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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-17991

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on private sector services to increase capacity in each NHS board in the last five years, in line with the methodology used in the Auditor General for Scotland’s report, NHS in Scotland 2015.

NHS Boards report private sector spending in their annual accounts and figures for the five years to 2016-17 are set out in the following table. Figures for 2017-18 will be available after the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts for 2017-18 have been signed off by the Auditor General for Scotland and laid in the Scottish Parliament. We expect this to be completed by the end of September.

NHS Boards make limited use of the independent and private sector for health care services and in 2016-17 private sector spend comprised 0.6% of total Health resource spending and decreased by £6.3 million compared to 2015-16.

Board/ Year	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Ayrshire & Arran	4,576	4,646	5,681	4,689	3,627
Borders	3,453	3,274	3,457	3,211	3,695
Dumfries & Galloway	6,774	6,109	6,188	4,394	2,556
Fife	5,299	2,736	2,385	2,090	1,994
Forth Valley	4,712	3,983	4,658	3,296	2,346
Grampian	6,331	4,922	6,680	7,886	4,067
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	15,451	13,829	12,494	17,146	20,433
Highland	2,671	3,748	4,855	3,536	4,084
Lanark	7,748	7,607	9,707	10,234	9,243
Lothian	14,840	16,626	17,845	12,192	9,578
Orkney	563	445	416	330	435
Shetland	116	186	243	288	153
Tayside	7,190	7,239	7,324	8,474	8,860
Western Isles	540	547	598	736	939
Territorial total	80,264	75,897	82,531	78,502	72,010
NHS Education for Scotland	3,189	3,197	2,561	3,238	3,444
National Waiting Times Centre	25	36	90	18	51
National total	3,214	3,233	2,651	3,256	3,495
Total	83,478	79,130	85,182	81,758	75,505

Question reference: S5W-17992

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans there are to rationalise NHS Grampian’s estate in the future.

The Scottish Government’s “Policy for Property and Asset Management in NHSScotland” [CEL 35 (2010)] requires all NHS Scotland bodies to have a Property and Asset Management Strategy (PAMS). The PAMS sets out how each board will strategically manage its assets to support effective service delivery including planning, acquisition, operation and disposal of assets.

NHS Grampian’s current PAMS is available online from:

http://foi.nhsgrampian.org/globalassets/foidocument/foi-public-documents1---all-documents/item10for01062017AssetManagmentPlan2017.pdf

Question reference: S5W-17990

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 17 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish an assessment of graduate apprenticeships.

Question reference: S5W-17999

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 17 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what communications it has had with NHS Grampian regarding the future of the Leanchoil Hospital in Forres.

We have not had any communication with NHS Grampian on the future of Leanchoil Hospital. Moray Integration Joint Board (IJB) is currently conducting a public consultation on reshaping older people’s services in the Forres area. We expect the IJB to ensure that any changes ensure modern, high quality care services that best support people to maintain their wellbeing and independence in their own communities.

Question reference: S5W-17989

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland would be consulted regarding potential mergers of any of the NHS boards for Grampian, Highland and Tayside.

Question reference: S5W-17996

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what consultation has taken place with NHS (a) Orkney and (b) Shetland ahead of closer operational relationships between the NHS boards, Grampian, Highland and Tayside, being implemented.

Question reference: S5W-17987

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what communications it has had with the NHS boards, Grampian, Highland and Tayside, regarding any proposals to merge them.

There has been no communication between Scottish Government and NHS Grampian, Highland or Tayside on proposals to merge their Boards.

We have no intention to reduce the number of Health Boards. Our focus is on strengthening collaborative working between NHS Boards and their partners through the regional planning and development of services. Each individual Health Board will retain final sign off on any proposals stemming from Regional Planning.

Question reference: S5W-17988

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what communications it has had with NHS (a) Orkney and (B) Shetland regarding potential mergers of any of the NHS boards for Grampian, Highland and Tayside.

Question reference: S5O-02268

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of Northern Isles transport connectivity.

Transport Scotland commissioned a comprehensive transport appraisal, in line with the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance, which involved exploring and assessing the specification of the next Northern Isles Ferry Services contract. The report was published on 25 April 2018.

Transport Scotland, in partnership with key stakeholders, jointly commissioned Inter-Island Transport Studies for Orkney and Shetland. The studies undertook a STAG appraisal across the Councils’ internal air and ferry networks and reports were published in late 2016.

I assigned Highlands and Islands Airports Limited the task of considering what air services in the Highlands and Islands could and should look like in the future. HIAL will shortly carry out a consultation seeking views on what their strategy should look like over the coming period.

Question reference: S5O-02149

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, 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 assessments it has conducted of passenger air links to Scotland’s island communities.