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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S5W-25931

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS boards are expected to follow the guidance issued by the Chief Medical Officer in March 2009, Arrangements for NHS patients receiving healthcare services through private healthcare arrangements, and when this guidance was last reviewed or updated.

The guidance issued in the CMO letter 2009/03 to all Health Boards on 25 March 2009 sets out the expectation for NHS Boards to have a clear policy in place to deal with situations which may result in a patient requesting combined NHS and private healthcare including a medicine which is not available in the NHS. The guidance remains extant. All guidance remains under general review to ensure it remains appropriate and effective.

Question reference: S5O-03750

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is satisfied with the waiting times for post-mortem reports.

Question reference: S5W-25739

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many responders in each emergency service are trained on how to administer naloxone.

Question reference: S5W-25740

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many pharmacies (a) stock and (b) have staffed trained on how to administer naloxone.

Question reference: S5W-25738

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been provided to the national naloxone programme in each year since 2011.

The annual Scottish Government funding provided to the national naloxone programme, which ran from 2011 to 2016, is as follows:

2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
£147,355	£165,578	£289,551	£390,456	£249,157

As the programme concluded in 2016, the responsibility transferred to organisations who offer drug addiction services and Health Boards to fund the supply of Naloxone locally. Additionally, the Drug Death Taskforce is committed to widen the provision of naloxone to those who are most vulnerable.

Question reference: S5W-25713

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 5 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, whether it will provide an update on the progress on each of the (a) 16 local recommendations and (b) eight national considerations in the 2019 report, Responding to Drug Use with Kindness, Compassion and Hope, by the Dundee Drugs Commission.

The Dundee Drugs Commission will meet on the 23 October to publish and discuss the action plan arising from the recommendations in their report 'Responding to Drug Use with Kindness, Compassion and Hope'.

Members of the Drug Deaths Taskforce sat on the Commission and they, and Scottish Government officials present at the meeting, will take the proposed action plan and recommendations back to the wider Taskforce for consideration and possible action.

Question reference: S5W-25620

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to each NHS board to support their 2019-20 winter resilience plans.

In line with previous years we are supporting Health Boards to put robust plans in place ahead of winter to ensure quality of care, patient safety and access to services are maintained over the winter period. To support these plans, earlier this month I announced initial funding of £5 million would be made available to Health Boards and Integrated Joint Boards. A breakdown of this funding is provided in the following table.


Health Board	Winter 2019/20
A&A	£347,483
Borders	£98,936
D&G	£139,680
Fife	£320,136
Forth Valley	£255,150
Grampian	£465,084
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	£1,047,046
Highland	£302,884
Lanarkshire	£579,903
Lothian	£698,087
Orkney	£22,757
Shetland	£23,097
Tayside	£368,938
Western Isles	£30,819
NHS24	£150,000
SAS	£150,000
TOTAL	5,000,000

This is in addition to the £6.4 million provided for unscheduled care and further support is being considered with details of this due to be published shortly.

Question reference: S5W-25876

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what clinical assessment is required by NHS boards prior to changes in the treatments offered to patients.

In taking decisions around treatment and service provision, NHS Boards should consider the most up to date guidance available from a range of sources, including, for example, the Royal Colleges, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Scottish Medicines Consortium, the Scottish Health Technologies Group and the Scottish Government.

On an individual basis, it is the responsibility of clinicians, in consultation with their patients, to discuss and agree the best treatment options based on their individual clinical need.

Question reference: S5W-25869

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government which regional NHS boards include acupuncture as a treatment offered by pain management services.

NHS Board Pain Management Services Offering Acupuncture
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	No
NHS Borders	Yes
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	No
NHS Fife	Yes - available to individual patients for pain management, if individual assessment by a qualified clinician warrants its use. Ongoing use of acupuncture by way of a dedicated ‘acupuncture clinic’ is not provided.
NHS Forth Valley	Yes - needle acupuncture only.
NHS Grampian	No
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	No
NHS Highland	No
NHS Lanarkshire	Yes
NHS Lothian	No
NHS Orkney	Do not offer acupuncture within a dedicated Pain Management Service, however acupuncture for pain management is offered by the physiotherapy team.
NHS Shetland	Don’t include acupuncture as a treatment offered by the Pain Service, but do offer acupuncture on a limited basis within physiotherapy, and still have some patients on the caseload who historically received acupuncture within the Pain service.
NHS Tayside	No
NHS Western Isles	Yes

Question reference: S5W-25619

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 31 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to provide funding to (a) local and (b) integration authorities to support social care providers’ winter resilience plans and, if so, how much will be proved to each authority.

Winter funding is allocated to NHS Boards on the basis they will work in partnership with integration authorities to plan the additional resources and capacity required across the whole system to ensure sustainability and resilience over the winter period. The winter plans from NHS Boards are reviewed against a number of factors and outcomes, including their coverage of health and social care provision.