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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-00216

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the report in the Scottish Daily Mail on 25 May 2016 regarding concerns among GPs in rural and remote areas that not being able to access adequate mobile phone signals or broadband services could put at risk the lives of people who need an ambulance, and what discussions it has had with health professionals and their representatives regarding this.

Telecommunications, including mobile telephony, is a reserved matter for which the UK Government has responsibility to ensure adequate coverage and to fund improvements and developments. Given the vital importance of mobile phone coverage to the health and well-being of people who live in Scotland’s remote communities, as well as the impact on the rural economy, the Scottish Government works closely with the UK Government on relevant issues. One key area is the new mobile infrastructure that will be delivered as part of the GB-wide Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme. The total cost of this GB-wide infrastructure is £4.9 billion over the next 16 years, for which Scottish Ministers have committed to providing a funding contribution of approximately £475 million over the period.

A mobile roaming service also exists for 999 calls to ensure that people who need an ambulance can access other mobile networks even if their own network provider has no coverage.

Question reference: S5W-00218

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that each GP surgery has access to an adequate (i) mobile phone signal and (ii) broadband service.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-00215 on 8 June 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

All GP surgeries in Scotland are now transitioned to the Scottish Wide Area Network which provides high quality broadband connectivity based around their needs.

Question reference: S5F-00063

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2016

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service is adequately funded.

Question reference: S5W-00273

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it can support and promote the not-for-profit website, firstperiod.org.

The Scottish Government is supportive of efforts by organisations in Scotland to educate and promote women and girls' health, including menstrual health both domestically and internationally. The Scottish Government makes available funding opportunities to organisations, in a range of themes including health, through its International Development Fund.

Key to promoting health in developing countries will be the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will tackle poverty and inequality between now and 2030. Specifically for menstrual health, SDG 3 ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’ and SDG 5 ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’ will be important. In committing to the Global Goals in July 2015, the First Minister declared that they offered a vision of the world that she believes Scotland shares: ending poverty and hunger; securing education and health services; and combatting inequality and achieving gender equality.

Question reference: S5W-00275

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how its international development programme and other work can raise awareness of menstrual hygiene and health in developing countries, including Menstrual Hygiene Day on 28 May 2016.

Question reference: S5W-00274

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how its international development programme can help girls and young women in the developing world access the information and products that they need to effectively manage their periods.

<>The Scottish Government's £9 million per annum International Development Fund currently supports projects in our seven priority countries of Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the three poorest states in India. These projects cover a range of themes, including water, sanitation, health and education and many of the projects have a strong emphasis on women and girls. For example since 2013, the Scottish Government has funded Opportunity International to deliver a project in Bihar, India called 'Empowering communities for water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) and clean energy'. This project has helped to build healthier communities, by training local women as community health facilitators in gender-sensitive health, hygiene and nutrition, and enable them to educate their own communities providing them with knowledge and financial tools to access health-related services and products including menstrual products.

Question reference: S5W-00276

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with stakeholders in Scotland and in developing countries regarding issues related to menstrual hygiene and health.

The Scottish Government meets regularly with the organisations we fund to deliver international development projects, many of which are health based. In Scotland, health and wellbeing, including menstrual health, is one of the eight curricular areas in the curriculum for excellence helping to ensure young women and girls develop mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing now and in the future.

Question reference: S5W-00140

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase the number of specialist inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) nurses in the NHS Lothian area.

Information on how many specialist inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) nurses there are, broken down by NHS board and hospital, is not centrally held or published by National Services Scotland (Information Services Division).

The Scottish Government has invested over £2.4 million of recurring funding to improve access to specialist nursing and care, including the appointment of additional specialist nurses. It is for NHS boards to determine in which specialities this general investment is spent, but the Scottish Government expects NHS boards to ensure that patients with specialist conditions have appropriate access to a range of professionals, including specialist nurses, to ensure optimum management of their condition.

Furthermore, using funds provided by the Scottish Government, Crohn’s and Colitis UK has established a Scottish IBD Steering Group, with a remit for designing a programme for improving the quality of clinical care and sharing new approaches for the management of IBD.

The Scottish IBD Steering Group is currently in the process of producing a National Blueprint for the treatment of IBD in Scotland. This blueprint includes best practice advice in relation for the provision of specialist IBD nurses across all NHS boards in Scotland, and will be launched in June 2016.