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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-10947

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-10644 by John Swinney on 24 August 2017, what action it is taking to increase the number of modern language assistants in (a) Lothian, (b) local authorities that do not currently employ any and (c) Scotland.

Since 2013, Scotland’s local authorities have received £24.2m in developmental funding from the Scottish Government to support the implementation of the 1+2 policy by 2021. Many choose to use this to fund Modern Language Assistant posts. It is, however, the decision of each individual Local Authority to determine how to best use this funding to support language learning in their schools.

The Scottish Government recognises the value young native speakers bring to the classroom and we will continue to work closely with British Council Scotland to encourage them to explore creative and innovative ways to generate a greater take up of language assistants in Scotland.

Question reference: S5O-01277

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve access at Waverley station for disabled, blind and visually-impaired people.

Question reference: S5W-10971

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 12 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason ISD Scotland's consultation on the publication of chronic pain waiting times information is only open for one month instead of two months or more.

Question reference: S5W-10779

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the average wait has been to be (a) assessed for and (b) fitted with a hearing aid in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

Information on hospital waiting times for the assessment and fitting of a hearing aid is only available on a quarterly basis from 2009 to quarter end 31 March 2014. From 2014 data on Audiology service waits is included as part of the 18 weeks referral to treatment waiting time data which is published quarterly by ISD. The 18 weeks referral to treatment performance information is based on an aggregate return from NHS Boards and does not provide specialty level data.

The following tables provide median waiting time for referral to first contact appointment and from assessment to fitting of a hearing aid.

NHSScotland Median Wait For Audiology: Referral To First Contact Appointment (completed waits for patients seen)

Board	31 Dec 2009	31 Dec 2010	31 Dec 2011	31 Dec 2012	31 Dec 2013	31 Mar 2014
	Weeks	Weeks	Weeks	Weeks	Weeks	Weeks
Ayrshire and Arran	8	..	..	5	5	6
Borders	18	9	9	11	7	8
Dumfries and Galloway	1	12	4	5	4	1
Fife	10	7	4	6	5	6
Forth Valley	9	24	12	25	24	25
Grampian	7	7	8	9	9	10
Greater Glasgow &Clyde	5	6	4	2	1	1
Highland	..	12	5	4	3	4
Lanarkshire	..	4	4	7	6	5
Lothian	12	5	6	5	6	5
Orkney	3	3	2	2	2	2
Shetland	3	7	10	7	5	3
Tayside	..	25	13	13	8	5
Western Isles	..	15	6	5	6	6

Source: ISD Scotland

.. Not available

NHSScotland Median Wait For Audiology: Assessment To Fitting Of hearing Aid (completed waits for patients seen)

Board	31 Dec 2009	31 Dec 2010	31 Dec 2011	31 Dec 2012	31 Dec 2013	31 Mar 2014

Ayrshire and Arran	12	0	..	6	6	6
Borders	7	5	4	7	4	5
Dumfries and Galloway	6	6	4	6	7	7
Fife	0	10	1	2	3	x
Forth Valley	6	0	1	0	5	6
Grampian	9	9	7	8	6	7
Greater Glasgow &Clyde	4	5	4	3	3	4
Highland	..	5	3	4	3	4
Lanarkshire	..	4	2	5	4	3
Lothian	12	17	8	6	8	8
Orkney	2	3	2	3	3	3
Shetland	4	8	9	5	3	3
Tayside	..	4	5	5	5	5
Western Isles	..	28	5	7	6	6

Source: ISD Scotland

.. Not available

x Not applicable

Question reference: S5W-10381

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether legislation on the provision of free personal care exclusively to over 65s is compliant with the Equality Act 2010 regarding age discrimination.

The Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 was subject to rigorous scrutiny by the Scottish Parliament before its implementation.

The Scottish Government is committed to the principles of the Equality Act 2010 and to respecting, protecting and implementing human rights for everyone in Scotland. Our Programme for Government further detailed our ambitions for demonstrating equality, dignity and respect in everything we do and set out our intention to extend Free Personal care to all those under the age of 65 who require it.

Question reference: S5W-10633

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 6 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have paid for NHS IVF cycles in each year since 1999, and what the average cost was.

Information on the numbers of self-funded IVF cycles carried out in the 4 Assisted Conception Units that deliver NHS IVF, in each year since 1999 and associated costs, are not collected centrally.

As part of the work for the National Infertility Group, Information Services Division collected figures, where information was available, highlighting the numbers of self-funded IVF cycles carried out by NHS Assisted Conception Units. The information was subsequently published in the National Infertility Group report – March 2016, which can be accessed at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00501403.pdf

Question reference: S5W-10628

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 6 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been treated by alcohol and drug partnerships in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S5W-10637

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 6 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many sexually transmitted diseases have been diagnosed in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

A copy of data tables on the major acute sexually transmitted infections diagnosed in Scotland since 1999 by NHS board has been placed under BIB number 59019.

The Scottish Government will chair a meeting of the NHS Sexual Health and BBV Executive Leads on 29 September to discuss the situation of STI infections at board-level and to consider appropriate local as well as national responses.

Note: The data presented are based on laboratory positive diagnoses for chlamydia and gonorrhoea infection, and for infectious syphilis, Health Protection Scotland use an enhanced surveillance system based on clinical and laboratory reporting.

Since 1999, testing technology has improved for both chlamydia and gonorrhoea detection. The implementation of the SIGN 42 guidelines in 2001 (Management of genital Chlamydia trachomatis infection) led to improvements in sampling and the use of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) which have greater sensitivity and specificity for the detection of chlamydia infection. Similarly, since 2008, NAATs have been increasingly used across Scotland for the detection of gonococcal infection with full geographic coverage by 2012. There has been an increase in detection and thus, diagnoses during this time. Since 2013, however, testing strategy has stabilised and trends since 2013 are more comparable than that with previous years.

Infectious syphilis infection re-emerged in Scotland in the early 2000s and the current data collection system began in 2002/2003. Prior to this, diagnoses were recorded using the genitourinary medicine clinic-based system. Data from 1999 to 2001 indicate there were 12, 22 and 24 diagnoses recorded, respectively.

In addition, as the data tables contain sensitive data, they have been adapted in accordance with National Services Scotland’s Statistical Disclosure Control Policy to prevent deductive disclosure. Thus, where there are values <5, these have been replaced by an asterisk (*); there may also be some secondary masking to prevent revealing values through adding and subtracting in rows and columns, these are also marked with an asterisk.

Question reference: S5W-10642

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06240 by Shona Robison on 26 January 2017, whether it will provide an update on the (a) current and (b) future areas of focus of the Effective Prescribing Programme.

The Effective Prescribing Programme was established by NHS National Services Scotland, NHS Boards and the Scottish Government to facilitate and support the quality of prescribing and medicines use. The following are the current areas of focus:

Implementation of Prescribing Strategies
Effective use of biological medicines
Clinical consensus to guide best practice in prescribing in particular clinical areas
Effective use of prescribing support tools
Effective use of liothyronine

Future areas have yet to be considered and agreed.

Question reference: S5W-10656

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of fathers being told that only the mother can register a baby or child with the NHS.