover NHS performance over the 5 years of this Parliament in order to ensure Treatment Time Guarantees and other waiting time standards can be met by every Health Board across Scotland.

Dealing with the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic has resulted in the most significant challenge in 73 year existence of the NHS.

While it is not possible to anticipate when NHS Scotland will begin meeting the TTG in all instances, we know that it will take time and a series of targeted actions to build back capacity and redesign patient pathways to bring waiting times back within targets.

Question reference: S6W-03381

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how long it estimates it will take the NHS to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and when it anticipates NHS waiting times will return to pre-pandemic levels.

Recovering our NHS is our top priority. Addressing the backlog of care, while continuing to meet the ongoing urgent health and care needs of the country, is the central aim of our NHS Recovery Plan.

The Plan is backed by over £1 billion of additional investment to support delivery of improvements throughout the 5 years of this Parliament. Amongst other things, it will increase primary care investment by 25% and restore face to face consultations in GP surgeries. It will reduce A&E attendances by 15% to 20% and increase outpatient capacity by 10% compared to pre-Covid levels.

While it is not possible to determine when NHS performance will return to pre-pandemic levels, we will continue to work to identify ways of adding additional activity, through new facilities or through improvements to existing ways of working in order to reduce the length of time patients are waiting and bring waiting times back within standards.

Question reference: S6W-03482

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland Working Group will report.

The Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland Working Group, chaired by the Baroness Helena Kennedy, is on track to produce its final report to Scottish Government by early February 2022, meeting the one year recommendation set by the Justice Committee.

The Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice is working independently to consider how the Scottish criminal justice system can better deal with misogyny, and if the group recommends a specific criminal offence of misogynistic harassment the Scottish Government will carefully consider its advice.

Question reference: S6F-00378

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government anticipates the impact of COP26 will be on Glasgow’s healthcare services.

Question reference: S6W-03376

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has expressed a position to the British Medical Association regarding the return to face-to-face appointments in GP surgeries, and, if so, what this position was.

The Scottish Government’s position is expressed in the joint statement from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and the BMA, published on 5 October.

For many years now, in person face-to-face appointments form part of a hybrid model of options that are offered to patients including video consultations, telephone consultations and in person face-to-face appointments. The pandemic changed the balance between these appointment types. We are clear that our expectation is that face to face appointments will increase, however we also recognise that for a number of patients they will wish to continue with telephone or video consultations. Changes to physical distancing guidance will assist practices to safely increase more face to face appointments.

Importantly the type of appointment offered should be agreed through shared decision making, balancing patient choice and autonomy, and practice circumstances/capacity and clinical judgement.