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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-30601

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide details of, and consult on, proposals for its preferred way forward in relation to the development of a no-fault compensation scheme for medical injury for Scotland.

I am pleased to announce we will soon launch a public consultation on our outline proposals for a no-blame redress scheme of compensation for people suffering harm as a result of clinical treatment administered by NHS Scotland staff.

The no-blame scheme we will consult on will sit alongside the existing NHS compensation scheme. It will offer an alternative to pursuing a clinical negligence claim, giving people a right to redress and a mechanism for securing compensation where appropriate, without having to go through lengthy and costly court procedures. Crucially, it will fit with our policy of improving openness and transparency across NHS Scotland; moving away from a blame culture and supporting the culture of constant learning and improvement consistent with our future vision for health and social care in Scotland.

Primary legislation will be required to introduce the no-blame scheme and I intend to consult on proposals now, which will inform a Redress Bill to be progressed in the next parliamentary session.

Question reference: S4W-30522

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the new cancer strategy for Scotland.

The Beating Cancer in Scotland strategy will be published today (15 March 2015). It will set out ambitions on improving the prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and after care for people affected by cancer in Scotland for the next five to ten years.

We aim to shape the delivery of this strategy over the next decade by working together with patients and their representatives, clinicians, and service providers, to reduce the impact of cancer and achieve world class cancer outcomes for the people of Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-05677

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it is helping to support delivery of the living wage to care workers in Glasgow.

Question reference: S4O-05612

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 2 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it will measure any improvements in the provision of palliative care in relation to its new Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care.

The Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care contains a dedicated commitment to support improvements in the collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of data. Implementation of the strategic framework is underway and the Scottish Government will publish further details of intended future action this summer and information around how we intend to measure improvement. This will include details of further work on measures of the experience of service users, their families and carers.

Question reference: S4W-30141

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 26 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it is making available to integration authorities (health and social care partnerships) to support the implementation of integration and the living wage for 2016-17.

Territorial health boards have been given a general allocation increase of £474 million for 2016-17, an overall average increase over the 2015-16 allocation of 5.5 per cent. This includes investment of £250 million to be directed to integration authorities, to ensure improved outcomes in social care and support integration, and to deliver the joint aspiration of providing the living wage. Details of allocations to integration authorities are provided in the following table:

Integration authority	Composite shares	Support for growth in social care spend	Support for living wage and other cost pressures	Total
		£ million	£ million	£ million
Aberdeen City	3.80%	4.75	4.75	9.50
Aberdeenshire	3.80%	4.75	4.75	9.50
Angus	2.14%	2.67	2.67	5.34
Argyll and Bute	1.83%	2.29	2.29	4.58
Clackmannanshire	0.96%	1.19	1.19	2.39
Dumfries and Galloway	3.04%	3.80	3.80	7.60
Dundee City	3.06%	3.83	3.83	7.65
East Ayrshire	2.49%	3.11	3.11	6.21
East Dunbartonshire	1.72%	2.15	2.15	4.31
East Lothian	1.75%	2.19	2.19	4.37
East Renfrewshire	1.45%	1.81	1.81	3.62
Edinburgh City	8.07%	10.09	10.09	20.18
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	0.66%	0.82	0.82	1.64
Falkirk	2.83%	3.54	3.54	7.07
Fife	6.73%	8.42	8.42	16.83
Glasgow City	13.31%	16.64	16.64	33.28
Highland	4.28%	5.35	5.35	10.70
Inverclyde	1.78%	2.22	2.22	4.45
Midlothian	1.44%	1.80	1.80	3.59
Moray	1.61%	2.01	2.01	4.02
North Ayrshire	2.91%	3.64	3.64	7.28
North Lanarkshire	6.51%	8.14	8.14	16.28
Orkney Islands	0.43%	0.54	0.54	1.07
Perth and Kinross	2.62%	3.27	3.27	6.54
Renfrewshire	3.51%	4.39	4.39	8.77
Scottish Borders	2.11%	2.63	2.63	5.27
Shetland Islands	0.41%	0.51	0.51	1.02
South Ayrshire	2.33%	2.92	2.92	5.83
South Lanarkshire	6.08%	7.60	7.60	15.21
Stirling	1.52%	1.90	1.90	3.80
West Dunbartonshire	1.97%	2.46	2.46	4.92
West Lothian	2.85%	3.57	3.57	7.13
Total	100.00%	125.00	125.00	250.00

Source: Scottish Government

Question reference: S4W-30092

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 26 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it is making available to NHS boards for 2016-17.

Territorial boards have been given a general allocation increase of £474 million for 2016-17, an overall average increase over the 2015-16 allocation of 5.5 per cent. This includes investment of £250 million to be directed to health and social care partnerships, to ensure improved outcomes in social care and support integration.

