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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: S6W-36142

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current arrangements are to allow pharmacists working in the community to access their patients’ clinical records; which records they can see, and whether they can amend records to include consultations and items prescribed by the pharmacist.

Community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians gained access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) on 2 October 2023. The ECS provides information on recent acute and repeat prescriptions and allergies. They also have access to the Key Information Summary (KIS) where available, which provides information about a person’s health issues, a carer’s name and contact details, preferences on how a person would like to be cared for, the treatment they would like and where they would like to be cared for.

In addition, several health boards are providing community pharmacists access to their clinical portal which provides additional clinical information. Clinical portals support Health Boards to allow healthcare professionals to access information about an individual, including in some cases those from other Health Boards when required, with their permission.

Community pharmacists can create, read and edit Pharmacy Care Records (PCRs) to record details of consultations they have undertaken (for example Pharmacy First consultations) as well as details of any items that have been prescribed and/or dispensed in their community pharmacy. The PCR also allows them to create a structured report which can be sent to any other healthcare organisation.

Question reference: S6W-36141

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its policy goals are for pharmacists working in the community in relation to being able to access full clinical records for patients in their care to ensure safe prescribing, and when it expects these goals to be met.

The Scottish Government is committed to collaborate with key partners across the NHS in Scotland to ensure that relevant information, with the appropriate safeguards in place, is available to all healthcare professionals, including community pharmacists, when and where they need it.

As community pharmacists expand their clinical role, there is an increasing need for them to have read/write access to clinical records to ensure that they can safely assess and agree a clinical management plan for a person and any associated actions or treatments can be viewed by other healthcare professionals involved in a person’s care, without any unnecessary delay.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has commissioned work to explore how read/write access to clinical records can be delivered incrementally.

Question reference: S6W-36143

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason pharmacists working in communities reportedly do not have full access to clinical records for people in their care.

Community pharmacists currently have access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) which provides information on recent acute and repeat prescriptions and allergies and the Key Information Summary (KIS) where available, which provides information about a person’s health issues, a carer’s name and contact details, preferences on how a person would like to be cared for, the treatment they would like and where they would like to be cared for. In addition, several health boards are providing community pharmacists access to their clinical portal which provides additional clinical information.

There are several barriers that currently make full access to clinical records difficult including the interoperability of the different IT systems used across the NHS and providing assurances on data protection and information governance requirements.

Question reference: S6W-36144

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to review the current reported restrictions on pharmacists working in the community having access to full clinical records for patients in their care to ensure safe prescribing.

Question reference: S6W-36035

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the delay in implementing the Fracture Liaison Service audit on the ability to (a) evaluate gaps in osteoporosis care and (b) prevent avoidable fractures.

The Public Health Scotland (PHS) scoping exercise of Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) across NHS Boards, and subsequent business case, identified a need for a Scotland-wide FLS audit. Scottish Government acted on these findings and commissioned PHS to implement a national FLS audit.

The audit will create high-quality, standardised data and consistency across NHS Boards in order to identify and evaluate gaps in osteoporosis care, preventable harm to drive improvements, support clinical decision-making and reduce health inequalities.

Whilst there was an initial delay regarding recruitment, this has now been completed and progress now continues at pace. We do not expect the initial set up delays to impact on the overall delivery and outcomes of the FLS audit.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-35534 on 21 March 2025 and S6W-36002 on 1 April 2025

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6O-04568

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what support is available to teachers who experience physical violence or verbal abuse in schools.

Question reference: S6O-04496

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of some teachers requesting self-defence classes due to the prevalence of violence in schools.

It is the Government’s understanding that Freedom of Information requests recently released by Scotland’s Councils found that only two teachers across Scotland have made this request, whilst fifteen other Councils that responded said no requests have been made.

Our approach is focused on creating safe and nurturing schools, prioritising prevention and de-escalation of distressed behaviour.

Teachers and pupil support staff should be supported through their school’s relationships and behaviour policy. Arrangements for de-escalation and support should be provided to them where situations do escalate.

This is a view shared by some of our teaching unions, including NASUWT and the SSTA.

Question reference: S6W-35233

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Scotland have (a) transfusion dependent thalassaemia and (b) sickle cell disease, also broken down by how many might be eligible for treatment with exagamglogene autotemcel, a gene-edited therapy manufactured in Scotland, if this was made available.

Question reference: S6W-35234

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, following the treatment, exagamglogene autotemcel, which is a gene-edited therapy manufactured in Scotland, being approved for use in England to treat (a) transfusion dependent thalassaemia and (b) sickle cell disease, what engagement it is having with the NHS and suppliers toward making this available in Scotland, also broken down by what date it will be made available to people eligible for it, if approved.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has received a submission through the Ultra-Orphan Pathway from the marketing authorisation holder, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, for exagamglogene autotemcel (Casgevy®) for the treatment of transfusion-dependent ß-thalassaemia in patients 12 years of age and older. A decision on whether Casgevy® is accepted on to the Ultra-Orphan Pathway for this indication will be published on the SMC website in due course.

The SMC has not yet received a submission from Vertex Pharmaceuticals for Casgevy® for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34796 on 25 February 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Question reference: S6O-04441

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress with the cladding remediation programme.