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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-13108

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how the Detect Cancer Early programme will raise awareness of less survivable cancers.

Through our Detect Cancer Early programme, we aim to increase the proportion of cancers that are detected at the earliest stages. To date the programme has focussed on the three most common cancers - breast, lung and colorectal cancers and the DCE programme board has recently commissioned an options appraisal to look at what tumours could be included in the programme in the future.

Central to the programme is our social marketing strategy and next year the programme will launch a new campaign to focus on the overall benefits of early detection for all cancers and aims to encourage anyone with any concerns about or changes to their body to visit their GP.

We are also committed to supporting GPs to be more aware of the potential signs and symptoms of cancer and updated the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer in 2014, more recently this has been supported by the development and launch of an app in 2016. These guidelines are due for review in 2018.

Question reference: S5W-13111

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider including the experience of people (a) under 16 and (b) with low-grade brain tumours in the next Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey.

We recognise the importance of ensuring that patient experience is captured and used in a meaningful way to influence the care that NHS Scotland provides all people with cancer. The first Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey, run in 2015, surveyed a sample of adults with cancer, including those with low-grade brain tumours.

The sampling methodology for the next Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey will be discussed with a range of stakeholders throughout the development of the survey, including discussions on how best to capture the experiences of people under the age of 16.

Question reference: S5W-13109

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of brain tumour patients have been diagnosed via an emergency admission in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5O-01619

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce plastic waste in the marine environment.

Question reference: S5W-13084

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many level 3 ambulance technicians were recruited in 2016-17, also broken down by how many were appointed to backfill places following the recruitment of other level 3 technicians to become new paramedics.

Question reference: S5W-13083

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many new paramedics were recruited from the existing ambulance technician workforce in 2016-17.

Question reference: S5W-12999

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the GPs at the East Craigs medical practice have handed responsibility for its management back to NHS Lothian; what discussions it has had with the NHS board regarding this, and what support it will provide to help resolve the issue.

I am aware of the situation with the East Craigs Medical Practice who informed NHS Lothian that they were unable to continue with their practice earlier this year. NHS Lothian has worked over recent months to put alternative arrangements in place to ensure continuity of quality patient care for patients registered with the practice. The contract was advertised and awarded to the Barclay Medical Group (Dr Des Spence and Partners) from 1 December 2017.

We know that GP recruitment and retention is an issue for some areas of Scotland. That’s why the groundbreaking new GP contract for Scotland – jointly designed and agreed with the British Medical Association – will help ensure that GPs are able to spend more time with patients and less time on bureaucracy. If accepted, it will help reduce doctors’ overall workload and make general practice an even more attractive career prospect by allowing GPs to focus on the patients who need them most.

At the LMC Conference last week I made a commitment to increase the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800 over the next 10 years. Further details on how we will achieve this will be set out in the third part of the National Workforce Plan, focussing on Primary Care that will be published early next year.

Question reference: S5W-12931

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 5 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board spent on child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in 2016-17, and what percentage of (a) that board's and (b) the overall NHS mental health budget this represented.

Information on NHS expenditure, mental health expenditure and percentage of expenditure that have been spent on children and adolescent mental health services in the hospital and community sectors in year 2016-17 is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Child and Adolescent mental health expenditure¹, Total NHS expenditure² and Mental Health expenditure³

Scotland 2016-17

NHS Board	Child and Adolescent mental health expenditure¹ (£000)	Total NHS expenditure² (£000)	Percentage of Total NHS expenditure	Mental Health expenditure³ (£000)	Percentage of (CAMHS) on Mental Health expenditure
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	3,565	761,573	0.47%	58,395	6.10%
NHS Borders	550	209,829	0.26%	15,465	3.56%
NHS Fife	245	658,131	0.04%	48,432	0.51%
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	18,954	2,981,950	0.64%	248,274	7.63%
NHS Highland	85	630,778	0.01%	45,179	0.19%
NHS Lanarkshire	5,854	1,109,302	0.53%	66,949	8.74%
NHS Grampian	536	1,070,758	0.05%	58,933	0.91%
NHS Orkney	26	47,013	0.06%	634	4.10%
NHS Lothian	12,479	1,724,913	0.72%	126,556	9.86%
NHS Tayside	6,660	919,030	0.72%	86,111	7.73%
NHS Forth Valley	2,901	542,070	0.54%	40,370	7.19%
NHS Western Isles	293	70,418	0.42%	3,294	8.89%
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	1,609	304,543	0.53%	19,541	8.23%
NHS Shetland	317	48,636	0.65%	1,549	20.46%
State Hospital	-	33,053	-	33,053	-
Golden Jubilee	-	126,045	-	-	-
Scotland	£54,074	11,238,042	0.48%	£852,736	6.34%

Child and Adolescent mental health expenditure as recorded in the Costs Book (Report R04LSX and SFR 8.3).Data covers expenditure identified by NHS Boards as relating to NHS Mental Health services delivered in the hospital or the community that are specifically aimed at children and adolescents.
Total NHS expenditure as recorded in the Costs Book (Report R300).
Mental health expenditure as recorded in the Costs Book (Report R340). Again data covers expenditure identified by NHS Boards as relating to NHS Mental Health services delivered in the hospital or the community.

