Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government has full responsibility for the franchise for both local government elections and also elections to the Scottish Parliament. In both elections, the franchise includes people resident in Scotland who are:

 - British Citizens; or

- Qualifying Commonwealth Citizens; or

- Citizens of the European Union.

Therefore, at present, non-UK EU nationals have the right to vote in Scottish elections and the Scottish Government intends that this will continue to be the position in future.

On 19 December 2017, the Scottish Government launched a public consultation on Electoral Reform. The consultation includes discussion around a proposal to further extend the franchise in Scottish elections to include everyone legally resident in Scotland. The consultation will run for 12 weeks until 12 March 2018.

The Scottish Government is proud of its record on dental services. The number of high street dentists providing NHS dental services continues to increase year-on-year and there are now 3,004 high street dentists in Scotland, compared to 2,261 in 2007. That is an increase of 33 per cent under this Government and an increase of 1.1 per cent since 2016.

The 9.5% decrease referred to the dental workforce category known as Hospital and Community Health Services Dentistry, part of which includes hospital dentists. The decrease in NHS Education for Scotland hospital dentists was due to a local data cleansing exercise which removed medical grades recorded for these staff. ISD are working with NHS Education for Scotland to address the issues ensuring locally uploaded data is available in the national database.

The answer to PQ. S5W-00357 contained specific information about Dudhope House that was available to the Government at the time due to dialogue with NHS Tayside on a separate issue. ISD do not hold this information and did not contribute to the answer to this PQ.

The answer to PQ S5W-12640 was agreed with ISD, and reflected that this data is not held centrally.

In answer to the latter half of this PQ, this data is not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-07440 on 7 March 2017. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-11532 on
9 October 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at

We are continuing to take forward work on our social isolation and loneliness strategy both across government and in collaboration with stakeholders and expect to publish for consultation in early 2018.

Yes. Our national strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness will recognise the links between loneliness and social isolation, and the importance of tackling both.

Our commitment to work on older people’s issues is underpinned by £490,000 of funding in the current financial year. This broadly maintains levels of total annual funding of around half a million pounds for work in this field over the last three years for several organisations.

We are continuing to fund SOPA to deliver its core role, which is to organise and deliver their National Assembly and at least one Parliamentary reception in 2017-18. We fully considered SOPA’s application for funding in addition to that, however their proposal largely focused on sustaining the infrastructure of the organisation rather than specific work to promote equality for older people.

I am meeting with Mr Cole-Hamilton and representatives of SOPA on 10 January and I welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue further with him then.

The information held centrally is not recorded at this level of detail. The number of clinical nurse specialists in post can be found on the workforce statistics web site https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2016-12-06/Clinical_Nurse_Specialists_S2016.xls. Note that this information is published annually in December.

We are working together with partners to improve the outcomes and support for people with rare diseases as outlined in the Implementation Plan 'It's Not Rare to Have a Rare Disease'. The Scottish Government cancer strategy 'Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action' complements the actions of the rare disease plan through its focus on early detection, diagnosis and treatment for all forms of cancer, including rare cancers.

I recognise the vital role specialist nurses play in patient care. That is why we are investing £2.5 million annually in specialist nursing and care.

I expect all NHS Boards to ensure that patients with conditions such as myeloproliferative neoplasms have appropriate access to a range of professionals, including specialist nurses, to ensure optimum management of their condition.