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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: S6W-07673

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people are currently waiting for a neurodivergent assessment as part of a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting list.

This data is not centrally available; aggregated data for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Waiting Times is sent to Public Health Scotland (PHS) from each NHS Board. It does not contain explicit information on the type of assessment or treatment children and young people are waiting for. It reports on the number of referrals for young people to CAMHS; numbers waiting to start treatment and total waiting; not accepted for treatment from referral and Did Not Attend status numbers for 1st contact appointments; and the time between referral and first treatment.

The CAMHS statistics capture children and young people who meet the CAMHS criteria. Children and young people who are waiting for a neurodevelopmental assessment but do not meet the CAMHS criteria are not reported in these statistics.

PHS are developing a patient-level dataset to provide detail for these aggregate CAMHS statistics. This Child, Adolescent and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) will contain reason for referral to CAMHS, which will include assessments for neurodevelopmental support needs where this is included in the care plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with Boards to implement the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People, published in September 2021, which specifies service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-07672

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported calls from the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition for a radical transformation of mental health services for children and young people, including investment in specialist services and a renewed focus on prevention and early intervention, and how it is addressing these issues.

As part of the Scottish Government’s 2021-22 Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, we allocated an additional £40 million to NHS Boards to improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and to clear waiting list backlogs by March 2023. We are also continuing to work directly with Health Boards with the poorest performance to ensure the 18 week waiting time standard is met.

As set out in the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, we are taking a whole systems approach to improving children and young people’s mental health. Alongside investing in acute CAMHS, we are ensuring community services and school counselling are also available in a responsive and timely manner. We are developing responses to young people experiencing crisis and distress, as well as investing in approaches that promote prevention, early intervention and reducing stigma.

To support this approach, an additional £15 million was provided to local authorities in 2021-22, with the same amount being provided again in 2022-23, to deliver locally based mental health and wellbeing support for 5-24 year olds in their communities, providing alternative treatment options focussed on prevention and early intervention. We have also ensured access to counselling support services in all secondary schools.

This package of commitments is designed to ensure the right help is available, in the right place, at the right time. This additional investment will contribute towards delivering our commitment to ensure that, by the end of this Parliament, at least 10% of frontline NHS spend goes towards mental health, with 1% going towards CAMHS.

Question reference: S6O-00959

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Veterans Commissioner's most recent report on the health and wellbeing of veterans.

Question reference: S6W-07488

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase the number of experienced lung cancer nurse specialists who are Band 7 or above.

The National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care was published on 11 March. It is designed around the strategic objectives which support recovery, growth and transformation of health and social care services. Through the plan we have committed to modelling a sustainable cancer workforce. This work will be taken forward by a subgroup of the National Cancer Recovery Group.

Alongside the work on the National Workforce Strategy, a short life working has been established to review immediate pressures on oncology services and identify measures needed to ensure we have a sustainable and resilient oncology service across Scotland. This group is chaired by our Senior Medical Officer and is reporting directly to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care.

Question reference: S6W-06742

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how young people aged 12 to 17 can evidence a positive COVID-19 test and subsequent recovery from the condition for foreign travel purposes, in light of the NHS Scotland COVID Status app being unavailable to this age group and that a hard copy vaccination status letter reportedly does not include details of COVID-19 status.

Anyone who is not able to use the app, including children, can obtain a paper vaccination certificate from the NHS Inform website or our COVID Status Helpline on 0808 196 8565 . We are currently developing a way to issue paper certificates for proof of recovery, which is evidence of a positive PCR test; and an age-appropriate way to provide digital access to Covid Status for children. In the meantime people who cannot use the app can show proof of their recovery status using the email or text messages that notifies them of a positive PCR test.

Question reference: S6W-06886

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided toward research on whether microemboli are the cause of long Covid, including researching the (a) detection methods of these particles and (b) associated treatments and, if no such funding has been provided, whether it will consider doing so.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office (CSO) launched a call for Rapid Research in COVID-19 on 25 March 2020 and a second call specifically addressing longer-term effects of COVID-19 infection on 5 October 2020. Following independent expert review, 65 projects were funded in total, 56 through the Rapid Research programme and 9 through the long COVID call.

None of the projects specifically address microemboli and long COVID. Many of the projects are still active and include research on vascular aspects of COVID-19.

The full list of funded projects is available from the CSO website

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/covid-19-research/

The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committees each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website.

Grant Funding – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

Applications looking at links between microemboli and long COVID may be submitted to the CSO funding committees. In common with all other applications, these would go through the CSO's standard independent peer review process.

Question reference: S6W-06297

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to promote early diagnosis of kidney disease.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living with kidney diseases are able to access the best possible support and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care. We expect NHS Boards to adhere to current guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment options from authorative sources such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the UK Kidney Association (UKKA).

In Scotland we are at the forefront of using service and performance data to improve care and diagnosis of kidney disease. This includes the work of the Scottish Renal Registry which reports on patients receiving renal replacement therapy and promoting excellence in renal care in Scotland through best practice audits.

The National Cancer Quality Steering Group (NCQSG) has responsibility for the development and oversight of tumour specific national quality performance indicators (QPIs) to measure the quality of care for patients, this includes a set specifically for renal cancers.

We have also invested in research which is intended to inform new approaches for earlier diagnosis of kidney disease through the Scottish Chief Scientist Office: Kidney function and cancer risk: An analysis using creatinine and cystatin C in a cohort study (nih.gov) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8413238/ .

Question reference: S6W-06213

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates the UK National Screening Committee will make a decision and confirm its position on targeted lung cancer screening that could take place in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-06212

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31534 by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 September 2020, whether it will provide an update on the development of a protocol for NHS boards that wish to undertake pilot programmes for lung cancer screening, in light of this being planned following the Scottish Screening Committee meeting in November 2019.

Question reference: S6W-06214

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to expedite a decision and position from the UK National Screening Committee on targeted lung cancer screening that could take place in Scotland, in light of this being under review since February 2020.

As we anticipate a decision from the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) in the coming months, we have no current plans to expedite this. This is a complex matter and it is important that time is taken to evaluate all available evidence. The Scottish Government has, however, provided funding to the University of Edinburgh to support an exploratory piece of research into the feasibility of the introduction of lung health checks within Scotland and it is hoped that the findings will support the evidence base being considered by the NSC.