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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: S5O-02423

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that pupils in Lothian have access to as broad a range of exam level subjects as possible.

Question reference: S5W-18852

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to update its procurement policy to reduce the levels of imported stone in any public buildings.

Scottish procurement legislation, which implements EU public procurement Directives, requires that any technical specifications in relation to public contracts assures equal access of suppliers to the contract and must not narrow competition. In most cases, therefore, it is simply not possible to specify Scottish materials when placing public contracts. There may be some exceptions to this, for example where the materials in question have unique characteristics and they are required to be used under the contract in order to retain a building’s characteristics.

Question reference: S5W-18947

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made of providing people with septo-optic dysplasia access to NHS stem cell treatment.

Question reference: S5W-18853

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-30384 by Alasdair Allan on 21 March 2016, how many applicants there have been for postgraduate educational psychlogist positions in (a) 2017 and (b) 2018.

Question reference: S5W-18458

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government in light of reported concerns about the impact on health of traces of glyphosate being found in food products.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) leads on matters relating specifically to food safety in Scotland. FSS liaises closely with Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the rest of the UK on food safety matters, particularly those regulated at EU level.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) leads for the UK on pesticide safety assessments. Neither FSA nor HSE have contacted FSS to discuss glyphosate as current residue levels in food are not considered to provide concern for food safety.

Question reference: S5W-18456

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage a reduction in the use of pesticides containing glyphosphate by the agricultural sector, and what progress has been made in achieving a reduction.

The Scottish Government promotes the use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which aims to help landowners reduce their reliance on the use of pesticides, including those containing glyphosate, and help them to make the best possible and most sustainable use of all methods for controlling pests, weeds and diseases.

IPM is a site specific, whole farm approach to maximising the efficiency of production whilst minimising negative effects on the environment. IPM is a broad set of tools which aim to minimise pest, weed and disease risks whilst also reducing reliance on pesticides.

Question reference: S5W-18431

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any progress being made in reducing waiting times for orthopaedic appointments and treatment in NHS Lothian.

I recognise the waiting times for orthopaedics in NHS Lothian are very much below the level I require, with patients experiencing exceptionally long waits to be seen and treated. NHS Lothian has received £3.7 million as part of the £25 million initially issued to Boards from the £50 million announced at the end of May. The Board are using £500,000 of this funding, plus £1.5 million from Access Support funding to improve waiting time performance for orthopaedics. The further £25 million funding will be issued to NHS Boards shortly

NHS Lothian recognise the issue of growing demand and has undertaken significant work to redesign the musculoskeletal pathway in the community, first for lower back pain through the development of an integrated back pain pathway, and now a foot and ankle and upper limb integrated community pathway. The foot and ankle and upper limb musclosketal allied health professional community pathways has reduced orthopaedic demand by 2,700. They have also redesigned their arthroplasty service to provide a service better aligned to realistic medicine which reduces the number of return appointments. These initiatives have created more additional new outpatient capacity. This combined work has effectively reduced acute orthopaedic demand, and increased service efficiency and productivity - as result of the changes the Board now have 810 more new outpatient capacity which has brought the outpatient service into balance.

The Board are also taking action to reduce the number of cancelled elective orthopaedic operations caused by long stays of hip fracture patients by providing

Additional Occupational Therapy resource - enable patients to be returned home quicker.
Additional resource for orthopaedic supported discharge and orthopaedic rehabilitation - to reduce delayed discharges
Enhanced AHP resource in Midlothian IJB - enable faster flow of patients from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to rehabilitation

The Board will also make use of the independent healthcare sector to see and treat between an estimated 580-690 of the longest waiting outpatients.

I will be raising the issue of waiting time performance with the Chairs of all Boards at their next meeting.

Question reference: S5W-18653

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 24 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the level of statin use is, and what information it has regarding how this compares with the rest of the UK.

In Scotland, the Dispenser Payments and Prescription Cost Analysis report provides (on an annual basis), information on the volume of drugs prescribed in the community. The report is published on the National Services Scotland Information Services Division website:- www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and-Medicines/Community-Dispensing/Dispenser-Remuneration/

In addition, ISD Scotland also publish the following Cardiovascular publishing data: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Heart-Disease/Publications/2018-01-30/DDD_cost_number_prescriptions_Board_G2.xlsx

These reports show that for the year ending 31st March 2017 , there were 303,551,535 Defined Daily Doses of Statins issued within the community in Scotland. For the year ending 31 st March 2016 , there were 300,009,193 DDD.

A Defined Daily Dose (DDD) is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used on its main indications in adults”. DDDs are commonly used as a proxy measure of how many patients in the population are taking a particular drug and this allows for some comparison between Health Boards.

NHS England publish figures on prescribing in the community at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prescription-cost-analysis-england-2017

NHS Wales publishes figures on prescribing in the community at: http://www.primarycareservices.wales.nhs.uk/data-publications

NHS Northern Ireland publishes figures on prescribing in the community at: http://www.hscbusiness.hscni.net/services/2930.htm

The figures published in each of the UK nations use different timeframes and datasets and are therefore not comparable.

Question reference: S5W-18457

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 20 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns about the impact on health of traces of glyphosate being found in food products.

Question reference: S5W-18654

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what guidelines there are regarding when statins should be prescribed, and how these compare with the guidelines issued in the rest of the UK.

The relevant guidelines for statin prescribing in Scotland are SIGN 149 which is available here:

https://www.sign.ac.uk/assets/sign149.pdf

In England, the equivalent guidelines are published by NICE which are available here:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg181

NICE guidelines are in use in Wales and Northern Ireland as well as additional local guidance as required.

With respect to a comparison between guidelines, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) have a shared interest in the drive to improve quality of care for patients through the development of clinical guidelines.