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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-27774

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the surviving families of locums who die in service do not qualify for death-in-service benefits.

Death-in-service benefit is only available to those in the NHS Pension scheme. Locums can join the scheme and would qualify for death-in-service benefits. However if they have gaps in employment and leave the scheme they would no longer qualify.

The Scottish Government has published guidance for NHS Boards and GP practices on how to respond to the impact of the coronavirus on primary care. The guidance advises NHS Boards to offer contracts to GP locums during the period of the pandemic to ensure that locum’s dependents will be able to able to access death-in-service benefits from the NHS pension scheme.

Question reference: S5W-27773

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration was given to the terms and conditions of locums during the recent GP contract negotiations.

The Scottish Government and the Scottish General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association negotiated a new GP contract in 2017. The new GP contract, which came into effect in 2018, applies to independent contractors who hold either General Medical Services (GMS) contracts or Primary Medical Services (PMS) agreements with Health Boards. Most contractors have standard GMS contractors, a minority have more flexible PMS agreements.

Terms and conditions for locums are a matter for practices and locums to negotiate. However the new GP contract continues the requirement of the previous contract that GMS contractors shall only offer employment to a GP on terms and conditions which are no less favourable than those in the "Model terms and conditions of services for a salaried general practitioner employed by a GMS practice". The new contract made this a new requirement for contractors with PMS agreements.

Question reference: S5W-27733

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 16 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many Scottish Ambulance Service callouts were alcohol-related in each of the last four years.

The Scottish Ambulance Service do not record alcohol related incidents. The following table shows the number of callouts where the crew have noted that alcohol was a factor:

Calendar Year	Number of Incidents
2016	14,385
2017	15,420
2018	31,009
2019	28,451

The following caveats apply to the above table:

The software for recording clinical data changed around Oct 2017
The data prior to 2017 is based on crews recording that alcohol was a factor in the incident. Post Oct 2017 crews could record this, along with alcohol having been a factor, in cases such as overdose, convulsions and drowning.

Question reference: S5W-27772

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-27462 by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2020, for what reason it considered that a similar system for the Forth Road Bridge would not be suitable or effective.

Question reference: S5O-04274

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the justice secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding how many of the 800 additional mental health workers committed to in its Mental Health Strategy will be deployed within police and prison services in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S5W-27417

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 11 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-24311 by Clare Haughey on 30 July 2019, whether it will provide an update on how much of the £250 million allocated to mental health in the 2018-19 Programme for Government has been invested in community mental wellbeing services for five- to 24-year-olds.

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme Board is overseeing the delivery of new community mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children and young people aged from 5-24 and their families.

The Programme Board has developed and signed off a framework which sets out a clear broad approach to this support and is designed to assist local collaborative partnerships. This framework has been circulated to Community Planning Partnerships who are being asked to take a collaborative local approach.

A set of principles around delivery of this have been jointly agreed between Scottish Government and COSLA. We are working closely with a range of partners including local authorities, Community Planning Partnerships and Children’s Services Planning Partnerships on the implementation of supports and services as laid out in the framework.

An initial first tranche of funding of £2 million has been made available to support planning and development.

Further funding of up to £15 million will be provided in 2020-21 to enable the roll out of supports and services following the initial planning period.

Question reference: S5W-27613

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication, NHS Scotland confidential alert line: annual information, how many of the public interest cases in the period (a) 1 August 2017 to 31 January 2018, (b) 1 February 2018 to 31 July 2018, (c) 1 August 2018 to 31 January 2019 and (d) 1 February 2019 to 31 October 2019 involved a whistleblowing concern.

The public interest cases contained in the published information within the report provided by the Whistleblowing Alert and Advice services for NHSScotland, reflect the exact number of whistleblowing cases raised with them. These are as follows:

- From 1 August 2017 to 31 January 2018- 22 cases

- From 1 February 2018 to 31 July 2018 -16 cases

- From 1 August 2018 to 31 January 2019 34 cases

- From 1 February 2019 to 31 October 2019 -26 cases

Question reference: S5W-27565

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason social care provision is reportedly only provided to people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) following a diagnosis of dementia, and what its position is on offering such provision to all people with MCI.

Local authorities have a duty under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 to carry out social care support assessments. Any person who feels their quality of life would benefit from social care support can request a social care support assessment. This includes any person with mild cognitive impairment or with dementia. This request can be made by the person themselves, members of their family, carers, friends or from their medical practitioners.

Question reference: S5W-27555

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-27246 by Jeane Freeman on 11 February 2020, whether Dr Veronikis will be meeting mesh-injured people as part of his visit in the spring.

I can confirm that the Chief Medical Officer wrote again to Dr Veronikis last week, to re-iterate an invitation to visit Scotland in the spring. It is intended that this visit be observational in nature for reasons I outlined in Parliament on 27 February, i.e. so that Dr Veronikis can experience the environment in which he would be operating, including theatre list, pre- and post-operative processes, the use of multi-disciplinary teams, and consent processes. As such, Dr Veronikis will not be expected to formally consult with patients during this initial visit.

We await Dr Veronikis' response, and we remain hopeful that his commitments will still allow him to visit in the spring.

Question reference: S5W-27528

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 5 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its justification is for legal certificate fees reportedly being higher in Scotland than they are in England.

Registration is devolved, and the setting of fees for registration matters – including charges for extracts from the Birth and Death Registers (birth certificates and death certificates) – is the responsibility of the Registrar General for Scotland subject to the approval of Scottish Ministers. Certificate fees are kept under regular review and set on a cost-recovery basis.

More widely, the UK Gender Recognition Panel charges £140 to applicants seeking a gender recognition certificate, including those resident in Scotland. Applicants can apply for help to pay these fees if they receive certain benefits or are on a low income.