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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: S5W-07875

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many cancer specialists have been employed by each NHS board in each year since 2007.

It is not possible to accurately identify all staff defined as ‘cancer specialists’ – either wholly or as part of their role – from centrally held data due to the multi-disciplinary roles involved in the delivery of cancer services. NHSScotland Boards are expected to ensure that patients with specialist conditions have appropriate access to a range of professionals to enable optimum management of their condition.

Last year we published our five-year £100 million Cancer Strategy which sets out how we will improve patients’ access to cancer diagnosis and treatment. We have also committed to invest an extra £2.5 million of recurring funding in specialist nursing and care from 2015-16 onwards.

Further information on the NHSScotland workforce, including those staff involved in the delivery of cancer services, is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following link:- http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/data-tables2017.asp?id=1870#1870

Question reference: S5W-07884

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to provide access to proton cancer treatment in each NHS board.

We expect that every NHS Scotland patient who needs it has access to Proton Beam Therapy (PBT). PBT is highly specialised and available in only a few treatment centres globally. There are currently no NHS PBT centres in the UK and Scottish patients go to other European countries or the USA for PBT. Costs are covered by central NHS funding. Treatment referrals are agreed by a Scottish expert panel and subsequently by a UK panel. More information can be found from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/highly-spec-services/pbt/.

Question reference: S5W-07889

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many care-hours were delivered by each local authority in each year since 2005, and how this compares with the target for each year.

Question reference: S5W-07887

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many GPs in each NHS board have operated closed patient lists in each year since 1999.

The following number of practices were closed to new patient registrations in each NHS board:

Board/Year	Ayrshire and Arran, Borders, Fife, Forth Valley, Grampian, Highland, Lothian, Shetland, and Western Isles	Greater Glasgow and Clyde	Lanarkshire	Orkney	Tayside
1999	0	Not held	0	0	0
2000	0	Not held	0	0	0
2001	0	Not held	0	0	0
2002	0	Not held	0	0	0
2003	0	Not held	0	0	0
2004	0	1	0	0	0
2005	0	2	0	0	0
2006	0	4	0	0	0
2007	0	6	0	0	0
2008	0	5	0	0	0
2009	0	5	0	0	0
2010	0	3	0	0	0
2011	0	1	0	1	0
2012	0	1	1	1	0
2013	0	3	1	0	0
2014	0	3	1	0	0
2015	0	2	3	0	4
2016	0	8	5	0	10
2017	0	3	4	0	4

Circumstances will arise where a practice experiences capacity issues and is unable to routinely accept new patients onto its list. We expect Health boards to work with practices as constructively and as flexibly as is appropriate to help manage the situation and ensure that all patients have access to GP services.

Question reference: S5W-07877

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 20 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each local authority area are used in the evening for (i) sports and (ii) community use.

Question reference: S5W-07947

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report that the five GPs at the Deans and Eliburn Medical Practice in West Lothian have resigned; what discussions it has had with NHS Lothian about the future of the practice, and what support it can provide to help ensure that it has a sustainable future.

NHS Lothian will be taking over Deans and Eliburn Medical Practice from 1 April 2017 and will ensure that patients continue to receive a high standard of care.

NHS boards have various means of supporting independently contracted practices which request assistance. We expect Health boards to work with practices as constructively and as flexibly as is appropriate to ensure that all patients have access to GP services. The Scottish Government is aware of concerns around recruitment issues in Lothian and elsewhere in Scotland, these will be taken into account as the 2017 GMS contract negotiations go forward.

In 2017-18 we will invest £72 million in the Primary Care Fund to improve primary care and GP services. As part of this, £5 million will be invested in work to explore with key stakeholders the issues surrounding GP recruitment and retention. This is the first step to increase spending on Community Health Services by £500 million by 2021-22 so that it is at least £1,283 million. This commitment will mean that by 2021-22, for the first time, more than half of the NHS frontline spending will be in our Community Health Service.

Question reference: S5W-07885

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 17 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many new-build properties there have been in each local authority area since 1999, broken down by council tax band.

The Scottish Government publishes quarterly statistics on new build housing completions in each local authority area as part of the Housing Statistics for Scotland publications and web tables available at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS. The statistics are based on information collected from local authorities and the Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme database and do not contain detail on the council tax bands of new build properties.

Information on the total number of all-sector new build housing completions in each local authority area from 1999 Q1 to 2016 Q3, based on the latest data published on 14 March 2017, is provided in the following table.

Scotland	361,122
Aberdeen City	11,163
Aberdeenshire	24,553
Angus	6,122
Argyll & Bute	4,607
Clackmannanshire	3,696
Dumfries & Galloway	8,055
Dundee City	8,003
East Ayrshire	7,856
East Dunbartonshire	4,527
East Lothian	7,543
East Renfrewshire	4,021
Edinburgh, City of	30,450
Falkirk	11,232
Fife	24,008
Glasgow City	43,768
Highland	20,560
Inverclyde	5,175
Midlothian	6,908
Moray	7,318
Na h-Eileanan Siar	2,345
North Ayrshire	7,176
North Lanarkshire	21,131
Orkney	2,211
Perth & Kinross	11,687
Renfrewshire	10,258
Scottish Borders, The	8,986
Shetland	1,964
South Ayrshire	5,392
South Lanarkshire	23,774
Stirling	6,155
West Dunbartonshire	5,106
West Lothian	15,372

Source: Scottish Government Housing Statistics for Scotland, tables on new house building

Question reference: S5W-08191

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-07684

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06957 by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017, whether it will increase the amount of information held centrally in order to determine whether the SIGN guidance has led to a change in the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Question reference: S5W-07683

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06956 by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017, what its response is to the suggestion that it would be useful if information was held at NHS board level to allow for comparisons.

I refer to my answer S5W-07684 on 15 March 2017 which highlights the data available from NHS National Services Scotland. Additional data was collected locally for improvement and learning purposes as part of the VTE collaborative. The Scottish Government will remind NHS Boards of the availability of data from NHS National Services Scotland.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx