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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-33852

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the statement on page 65 of the final report of The Independent Review of Learning Disability and Autism in the Mental Health Act that "there is evidence that some psychotropic medication is being used in Scotland to manage behaviour rather than the purposes for which it was developed and approved".

Scottish Government are considering all 107 recommendations of the Independent Review of Learning Disability and Autism in the Mental Health Act in order to respond fully.

Preparations were underway to issue this response by April 2020 but this work was paused in March 2020 owing to the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Scottish Government continues to carefully consider the recommendations to better fulfil our obligation to promote and protect the human rights of autistic people and/or people with learning disabilities living in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-33413

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 20 September 2020, £1.1b for health and social care sector, whether it will provide a breakdown of how much of this funding (a) has been and (b) remains to be allocated and to which areas, also broken down by the specific allocation to rheumatology services.

The Scottish Government has confirmed additional funding of £1.1 billion to support the health and social care sector in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding, which has been allocated in full, provides support for the additional costs reported by Boards in responding to COVID-19, including additional staffing and equipment costs included in Local Mobilisation Plans.

Detail on funding for each NHS Board area is set out in response to question S5W-32107 on 29 September 2020. 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 .

It is for individual Boards and Integration Authorities to determine how best to use these resources to recognise local pressures and priorities. Detail on how this funding has been used to specifically support rheumatology services, and to supplement existing baseline spend on rheumatology services, would require to be requested from NHS Boards.

Further funding will be made available in the coming months to ensure that our frontline services continue to have the funding that they require.

Question reference: S5W-33243

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there are no patients among the 50 members of its Mobilisation Recovery Group.

The remit, membership and meeting notes of the Mobilisation Recovery Group (MRG) can be found on its webpage at: www.gov.scot/groups/mobilisation-recovery-group/ .

The MRG is an advisory group set up to generate key expert, stakeholder and system-wide input into decisions on resuming and supporting service provision, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the views and contributions of most MRG members will be both significantly informed and guided by a patient-centred approach, the Chief Executive of the ALLIANCE is specifically on the Group to represent the interests of service users. As part of this work, the ALLIANCE have engaged with communities to ensure a diverse range of perspectives and voices are heard and help to inform the work of the MRG.

The ALLIANCE are working in partnership with Healthcare Improvement Scotland's Community Engagement Team, delivering outreach consultation events and progressing the design and delivery of a Citizen's Panel Survey which will capture peoples lived experiences of health and social care during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify their priorities for future services. To date, 20 papershave been prepared and submitted to the MRG, with a final overall report on the findings of this work due for completion in January 2021. Copies of the ALLIANCE’s 'People at the Centre' updates are published at: https://www.alliance-scotland.org.uk/people-and-networks/people-at-the-centre-engagement-programme/updates-mobilisation-recovery-group/ .

Question reference: S5O-04778

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding a potential collaboration between its Youth Guarantee initiative and the UK Kickstart Scheme.

Question reference: S5O-04763

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the impact of the repeated postponement of court proceedings on the mental health of alleged victims, particularly of sexual crimes.

Question reference: S5W-32886

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 11 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports that rheumatology services are operating at between 30 to 50% of capacity; how it is (a) remobilising these services and (b) working to reduce (i) waiting times and (ii) any backlog in appointments, and what action it is taking to improve access to these services nationally.

We appreciate how difficult it has been for people who have had procedures or treatments postponed due to the pandemic. Putting the NHS on an emergency footing has meant the focus has initially been on urgent and essential care.

Health Boards are continuing to remobilise services in line with the ‘Remobilise, Recover and Re-design Framework’ which we published on 31 May. We remain committed to ensuring that the full range of services will be available as quickly as it safe to do so.

On 29 September the Scottish Government confirmed additional funding of £1.1 billion across NHS Boards and Social Care Partnerships to help them meet COVID-19 related costs and remobilisation of services.

Question reference: S5W-32885

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 11 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that everyone has equitable access to health care, no matter where they live.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has the right to safe and effective healthcare and treatment that is provided at the right time, in the right place, by the most appropriate person.

COVID-19 has highlighted and exacerbated inequalities that exist within our country. Earlier this year we published Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design: The Framework for NHS Scotland. This sets out how health boards will safely and incrementally prioritise the resumption of paused services. As we renew, we are committed to ensuring the health and social care support system is focussed on reducing health inequalities, producing models of care that are based on what matter most to the people of Scotland.

This commitment is also reflected in our Programme for Government which restates our renewed focus on tackling health inequalities and improving quality of life to promote lifelong health and wellbeing.

Question reference: S5W-32887

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 11 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what investment it is making in rheumatology services in the north of the country, in light of reports suggesting that the ratio of rheumatology consultants to people in this area is 1:142,857.

Question reference: S5T-02494

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that some NHS boards reduced COVID-19 testing for patients over 70 on the basis of guidance issued by the Chief Nursing Officer.

Question reference: S5O-04654

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to resolve the reported serious environmental issues arising from a lack of ongoing maintenance at Tarbolton Moss Landfill.