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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-00654

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 21 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much the methadone programme has cost (a) in total and (b) each year since 2011-12, broken down by NHS board.

Scotland does not have a methadone programme. Substitute prescribing, including methadone, is one component in a package of care, treatment and recovery that can be offered to individuals to help them recover from drug addiction. Decisions on the type of treatment to prescribe are for clinicians, in discussion with their clients.

The specific costs relating to the prescribing of methadone, including ingredient costs and supervision costs, broken down by NHS board and covering the requested years, are published regularly on the ScotPHO website and can be accessed here: http://www.scotpho.org/downloads/drugs/Drugs-prescribing-2014-2015.xls%20, table three provides the specific information requested.

Question reference: S5W-00656

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 21 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been on the methadone programme since 2011-12, also broken down by NHS board.

In October 2015, information services division Scotland published analysis of individuals on methadone based on those prescriptions with a valid community health index (CHI) number. This analysis was published on the ScotPHO website, and can be accessed here, with the caveat that due to sub-optimal CHI capture rates, the estimates should be regarded as a minimum count of individuals on methadone hydrochloride in Scotland. The results of this analysis were:

In 2014-15, methadone 1mg/ml solution was prescribed at least once to 25,170 individuals (based on prescriptions with a valid CHI).

The number of individuals prescribed methadone 1mg/ml solution appears to have reduced from 26,202 individuals in 2011-12.

In 2014-15, 117,578 (or 27%) of prescriptions did not have a valid CHI number. It is not possible to determine how many additional individuals prescribed methadone 1mg/ml solution would have been identified had these data been complete.

Question reference: S5W-00659

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 20 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what drug-related abstinence programmes it has funded since 2011-12, also broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-00457

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what drugs are under consideration for approval by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, also broken down by their intended use.

Question reference: S5W-00459

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many notifications it has received in the last year of GP practices being closed to new patients, broken down by NHS board.

NHS boards do not formally notify the Scottish Government when they agree with an independently contracted practice that it can temporarily close its patient list. We expect health boards to work with practices as constructively and as flexibly as is appropriate on these occasions to help manage the situation and ensure that all patients have access to GP services.

The following table shows the number of practices which were temporarily closed to new patients last year (2015 calendar year) by NHS board.

NHS Board	Closed to new patient registrations
Ayrshire and Arran	0
Borders	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0
Fife	0
Forth Valley	0
Grampian	0
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	4
Highland	0
Lanarkshire	3
Lothian	0
Orkney	0
Shetland	0
Tayside	4
Western Isles	0
Total	11

Question reference: S5W-00460

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many notifications it has received in the last year of there being insufficient GP cover to meet demand, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-00458

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time GPs there have been in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board.

The Primary Care Workforce Survey Scotland 2015, published 14 June 2016, shows that the estimated whole time equivalent number of GPs was 3,645 in 2015.

The Primary Care Workforce Survey does not collect data annually, however the table below shows GP headcount figures in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board (data are as at 30 September 2015):

Board/Year	2013	2014	2015
Ayrshire and Arran	329	335	331
Borders	118	120	117
Dumfries and Galloway	152	148	138
Fife	277	275	269
Forth Valley	270	268	265
Grampian	549	565	561
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,070	1,077	1,055
Highland	393	393	391
Lanarkshire	406	412	462
Lothian	851	852	891
Orkney	29	26	31
Shetland	26	28	31
Tayside	378	394	372
Western Isles	38	34	31
Scotland	4,881	4,921	4,938

Data source: General Practitioner Contractor Database, Information Services Division, NHS National Services Scotland, published in December 2015. http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/General-Practice/Publications/data-tables.asp

Please note that GPs may hold multiple posts simultaneously and therefore the Scotland total may not equal the sum of the different types of GP post or the sum of the headcount in the different boards.

Question reference: S5W-00461

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what drugs have been approved for use by the Scottish Medicines Consortium but not by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, also broken down by their intended use.

Question reference: S5W-00530

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what drugs have been approved for use by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence but not by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, also broken down by their intended use.

Question reference: S5O-00046

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage more young women to take up STEM subjects.

As the First Minister said last week, encouraging girls, and indeed, all young people to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects is vital for their future and vital for the future of the country. The numbers of entries by girls to the main science higher qualifications, including computing, are up by 10% since 2007. There are very encouraging signs of greater participation by women in STEM subjects at college and university.

We are supporting projects to tackle gender stereotyping in STEM education at school and supporting equality projects across Scottish colleges and universities. The new chief scientific adviser, Professor Sheila Rowan will work to inspire more young people, including young women and girls, to study STEM and progress to a STEM career.

There are many examples of excellent STEM opportunities being offered by Scotland’s colleges. This includes the City of Glasgow College’s Women into Engineering course which offers single-sex classes in the first year of the course and which is seeing encouraging early signs of success.