Note: Community Mental Health teams data is missing from NHS Fife, NHS Grampian and NHS Highland figures, therefore the expenditure on CAMHS for these boards is incomplete. This will also result in the Scotland total being incomplete.

Source: Scottish Health Service Costs, Report R300, R340, R04LSX and SFR8.3, ISD Scotland

Question reference: S5W-12927

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital patients, who had been admitted with another condition, have (a) developed and (b) been treated for dehydration in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

In relation to part (a) of the question, information is not available centrally about the number of people who did not have dehydration at the time of admission but who developed it during the admission due to complications arising during the admission. When dehydration was recorded as the main reason for hospital treatment it is likely that it was present at the time of admission.

In relation to part (b), information about the treatment of dehydration is not centrally available, but if a diagnosis of dehydration was recorded then it may be reasonable to assume that it was also treated.

The table shows the number of patients for whom dehydration and other related conditions were one of the secondary diagnoses recorded but where a different diagnosis was the main reason for admission. Because dehydration is reported together with other conditions such as hypovolaemia (low blood volume) dehydration cannot be identified separately, with the result that the figures given are likely to overestimate the number of cases where dehydration was diagnosed.

Table: Number of people who had at least one admission to hospital during the year for which the main diagnosis was one other than dehydration but where volume depletion including dehydration or a related condition was one of the other diagnoses recorded; by Health Board of treatment; 1999 – 2016

	Year of Discharge
Health Board of Treatment	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	Grand Total
Golden Jubilee										1		2			2		2	2	9
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	400	302	339	322	415	483	470	629	489	436	443	394	389	424	435	349	379	350	7,448
NHS Borders	32	24	20	30	33	23	25	27	28	23	27	40	44	38	45	38	45	38	580
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	36	37	47	76	93	86	104	76	100	97	128	95	122	92	90	67	95	105	1,546
NHS Fife	86	99	135	131	177	245	256	333	322	338	307	278	245	214	231	234	186	253	4,070
NHS Forth Valley	70	51	52	83	96	92	75	94	98	91	76	77	69	89	100	131	126	85	1,555
NHS Grampian	139	167	141	177	299	359	370	383	533	476	504	483	405	428	456	340	470	494	6,624
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	617	600	598	570	757	723	800	819	815	870	771	698	765	752	861	788	853	907	13,564
NHS Highland	80	83	155	193	228	147	219	273	195	167	152	212	202	218	209	190	188	183	3,294
NHS Lanarkshire	146	170	172	157	200	215	326	330	323	308	283	214	199	294	279	261	282	267	4,426
NHS Lothian	277	292	282	332	350	480	535	468	388	411	334	383	510	526	432	424	433	498	7,355
NHS Orkney	2	3	1	8	11	3	2	12	14	10	12	7	11	9	38	24	20	23	210
NHS Shetland	3	10	8	5	6	13	10	25	16	6	9	20	19	16	10	20	16	20	232
NHS Tayside	260	243	254	288	336	326	351	330	337	275	284	314	256	246	242	227	290	320	5,179
NHS Western Isles	9	8	2	10	10	14	13	23	27	29	35	58	59	56	43	39	27	26	488
Non-NHS Provider			3		1	1			1	2	2	3	2	1		2		1	19
Grand Total	2,157	2,089	2,209	2,382	3,012	3,210	3,556	3,822	3,686	3,540	3,367	3,278	3,297	3,403	3,473	3,134	3,412	3,572	56,599

Question reference: S5O-01537

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 29 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what value it places on being able to access independent voices across the sporting sector.

Listening to independent voices is vital as we continue developing a world class sporting sector in Scotland. There is so much great work being carried out across the country and a collective voice allows that to be heard more powerfully.

I engage directly with the sports sector through the National Strategic Group, which brings together a wide range of stakeholders involved in sport and physical activity. This group are helping to form and shape our future activity by providing independent challenge and advice.

I also have regular direct interaction with many of the Scottish Sporting Governing Bodies.