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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-29394

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 25 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to S6W-28676 by Kate Forbes on 27 August 2024, what its position is on whether its answer represents a reversal of its previous position of considering changes to the Scottish Ministerial Code and the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, as recommended by the Hamilton Report in March 2021.

The Scottish Government set out in June 2021 its plan for implementing the recommendations of James Hamilton’s report, alongside the recommendations of the reports by Laura Dunlop QC and the Scottish Parliament Committee on the Handling of Harassment Complaints. Implementation was delivered through the Continuous Improvement Programme, which was reported regularly to the Scottish Parliament’s Finance and Public Administration Committee. The final report on the Continuous Improvement Programme was provided in January 2023, and with the agreement of the Committee, the programme was then concluded and activities were absorbed into ongoing work. In line with previous commitments, the Scottish Government considered matters relating to Special Advisors, including the Code of Conduct for Special Advisors, which is reserved to UK Government. The Scottish Government has no plans to ask the UK Government to make changes.

Question reference: S6W-29918

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure the sustainability of Rapid Diagnostic Cancer Services, in light of reported uncertainty around future funding, as highlighted in the final evaluation report by the University of Strathclyde.

As reflected in Scotland’s Cancer Strategy for Scotland, published June 2023, we are committed to “expanding and evaluating Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) to ensure population-based coverage”.

To date, we have five fully operational RCDSs across NHS Scotland, with our Programme for Government committing to establish a sixth service in 2024/25.

The University of Strathclyde’s independent evaluation provided an incredibly positive assessment of the Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Service innovation, as they are finding cancer faster.

The Scottish Government and the whole of the public sector faces a financial position that is extremely challenging. The utmost importance is placed on balancing the Scottish Government’s budget each financial year, and it is always necessary to ensure resources are used economically, efficiently, and effectively, and increased additional scrutiny is being applied to expenditure.

Despite financial pressures, colleagues in the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) continue to work with territorial health boards and regional networks across Scotland to embed the learning from the University of Strathclyde’s evaluation report and support them to develop full business cases.

Question reference: S6W-29736

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government to the Finance and Public Administration Committee on 3 September 2024, whether it will provide a full breakdown of the £27.7 million in budget savings that were listed under the category "other" in the Health and Social Care portfolio.

On the 3 September 2024, the Scottish Government pre-budget fiscal update outlined "other" savings measures of £27.7M in the Health and Social Care budget, with funding redirected to support emerging pressures within Health and Social Care, not used for wider SG spending.

The breakdown is as follows:

Health and Social Care	Total	Reprioritisation Description
Portfolio by Level 3 Budget	£m
Early Years	2.9	Savings made across budget lines including breastfeeding and young patient family fund. Also includes reprofiling and reducing planned activity on some smaller projects.
Active Healthy Lives	1.2	Reduced activity on programmes focussing on physical activity and diet and healthy weight.
Access Support	3.2	Emerging underspends following a review of anticipated funding requirements for 2024-25.
Corporate Support and Resilience	8.8	Includes a reduction in health emergency contingency budgets amd release of historical budget to support board pressures.
Other Board Services and Misc Income	9.2	Includes reprofiling of activity in relation to women's health, innovation Fellowship Scheme and reducing contingency funding for transvaginal mesh alongside one off savings in stock and pausing investment in digital trial developments within Health Research.
Other	2.3	A range of smaller savings including anticipated 5% savings of total budget for Sportscotland, underspends in e-Pharmacy and re-profiling of digital spend.
	27.6

Question reference: S6W-29919

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS (a) Fife, (b) Dumfries and Galloway, (c) Ayrshire and Arran, (d) Lanarkshire and (e) Borders regarding the future funding of Rapid Diagnostic Cancer Services.

Question reference: S6W-29154

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many thrombectomy patients have been treated at each of the thrombectomy hub centres in each of the last five years, also broken down by the number of patients who have been transferred in as part of the hub and spoke model.

The number of thrombectomy patients treated at each thrombectomy hub is shown in the following table.

Year	East of Scotland (Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh)	North of Scotland (Ninewells)	West of Scotland (Queen Elizabeth University Hospital)	NHS Scotland Total
2020	0	3	0	3
2021	15	14	0	29
2022	44	43	25	112
2023	62	46	20	128
2024	29	35	49	113

This data, provided by Public Health Scotland, reflects the position in the East and West of Scotland as of 31st July 2024 and the North of Scotland as of 31st August 2024.

Since 2020, 35 patients have been transferred to hub hospitals for thrombectomy.

Question reference: S6W-29162

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how NHS boards match demand for funded stroke beds with the flow of patients, and how many patients have been impacted by not having a fully funded stroke bed during their stay in each month in the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-29158

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, on average, what proportion of patients who survive a stroke are eligible for rehabilitation within NHS Scotland.

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.

A tool for collection of empirical data relating to stroke rehabilitation provision - including time to rehabilitation assessment, creation of rehabilitation plans, commencement of rehabilitation, input from various Allied Health Professional specialities and time to commencing community rehabilitation - has been developed. This tool is currently being trialled in two NHS Boards, with the aim of using this across Scotland and including this in the Scottish Stroke Care Audit once data collection has been assessed.

Question reference: S6F-03350

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-29156

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 12 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the projected savings will be as a result of thrombectomy being made available to all eligible patients, and how any savings will be used.

Question reference: S6W-29157

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 12 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will routinely provide details of stroke outcomes for stroke patients, in light of reported concerns that only information relating to mortality levels is provided in the Scottish Stroke Care Audit report.

The Scottish Government does not currently plan to provide overall outcome information beyond mortality.

A tool for collection of empirical data relating to stroke rehabilitation provision - including time to rehabilitation assessment, creation of rehabilitation plans, commencement of rehabilitation, input from various Allied Health Professional specialities and time to commencing community rehabilitation - has been developed. Data collection with this tool is currently being trialled in two NHS Boards, with the aim of using this across Scotland and including this in the Scottish Stroke Care Audit once data collection has been assessed.