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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-26864

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to adding aplastic anaemia to the list of conditions and illnesses featured on the NHS Inform website.

The Scottish Government's approach to rare conditions and diseases is not condition-specific. As there are over 7,000 rare conditions it is unfortunately not feasible for NHS Inform to host and maintain individual pages for each condition.

We are absolutely committed to ensuring that people living with a rare condition like Aplastic Anaemia will benefit from our approach. Our Action Plan for Rare Disease (published December 2022) set out our wider priorities and actions, including raising awareness of rare conditions among healthcare professionals.

The current NHS Inform page for rare conditions, developed to improve awareness of rare conditions and signpost to sources of support, is by no means final. We will continue to listen to rare disease community feedback and shape our web content around the needs of all rare condition communities.

Question reference: S6O-03378

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the procurement process for the Small Vessel Replacement Programme.

Question reference: S6T-01937

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reported statistics indicating that wet wipes contribute to up to 94% of sewer blockages, what assessment it has made of the potential impact on Scottish Water of the planned ban on wet wipes containing plastic, including whether water and sewerage charges will be reduced in the future as a result of the ban.

Question reference: S6W-26203

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to developing qualifications for those wishing to train as pet groomers, in light of reports that three new dog grooming qualifications, which have been developed in collaboration with providers in the animal care sector, have been introduced in England.

The Scottish Government has not given any consideration to developing qualifications for those wishing to train to become pet groomers as we do not consider it to be the role of Government to develop such courses.

There are already various organisations and individuals that offer specific training in dog grooming, with more formal providers delivering training which leads to the award of SQA or City and Guilds recognised qualifications in dog grooming. Other training of relevance to those offering dog grooming services is available through a number of colleges covering animal care, animal husbandry etc.

Question reference: S6W-25940

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many individuals who (a) are and (b) are not healthcare professionals currently provide medical aesthetic treatment in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-25942

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent by the NHS on treatment for patients who have experienced complications resulting from cosmetic medical aesthetic procedures in each of the last five financial years, also broken down by NHS board.

This information is not centrally collected. When NHS Scotland treats someone who has suffered harm from a non-surgical cosmetic procedure that has gone wrong, NHS Scotland will not necessarily record that this was the result of that procedure as there is no specific code to record this. This means that it is difficult to assess the cost to NHS Scotland of treating harm or complications that may have been caused.

Question reference: S6W-25944

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many reports of malpractice have been made to Trading Standards Scotland regarding medical aesthetic procedures carried out by non-healthcare professionals, since 2021.

Question reference: S6W-25943

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many reports of malpractice have been made to Health Improvement Scotland regarding medical aesthetic procedures carried out by healthcare professionals, since 2021.

Question reference: S6W-25707

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will offer free BRCA gene testing to anyone living in Scotland aged 18 or over with one or more Jewish grandparents, of any type of Jewish origin, in a similar way to NHS England's Jewish BRCA Testing Programme, in light of the reported finding that having a BRCA gene fault is associated with an increased risk of developing certain types of cancer, particularly breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancer.

As set out in answer to question S6W-25450 on 27 February 2024, NHS Scotland currently offers a whole gene screening panel for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer to test for faults in both BRCA1 and BRCA2 and a range of other target genes. At present, this testing is available to people from specific population groups (including those of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage) if they meet clinical criteria that indicate a higher genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

The Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine (SSNGM) was established in 2022 to develop a fully considered and sustainable genomic medicine service for Scotland. The SSNGM contains specialist Scottish Genomics Test Advisory Groups (SG-TAG) for both cancer and rare and inherited conditions, whose role is to review and assess the clinical validity and utility of new tests, and changes to the referral criteria for existing tests.

The SSNGM plan to initiate a review of the existing hereditary cancer testing pathways in 2024. This review will include both the referral criteria for our existing genomic test offering and alternative testing methods and will make recommendations via the SG-TAG process.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6O-03098

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to improve access to NHS dentistry in the Greenock and Inverclyde constituency.