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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-30092

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 26 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it is making available to NHS boards for 2016-17.

Territorial boards have been given a general allocation increase of £474 million for 2016-17, an overall average increase over the 2015-16 allocation of 5.5 per cent. This includes investment of £250 million to be directed to health and social care partnerships, to ensure improved outcomes in social care and support integration.

Special boards’ baseline allocations have increased by 3.8 per cent.

Details of boards’ revenue resource and capital allocations for 2016-17 are provided in the following tables:

Revenue Resource:

	General	Total
	Allocation	Uplift
Territorial Boards	£ million	%
Ayrshire and Arran	669.0	5.3%
Borders	193.9	5.3%
Dumfries and Galloway	279.4	5.1%
Fife	604.3	5.1%
Forth Valley	485.2	5.1%
Grampian	882.3	6.6%
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	2,079.2	5.2%
Highland	577.5	5.0%
Lanarkshire	1,107.0	5.2%
Lothian	1,303.4	6.3%
Orkney	43.2	4.6%
Shetland	42.6	4.5%
Tayside	699.1	5.8%
Western Isles	66.6	4.6%
Total	9,032.6	5.5%
Special Boards
National Waiting Times Centre Board	46.5	1.3%
Scottish Ambulance Service	223.5	5.4%
NHS National Services Scotland	293.4	3.5%
Healthcare Improvement Scotland	15.5	2.2%
The State Hospital	34.3	0.3%
NHS 24	64.6	3.0%
NHS Education for Scotland	408.7	4.1%
NHS Health Scotland	18.2	1.0%
Total	1,104.7	3.8%

Capital Resource:

Territorial Boards	£ million
Ayrshire and Arran	8.3
Borders	2.4
Dumfries and Galloway	3.5
Fife	7.4
Forth Valley	6.1
Grampian	12.7
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	37.4
Highland	6.6
Lanarkshire	12.4
Lothian	23.5
Orkney	1.0
Shetland	1.0
Tayside	9.5
Western Isles	1.2
Total	133.0
Special Boards
National Waiting Times Centre	2.7
Scottish Ambulance Service	1.8
National Services Scotland	3.3
Healthcare Improvement Scotland	0.2
The State Hospital	0.3
NHS 24	0.3
NHS Education for Scotland	0.0
NHS Health Scotland	0.6
Total	9.2

In addition to the resource allocations, there will be recurring allocations of £28.9 million which will be applied to boards’ baseline budgets in 2016-17.

Further to the capital allocations above, a further £352.3 million held centrally will be used to support infrastructure investment across the sector. This includes the non-profit distributing programme to support the new Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, National Blood Transfusion Centre, and the replacement Balfour Hospital in Orkney.

Question reference: S4F-03260

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 February 2016

To ask the First Minister what progress the Scottish Government is making in reducing A&E waiting times.

Question reference: S4W-29236

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 January 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Derek Mackay on 12 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress regarding the 20-week closure planned for Glasgow Queen Street Station.

The Parliament is aware that the closure of the Queen Street Station High Level tunnel in March 2016 marks a further significant milestone in our £5 billion programme of investment in Scotland’s railway.

This major piece of engineering work will renew nearly two kilometres of 40 year old concrete slab track running through the tunnel, which once completed, will support the introduction of a new generation of larger, faster and greener electric trains on routes across Scotland’s Central Belt.

The tunnel works, being undertaken by Network Rail, require a 20 week programme of diversions for Queen Street High Level rail services between March to August 2016. To accommodate these diversions, services that normally run via Queen Street Low Level are also subject to amended timetables.

The ScotRail Alliance, drawing on the lessons learned from the successful completion of the Winchburgh Tunnel works earlier this year, has developed a coordinated timetable which will ensure that services are maintained and disruption is kept to a minimum.

I can also confirm that later today (12 January 2016), the ScotRail Alliance together with Transport Scotland are launching a coordinated communications campaign to fully inform passengers well in advance about the tunnel work and what it means for them.

The key point is that while longer journeys are inevitable, the railway remains open for business. The diversions to either the low level platforms in Queen Street or to Glasgow Central, allow the vast majority of customers to continue to travel to and from Glasgow by train. For Strathclyde area stations, ScotRail is working with commercial bus operators to ensure customers continue to have choices in how they travel.

We are also engaging with local businesses to make sure that their needs are met during this period. Tomorrow (13 January 2016) I will be meeting with business leaders, listening to their concerns and discussing measures to support them during the temporary timetable changes.

The temporary timetable is now available and enables customers to check their own journey online by selecting a travel date between 20 March and 8 August 2016.

Question reference: S4W-29101

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 December 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 23 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the legal challenge against minimum unit pricing.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has now provided its preliminary ruling. A copy can be found here:

http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=173249&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=586956

The case will now return to the Court of Session which will make its judgement in light of the ECJ preliminary ruling.

A further update will be provided after the Court of Session has concluded its consideration of the case.

Question reference: S4W-29076

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 December 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 18 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Framework for Action.

Question reference: S4O-05229

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports unpaid carers in Glasgow.

Question reference: S4O-04884

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4O-04863

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4O-04800

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it is seeking to enhance community optometry services in the Glasgow region.

Question reference: S4O-04739

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy last met the Chancellor of the Exchequer and what issues were discussed.