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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: S4F-01853

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2014

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about the number of families living below the minimum income standard.

Question reference: S4W-19222

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 23 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the 2013 report, Transforming Care: A national response to Winterbourne View Hospital, which examined the abuse of adults with learning difficulties at the hospital and what action it is taking to ensure that such adults in Scotland are not subject to similar abuse.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that lessons are learned from Winterbourne View Hospital. The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 has been in place since 2008 in Scotland and protects adults who are at risk of being harmed. The Act requires councils and a range of public bodies to work together to support and protect adults who are unable to safeguard themselves. Since Winterbourne, the Adult Protection Policy Forum is focussing on five national priority projects in order to reduce the risk of harm.

The Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland undertook a joint review to learn lessons from Winterbourne to identify any risks and take mitigative action here in Scotland.

The keys to life learning disability policy, has a number of recommendations which will improve the quality and consistency of support for people with learning disabilities focussing on outcomes. In addition it calls on all public bodies involved in providing support to those with learning disabilities to carry out equality impact assessments to ensure that the rights of people with learning disabilities to dignity, equality and non-discrimination are respected and upheld.

Question reference: S4W-19221

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 23 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has discussed with the Department for Health the recommendations of the 2013 report, Transforming Care: A national response to Winterbourne View Hospital, which examined the abuse of adults with learning difficulties at the hospital.

Question reference: S4W-19223

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 23 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many adults with learning difficulties there are in residential care homes.

Question reference: S4W-19147

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the mortality rate is for lung cancer patients and how it compares with the mortality rate for patients with other cancers.

The standardised mortality rates for lung cancer and other types of cancer are shown in the following table. This table shows the ten most common causes of deaths from cancer in 2012.

Table 1: Standardised mortality rates for the ten most common causes of death from cancer in Scotland 2012 (per 100,000 population):

Cancer Type	Number of deaths¹	Mortality Rate per 100,000 population²
Lung³	4,189	52.8
Colorectal	1,621	19.7
Breast⁵	1,071	13.0
Prostate⁵	881	23.6
Oesophagus	813	10.6
Pancreas	742	9.3
Stomach	494	6.1
Bladder	482	5.9
Liver⁴	431	5.5
Head and Neck	422	5.9

Based on date of registration of death.
Standardised rates are based on the 1976 European Standard Population.
Trachea, bronchus and lung cancer.
Liver and intrahepatic bile ducts.
The mortality rate for cancers that occur mainly or only in one sex (breast, prostate) are calculated using the population for only that sex.

Source: National Records of Scotland

Question reference: S4W-19153

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on the number of referrals of the recent advertising campaign with Sir Alex Ferguson under its Detect Cancer Early Programme.

The national Detect Lung Cancer Early campaign fronted by Sir Alex Fergusson was launched on 6 November 2013 and activity is still underway with a repeat phase of national social marketing running from 13 January 2014. The programme has been working with NHS boards to analyse the impact of the national and local campaigns on diagnostic demand and data on the lung campaign is currently being collated. £30 million has been made available to support the Detect Cancer Early programme and it is anticipated that NHS boards will use much of this funding to provide additional diagnostic capacity.

Question reference: S4W-19145

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many lung cancer patients are being treated by the NHS.

Question reference: S4W-19152

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position in on the recommendations in the report, Understanding the value of lung cancer nurse specialists.

The Scottish Government welcomes the report Understanding the value of lung cancer nurse specialists.

It is NHSScotland boards’ responsibility to plan and deliver services, including specialist nursing services, taking account of national priorities and local needs.

Scotland’s Chief Nursing Officer has asked nurse directors to consider the implications of recent reports on specialist nursing provision in order to share practice across boards and to help to identify areas where additional guidance or support from the Scottish Government may be useful.

Question reference: S4W-19150

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that NHS boards have a sufficient number of lung cancer specialist nurses and appropriately skilled nursing cover during absences.

The Scottish Government works closely with regional cancer networks and NHS boards to ensure there is the required workforce to meet current and anticipated increases in demand for oncology services.

However, it is for each NHS board to plan and deliver high quality, safe and sustainable services taking account of national and local priorities. This includes how best to utilise funding and deploy staff.

The Scottish Government has supported the development of nursing workload and workforce planning tools to inform decisions about nursing and midwifery establishments. Application of these evidence based tools, takes into account professional judgement and local context, and includes assumptions in relation to absence levels. The suite of available tools includes clinical nurse specialists. Application of the tools has been mandatory since April 2013, and all NHS boards are expected to use the tools to inform local nursing and workforce planning.

Question reference: S4W-19148

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what progress the Detect Cancer Early Programme has made on increasing the five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients.

The Detect Lung Cancer Early campaign fronted by Sir Alex Fergusson was launched on 6 November 2013, with a repeat phase of media marketing running from 13 January 2014.

It is too early to measure the impact of the programme on five-year survival rates for lung cancer. Capital and revenue has been made available to NHS boards to support an increase in diagnostic and treatment capacity. In addition Health Improvement Scotland are undertaking a review of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer which includes lung cancer. A series of primary care education sessions focussing on lung and colorectal cancers have also taken place.