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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: S4W-19611

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 4 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government which medical directors responded to the letter on the prevention and management of venous thromboembolism by the Chief Medical Officer's deadline of 17 January 2014, and which did not.

Responses were received from NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and NHS Highland within the original deadline.

The matter has been followed up with the Boards that have not yet responded. In Board areas more than 200 clinical areas are implicated in the exercise, so it will inevitably take some time to firstly process the relevant data to confirm that the venous thromboembolism materials have been adopted in all areas, and secondly to have responses approved by the appropriate management committees.

Question reference: S4W-19638

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 4 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many people investigated by NHS Counter Fraud Services have been subject to confiscation of criminal assets procedures in each of the last five years, and what amounts were recovered that were related to NHS fraud.

The number of people investigated by NHS Counter Fraud Services who have been subject to confiscation of criminal asset procedures in each of the last five years is shown in the following table:

	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
Number of Investigations	15	20	4	6	6

The amount of funds recovered by NHS Counter Fraud Services relating to NHS fraud in each of the last five years broken down into investigations and patient exemption checks (i.e. checks on patients’ entitlement to receive NHS services free of charge) is as follows:

	Investigation Recoveries (£)	Patient Exemption recoveries (£)	Total Recoveries (£)
2008-09	104,325	244,385	348,710
2009-10	317,906	181,699	499,605
2010-11	15,477	208,212	223,689
2011-12	42,368	254,000	296,368
2012-13	19,664	347,908	367,572

Question reference: S4W-19769

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm that Practitioner Services Division will not pursue the estate of deceased dentists for debts that arose because of problems with the Management Information and Dental Accounting System.

Question reference: S4W-19764

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported problems with the Management Information and Dental Accounting System and whether it considers it fit for purpose.

<>On the matter of duplicate registrations I refer the member to the answer given to question S4W-19485 on 20 February 2014. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Management Information and Dental Accounting System (MIDAS) was implemented in 1999 and since then has processed tens of millions of claims and managed the payment of hundreds of millions of pounds to dentists in Scotland.

We are assured by Practitioner Services Division that they continue to meet the strict operational targets which are in place for MIDAS. Payments managed by MIDAS are subject to regular internal and external audit. These provisions are in place to ensure that MIDAS is operating within the required accuracy and timeliness performance measures.

Question reference: S4W-19610

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what models of vehicles are used for official government transport.

The makes and models of all pool and ministerial vehicles used in the Scottish Government fleet are listed in the following table:

Make	Model
BMW	520D
Citroen	Berlingo
Citroen	Relay
Ford	Focus
Ford	Ranger
Ford	Tourneo
Ford	Transit
Ford	Transit connect
Honda	Civic
Iveco	Eurocargo
Land rover	Defender
Land rover	Discovery Commercial
Lexus	GS 450h
Lexus	RX 450h
Mercedes	Axor
Mitsubishi	L200
Mitsubishi	Shogun
Nissan	Leaf
Nissan	Navara
Nissan	NV200
Nissan	Xtrail
Peugeot	508 RXH
Peugeot	e-Monarch
Peugeot	e-Expert
Skoda	Fabia
Skoda	Octavia
Skoda	Superb
Toyota	Hilux
Toyota	Prius
Vauxhall	Astra
Vauxhall	Combo
Vauxhall	Corsa
Vauxhall	Vectra

Question reference: S4W-19762

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the original Practitioner Services Division GP17 forms to dentists who have been asked to pay back overpayments because of problems with the Management Information and Dental Accounting System and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S4W-19765

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when the Community Health Index of patient identification was introduced by the NHS; when it was first included in the dental payment system, and what the reason was for any delay in introducing it to dental payments system.

Question reference: S4W-19761

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many dentists have been asked to pay back overpayments that arose because of problems with the Management Information and Dental Accounting System (MIDAS) and, in light of such problems reportedly arising over an eight-year period, for what reason some dentists have been asked to repay within six weeks, and what proportion of dentists this represents.

A total of 2,131 dentists are included in the process for repaying overpayments.

We expect the first recoveries to be made in March 2014. We have instructed Practitioner Services to make these recoveries at the same time as backdated payments to dentists for the 2013-14 pay award. This will help mitigate the financial impact of the recovery process.

The precise mechanics of the recovery process is a matter for Practitioner Services, however we are not aware of any dentists being asked to repay within six weeks.

Question reference: S4W-19766

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what processes to identify duplicate registrations were put in place when the NHS introduced continuous registration; whether it considers that these were fit for purpose, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S4W-19767

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much Practitioner Services Division is paying collection agencies to recover debts from dentists arising because of problems with the Management Information and Dental Accounting System.