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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-25467

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much public money has been spent to reimburse the costs associated with mesh injured women experiencing private mesh removal surgery in the period since the Transvaginal Mesh Removal Reimbursement Scheme opened for applications.

As at 15 February 2024, £481,423.63 had been paid to applicants. Administration costs to the same date are approximately £120,000.

The original scheme closure date was specified in the Scheme documentation and announced at the time of the Scheme’s opening as 6 December 2023. This date was then extended to 31 March 2024. The Government therefore urges any woman who wishes to apply, but has not yet done so, to ensure that an application is sent prior to this date.

The closure of the Reimbursement Scheme to applications has no effect on the arrangements that NHS National Services Scotland has entered into with both Spire Hospital, Bristol, and Dr Veronikis in the USA. In any situation where it is determined that removal surgery is clinically appropriate, the patient will remain able to choose, via the official NHS referral process, to have that surgery carried out in the Complex Mesh Surgical Service in Glasgow, in an NHS England centre, or by one of the two contracted independent providers.

Question reference: S6W-25466

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the recommendations outlined in The Hughes Report: Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, by the Patient Safety Commissioner for England, Dr Henrietta Hughes OBE; what consideration it has given to delivering an initial £20,000 financial redress payment for mesh injured women in Scotland in 2024-25, and whether there is any potential for further compensation.

Question reference: S6W-25374

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether £5,000 remains the appropriate maximum monetary value for a simple procedure claim, and what assessment it has made of the merits of considering an increase in the maximum claim value to £10,000.

The overall policy intention behind simple procedure is to provide a quicker, less formal, and more accessible route to justice for individuals involved in low-value civil disputes. It is therefore suitable for party litigants to raise or defend an action and conduct their cases to a conclusion themselves.

While the current monetary limit is £5,000, there are provisions for flexibility and case-specific considerations within the simple procedure framework. Even if the sum sought exceeds the monetary limit for simple procedure cases parties can agree to transfer a case to the Simple Procedure. In such cases, there is no obligation to lower the sum sought to meet the £5000 limit.

The Scottish Government considers the average value of simple procedure claims does not support an immediate need to increase the £5000 limit. We remain of the view that the current limit and flexibility within the simple procedure framework strikes the right balance between providing an accessible and cost-effective legal avenue while ensuring fairness and proportionality in resolving disputes.

The Government will continue to keep the monetary limit for simple procedure under review.

Question reference: S6W-25375

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 23 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many simple procedure claims were submitted in each financial year from 2019-20 to 2023-24 to date; of those, how many claims were (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful, and what the average monetary value was of successful claims in each financial year.

Simple procedure is a court process designed to provide a speedy, inexpensive and informal way to resolve disputes. A claim is made in the sheriff court with the final decision in a claim made by a sheriff or a summary sheriff. Claimants do not need to use a solicitor to use the simple procedure, but they can do so if they wish.

The following table provides the number of simple procedure claims, and breaks the disposals between those which were successful and unsuccessful. It then gives the average monetary value of the successful claims for each financial year where data is available.

Financial Year	Claims submitted	Successful claims	Unsuccessful claims	Average value for successful claims (£)
2019-20	32,344	16,841	11,409	1,578.98
2020-21	18,350	12,585	7,708	1,711.23
2021-22	23,273	14,580	8,604	1,622.79

Notes

1. Figures for claims submitted and those disposed of do not necessarily refer to the same cases. Claims submitted in one financial year could be processed in the following year.

Question reference: S6W-23927

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much public money was provided to (a) the Health and Social Care Alliance, (b) Pain Association Scotland, (c) Pain Concern, (d) Versus Arthritis and (e) all other external (i) national and (ii) regional (A) groups and (B) charities offering support on chronic pain issues, in the financial year (aa) 2021-22, (ab) 2022-23 and (ac) 2023-24.

a) The Health and Social Care Alliance were funded £10,776 by the Scottish Government in 2021-22 to carry out specific work to support people with chronic pain.

Since 2009, The Health and Social Care Alliance has also administered the ‘Self Management Fund’ on behalf of the Scottish Government which has included projects which support chronic pain issues. Details of funded projects can be found on The Health and Social Care Alliance’s website: Funded Projects – Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (alliance-scotland.org.uk)

The funding outlined in the following tables includes funding from the Chronic Pain Winter Support Fund which, in 2021, provided an additional £240,000 to increase the capacity of local support available for people with chronic pain during the winter period.

b) Pain Association Scotland

2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
£58,518	£13,500	£10,000

c) Pain Concern

2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
£32,700	£19,020	0

d) Versus Arthritis

2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
0	£7,250	£9,982

e) Other

	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Health All Round	£21,875	0	0
Purple Orchid	£37,450	0	0
Fife Sports and Leisure	£15,100	0	0
Live Borders	0	£4,938	0
Moray Wellbeing	0	£2,240	0
Affa Sair	0	0	£13,207

The 2023-24 Scottish Budget has delivered record funding of £19 billion for health and social care, including increases in funding for community and primary care health services such as GP practices where the vast majority of people with chronic pain seek support.

Question reference: S6W-23926

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how much public money has been made available in 2023-24 to finance NHS specialist treatments for people who are living with chronic pain, and for what reason this was deemed to be the most appropriate funding allocation for this particular area of healthcare.

Question reference: S6W-22913

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Healthcare Improvement Scotland being listed as an endorsing organisation of the interventional procedures guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on 14 September 2023 in relation to the use of transurethral water-jet ablation, in which it has received the "standard arrangements" recommendation, what plans there are for this procedure to be offered widely in NHS Scotland to patients who are diagnosed with the condition, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Question reference: S6W-22912

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any consideration it is giving to the procedure being made available in Scotland, what its position is on the article published by the Mail on Sunday on 5 November 2023 that reported that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended that transurethral water-jet ablation should be offered by doctors in England as the first treatment option for patients who are diagnosed with the condition, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

The Scottish Government expects all clinicians and NHS Boards locally in Scotland to adhere to current guidelines and follow best practice from authoritative sources such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) when providing healthcare services and treatment for patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

In September 2023, NICE published interventional procedures guidance on the use of transurethral water jet ablation for lower urinary tract symptoms caused by BPH (www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ipg700) .

The Interventional Procedures (IP) programme aims to protect the safety of patients and to support doctors. Each piece of guidance makes recommendations about whether the interventional procedure is safe enough and works well enough for routine use. NHS Scotland is part of the IP programme and all IP guidance is applicable in Scotland (link: http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/our_work/technologies_and_medicines/nice_guidance_and_scotland/interventional_procedures.aspx )

Question reference: S6F-02285

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 June 2023

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the recommendations in the report, Transvaginal Mesh Case Record Review, by Professor Alison Britton.

Question reference: S6W-17657

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the work carried out on its behalf by the social research agency, The Lines Between, in August and September 2022, which resulted in the report, Scottish Government Pain Management Panel, published in November 2022, how much in total was spent to facilitate the work.