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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: S5W-22326

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS patients have been treated in private hospitals in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

The total number of NHS patients that have been treated in private (independent) hospitals in each of the last five financial years and reported to ISD is presented in the table below. The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to a publicly-owned, and operated NHS, so that the people of Scotland continue to have free, timely access to health services.

Through the new Waiting Times Improvement Plan we’ll move to a new single contract for any use of the independent sector, in order to reduce costs and maximise effectiveness. The new approach will only be used as required while NHS capacity is expanded over the longer term.

Number of NHS patients treated in Private (independent) hospitals 1 by NHS board of residence; 2013-14 – 2017-18

	Inpatients or Daycases (SMR01)					Outpatients (SMR00) 2
Health Board of Residence	2013- 14	2014- 15	2015- 16	2016- 17	2017- 18	2013- 14	2014- 15	2015- 16	2016- 17	2017- 18
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	282	307	54	43	47	2	3
NHS Borders	253	253	143	4	59	46	39	38	14	22
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	133	75	17	5	4	17	21	9	6	38
NHS Fife	379	293	84	123	63	185	321	198	91	27
NHS Forth Valley	685	629	550	435	429	880	288	294	8	1
NHS Grampian	1004	1351	1055	539	735	167	1184	1020	1381	768
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	896	943	895	963	556	4	1	9	42	306
NHS Highland	63	88	118	121	23	-	1	13	17	18
NHS Lanarkshire	610	474	1101	1480	1928	386	738	610	398	270
NHS Lothian	3682	4524	4667	697	816	5115	5183	5824	2960	2347
NHS Orkney	46	23	10	8	2	-	5	5	3	-
NHS Shetland	37	30	14	-	2	-	11	11	-	-
NHS Tayside	407	131	99	180	55	264	403	601	270	28
NHS Western Isles	43	54	51	45	42	-	-	1	-	-
Not Known	15	7	3	-	2	27	21	25	43	20
Outwith Scotland	12	4	4	1	1	3	1	2	1	1
Grand Total	8547	9186	8865	4644	4764	7096	8220	8660	5234	3846

- denotes zero
1. relates to patients treated in non-NHS locations such as private hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, care homes, etc. The data recording-completeness of Non-NHS Provider data varies from year to year.
2. Outpatient data only include patients that attended their outpatient appointment and were seen.

Question reference: S5O-03090

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to possible exemptions from a deposit return scheme.

Question reference: S5W-22035

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the 50,000 houses that it has committed to building by 2021 will be accessible to disabled people.

The Scottish Government does not set national targets for accessible housing as specific requirements are best identified and met locally. Local authorities as the strategic housing authority have the responsibility for assessing housing requirements in their area and setting out in their Local Housing Strategy (LHS) and Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIP) how these requirements will be met.

The Fairer Scotland for Disabled People Delivery Plan included a commitment to ensure that each local authority sets a realistic target within its LHS for the delivery of wheelchair accessible housing across all tenures and reports annually on progress. We will shortly issue guidance to local authorities requiring them to have all tenure wheelchair housing targets in place this year. We will publish refreshed Local Housing Strategy guidance later this year that will reaffirm the requirement for housing targets for housing suitable for people in wheelchairs to live in.

The Affordable Housing Supply Programme supports the delivery of flexible housing capable of being adapted to suit peoples’ changing requirements. Therefore wherever possible, all units are built to Housing for Varying Needs standards.

The grant subsidy arrangements for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are sufficiently flexible to support the development of specialist housing identified by local authorities as a priority, helping disabled people with more complex needs live independently in their own homes and older people to stay in their own homes for longer.

Question reference: S5W-22015

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made with its proposed consultation on support for part-time and disabled students and carers, and by what date the consultation findings will be published.

The Scottish Government has been engaging extensively with stakeholders to inform work on this highly complex area with a view to supporting future policy considerations. However, due to the current requirement to focus resource on student support issues related to Brexit, we are unable to confirm when further consultation will take place.

In response to the review of student support, the Scottish Government has announced significant improvements for students. We have introduced increased care-experienced bursaries in both further (FE) and higher education (HE) to £8,100. We have also committed to further improvements to both FE and HE bursaries from 2019-20. These improvements will help support some of the most deprived students and young people to access and remain in FE or HE.

Question reference: S5W-22036

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 20 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is has made in meeting its target of making 15% of new homes accessible to disabled people.

Scottish Government does not set national targets for accessible housing as specific requirements are best identified and met locally. Local authorities as strategic housing authority have the responsibility for assessing housing requirements in their area & setting out in their Local Housing Strategy & Strategic Housing Investment Plans how these requirements will be met.

The Fairer Scotland for Disabled People Delivery Plan includes a commitment to ensure that each local authority sets a realistic target within its Local Housing Strategy for the delivery of wheelchair accessible housing across all tenures and reports annually on progress. We will shortly issue guidance to local authorities requiring them to have all tenure wheelchair housing targets in place this year. We will publish refreshed Local Housing Strategy guidance later this year that will reaffirm the requirement for housing targets for housing suitable for people in wheelchairs to live in.

Question reference: S5F-03169

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2019

To ask the First Minister, in light of the parliamentary reports by both MSPs and MPs, what the Scottish Government's response is to growing concerns about the effects of social media on the mental health of young people across Scotland.

Question reference: S5F-03092

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 February 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 February 2019

To ask the First Minister what engagement the Scottish Government plans with the SQA to prevent possible strike action during the forthcoming summer exams.

Question reference: S5W-21449

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Attainment Scotland Fund is budgeted to continue beyond 2020-21 and, if so, for how long.

Question reference: S5W-21072

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will work with local authorities to produce statistics on the number of pupils who attend (a) primary, (b) secondary and (c) special schools in a different local authority to the one in which they live, which was previously produced as part of the discontinued publication, Placing Requests in Schools in Scotland.

Statistics on the number of pupils who attend a school in a different local authority to the one in which they live are available in the annually published Pupil Census, Supplementary Data : https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/dspupcensus

Statistics for primary pupils by local authority of residence and local authority of the school attended are provided in Tables 6.14 and 6.15.

Statistics for secondary pupils by local authority of residence and local authority of the school attended are provided in Tables 7.10 and 7.11.

Statistics for special pupils by local authority of residence and local authority of the school attended are provided in Tables 8.11 and 8.12.

Question reference: S5O-02718

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 19 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it will cost to implement the new social security powers that are set out in the Scotland Act 2016.