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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-24845

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 12 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many graduate apprentices started in each framework in (a) 2017-18 and (b) 2018-19, broken down by gender.

Question reference: S5W-24707

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS hospitals hold contracts with private providers for the delivery of catering services.

The list of NHS hospitals where all catering services are delivered by private providers (either through a PFI or PPP contract), is set out below:

NHS Ayrshire and Arran - East Ayrshire Community Hospital

NHS Forth Valley - Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert

NHS Forth Valley - Clackmannanshire Community Healthcare Centre

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde - SGH - Geriatric Medicine (Langlands)

NHS Highland - New Craigs Hospital

NHS Lanarkshire - Hairmyres Hospital

NHS Lanarkshire - Wishaw General Hospital

NHS Lothian - Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE)

NHS Lothian - Ferryfield House

NHS Lothian - Tippethill House Hospital, Bathgate

NHS Lothian - Ellen's Glen House

NHS Tayside - Carseview Centre

NHS Forth Valley - Stirling Care Village Phase 1

These are contractual arrangements which must be followed and are part of the wider PFI/PPP contracts which were signed prior to the construction of these facilities.

The catering service in every Board must comply with National Food Safety Standards and the Food in Hospitals specification (the National Catering and Nutrition Specification for Food and Fluid Provision in Hospitals in Scotland) with regards to the quality of their patient catering service.

These standards are mandatory whether the service is provided in-house or by an external provider. For those services that are provided externally, Boards are responsible for ensuring that the standards and specification form the basis of the quality criteria for the provision of those services.

Question reference: S5W-24871

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many paediatric gastroenterologists there have been in each NHS board in each of the last five financial years, also given in terms of whole-time equivalent staff.

The Information requested on how many Paediatric Gastroenterologists there have been in each of the last five financial years is not centrally held.

Information on the whole time equivalent of Consultant staff by specialty is only available for Paediatric and Gastroenterology specialties, but not both combined. Information on Paediatric Consultants and Gastroenterology Consultants by NHS Board can be found on ISD Scotland’s workforce statistics site at:
https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/
Publications/2019-09-03/Medical-and-Dental.asp .

Question reference: S5W-24908

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 11 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the Respiratory Care Action Plan will be published for public consultation.

Question reference: S5F-03523

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2019

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reported concerns for patient and staff safety at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

Question reference: S5W-24849

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 6 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many stop smoking specialist midwives there have been in each of the last five years, also broken down by NHS board.

Information regarding numbers of smoking cessation midwives in the last five years broken down by NHS Board is not centrally held.

Data on midwives can be found in the Nursing & Midwifery dashboard – https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/
Publications/2019-09-03/Nursing-and-Midwifery.asp .

Clinical Nurse Specialists are also involved in smoking cessation care. Due to data quality concerns, some NHS Boards have asked for their Clinical Nurse Specialist data not to be published while these issues are addressed.

ISD Scotland has indicated that it intends to recommence the publication of CNS data, showing CNS numbers as at 30 September 2019 in national workforce statistics published on 3 December 2019. They have advised that all historical CNS data, whilst approved by NHS Boards when it was published, should be treated with caution in light of the concerns reported to them by Boards.

Question reference: S5O-03518

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the freedom of the media.

Question reference: S5W-24692

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent research from Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, which states that women with physical disabilities are experiencing difficulties attending, or even being denied access to, cervical screening.

Barriers to attendance are regularly considered by the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme and individual NHS Boards with initiatives taking place across Scotland to look at ways of tackling inequalities of access. The Programme will review the recommendations from the Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust research and work with NHS Boards to take these forward.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recently advised that self-sampling should not be implemented within the cervical screening programme without further research or pilots to demonstrate its value. The Scottish Government has a clear commitment to increase participation in cervical screening and a number of pieces of work are underway to ensure Scotland contributes to the emerging evidence base. While there are some potentially exciting developments for cervical screening in the pipeline, it’s imperative that the time is taken now to carefully explore the best option(s) that match our circumstances in Scotland, to avoid creating further health disparities.

Question reference: S5W-24545

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation by the 2013 independent expert review of opioid replacement therapies (ORTs) in Scotland, what action it has taken to address “the lack of institutional memory in the planning, delivery and governance” of care given to substance users.

Work has been ongoing to address this issue since the publication of the 2013 report. Actions have included:

The Drug Strategy Delivery Group (advisory group put in place following publication of Road to Recovery strategy) along with representation from Scottish Government commissioned organisations; ADP’s; NHS; and other partners; convened an event in April 2014 which looked at all the groups in the Scottish drugs landscape, and also the governance structures in place, to ensure that institutional memory and governance were given necessary importance.
We have worked with Scottish and UK based colleagues around the development of the updated ‘Drug misuse and dependence: UK guidelines on clinical management’, which was re-issued in 2017 and provides comprehensive clinical guidelines around the use of ORT.
We have worked with Health Scotland around their publication of a review of literature on reducing drug related deaths. The scope of the review was to respond to the specific risks and needs identified for Scotland’s vulnerable ageing cohort of people with a drug problem.
Going forward, we are working with Health Scotland around the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework which will sit alongside our new alcohol and drugs strategy to evaluate the proposed commitments and actions. This document will be published in the coming months.

Question reference: S5W-24676

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to research by the University of Edinburgh that states that one in 125 people in Edinburgh have Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis, and that this figure is expected to increase to one in 98 by 2028.

The cause of the increased incidence rate of people living with IBD in Scotland is multifactorial and not fully understood. Research is essential if we are to develop more effective diagnostic approaches and treatments. That is why we are investing in research projects, such as the NHS Research Scotland Gastroenterology network, which supports the delivery of high quality clinical research in gastroenterology.