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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: S5F-04746

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 January 2021

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to make the training of vaccinators as streamlined as possible.

Question reference: S5W-34174

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 14 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure the stability of oncology and haematology services in rural areas of south Scotland with regard to (a) maintaining a consistent workforce in response to any movement of clinicians towards urban centres and (b) enabling equity of access to patient care and treatment.

Territorial NHS Boards have been asked to produce local Mobilisation Plans, underpinned by the Re-mobilise, Recover and Re-design Framework . We have worked continuously with NHS Boards across Scotland to ensure Mobilisation Plans involve effective, anticipatory workforce planning which account for the continued delivery of essential services as well as the staffing requirements associated with emerging clinical and public health priorities.

In November, we published the Framework for Clinical Prioritisation of Elective Care , which outlines our expectation that NHS Boards that must maintain urgent elective and vital cancer services. We have been clear in our continued engagement with all NHS Boards that adequate staffing levels must be maintained to deliver these essential services.

Regarding cancer services, the Scottish Government recognises the continued need to address health inequalities in relation to outcomes in this area. We have published an equality impact assessment alongside our recent Cancer Recovery Plan . This assessment has highlighted various actions regarding equity of access to services. The assessment can be viewed here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/equalities-impact-assessment-recovery-redesign-action-plan-cancer-services/ .

Question reference: S5W-34176

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 14 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the cost to NHS Scotland of continuous treatments prescribed to people with a cancer diagnosis under COVID-19 guidelines in comparison with any alternative cost-effective fixed treatment duration options.

Question reference: S5O-04910

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated to support the construction and development industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S5W-33853

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 5 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33477 by Clare Haughey on 3 December 2020, whether it will now consider deleting the reference to chemical restraint that appears on page 18 of the Health and Social Care Standards.

I refer Mr Whittle to the answer provided for S5W-22466 on 23 May 2019. The legislation applicable for the use of chemical restraint makes clear that consent is required where an individual has capacity. Where an individual does not have capacity, the use of chemical restraint must only be applied in exceptional circumstances to the benefit of the individual.

The Health and Social Care Standards do not replace or remove the need to comply with legislation, which health and care services are expected to continue to follow. There are no plans to amend the Standards.

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

Question reference: S5W-33851

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider regulating health and social care services in order to ensure that they comply with the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 is reserved, however, it applies to all employers in the UK without exception. Enforcement of this legislation is the statutory responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive.

Additionally the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) are responsible for the registration and regulation of Social Care staff in Scotland. The SSSC Codes set the national standards of practice that employees must follow in their daily work; where standards are not met the SSSC has the power to take action.

Question reference: S5O-04890

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to preserving community organisations and activities during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Question reference: S5W-33852

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the statement on page 65 of the final report of The Independent Review of Learning Disability and Autism in the Mental Health Act that "there is evidence that some psychotropic medication is being used in Scotland to manage behaviour rather than the purposes for which it was developed and approved".

Scottish Government are considering all 107 recommendations of the Independent Review of Learning Disability and Autism in the Mental Health Act in order to respond fully.

Preparations were underway to issue this response by April 2020 but this work was paused in March 2020 owing to the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Scottish Government continues to carefully consider the recommendations to better fulfil our obligation to promote and protect the human rights of autistic people and/or people with learning disabilities living in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-33243

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there are no patients among the 50 members of its Mobilisation Recovery Group.

The remit, membership and meeting notes of the Mobilisation Recovery Group (MRG) can be found on its webpage at: www.gov.scot/groups/mobilisation-recovery-group/ .

The MRG is an advisory group set up to generate key expert, stakeholder and system-wide input into decisions on resuming and supporting service provision, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the views and contributions of most MRG members will be both significantly informed and guided by a patient-centred approach, the Chief Executive of the ALLIANCE is specifically on the Group to represent the interests of service users. As part of this work, the ALLIANCE have engaged with communities to ensure a diverse range of perspectives and voices are heard and help to inform the work of the MRG.

The ALLIANCE are working in partnership with Healthcare Improvement Scotland's Community Engagement Team, delivering outreach consultation events and progressing the design and delivery of a Citizen's Panel Survey which will capture peoples lived experiences of health and social care during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify their priorities for future services. To date, 20 papershave been prepared and submitted to the MRG, with a final overall report on the findings of this work due for completion in January 2021. Copies of the ALLIANCE’s 'People at the Centre' updates are published at: https://www.alliance-scotland.org.uk/people-and-networks/people-at-the-centre-engagement-programme/updates-mobilisation-recovery-group/ .

Question reference: S5W-33413

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 20 September 2020, £1.1b for health and social care sector, whether it will provide a breakdown of how much of this funding (a) has been and (b) remains to be allocated and to which areas, also broken down by the specific allocation to rheumatology services.

The Scottish Government has confirmed additional funding of £1.1 billion to support the health and social care sector in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding, which has been allocated in full, provides support for the additional costs reported by Boards in responding to COVID-19, including additional staffing and equipment costs included in Local Mobilisation Plans.

Detail on funding for each NHS Board area is set out in response to question S5W-32107 on 29 September 2020. 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 .

It is for individual Boards and Integration Authorities to determine how best to use these resources to recognise local pressures and priorities. Detail on how this funding has been used to specifically support rheumatology services, and to supplement existing baseline spend on rheumatology services, would require to be requested from NHS Boards.

Further funding will be made available in the coming months to ensure that our frontline services continue to have the funding that they require.