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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S5W-09163

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take if Ineos continues to be categorised as "poor" in its compliance by SEPA.

Question reference: S5W-09158

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the number of staff projected to be employed in the social security agency announced in the ministerial statement is lower than the 3,000 estimated for option 1 in the outline business case published on the same date.

The outline business case for the social security agency estimated that option one would employ around 2,500 staff, including around 500 staff administering assessments.

The initial estimate of at least 1,500 jobs associated with the chosen model, as referred to in my statement to Parliament on 27 April 2017, does not include staff administering assessments nor does it include additional staff who will provide pre-claims support locally. Estimated staff numbers will be refined as we move into detailed service design.

Question reference: S5W-09156

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 17 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the social security agency will be directly responsible for locally employed staff under the preferred delivery model.

Question reference: S5W-09157

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 17 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether social security agency staff will be employed under Scottish Government Main bargaining unit terms and conditions.

Question reference: S5W-09155

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 17 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff the preferred delivery model for the social security agency will directly employ (a) centrally and (b) locally in each year to 2020.

Question reference: S5W-09154

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 16 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the (a) transfer of UK Government staff to the social security agency and (b) Cabinet Office statement of practice is on the agenda for the next meeting of the Ministerial Working Group on Welfare.

Question reference: S5W-08800

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much NHS Lanarkshire expects to pay in staff costs in each of the next four years, and what projections it has made on what the impact on this would be of an (a) increase and (b) decrease in the number of (i) medical staff, (ii) administrative staff, (iii) agency staff and (iv) locums.

Question reference: S5W-08801

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much NHS Lanarkshire expects to pay in costs for administrating drugs in each of the next four years, and what projections it has made on what the impact on this would be of an (a) increase and (b) decrease in the (i) cost of drugs and (ii) number of GP prescriptions.

Question reference: S5W-08802

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason NHS Lanarkshire (a) planned to achieve £43million of recurring savings in its 2016-17 budget and (b) is forecasting a financial deficit in each year of the next two years.

In order to deliver its services within the level of investment being made, NHS Lanarkshire and all NHS boards are required to deliver both reform of services and savings. The savings generated are reinvested in frontline care within the boards.

NHS Lanarkshire has received baseline resource funding of £1,107.0 million in 2016-17 and an uplift of £22.6 million (2%) to £1,129.6 million in 2017-18.

At its most recent board meeting on 29 March, NHS Lanarkshire reported that efficiency savings in 2016-17 were ahead of the trajectory set out in the board’s Local Delivery Plan. NHS Lanarkshire also confirmed its commitment to continue to deliver a balanced financial position.

Question reference: S5W-08796

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the observation by NHS Lanarkshire in its consultation, Achieving Excellence that “onerous and stretched out of hours and on-call rotas for consultants impacting on recruitment and retention was identified as a challenge of the current clinical model which has elective and trauma services provided across three sites”, what action it will take to ensure that (a) it will increase the size of the workforce and (b) the situation does not lead to a removal or reduction of services.

It is the responsibility of NHS boards to plan and deliver clinical services.

In preparing their workforce plans, Boards are required to consider relevant local issues and demographics, and ensure all working patterns are safe and sustainable. Under this government NHS Lanarkshire has seen a rise of 69.6% in Consultant staff numbers from 266.3 to 451.5 WTE and an all staff rise of 14.3% from 9,265.1 to 10,589.0. Whilst the number of staff is up, we recognise that there is also increasing demand on services which, of course, has an impact on staff. That is why it is so important for Health boards to continuously improve their workforce planning, and this Government is providing them whit the tools to do so.

We’ve committed to enshrining safe staffing in law; placing the nursing and midwifery workforce planning tools on a statutory footing. A consultation on legislative proposals was launched on 12 April and will run until 5 July. To gather as many views as possible, regional events will also take place across Scotland during the consultation period.