Seòmar agus comataidhean

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

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 3568 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-00925

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many paediatricians work in NHS Scotland, broken down by board.

As at March 2016, there were 918.9 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) staff working in Paediatrics Specialties in NHS Scotland – a 30.4 per cent increase under this government. This includes a 78.9 per cent increase in paediatric consultants.

Information on the number of WTE medical staff (all grades) working within paediatrics specialties, broken down by NHS Scotland board as at March 2016, is published by Information Services Division Scotland and included in the following table:

Scotland	918.9
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	38.3
NHS Borders	13.5
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	19.6
NHS Fife	44.1
NHS Forth Valley	38.4
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	314.6
NHS Grampian	86.9
NHS Highland	25.3
NHS Lanarkshire	60.4
NHS Lothian	198.9
NHS Orkney	-
NHS Shetland	0.3
NHS Tayside	76.9
NHS Western Isles	1.0
NHS Education for Scotland	0.6

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System.

NOTE:

Paediatrics specialties included are: paediatrics, paediatric cardiology, paediatric surgery and paediatric dentistry.

Question reference: S5W-00926

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 18 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many care home places there are, broken down by (a) NHS board area and (b) whether they are in the (i) private or (ii) public sector.

The number of registered care home places there are, broken down by (a) NHS board area and (b) whether they are in the (i) private or (ii) public sector is set out in the following table:

REGISTERED CARE HOME PLACES

Source: Scottish Care Home Census, snapshot at 31 March 2015 (table 4)

	Local authority / NHS Sector	Private Sector	Voluntary Sector
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	94	3,111	277
NHS Borders	159	524	121
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	3	973	267
NHS Fife	368	2,571	115
NHS Forth Valley	293	1,583	269
NHS Grampian	344	3,371	815
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,048	6,623	1,734
NHS Highland	316	2,021	357
NHS Lanarkshire	399	3,950	430
NHS Lothian	934	3,526	905
NHS Orkney	114	0	4
NHS Shetland	142	0	16
NHS Tayside	328	3,273	431
NHS Western Isles	138	40	39
Scotland	4,680	31,566	5,780

Question reference: S5W-00922

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 18 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been given methadone prescriptions in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

In October 2015, Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland published analysis of individuals on methadone based on those prescriptions with a valid Community Health Index (CHI) number. This analysis was published on the ScotPHO website, and can be accessed here, with the caveat that due to sub-optimal CHI capture rates, the estimates should be regarded as a minimum count of individuals on methadone hydrochloride in Scotland. The results of this analysis were:

In 2014-15, methadone 1mg/ml solution was prescribed at least once to 25,170 individuals (based on prescriptions with a valid CHI).

The number of individuals prescribed methadone 1mg/ml solution appears to have reduced from 26,202 individuals in 2011-12.

In 2014-15, 117,578 (or 27%) of prescriptions did not have a valid CHI number. It is not possible to determine how many additional individuals prescribed methadone 1mg/ml solution would have been identified had these data been complete.

Question reference: S5W-01177

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 15 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the number of suicides in hospitals.

Every suicide is a tragedy that has a far reaching impact on family, friends and the community long after a person has died. One of the key themes in the Scottish Government’s Suicide Prevention Strategy (2013 to 2016) is to improve the NHS response to suicide. A range of actions is underway to support this, including work by Healthcare Improvement Scotland to support the NHS in learning from any deaths by suicide and so inform continuing improvements in patient safety, and work on improved use of data and training in accident and emergency departments.

Question reference: S5W-01174

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 15 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that 50 people have died by suicide in hospital in the last four years.

Every suicide is a tragedy that has a far reaching impact on family, friends and the community long after a person has died.

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to provide care to the highest standards of quality and safety whatever the setting, with the person at the centre of all decisions.

Suicides are thoroughly investigated in Scotland. The Scottish Government works closely with its partners, including Healthcare Improvement Scotland, to support the NHS in learning from any deaths by suicide and so inform continuing improvements in patient safety.

Question reference: S5W-01009

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 14 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to allocate its share of the revenue raised from the UK Government’s proposed soft drinks industry levy to initiatives dedicated to tackling childhood obesity and, if so, how it will do so.

The Scottish Government awaits details on how the proposed levy will operate in practice. The Barnett formula does not adjust to changes in reserved taxation such as the soft drinks industry levy but instead allocates to Scotland a population share of net changes in expenditure on comparable spending programmes in England (or England and Wales). Following the announcements at the UK Spending Review and the UK Budget in March 2016, the Scottish Government’s discretionary budget will fall in real terms by 3.2% over the course of the current spending review period. The Scottish Government will publish spending plans for 2017-18 in due course.

Question reference: S5W-00928

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to help fund and promote pet therapy in the NHS.

Question reference: S5W-00933

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much additional funding to that set out in its 2014 Budget it projects that the NHS will receive in each year of the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S5W-00924

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received access to continuous glucose monitoring in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S5W-00932

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time was to receive a hearing aid in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

Audiology Services is included in the Scottish Government’s target that no patient should wait more than 18 weeks from a GP referral to start of treatment since the end of 2011.

Information on the average waiting time to receive a hearing aid is not collected centrally. However we have provided information on the median wait for the fitting of a hearing in each quarter from March 2010 (first published data) to March 2016 (latest available published data) by NHS board in the following table.

Median waiting time (weeks) for the fitting of hearing aids by board

NHS Board	Mar 2010	Mar 2011	Mar 2012	Mar 2013	Mar 2014	Mar 2015	Mar 2016
Ayrshire and Arran	-	0	6	6	4	6	8
Borders	6	5	5	5	5	7	10
Dumfries and Galloway	11	0	5	6	6	6	7
Fife	-	0	-	0	-	0	0
Forth Valley	-	0	5	2	6	5	4
Grampian	5	5	4	4	3	3	2
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	6	7	7	7	7	7	9
Highland	-	4	3	4	3	6	5
Lanarkshire	4	3	2	4	3	4	4
Lothian	0	16	7	7	8	7	7
Orkney	2	3	3	3	3	3	0
Shetland	4	7	6	4	3	2	3
Tayside	-	5	4	5	5	4	6
Western Isles	-	21	5	4	2	6	6

Source: Information Services Division Scotland

a - denotes no patients were seen that month.

b 0 denotes that the 50% of patients were seen in less than seven days.