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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-04698

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish Medicines Consortium's decision not to recommend nivolumab for use by patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, what options it is considering to make this treatment available.

Question reference: S5W-04697

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the Scottish Medicines Consortium's decision not to recommend nivolumab for use by patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Question reference: S5O-00416

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when the Minister for Transport and the Islands last met ScotRail and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-04715

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 23 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that NHS boards optimise the savings from discounted medicines to treat more people who have the hepatitis C virus.

Question reference: S5W-04716

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 23 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what estimates it has made of the likely impact of providing the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to boys as well as girls.

The Scottish Government is advised on all vaccination matters by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The JCVI recognises the importance of ongoing assessment of HPV vaccination for boys and agreed that further work was required to consider the vaccination of adolescent boys against HPV. Modelling work to look at the impact and cost effectiveness of such a programme is currently being undertaken by Public Health England and is expected to report in early 2017. Following this, and once all the necessary evidence is available, the JCVI will begin its deliberations on extending the HPV vaccination programme to adolescent boys.

The Scottish Government will of course carefully consider any future recommendations made by the JCVI on HPV vaccination.

Question reference: S5W-04717

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 23 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to be in a position to implement a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme for boys.

Question reference: S5W-04712

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 23 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the national treatment target for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) remained the same for 2016-17 when the cost of HCV medicines has reportdly reduced due to savings made in the tendering process.

The treatment target is based on advice from the Treatment and Therapies sub-group. This group includes representatives from Health Protection Scotland, NHS Boards, National Procurement and patient representatives. Targets for 2016-17 were considered at a point when the treatment landscape was developing rapidly and during a period of high treatment demand. The group felt that in this context maintaining the target for a further year would provide the most stability to NHS Boards, but that the target should reviewed again for 2017-18. The national treatment target is a minimum target only and treatment numbers in 2016-17 are currently forecast to be 1871. This compares with 1724 treatments in 2015-16.

Question reference: S5W-04718

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 23 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the costs would be for introducing a gender-neutral human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme.

It is not possible to know what the costs of a gender neutral HPV vaccination programme would be until the JCVI has made its final recommendation, as this will determine the eligibility group to be vaccinated, and potentially the vaccine product to be used.

Modelling work to look at the impact and cost effectiveness of such a programme is currently being undertaken by Public Health England and is expected to report in early 2017. Following this, and once all the necessary evidence is available, the JCVI will begin its deliberations on extending the HPV vaccination programme to adolescent boys.

The Scottish Government will of course carefully consider any future recommendations made by the JCVI on HPV vaccination.

Question reference: S5W-04713

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 23 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason some NHS boards are treating people who have the hepatitis C virus according to national treatment targets while others are treating within a medicine budget.

NHS Boards are responsible for the clinical care of their local population and for making decisions on the use of their allocated budgets. It is for NHS Boards to assess the needs of their local population and deliver services accordingly. In the case of hepatitis C the incidence and prevalence of the disease varies across Scotland as does the distribution of genotypes of the disease. This means the scale and nature of hepatitis C infection in different Boards can necessitate a different response. The treatment target set by Scottish Government is a national target, and this target that has been met or exceeded each year.

Question reference: S5W-04338

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish in full the report by Dr Brian Montgomery into the work of the Scottish Medicines Consortium; when it will announce the outcomes of the review, and whether it will implement in full the recommendations.