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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-28033

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 1 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-27878 by Joe FitzPatrick on 19 March 2020, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding which of its advisory groups, forums, partnerships, boards and task forces meet in private without media and public access and, in light of its membership of the OGP, what action it will take to ensure that they now do so.

Across the Scottish Government there are numerous advisory groups, forums, partnerships, boards and task forces. We do not hold a central record of these and they will each be subject to local governance arrangements. As part of implementing open government principles, we will consider what guidance might be developed to support officials across teams to follow these principles in the context of the engagement they are undertaking.

Question reference: S5W-28034

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 1 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-27878 by Joe FitzPatrick on 19 March 2020, what its response is to the call at a meeting on 27 February 2020 that was arranged by the Health and Social Care Alliance for there to more than two places on the NACCP for people with lived experience of chronic pain, in light of the committee being attended by up to 15 officials.

Question reference: S5W-27938

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 1 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when the 2019-20 Scottish drug death statistics will be published.

Question reference: S5W-27934

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 31 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many cleaners have been employed by each NHS board in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S5W-27941

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of necrosis have been treated by each hospital in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S5W-27940

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 25 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on referrals to private drug rehab facilities in each year since 2007.

The information regarding how much has been spent on referrals to private drug rehab facilities each year since 2007 is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

We have invested almost £800 million to tackle problem alcohol and drug use since 2008. For 2020-21 the Scottish Government is investing up to £95 million for reducing the harms from drug and alcohol use. Decisions on the configuration of local services, including residential rehabilitation, as well as the level of resource, funding allocated and referral to them are made locally across Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-27943

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 25 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many inspections of hospital waste storage facilities have been carried out by SEPA since the contract with Healthcare Environmental Services ended.

Question reference: S5W-27944

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 25 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many breaches of protocol regarding hospital waste storage facilities have been reported to SEPA since the contract with Healthcare Environmental Services ended.

Question reference: S5W-27667

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 23 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital beds have been available in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board.

ISD Scotland routinely publishes data on average available staffed beds in its “Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds Information (Annual)” publication. The latest annual publication released on 10 September 2019 gives bed numbers back to 2009-10 and can be found at the following link:

https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/hospital-care/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/

Previous releases of this publication containing bed numbers for 2007-08 and 2008-09 (published 7 November 2017) can be found at the following link:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Hospital-Care/Publications/index.asp

Question reference: S5W-27878

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 19 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the comment in the paper, Open Government in Scotland Action Plan 2018-2020, that "our involvement in Open Government [is] one way of achieving transformative change in how we govern. We joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in 2016 because we share the values of openness, transparency and accountability with the 90+ governments and their civil society partners around the world who are members of OGP", for what reason its National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain meets in private without media and public access, and which of its other similar advisory groups, forums, partnerships, boards and task forces follow a similar practice.

In line with our participation in the Open Government Partnership, we have worked with the public, Civil Society and Local Government to design two action plans that contain commitments designed to improve the transparency, openness, accountability and citizen participation in Scotland’s governance. The first plan was delivered in 2017 and the second plan is in the implementation phase. There is not a single defined format for all advisory groups, forums, partnerships, boards and task forces, because of their varying nature, however, we actively work to ensure that citizens are integral to the design of our policies.

The National Advisory Group for Chronic Pain (NACCP), and similar groups for other specialties, provide advice to the Scottish Government to inform policy development. The NACCP’s membership includes representation from across the clinical community, third sector, academia, NHS Boards and Integrated Authorities. Minutes of NACCP meetings are published on the Scottish Government website here .

There are currently two vacancies on NACCP for people with lived experience, which has provided an opportunity to re-think how lived experience is represented. We recognise the challenges for one or two individuals to contribute the voices of multiple conditions and circumstances beyond personal experience. We have therefore asked the Health and Social Care Alliance to facilitate the creation of an independent lived experience consultation group for chronic pain that will enable meaningful input across Scottish Government policy areas, including the NACCP. This group met for the first time on 27 February 2020 and development of its terms of reference is based on a co-production approach, which also includes defining its representation on the NACCP.