Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-33511

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of a reported shortage of school crossing patrol staff in Edinburgh; what discussions it has had with the City of Edinburgh Council about this, and what support it can provide to help the council address any shortage.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to promote road safety and take steps to both reduce and prevent accidents and safeguard children on the way to school. We have grant funded Sustrans to run its Safer Routes To Schools programme which builds safer infrastructure to and around schools to encourage more cycling to schools by both teachers and pupils. Deciding what funding is made available for school crossing patrol staff is a matter for the City of Edinburgh Council.

Question reference: S5W-33519

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32165 by Michael Matheson on 20 October 2020, whether a decision has been made on the development of Hillend junction, and, if not, when a decision is expected to be made.

We are continuing to analyse a number of options around signalisation and prohibition of movements in order to understand the wider impacts of this on the surrounding local and trunk road network. This is a complex task, which aims to balance the need to reduce conflict at this location along with minimising any reduction in operational performance of the A702 corridor. It is expected that this work will be concluded in summer 2021.

Question reference: S5W-33490

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 8 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider funding the business degree programme at West Lothian College, in light of the support from Napier University being withdrawn.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) allocates funding announced in the SG Scottish Budget to each institution on an annual basis. With the exception of any controlled subjects, it is then the responsibility of each institution to determine how best to utilise their funding allocation and determine their own curriculum offer and course provision in line with the economic needs of their region.

Ministers recognise that the withdrawal of funding from the business degree programme at West Lothian has caused concerns for students and have brought these to the attention of the SFC. Edinburgh Napier University has stated that it remains committed to delivering and growing its articulation routes and partnership working including with West Lothian College in line with previous Outcome Agreements with the Scottish Funding Council.

Question reference: S5W-33443

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 7 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been hired or seconded to work with the Clinical Priorities Unit on policy on chronic pain and other related long-term conditions; which third sector organisations have been involved; what the cost of the (a) salaries and (b) other expenses have been, and who the team leaders on policy have been in each year since 2011.

The Clinical Priorities Unit currently has six people seconded at B2 and B3 salary bands to deliver policy on chronic pain and other long-term conditions. A number of the secondments are from third sector organisations: Action for ME, Versus Arthritis, Children's Hospices Across Scotland, British Heart Foundation and, the Alliance.

Disclosing salaries and names of team members would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Policy responsibility sits with the Healthcare Quality and Improvement Division.

Question reference: S5W-33476

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to ensure that antipsychotic drugs are not given to older people in care homes or hospitals as a chemical restraint.

The Scottish Government’s Standards of Care for Dementia set out standards for the prescribing, use and review of psychoactive medications across all care settings. Such medication should be prescribed following appropriate individual clinical assessment and consultation with families and only after all other alternatives, including therapeutic interventions, have been explored. The Scottish Government funds two national dementia workforce programmes to support implementation of the standards.

In September, the Scottish Government produced a communication on psychoactive medication prescribing and review which was circulated by Care Inspectorate to care providers. This communication summarised and reinforced current guidance on the prescribing and review of psychoactive medication for people with dementia across all care settings.

Question reference: S5W-33520

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32413 by Michael Matheson on 29 October 2020, what issues have been raised in correspondence regarding the Spaces for People initiative.

Question reference: S5W-33477

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 3 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any evidence or studies that indicate that the use of antipsychotic drugs in older people can suppress their immune system.

Clinical staff will always make individual clinical decisions and will assessments on prescribing antipsychotic medication based on patient risk factors, benefits and existing conditions.

The Scottish Government’s Standards of Care for Dementia set out standards for the prescribing, use and review of psychoactive medications across all care settings. Such medication should be prescribed following appropriate individual clinical assessment and consultation with families and only after all other alternatives, including therapeutic interventions, have been explored.

The risk of blood disorders (leukopenia/neutropenia/agranulocytosis) which involve a reduction in the number of white blood cells involved in the immune response is a recognised adverse drug reaction for antipsychotic medicines. A reduction of these blood cells can lead to an impaired immune response and an increased risk of infection. The risk of blood disorders when using antipsychotic medicines applies to all patients taking these medicines regardless of their age.

A list of the recognised side effects for every antipsychotic medicine is provided in the product information which accompanies the medicine. This includes the product’s Summary of Product Characteristics for healthcare professionals and a Patient Information Leaflet. The product information for each antipsychotic medicine can be found on the electronic Medicines Compendium website at www.emc.medicines.org.uk .

Question reference: S5W-33134

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 3 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it is assessing what impact service changes such as virtual GP consultations are having on cancer diagnoses.

The use of Near Me has grown rapidly since March, with over 18,000 consultations now taking place each week. This has grown from around 300 per week pre-covid. Near Me was a Programme for Government commitment and we want to continue to build on this success. We also recently undertook a public engagement exercise on the use of Near Me where we had important patient views as well as positive engagement with MacMillan, Marie Curie and Hospices across Scotland who gave helpful insights into where video consultations worked very well and also where face to face or phone was preferable. The summary report can be found here - https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-clinician-views-
video-consultation-executive-summary/pages/1/

Continued engagement with key partners and with the public will continue to be important on how we deliver this service.

Near Me was developed with patients and clinicians so that it is as easy to use as possible for as many people as possible, though it won’t be for everyone and we will always ensure that a face to face or telephone appointment is available to those who need them. It also offers other benefits including reducing the need to travel and therefore helping the environment.

Question reference: S5O-04843

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to upgrade the Edinburgh City Bypass.

Question reference: S5W-33187

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to recruit retired (a) nurses, (b) doctors and (c) other NHS workers to help with the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccination delivery programme.

We are actively identifying doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and support services staff, who had expressed their interest in returning to service via the NHS Scotland Accelerated Recruitment Portal, to assist with the forthcoming Covid-19 vaccinations programme.

Additionally the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer have written jointly to professional regulators to seek assistance with identifying further suitably qualified personnel who may be on the temporary or emergency registers. We remain in active dialogue with both the regulators and with health boards, in order that they can now take forward appropriate additional recruitment from within these pools.

We will take a sustainable approach to assessing the ongoing workforce and workload requirements associated with the programme. This includes supporting boards to take forward new temporary and permanent recruitment, and working with primary care, pharmacy, dentistry and optometry colleagues who all have a significant contribution to make. Further we are working across the public sector, with local authority partners and with the military, to ensure we have the right end-to-end logistics and delivery infrastructure, as we take forward the largest vaccination programme ever delivered in Scotland.

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