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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: S4W-19231

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding the NHS has received arising from Barnett consequentials and what the increase in NHS spending over and above this has been, in each year since 2007.

Since 2011-12, the Scottish Government has passed on in full the Barnett consequentials to the Health Budget in Scotland which by 2015-16 will exceed £1.3 billion in total. These have arisen from the Department of Health’s funding settlement from both the 2010 UK Comprehensive Spending Review and the 2013 UK Spending Round and are detailed in the following table:

	Resource £billion
2011-12	0.280
2012-13	0.249
2013-14	0.293
2014-15	0.284
2015-16	0.202
Total	1.308

Prior to 2011-12, Barnett consequentials accrued to the Scottish block as a whole and therefore the benefit to the health budget cannot be individually identified. However the following table details health’s resource budget from 2007-08 and clearly demonstrates the significant additional investment which has been made since 2007-08:

	Resource Budget	Increase
	£b	£b
2007-08	9.716	-
2008-09	10.122	0.406
2009-10	10.442	0.320
2010-11	10.501	0.059
2011-12	10.781	0.280
2012-13	11.030	0.249
2013-14	11.322	0.292
2014-15	11.606	0.285
2015-16	11.808	0.202
Total		2.092

Note: care should be taken when making year-on-year comparisons as figures are subject to change through policy and accounting treatments adjustments e.g. in 2010-11 HM Treasury withdrew £125 million from the Scottish health budget (the associated expenditure was also removed to ensure a neutral effect) due to accounting treatment changes in relation to the cost of capital.

Question reference: S4W-19229

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 29 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when Practitioner Services plans to start collecting repayments from NHS general dentists for duplicate dental registrations from 2010.

Question reference: S4W-19228

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 29 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on Practitioner Services’ plans to retrospectively reclaim payments from NHS general dentists for duplicate dental registrations from 2010.

Practitioner Services have a legal duty to make the recovery of over-payments where that is appropriate.

The Scottish Government has accepted that a recovery process is required. However in order to mitigate the effect on practices the recovery of duplicate registrations is part of the funding package for 2013-14. This means that the money is recycled and not permanently lost to dental practices.

Question reference: S4W-19230

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 29 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether Practitioner Services made it clear when it introduced lifelong registration for dental patients in 2010 that it would retrospectively reclaim payments from NHS general dentists for duplicate dental registrations from 2010.

The commitment to introduce non time-limited registration was contained in the Action Plan for improving oral health and modernising NHS dental services in Scotland which was published in 2005. The Scottish Government met this commitment by introducing non time-limited registration in 2010. The basis for the policy change was to encourage the development of a longer term more stable relationship between a dentist and a patient that fits with the need to plan care on a long term basis and to monitor oral health over time.

In preparing for the introduction of non time-limited registration Practitioner Services were required to carry out appropriate system changes. As a consequence of this work a number of duplicate patient records were subsequently identified.

The presence of these duplicate registrations, and the requirement to make appropriate recoveries, were communicated in a letter of 21 July 2010 to the then Chair of the Scottish Dental Practice Committee of the British Dental Association Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-02846

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects a decision by the European Commission on the provisions of the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012, and what action it has taken in the interim to tackle alcohol abuse.

Question reference: S4W-19240

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the outcomes of the Australian Government's post-implementation review of the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 will have on the Scottish Government's commitment to introduce standardised packaging for tobacco products.

Question reference: S4W-19171

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 20 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when Arran will have full service next generation superfast broadband.

The Scottish Government and its partners are investing over £280 million in our Step Change programme which, alongside commercial deployment, will deliver next generation broadband access to 95% of premises in Scotland by 2017-18.

Deployment to Arran falls within the scope of the Highlands and Islands broadband project. Next generation broadband services are expected to be available in all ten of Arran’s exchange areas by 2016. Coverage to those parts of North Ayrshire being delivered in the Highlands and Islands project (Arran and the Cumbraes) will be around 91% of premises by the end of 2016.

Question reference: S4O-02822

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment last met representatives from NFU Scotland and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S4W-18969

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-17526 by Kenny MacAskill on 28 October 2013, how many prosecutions there were in 2012-13 under section 6(1) of the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010.

Question reference: S4W-18692

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 12 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what procedures exist in the NHS for fast-tracking hospital appointments for people with serious ongoing conditions.

The timing of appointments should always be based on the patient’s clinical need so those patients requiring to be seen urgently get early appointments either a serious ongoing or a new condition. It is important that GPs identify the need for an urgent appointment in their referral letter. To speed the referral process, the vast majority of GPs now email referral letters directly into hospital. This ensures no delay in the hospital receiving the referral letter.