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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-27365

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the links between air pollution and depression and suicide; what plans it has to undertake further research on this, and whether it will provide an update on the action it is taking to reduce air pollution.

The relationship between air pollution and health is extremely complex. It is widely documented that air pollution has a negative impact on health. However, the sorts of illness that air pollution can exacerbate can also be affected by multiple other factors – such as obesity, alcohol, smoking, and genetics.

Whilst the Scottish Government currently has no plans to undertake research on the links between air pollution and depression and suicide; we are firmly committed to improving air quality across the country. That is why we have set stringent air quality targets. For example, we are the first country in Europe to adopt in legislation the WHO guideline value for particulate matter 2-5 – a pollutant of special concern for human health. Funding totalling £2.5 million is available annually to local authorities to support action plan development and implementation on air quality and we are working closely with local authorities to deliver a network of Low Emission Zones across Scotland’s four biggest cities by 2020. The first of these was introduced in Glasgow in December 2018.

Question reference: S5W-27243

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of Waiting Times Improvement Plan funding has been spent on the Medinet system.

NHS Boards have utilised Medinet as part of a national contract recently established to provide activity in Ophthalmology, ENT and Dermatology. This contract was put in place through a formal procurement process run by National Services Scotland (NSS) on behalf of all NHS Boards in Scotland. Details on these arrangement would need to be provided by NSS and the appropriate NHS Boards.

Total spend on the use of the independent sector in NHS Scotland represents 0.6% of the total frontline health budget.

Question reference: S5W-27082

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that some health and social care staff are not aware of the extension of free personal care to under 65s (Frank's law) and have been seeking financial assessments for care.

Question reference: S5W-27244

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards use the Medinet system, and how much each NHS board has spent on the Medinet system in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-27224

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much it will cost to change the domain name on NHS staff email addresses from "nhs.net" to "nhs.scot"; what its position is on the cost effectiveness of this project, and what the timetable is for its completion.

The move from nhs.net to nhs.scot is part of the ongoing Office 365 transformation programme that will ensure staff can work more collaboratively and effectively across NHSScotland and, in the future, with Local Authority social care. The nhs.net domain name is owned by NHS Digital (England). Strategic decisions, taken by NHS Digital (England), on the future of the nhs.net email platform have meant that NHS Scotland has to migrate onto a different domain name and a different email system.

The nhs.scot domain name was purchased in 2015 with a current yearly renewal cost of £44.77 (plus VAT). The migration of NHSScotland Boards from nhs.net to nhs.scot with the additional benefits accrued is expected to be completed by September 2020 at a cost of £2.5million.

Question reference: S5W-27155

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 19 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what progress Information Services Division is making in gathering the data that it agreed to collect for the Cross Party Group on Chronic Pain regarding (a) (i) new and (ii) returning patients, including how the waiting times for return treatment compare with the recommended timings of clinicians, and (b) clinic staffing figures.

Data on waiting times for return chronic pain appointments is not routinely recorded by NHS Boards. During 2018, Information Services Division (ISD) carried out two pieces of work to explore if this data could be collected and if there were alternative data sets that could be used in absence of routine recording. The outcome of this work is published on the ISD website:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Chronic-Pain/_docs/15082018-Chronic-Pain-DevelopmentWorkUpdate-24October2018.pdf .

ISD is leading on putting in place a new national data collection for level 3 chronic pain services (Scottish Chronic Pain Service Model) and have recently established a Short Life Working Group (SLWG) to steer and monitor progress and provide governance to the project. To date, the group has met twice (November and December 2019) to consider how to progress the work. A draft dataset (which included additional items along with the core minimum dataset developed by the University of Dundee) was initially discussed at the SLWG in December. It is the intention that this dataset should be collected at various points along the patient pathway. This means it will be possible to better understand the time lag between appointments that patients currently experience.

Question reference: S5W-27157

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 19 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there is no statutory time limit for chronic pain patients to receive return treatment, and whether it will consider setting one.

Question reference: S5W-27156

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 19 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £257,000 grant that it provided to the University of Dundee to finance dataset work on chronic pain was used to collect information regarding returning patients.

Question reference: S5W-27068

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that all health and social care staff are aware of the extension of free personal care to under 65s (Frank's law).

Guidance on Free Personal Care was renewed to include the extension of free personal care and this was sent in December 2018 to COSLA, Chief Officers and Chief Finance Officers of Health and Social Care Partnerships, Chief Executives, Chief Finance Officers and Chief Social Work Officers of Local Authorities, Social Work Scotland’s Self-directed Support Practice Forum and the Social Work Scotland Adult Social Care Committee.

COSLA and representatives of local authorities and Social Work Scotland were closely involved as part of a working group in the development of this guidance.

https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/cc2018_03.pdf .

COSLA produce national guidance for non-residential care which local authorities use to guide the development of their own local charging policies. This was updated in April 2019 to include the extension of free personal care.

Question reference: S5O-04150

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had regarding the future rebuild of the Edinburgh Cancer Centre.