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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-06770

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were given an NHS key information summary in 2015-16 and how many subsequently died, broken down by NHS board.

The following table includes patients with a Key Information Summary (KIS) or Shared Clinical Data Record (SCD) created in 2015-2016 who died prior to 14 October 2016, which is the latest data available from NHS National Services Scotland who provide Scottish Government with these statistics.

Healthboard	Patients With KIS Or SCD Created 2015-2016	Deceased Patients with KIS or SCD created 2015-2016
Ayrshire & Arran	7513	2145
Borders	1984	588
Dumfries & Galloway	4582	1027
Fife	8405	1943
Forth Valley	5691	1318
Grampian	23187	2976
Greater Glasgow	24326	5813
Highland	10138	1466
Lanarkshire	10698	2655
Lothian	26948	3798
Orkney	998	90
Shetland	437	127
Tayside	8526	2339
Western Isles	689	162

Question reference: S5W-06772

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to meet its commitment to double palliative and end of life provision in the community, as set out in the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan, and what resources will be made available to health and social care partnerships to deliver this.

Palliative care is an important component of the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan.

Supporting people to live and die well and with dignity at home or in a homely setting will require integrated and coordinated action. This is why Integration Authorities have been given statutory responsibility for meeting this need.

By creating the right conditions to enable Integration Authorities to make the changes needed to reduce the use of inappropriate types of care and invest in alternatives, we expect to see a reduction in occupied bed days and more people supported to die at home. Many of the specific actions required to support this shift are already addressed by the commitments set out in our Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care.

Question reference: S5O-00689

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Lothian regarding plans to rebuild the Edinburgh Cancer Centre.

Question reference: S5W-06583

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 6 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the third national dementia strategy.

Question reference: S5W-06584

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 6 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how the (a) provision and (b) performance of post-diagnostic support for people with dementia is monitored.

Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) are responsible for commissioning dementia services, including post-diagnostic services, in their area and will monitor their effectiveness. Responsibility for the delivery of post-diagnostic services remains with the statutory body tasked with leading the service in each IJB area and this is determined locally.

On performance, the first round of annual national performance data was published in January 2017, relating to the 2014-15 beneficiary group. Work is in train to publish subsequent annual data at IJB level.

National support for post-diagnostic services is in place in areas such as supporting service quality and consistency, education, training and staff development, data analysis and improvement methodologies. As part of that activity, there is on-going engagement on the challenges and benefits around providing post-diagnostic support.

Question reference: S5W-06510

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Independent Living Fund Scotland regarding the impact of the Scottish Living Wage agenda on the organisation's (a) operations and (b) budget.

Scottish Ministers have asked Independent Living Fund (ILF) Scotland to extend the commitment to enable the Scottish Living Wage, for adult social care workers, to those employed as a result of ILF payments of support to disabled people. I recently discussed the Scottish Living Wage with the Chair and Chief Executive of ILF Scotland, at our meeting in December 2016. Officials have also had several meetings with ILF Scotland about Scottish Living Wage implementation. At all these meetings, both the operational implementation of the commitment and the budgetary implications were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-06512

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it providing to the Independent Living Fund Scotland to encourage nationwide compliance with the Scottish Living Wage.

As stated in my answer to S5W-06510 on 2 February 2017, Scottish Ministers have asked Independent Living Fund (ILF) Scotland to extend the commitment to enable the Scottish Living Wage, for adult social care workers, to those employed as a result of ILF payments of support to disabled people. In order to support this work, officials have had several meetings with the Chair, Chief Executive and staff of ILF Scotland about Scottish Living Wage implementation and helping to encourage nationwide compliance.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S5W-06303

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to encourage reduced consumption of energy drinks by children.

The Scottish Government is working to foster responsible retailing of energy drinks through voluntary and statutory means.

The provision of energy drinks at school is already banned under the School (Health Promotion and Nutrition) (Scotland) Regulations 2008. Through Beyond the School Gate, we are advocating that schools, communities and local authorities take a pro-active role to engage with young people, their parents and local retailers to ensure that consumption is appropriately limited, taking into account the 2015 European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) report on energy drinks. Similarly, there is guidance available in Better Eating, Better Learning on what schools can do to educate pupils about energy drinks as well as equipping them with the skills, knowledge and experience they need to make better health choices and live longer, healthier lives.

In the UK, high caffeine drink manufacturers are now required to include advice on their products (other than those based on coffee/tea or coffee/tea extracts where the term coffee/tea appears in the name of the product) about their unsuitability for children and pregnant women due to the high caffeine content. Manufacturers are required to label beverages with caffeine content in excess of 150 mg/l as ‘High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women’. This is a legal requirement set out in Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers which is enforced in Scotland by the Food Information (Scotland) Regulations 2014 (as amended).

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has continued to support voluntary mechanisms such as the British Soft Drinks Association’s (BSDA) code of practice not to promote energy drinks to under 16s. We welcome campaigns such as last year’s ‘Can It’ campaign which the Scottish Grocers Federation advocated to its members and we are calling on the larger retailers to take similar proactive measures.

The Scottish Government will continue to monitor the evidence base and carefully consider recommendations made in relation to this issue.

Question reference: S5W-06445

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it is providing to small businesses to ensure that they are able to pay their employees at least the living wage.

We are committed to helping all types of businesses to thrive, grow and create employment opportunities. Scotland's Economic Strategy focuses on the two mutually supportive goals of increasing competitiveness and tackling inequality. We are delivering those goals through policies that deliver publicly funded business support and advice, reduce the burden of taxation and regulation, improve access to finance, help to export and strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship.

We have shown a strong commitment to fair pay as an important contribution to promoting fair work and tackling inequality. We fund the Scottish Living Wage Accreditation Initiative, through which there are now over 700 Accredited Living Wage Employers, 537 of which are small businesses. Scotland has the highest proportion of employees paid at least the Living Wage of all four UK countries. We continue to promote the real Living Wage through public sector procurement and to all employers alongside advice on how to become accredited.

In addition, we promote the Scottish Business Pledge as a shared mission between Government and business with the goal of boosting productivity, employment, fair work and work force engagement and development. Paying the Living Wage to all relevant employees is at the core of the Business Pledge and all of the 324 companies who have signed up to the Business Pledge have achieved the Living Wage accreditation. Around 66% of these are small businesses.

Question reference: S5W-06272

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to publish information submitted to the Scottish Natural Heritage review of snaring legislation and, if so, when.