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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-10616

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any differences between the figures for patients registered with an NHS dentist provided by Information Services Division Scotland and those provided by NHS boards.

The official statistics on NHS dental registration and participation are published in January of each year by Information Services Division (ISD).

The Scottish Government has been made aware of a discrepancy between the official statistics for the Western Isles and figures provided by the Board as a result of a freedom of information request.

ISD have been notified of the discrepancy and intend to include revised registration and participation figures in the next publication of the official statistics due for release in January 2018.

Question reference: S5W-10617

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many dental patients’ registrations have been placed in abeyance, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-10614

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what treatment is available to dental patients whose registration has been placed in abeyance.

Patients whose registrations have been placed in abeyance can access either emergency and/or occasional treatment. Treatments available as occasional treatment include:

assessment of, and giving of advice to, a patient;
a radiological examination;
the extraction of deciduous or permanent teeth;
the repair and refixing of inlays, crowns and bridges, including, where immediately necessary, the provision of temporary crowns;
the replacement, repair or alterations of dentures or other dental appliances.

This list is not exhaustive and a full list of available treatments is set out in paragraph 18(2) of Schedule 1 of the NHS (General Dental Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2010.

Question reference: S5W-10615

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of unmet demand for registration with an NHS dentist, broken down by NHS board.

The responsibility for the overall provision of NHS dental services in an area rests with the NHS Board.

There are now over 4.9 million people registered with a NHS dentist, a record figure and we have also seen an unprecedented increase in the numbers of dentists providing NHS dental services, up 35 per cent under this government.

However we recognise that there are parts of Scotland where access continues to be challenging, mainly in remote areas and island communities. For this reason we have targeted the Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) and Recruitment and Retention Allowances at these areas. For example the funding available through the SDAI is for those dentists wishing to establish new, expand or purchase existing NHS dental practices in areas of unmet patient demand. On the basis of assessments made by NHS Boards, the following areas are currently included within the SDAI grant scheme:

Grantown, Invergordon, Nairn, and Wick within NHS Highland;
NHS Shetland;
Isle of Lewis within NHS Western Isles.

Question reference: S5W-10618

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether dental patients whose registrations have been placed in abeyance are included in Information Services Division Scotland statistics, and, if so, what impact would excluding them have on figures for the proportion of the population registered with an NHS dentist, broken down by NHS board.

Patients placed in abeyance are included in the official NHS dental registration and participation statistics published by Information Services Scotland (ISD).

The following table shows the number (and percentage) of people registered with NHS General Dental Services, as at 31 March 2017, and the impact on these figures, excluding those people in abeyance:

Patients registered with NHS General Dental Services, as at 31 March 2017; by NHS Board of patient

All Patients

Excluding Registrations

in Abeyance

NHS Board	Number	% of population	Number	% of population
Scotland	4,974,136	92.0	4,930,121	91.2
Ayrshire & Arran	350,333	94.5	349,233	94.2
Borders	93,572	81.7	93,146	81.3
Dumfries & Galloway	131,350	87.9	130,807	87.5
Fife	321,328	86.8	317,004	85.6
Forth Valley	278,342	91.4	276,052	90.7
Grampian	463,613	78.8	460,231	78.3
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	1,107,036	95.3	1,100,230	94.7
Highland	263,889	82.0	254,043	78.9
Lanarkshire	614,642	93.6	612,499	93.3
Lothian	776,382	88.2	773,724	87.9
Orkney	17,109	78.3	16,737	76.6
Shetland	20,641	89.0	20,611	88.8
Tayside	364,484	87.7	363,291	87.4
Western Isles	22,154	82.4	17,197	63.9
Unknown	149,261	n/a	145,276	n/a

Source: ISD Scotland

Background notes

1. Registrations in abeyance are those with a dentist that resigned on or before 31^st March 2017.

2. Dentists have up to 3 months following the completion of treatment to submit claims. Some forms may be still to be admitted which may affect registration and attendance data.

The effect across Scotland is marginal with around 44,000 patients out of a total count of approximately 4.97 million affected (0.9 per cent).

Question reference: S5W-10683

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the need for pill testing at festivals and venues.

Question reference: S5W-10681

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 31 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the number of anti-depressant prescriptions issued in each of the last three years by each NHS board.

This information is available in Medicines for Mental Health, Years 2004-05 - 2015-16 data, published online by Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland at http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and-medicines/Publications/data-tables.asp?id=1753#1753.

In addition, the Scottish Government has published Key Information on the use of Antidepressants in Scotland which can be found online at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0045/00456540.pdf.

Question reference: S5O-01207

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can offer to companies affected by the downturn in the North Sea oil and gas industry that are not based in the north east.

Question reference: S5W-10622

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 30 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report, Proposal for Additional Control Measures on Domestic Cat Ownership in Scotland as a Conservation Action to Protect the Scottish Wildcat, by Anna Meredith.

Question reference: S5W-10623

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 30 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it gathers on the number of domestic cats in Scotland, and what impact reported increases in this number will have on (a) pet cats and (b) the long-term future of the Scottish wildcat.

Free-ranging domestic cat numbers are being monitored in wildcat priority areas through survey work conducted by Scottish Wildcat Action. This survey work is too recent to establish whether there have been changes in the domestic cat populations in those areas. The Scottish Government is unaware of any historic long-term data on domestic cats of sufficient quality to allow assessment of population trends in Scotland and it is difficult to predict what effect an increased domestic cat population would have on pet cats.

One of the main threats to Scottish wildcat is hybridisation with domestic cat, with survey work and genetic analysis confirming widespread hybridisation. An increase in the domestic cat population within the range of the wildcat could result in a corresponding increase in the risk of further hybridisation with wildcats.