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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: S5W-27053

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 31 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support the establishment of additional tinnitus support groups in communities to provide more accessible peer-to-peer support.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting children and adults who have a sensory impairment, including deafness and tinnitus, to access the health services and social care they need through the See Hear Strategy. Local See Hear Leads partnerships have established tinnitus support groups in a number of areas where this has been identified as a priority, including Forth Valley, Ayrshire and Arran, Edinburgh and South East Scotland and Glasgow and the West of Scotland. See Hear partnerships remain responsible for identifying local priorities and unmet need, including which additional services are required in their areas.

Question reference: S5W-27055

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 31 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on people who are especially affected and distressed by tinnitus being fast-tracked through audiology services so that they can benefit from using hearing aids more quickly.

The decision to fast track people affected by tinnitus is a clinical one, based on the reported or presenting symptoms, and will be made as part of the vetting of referrals and/or following a specialist assessment, on an individual case by case basis. In most cases where there is sudden onset and distressing tinnitus, individuals would be prioritised as a matter of course. Hearing aids and specialist audiology support are provided through NHS audiology services, who can also signpost to local 3 rd sector organisations, including those which provide peer to peer support.

Question reference: S5W-26981

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 23 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has given further consideration to removing reference to chemical restraint from health and social care standards.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S5W-22466 on
‎ 23 May 2019. The legislation applicable for the use of chemical restraint makes clear that consent is required where an individual has capacity. Where an individual does not have capacity, the use of chemical restraint must only be applied in exceptional circumstances to the benefit of the individual.

The Health and Social Care Standards do not replace or remove the need to comply with legislation, which health and care services are expected to continue to follow. There are no plans to amend the Standards.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S5O-04063

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the number of children across Edinburgh who are living in temporary accommodation.

Question reference: S5W-26940

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 21 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-26324 by Jeane Freeman on 20 November 2019, how much of this additional funding has been claimed by optometrists through the General Ophthalmic Services contract under code 3 in relation to supplementary eye examinations.

Question reference: S5W-26782

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 15 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received support for opioid addiction in each year since 2007.

Information Services Division Scotland publish quarterly statistics on treatment waiting times and types of treatment undertaken which shows how many treatments were started in that period. This information is available here - https://www.isdscotland.org/index.asp .

It should be noted, however, that it isn’t possible to say that the number of treatments started equals the number of individuals undertaking them as the same individual may drop-out and re-start a treatment.

Question reference: S5W-26778

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional operations have been carried out under the Waiting Times Improvement Plan.

Question reference: S5W-26800

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 14 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that the recording of the use of restraint in NHS settings should be mandatory.

Health Boards in Scotland have a duty to ensure that they have policies in place covering all forms of restrictive practice and that all staff receive appropriate training.

It is the expectation that episodes of restraint are recorded in clinical case records, that a critical incident review should take place locally if an injury occurs during the use of restraint and that any serious injury is reported to the Mental Welfare Commission. Healthcare staff have a professional responsibility to accurately record all elements of a patient’s care and treatment, including any uses of restraint and the reasons for this.

Question reference: S5W-26704

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 9 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of recent research by Marie Curie, the University of Edinburgh and King's College London in the report, The impact of population ageing on end-of-life care in Scotland: Population-based projections of place of death and recommendations for future service provision, how it plans to ensure adequate investment in community-based care, particularly increasing care home capacity, to support projected trends that two thirds of people will die outside of hospital settings by 2040.

Providing high quality, person centred care for people towards the end of life is an important priority for the Scottish Government.

We want people to get the care and support that is right for them and enable them to stay in their local community for as long as possible. Our ambition to ensure people get the care that is right for them in a community setting is reflected in our budget this year, which provides investment of more than £700 million to support social care services and speed up the pace of integration. We are on track to deliver our commitment that more than 50% of frontline NHS spending will be shifted to community health services by the end of this Parliament.

Question reference: S5W-26705

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 9 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it is upskilling a health and social care workforce in palliative and end of life care education and training.

The Scottish Government recognises the need to ensure that health professionals have the knowledge, skills and confidence to provide high quality palliative and end of life care, relevant to their role.

In April 2018, we published a new palliative and end of life care Educational Framework that can be used in all health and social care settings to support staff who care for those with palliative and end of life care needs in their professional development. This can be found at: https://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/newsroom/features-and-articles/palliative-and-end-of-life-care-enriching-and-improving-experience.aspx .

The Scottish Government continues to provide funding to NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to support training associated with the Framework across relevant health and social care settings.