Special boards’ baseline allocations have increased by 3.8 per cent.

Details of boards’ revenue resource and capital allocations for 2016-17 are provided in the following tables:

Revenue Resource:

	General	Total
	Allocation	Uplift
Territorial Boards	£ million	%
Ayrshire and Arran	669.0	5.3%
Borders	193.9	5.3%
Dumfries and Galloway	279.4	5.1%
Fife	604.3	5.1%
Forth Valley	485.2	5.1%
Grampian	882.3	6.6%
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	2,079.2	5.2%
Highland	577.5	5.0%
Lanarkshire	1,107.0	5.2%
Lothian	1,303.4	6.3%
Orkney	43.2	4.6%
Shetland	42.6	4.5%
Tayside	699.1	5.8%
Western Isles	66.6	4.6%
Total	9,032.6	5.5%
Special Boards
National Waiting Times Centre Board	46.5	1.3%
Scottish Ambulance Service	223.5	5.4%
NHS National Services Scotland	293.4	3.5%
Healthcare Improvement Scotland	15.5	2.2%
The State Hospital	34.3	0.3%
NHS 24	64.6	3.0%
NHS Education for Scotland	408.7	4.1%
NHS Health Scotland	18.2	1.0%
Total	1,104.7	3.8%

Capital Resource:

Territorial Boards	£ million
Ayrshire and Arran	8.3
Borders	2.4
Dumfries and Galloway	3.5
Fife	7.4
Forth Valley	6.1
Grampian	12.7
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	37.4
Highland	6.6
Lanarkshire	12.4
Lothian	23.5
Orkney	1.0
Shetland	1.0
Tayside	9.5
Western Isles	1.2
Total	133.0
Special Boards
National Waiting Times Centre	2.7
Scottish Ambulance Service	1.8
National Services Scotland	3.3
Healthcare Improvement Scotland	0.2
The State Hospital	0.3
NHS 24	0.3
NHS Education for Scotland	0.0
NHS Health Scotland	0.6
Total	9.2

In addition to the resource allocations, there will be recurring allocations of £28.9 million which will be applied to boards’ baseline budgets in 2016-17.

Further to the capital allocations above, a further £352.3 million held centrally will be used to support infrastructure investment across the sector. This includes the non-profit distributing programme to support the new Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, National Blood Transfusion Centre, and the replacement Balfour Hospital in Orkney.

Question reference: S4F-03260

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 February 2016

To ask the First Minister what progress the Scottish Government is making in reducing A&E waiting times.

Question reference: S4W-29236

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 January 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Derek Mackay on 12 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress regarding the 20-week closure planned for Glasgow Queen Street Station.

The Parliament is aware that the closure of the Queen Street Station High Level tunnel in March 2016 marks a further significant milestone in our £5 billion programme of investment in Scotland’s railway.

This major piece of engineering work will renew nearly two kilometres of 40 year old concrete slab track running through the tunnel, which once completed, will support the introduction of a new generation of larger, faster and greener electric trains on routes across Scotland’s Central Belt.

The tunnel works, being undertaken by Network Rail, require a 20 week programme of diversions for Queen Street High Level rail services between March to August 2016. To accommodate these diversions, services that normally run via Queen Street Low Level are also subject to amended timetables.

The ScotRail Alliance, drawing on the lessons learned from the successful completion of the Winchburgh Tunnel works earlier this year, has developed a coordinated timetable which will ensure that services are maintained and disruption is kept to a minimum.

I can also confirm that later today (12 January 2016), the ScotRail Alliance together with Transport Scotland are launching a coordinated communications campaign to fully inform passengers well in advance about the tunnel work and what it means for them.

The key point is that while longer journeys are inevitable, the railway remains open for business. The diversions to either the low level platforms in Queen Street or to Glasgow Central, allow the vast majority of customers to continue to travel to and from Glasgow by train. For Strathclyde area stations, ScotRail is working with commercial bus operators to ensure customers continue to have choices in how they travel.

We are also engaging with local businesses to make sure that their needs are met during this period. Tomorrow (13 January 2016) I will be meeting with business leaders, listening to their concerns and discussing measures to support them during the temporary timetable changes.

The temporary timetable is now available and enables customers to check their own journey online by selecting a travel date between 20 March and 8 August 2016.

Question reference: S4W-29101

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 December 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 23 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the legal challenge against minimum unit pricing.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has now provided its preliminary ruling. A copy can be found here:

http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=173249&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=586956

The case will now return to the Court of Session which will make its judgement in light of the ECJ preliminary ruling.

A further update will be provided after the Court of Session has concluded its consideration of the case.

Question reference: S4W-29076

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 December 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 18 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Framework for Action.