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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-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-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-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-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-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-03982

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to tackle childhood obesity levels and for maintaining healthy child weight in each of the last five years, also broken down by NHS Board.

The Scottish Government has provided the following funding to NHS Boards for tackling childhood obesity and child healthy weight since 2012-13.

NHS Board	2012-13 allocation £	2013-14 allocation £	2014-15 allocation £	2015-16 allocation £
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	147,281	147,000	142,750	139,790
NHS Borders	59,273	59,000	58,127	57,591
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	74,705	74,000	72,257	71,084
NHS Fife	138,684	138,000	131,603	129,477
NHS Forth Valley	115,581	115,000	110,565	109,247
NHS Grampian	181,460	181,000	178,389	176,815
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	427,116	427,000	381,390	370,003
NHS Highland	129,259	129,00	126,893	125,092
NHS Lanarkshire	206,325	206,000	219,837	217,119
NHS Lothian	266,113	266,000	250,458	248,158
NHS Orkney	32,005	32,000	32,963	32,542
NHS Shetland	32,396	32,000	32,563	32,5471
NHS Tayside	154,369	154,000	146,361	143,988
NHS Western Isles	35,434	35,000	35,990	35,623
Total	2,000,001	1,995,000	1,919,849	1,889,000

The 2016-17 Budget introduced an Outcomes Framework, a single source of funding to NHS Boards for a number of strategic priorities such as prevention and reducing inequalities. It amalgamates a number of individual funding allocations into a single allocation with a value of £161.2 million across all NHS Boards. Funding for child healthy weigh is included in the Outcomes Framework. NHS Boards have the flexibility to meet agreed outcomes within the overall framework value with individual programmes losing their financial identity.

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.

Question reference: S5O-00310

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the Director of ScotRail and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-03592

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it will improve treatment waiting times for people with kidney cancer to ensure that the renal Quality Performance Indicator target for 70% of patients with advanced or metastatic kidney cancer to receive systemic therapy within 12 months of their diagnosis is met.

Question reference: S5W-03591

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government who it consulted regarding kidney cancer when preparing its cancer strategy, and for what reasons the strategy did not include specific actions on improving outcomes for people with kidney cancer.

A range of health care professionals, third sector and advocacy groups were involved during the drafting of the strategy.

Our ‘Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action’ strategy and the accompanying
£100 million investment over 5 years, serves as a blueprint for the future of cancer services in Scotland, improving the prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and aftercare of people affected by all cancers. This work links with our tobacco control strategy and the Prevention of Obesity Route Map as evidence shows that smoking and obesity are two of the biggest risk factors for renal cancer.