- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards ensuring that island NHS boards have specialist menopause services, and how are those living in island communities being supported to access specialist menopause services.
Answer
Through the Women’s Health Plan, we want all women to have timely access to menopause support and services. For those who need specialist support beyond primary care, there is now a specialist menopause service in every mainland NHS Board.
For women living in the areas of Island health boards there is a “buddy” system in place. This system allows Island GPs and health practitioners to seek advice from one of the mainland menopause specialist services to support their more complex patients. Alternatively, they can refer patients to one of the mainland services, if they meet the referral criteria. Consultations take the form of a discussion, usually by phone or video, meaning patients do not routinely need to travel to the mainland.
The National Menopause Specialists Network complements this service and meets regularly to provide consistent advice and peer support to health care professionals across Scotland.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made a recent assessment of the mental health needs of women living with autism.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to improving the mental health of women and girls with autism and to this end we work with and support autism charities, including the Autistic Persons Organisation Scottish Women’s Autism Network (SWAN). Our Toward Transformation plan published March 2021 and Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan published in October 2020 both reflect this.
Lived experience sits at the heart of our new leadership and engagement work and is threaded through all of our processes. This empowers autistic people and people with learning disabilities to be leaders in transforming policy in Scotland by bringing them together with people who are responsible for providing services nationally and locally.
Workshops have taken place to discuss the Mental Health experiences and needs of autistic people, including autistic women’s experiences of mental health. These views will be fed into national workshops in the coming months, where solutions will be discussed to improve the lives of autistic people and people with learning disabilities.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02448 by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021, whether it will provide an update on how many newborn screenings have taken place in each month since the start of 2019.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold information on the newborn hearing test and newborn infant physical examination. These would need to be requested from health boards directly.
Further to the answer to question S6W-02448 which provided information on the number of babies screened using the bloodspot test in the newborn screening programme for each month between January 2019 and July 2021. 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 . The following table provides information on the number of babies screened using the bloodspot test in the newborn screening programme, for each month in the period that followed from August 2021 to June 2022:
Year and Month | Number of babies screened |
2021 | |
August | 4583 |
September | 4779 |
October | 4264 |
November | 4647 |
December | 4229 |
2022 | |
January | 3962 |
February | 3721 |
March | 4422 |
April | 3993 |
May | 4265 |
June | 4319 |
However, it is important to note that the Scottish Government does not routinely publish this information as it is only held as management information and is not subject to the standard quality control checks required for official publication. During the acute phase of COVID-19 management, the information was provided in light of the increased interest in screening performance.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09142 by Mairi Gougeon on 6 July 2022, for what reasons it has taken over one year for the report on bird stomach contents to be finalised and published.
Answer
The project commenced in 2019 however further field work and laboratory analysis scheduled during 2020 were affected by COVID-19 restrictions. This had a knock on effect, delaying the remaining stages of the project, including quality control of the data and writing the report. The report is now finalised and will be published soon.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02451 by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021, whether it will provide an update on how many cervical cancer screenings have taken place in each month since the start of 2019.
Answer
Further to the answer to question S6W-02451 which provided information on the number of samples collected within the cervical screening programme from January 2019 to August 2021. 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 The following table provides information for each of the months that followed from September 2021 to June 2022.
Cervical Smears collected |
Month/Year | 2021 | 2022 |
Jan | | 25990 |
Feb | | 26873 |
March | | 29722 |
April | | 24461 |
May | | 28919 |
June | | 27959 |
July | | |
August | | |
September | 22562 | |
October | 22545 | |
November | 27967 | |
December | 19175 | |
However, it is important to note that the Scottish Government does not routinely publish this information as it is only held as management data and is not subject to the standard quality control checks required for official publication. During the acute phase of COVID-19 management, the data was provided in light of the increased interest in screening performance. However, a report is produced annually providing fully checked information and statistics, and I now refer to the most recently published report which can be found here: Scottish cervical screening programme statistics - Annual update to 31 March 2021 - Scottish cervical screening programme statistics - Publications - Public Health Scotland.
- Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that all Marine Scotland staff receive any overdue pay for specified leave days.
Answer
Marine Scotland officials have been in touch with the pay team and have confirmed that the remaining claims for pay for specified leave days will be paid in July’s salary. Steps are being taken to review the current process to reduce the chance of similar delays occurring in the future.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02452 by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021, whether it will provide an update on how many diabetic retinopathy screenings have taken place in each month since the start of 2019.
Answer
Further to the answer to question S6W-02452 which provided information on the number of people screened for diabetic retinopathy in each month between January 2019 and July 2021. 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 The following table provides information on the number of people screened for diabetic retinopathy, in each month of the period that followed, from August 2021 to June 2022:
Year | Month | Number of people screened |
2021 | August | 14608 |
September | 15161 |
October | 13630 |
November | 13630 |
December | 12928 |
2022 | January | 14598 |
February | 14933 |
March | 16250 |
April | 15049 |
May | 19147 |
June | 17116 |
However, it is important to note that the Scottish Government does not routinely publish this information as it is only held as management information and is not subject to the standard quality control checks required for official publication. During the acute phase of COVID-19 management, the information was provided in light of the increased interest in screening performance.
- Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, following the implementation of the Young Person’s Guarantee and Kickstart Scheme in 2020, how many funded apprenticeship places have been (a) offered to and (b) taken up by deaf school leavers, including school leavers with mild or moderate hearing impairments.
Answer
Official statistics from our national skills agency, Skills Development Scotland show that there were 26 Modern Apprentice (MA) Starts, in the 16-19 age grouping, who were recorded as having a hearing impairment and were recorded as being school pupils prior to commencing their apprenticeship. This data covers MA starts from 1 September 2020 to 31 March 2022 and further apprenticeship data will be available when the Quarter 1 2022-23 report is published, which is expected in August 2022. These figures are on the basis of self-declaration and therefore may be higher than this.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02453 by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021, whether it will provide an update on how many pregnancy screenings have taken place in each month since the start of 2019.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold national data for infectious diseases screening, antenatal haemoglobinopathies screening, or foetal anomaly ultrasound examinations within the pregnancy screening programme. These can be requested directly from individual NHS boards.
Further to the answer to question S6W-02453 which provided information on the number of trisomy screens taken between January 2019 and June 2021. 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 The following table provides information on the number of trisomy screens taken each month in the period which followed from July 2021 to June 2022:
Trisomy Screening |
Years and months | Total trisomy screens |
2021 | |
July | 3094 |
August | 3273 |
September | 3136 |
October | 2991 |
November | 3258 |
December | 3270 |
| | |
2022 | |
January | 3226 |
February | 3197 |
March | 3673 |
April | 3147 |
May | 3291 |
June | 3119 |
However, it is important to note that the Scottish Government does not routinely publish this information as it is only held as management data and is not subject to the standard quality control checks required for official publication. During the acute phase of COVID-19 management, the data was provided in light of the increased interest in screening performance.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02449 by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021, whether it will provide an update on how many abdominal aortic aneurysm screenings have taken place in each month since the start of 2019.
Answer
Further to the answer to question S6W-02449 which provided information on the number of people who attended an abdominal aortic aneurysm screening appointment between January 2019 and July 2021. 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 The following table provides information on the number of people who attended an abdominal aortic aneurysm screening in each of the months that followed from August 2021 to June 2022.