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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-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-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: 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: 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-17659

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 report, Scottish Government Pain Management Panel, for what reasons it decided that the panel should (a) be comprised of individuals who had not been part of past studies and (b) not include people who (i) were involved with previous research and (ii) carry out advocacy activities on chronic pain issues.

Previous Governance models for Scottish Government chronic pain policy have involved people with lived experience in a variety of methods – including individual representation, a wider reference group of lived experience, elected representatives and members of chronic pain or associated other condition advocacy groups. Views from these groups had therefore already been solicited to help inform the development of the Framework.

Our Equality and Impact Assessment for the Framework identified the need to amplify the voices of groups of people who may be impacted by chronic pain but typically overlooked when it comes to engagement as they are not members of organised groups associated with a condition. Therefore there was a specific requirement for participants to be recruited independently of existing groups and structures to broaden the reach of engagement and ensure diversity of experience was included.

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.

Question reference: S6W-17660

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 19 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has commissioned any research on health-related issues in which participants were recruited through Facebook since May 2021, and, in any such case, what checks were put in place to verify the authenticity of any individuals who agreed to take part in such research.

Scottish Government contractors use a range of methods to recruit participants for social and market research projects, which may include Facebook in specific instances. We do not hold this information as standard on a project basis.

Research on Chronic Pain, commissioned by The Scottish Government from The Lines Between in 2022, included participants recruited via Facebook. Checks were made on participant eligibility via a detailed recruitment screener, including question on impact of pain and treatment pathways.

Question reference: S6W-17658

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 18 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the report, Scottish Government Pain Management Panel, how much was allocated to The Lines Between and Taylor Mackenzie for the specific task of advertising to find participants who could join the panel; whether it is the case that the recruitment drive was carried out on Facebook, and, if so, for what reason this was determined to be the correct approach.

The total cost of the contract with The Lines Between was £40,000 exclusive of VAT. However, the Scottish Government made no direct payments to Taylor McKenzie or the members of the Panel for this work. The Lines Between allocated £1,700 of this to Taylor Mackenzie for recruitment.

Taylor McKenzie promoted the opportunity to contacts within their research database and additionally promoted the opportunity to participate on 4 August 2022 on their Facebook page. Participant recruitment was not solely carried out on Facebook, which was part of an overall endeavour to broaden lived experience voices in Chronic Pain work.

Question reference: S6W-17496

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15518 by Kevin Stewart on 17 March 2023, whether it will provide the full-year information regarding the average response time for the Office of the Public Guardian to process (a) Electronic Power of Attorney Registration (EPOAR) submissions and (b) postal power of attorney requests in 2022-23 now that the financial year is complete.

	EPOAR	Postal
2018-19	30	39
2019-20	36	43
2020-21	150	154
2021-22	123	135
2022-23	145	137