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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-16724

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action can be taken against the manufacturer of a drug that the NHS wholly or mainly relies on for a particular treatment if it decides to stop producing or supplying that drug.

Regulation for the supply of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government. In general terms, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in England and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry have issued joint good practice guidelines " Ensuring Best Practice in the Notification of Product Discontinuations ".

The guidelines emphasise the need for an early exchange of information and companies are advised to give as much notice of a discontinuation as possible. However, companies are free to review their portfolios as they think necessary and the DHSC has no powers to insist that a company continues to keep a product on the market.

Scottish Government officials meet with DHSC colleagues to discuss medicine supply issues on a regular basis and will continue to do so. Any patients who are concerned about the discontinuation of any products should contact their doctor or pharmacist to discuss alternative treatment options.

Question reference: S5W-16582

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 29 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-16127 by Aileen Campbell on 4 May 2018, whether it can confirm if SIGN plans to adopt the NICE guidelines regarding Lyme disease and, if so, by what date.

In a situation where there is no SIGN guideline on a specific topic, healthcare professionals would be expected to look for other high-quality evidence based guidance on which to base their practice. SIGN have indicated that the above NICE guidelines fit this criteria.

The Scottish Government is in the process of seeking the views of experts on the applicability of the NICE guidelines on Lyme disease for use in Scotland.

Question reference: S5O-02170

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to ambulance services.

Question reference: S5W-16471

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 22 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-16126 by Aileen Campbell on 1 May 2018, whether it will provide further details, other than the information on the websites highlighted, of the leaflets that are being printed and active campaign that is being run for (a) medical practitioners and (b) the public in each NHS board area.

Raising awareness of Lyme disease is an ongoing priority for the Lyme Borreliosis Group which is part of the Scottish Health Protection Network. In addition to producing educational materials for the public and medical practitioners, the group has run a number of sessions for Community Pharmacy Groups and in partnership with the local Health Protection Team, held a symposium on Lyme disease on Benbecula. The group continues to meet and discuss routes for raising awareness.

There are no plans to print leaflets as these are freely available to download from the Health Protection Scotland (HPS) website.

Question reference: S5W-16584

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-15984 by Shona Robison on 26 April 2018, what interventions for staff working with adults with ME are being considered and when these will be implemented.

As stated in the answer to question S5W-15984, postgraduate Medical training curricula are written by Medical Royal Colleges, approved by the General Medical Council. The training is delivered by territorial NHS Boards in clinical placement settings, also approved by the GMC.

All qualified healthcare practitioners have a professional obligation to undertake continuous professional development to meet identified learning and professional development needs. A range of interventions have been developed and are in place for staff working with adults with a range of health conditions including ME/CFS.

The Scottish Government have been working closely with Action for M.E. and have provided funding to the organisation to support project work aimed at making improvements in care for people with M.E. through increasing knowledge of the condition among health professionals and working to raise awareness, and promote self-management solutions.

Question reference: S5W-16384

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 15 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to support employers that employ people, including apprentices, with autism.

The Scottish Government is committed to reduce by more than half, the disability employment gap.

A number of specific actions, including those commitments undertaken since the launch of A Fairer Scotland for Disabled people in 2016 have been taken to support more disabled people into work including those with Autism. These include:-

Support through Scottish Employer Recruitment Incentive (SERI) and Community Jobs Scotland (CJS) for private and third sector employers to help more young people who face barriers to employment, including Autism.
Fair Start Scotland – our devolved employment service which will aim to support at least 38,000 people over 3 years of referrals. FSS commenced in April this year and disabled people are a specific priority group for support.
Putting in place the highest amount of Modern Apprenticeship Funding for disabled people up to the age of 29;
The launch by Skills Development Scotland of new digital guides for employers including the Employers’ Guide to Inclusive Recruitment
Funding for the National Autistic Society’s ‘moving forward’ programme from the CashBack for Communities funds, helps target the specific barriers faced by autistic people – a necessary step in the pursuit of meaningful employment. This includes but is not limited to, awareness training for employers.

We recognise more needs to be done. At a Congress on Disability Employment and the Workplace, the First Minister announced the publication later this year of a Disability Employment Action Plan. This will set out the Cross-Government actions we will take towards achieving our long term ambition for more disabled people to be able to enter and sustain employment. We will work with disabled people and their representative bodies to develop this plan. Those supporting people with learning disabilities or difficulties will be a key part of that engagement.

We also recognise the key role employers have to play in this, so an initial key action also announced at Congress was up to £1m for business engagement and support, providing ready access to support for employers to recruit and retain disabled people.

Question reference: S5W-16318

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many hectares and (b) what percentage of (i) privately- and (ii) publicly-owned land has been registered on the land register in each year since April 2014.

This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland. She advises me that that the total number of additional hectares registered in each year since April 2014 is as follows:

2014-15: 58,456

2015-16: 120,115

2016-17: 94,491

2017-18: 137,514

Applicants for registration are not required to provide information on whether the land in question is public or private sector and therefore information is not held on the percentage of public and private sector land respectively that has been registered since April 2014.

Question reference: S5W-16230

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 April 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to publish the findings of its research on improving the Energy Performance Certificate methodology to ensure that it works for all homes and, if so, when it will do so.

Question reference: S5W-16315

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 May 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many customers will see (a) an increase and (b) a decrease in their water charges as a result of the proposed changes that use rateable values assigned to non-household premises as part of the 2017 rates revaluation.

Question reference: S5W-16127

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 4 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) plans to adopt the latest National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines regarding Lyme disease and, if so, by what date.

Where there is no SIGN guideline on a particular topic, SIGN would expect healthcare professionals in Scotland to look for another high quality, evidence based guideline, such as the recently published NICE guideline on Lyme disease. This latest NICE guideline is a valuable publication, it is high quality and evidence based. Healthcare professionals in Scotland will be able to use this guideline to inform their current practice in the management of this condition.