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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: S6W-00961

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on providing vouchers for one free NHS dental check-up for new mothers that can be redeemed after the baby’s first birthday if the mothers were unable to access this service before the birthday because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Question reference: S6W-01193

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 July 2021
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support will be made available to NHS Boards in responding to COVID-19 in 2021-22.

Additional funding of £1.08 billion has been confirmed through the Scottish Budget for health and care for 2021-22 to support the response to the pandemic.

From this, the Scottish Government is providing an initial £380 million to NHS Boards in 2021-22 to meet ongoing costs associated with Covid-19. This includes funding for PPE, Test and Protect and delivery of Covid-19 vaccinations.

The Scottish Government will continue to ensure that our health and care services have the funding that they require to respond to this pandemic, and will make available further additional support following our detailed Quarter One financial review.

Details of funding allocations to NHS Boards are set out in the following table:

	Covid Funding (£m)
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	13.7
NHS Borders	3.4
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	4.9
NHS Fife	11.6
NHS Forth Valley	10.1
NHS Grampian	16.2
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	45.8
NHS Highland	9.8
NHS Lanarkshire	25.9
NHS Lothian	27.0
NHS Orkney	0.7
NHS Shetland	0.7
NHS Tayside	13.7
NHS Western Isles	0.9
National Waiting Times Centre	3.9
Scottish Ambulance Service	17.4
The State Hospital	0.3
NHS 24	2.7
NHS Education for Scotland	1.8
NHS National Services Scotland	156.3
Healthcare Improvement Scotland	0.4
Public Health Scotland	12.6
Total	379.6

Question reference: S6W-01140

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-00784

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to implement a waiting time guarantee and target for endometriosis diagnosis and treatment.

The Scottish Government aims to reduce the diagnosis time for endometriosis. The Scottish Government’s soon to be published Women’s Health Plan (WHP) includes a number of actions to improve access to appropriate support, speedy diagnosis and best treatment for endometriosis.

While there are no plans at the moment to introduce a waiting time guarantee and standard for endometriosis diagnosis and treatment we will continue to work with people with lived experience, Endometriosis UK and Public Health Scotland to identify realistic targets to measure improvement. The existing waiting times standards and guarantees for elective care continue to apply. NHS Board elective activity continues to remobilise at a safe pace, ensuring capacity remains in place to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as required.

Question reference: S6W-00783

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff are employed in each of the three specialist endometriosis centres in Scotland, and what the average waiting time is for each.

Question reference: S6W-00812

Asked by: Neil Gray, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many 18- to 25-year-olds it estimates will be eligible for free NHS dental charges in the Airdrie and Shotts constituency.

Question reference: S6W-00782

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether any of the three specialist endometriosis centres in Scotland serve patients outside the NHS board area in which they are situated.

Question reference: S6W-00776

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria it uses to determine whether a company should be taken into public ownership.

Further to the answer provided to S6W-00200 on 3 June 2021, Scottish Ministers considered all options for the future operation of ScotRail services after the current contract, which is expected to expire in March 2022. We have to work within current UK rail legislation, principally the Railways Act 1993, which neither the Scottish Ministers nor the Scottish Parliament have powers to change.

Having regard to the framework set out in the 1993 Act, the Scottish Ministers’ revised Franchising Policy Statement, the continuing uncertainty arising from the Covid 19 pandemic and the delay in publication of the UK Government’s White Paper on rail, the Scottish Ministers considered that it would not be appropriate to award a franchise agreement to any party at this time. We are therefore undertaking mobilisation arrangements for a wholly owned company of the Scottish Government (ScotRail Trains Ltd.) to provide ScotRail services when the current franchise expires. This is in line with our duty under section 30 of the 1993 Act to provide or secure the provision of passenger rail services where a franchise agreement comes to an end and no further franchise agreement has been entered into in respect of the services.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-00781

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken in the last six months to reduce endometriosis waiting times, and what the current waiting times are in each NHS board.

The Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Plan (WHP) will be published shortly and includes a number of actions to improve access to appropriate support, speedy diagnosis and best treatment for endometriosis.

Work is already underway by the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme, as part of the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, developing a Pelvic Pain Pathway for Scotland, starting with endometriosis.

In the last year, Endometriosis UK were funded by the Scottish Government to carry out research to identify the challenges to diagnosis in primary care and implementation of the National Institute for Healthcare and Excellence (NICE) guidelines on endometriosis. This work has included updating endometriosis content on NHS Inform and the delivery of a webinar to support primary care to implement the NICE guidelines.

Information on the endometriosis waiting times in each NHS board is not currently available. Public Health Scotland are working with officials and Endometriosis UK to analyse national and board-level data to understand what information is available to assess current waiting times and identify future data needs that could be used to measure improvement in waiting times.

Question reference: S6W-00826

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with CalMac, regarding the extension of collective bargaining agreements with (a) RMT and (b) Nautilus International, to cover all crew members on ferries chartered to increase capacity on the contract for Clyde and Hebrides ferry services.

Collective bargaining agreements are a matter for CalMac, its employees and the recognised trades unions. In the case of any additional ferries secured by CalMac through a “time charter”, the crews of these vessels are not employed by CalMac and are not covered by collective bargaining agreements which are currently in place with RMT and Nautilus. Any agreement with the Unions would be a matter for the vessel operator in that instance.