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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: S3W-30871

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason the Health Protection draft budget for 2010-11 has been reduced by £8.8 million, which is 24% less than the 2009-10 budget, as referred to on page 36 of Scotland’s Budget Documents 2010-11: Budget (Scotland) Bill Supporting Document.

Question reference: S3W-30877

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason the Healthy Start draft budget for 2010-11 has been reduced by £1 million, which is 10% less than the 2009-10 budget, as referred to on page 36 of Scotland’s Budget Documents 2010-11: Budget (Scotland) Bill Supporting Document.

Question reference: S3W-30868

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how the Health Screening budget as referred to on page 36 of Scotland’s Budget Documents 2010-11: Budget (Scotland) Bill Supporting Document, is distributed.

The breakdown is as follows:

Programme	£ Million
Cancer Screening	4.454
Pregnancy and Newborn Screening	2.346
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening	1.700

Question reference: S3W-30918

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing’s statement that she expected all 1.3 million people in the priority groups to have been offered influenza A (H1N1) vaccination by Christmas 2009 (Official Report c. 20608), for what reason there are patients in the at-risk groups still to be invited for vaccination by their GP.

Question reference: S3W-30919

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether pregnant women presenting for the influenza A (H1N1) vaccination can have the mercury-free cevlapan vaccine.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has given clear recommendation that both Celvapan and Pandemrix vaccines are safe for use in pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy. Both vaccines have been licensed for use in pregnant women by the European Commission and the European Medicines agency (EMEA).

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommend that pregnant women should be given Pandemrix as it provides adequate levels of antibodies following administration of one dose, thereby conferring more rapid protection than Celvapan which requires two doses a minimum of three weeks apart.

Supplies of the Celvapan vaccine are limited therefore these are being reserved primarily for at-risk people with severe allergic reaction to egg products. Pandemrix is manufactured in hens eggs therefore is unsuitable for people with egg allergies, Celvapan does not contain egg products therefore is suitable for people with egg allergies.

Question reference: S3W-30936

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, following the announcement by HM Government of £20 million for the Thalidomide Trust to support survivors of the effects of the drug, thalidomide, whether it plans to provide an equivalent contribution for survivors in Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-30920

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive when all children aged nought to five will have been offered the influenza A (H1N1) vaccination and what the uptake has been to date.

The second phase of the H1N1 vaccination programme, offering vaccination to all children over six months and under five years, has commenced and will continue over the coming weeks. We anticipate that this will be completed by mid-February with mop up activity continuing until the end of February.

Uptake figures for the second phase of the programme are not available at this early stage and will become available as the programme progresses.

Question reference: S3W-30649

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will establish a forum to consider the affordability of water for low-income households.

No. The Scottish Government consulted on its policy on water and sewerage charges in 2008 for the 2010-15 period. Policy was subsequently set out in the Scottish Government''s Principles of Charging Statement which was published on 27 October 2009.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30648 on 26 January 2010 for further details of that policy. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S3W-30644

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much Scottish Water charged for domestic water consumption in 2008-09, also broken down by property valuation band.

The total value of unmeasured household charges (water and sewerage) billed for 2008-09 is £710.36 million (at end October 2009).

Unmeasured charges for individual households in 2008-09 were as follows:

Council Tax Band	A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
Water	£99.00	£118.80	£138.60	£158.40	£178.20	£217.80	£257.40	£297.00	£356.40
Waste Water	£111.85	£134.22	£156.59	£178.96	£201.33	£246.07	£290.81	£335.55	£402.66
Both Services	£210.85	£253.02	£295.19	£337.36	£379.53	£463.87	£548.21	£632.55	£759.06

Households may receive up to 25% discount on the above charges depending on their circumstances.

Question reference: S3W-30689

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what work is being conducted by the Scottish Medicines Consortium with the National Medicines Utilisation Unit, the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland and other stakeholders to improve knowledge on the use of medicines across NHS Scotland.

In 2006, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) commissioned the National Medicines Utilisation Unit (NMUU) to explore how SMC has impacted on and engaged with its key stakeholders and to examine how SMC advice has shaped medicines use across NHSScotland. This work was completed in September 2008 and a summary and full reports can be accessed at:

http://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk/smc/3865.21.26.html.

In response to the findings, the SMC made the following recommendations in relation to improving knowledge on the use of medicines within NHSScotland:

SMC will consolidate existing work with agencies such as the Information Services Division and NHS National Services Scotland to explore the feasibility and benefit of routinely monitoring the uptake of SMC advice and the publication of this information regularly to interested stakeholders. This will use the information to NHSScotland on the prescribing and use of medicines in secondary care available through the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database.

SMC will continue to work with ISD to develop systems to assess uptake of new medicines. A priority may be those medicines included in the SMC horizon scanning report Forward Look subsequently accepted by SMC. Again, this work will use the information to NHSScotland on the prescribing and use of medicines in secondary care available through the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database.

SMC is currently collaborating with ISD to take these recommendations forward. Discussions are also taking place regarding further work to evaluate the impact of SMC advice.

In addition, in relation to the framework being put in place for the assessment of patient access schemes (PAS), consideration is being given to processes to support monitoring of uptake of these medicines.