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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: S6T-00382

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address any workforce issues in social care, in light of comments from the Chief Executive of Scottish Care that the social care sector is facing the biggest workforce crisis it has ever experienced.

Question reference: S6W-04679

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered the request made by osteopaths to be categorised as Allied Health Professions (AHP), in line with the categorisation afforded to the profession in other parts of the UK.

Question reference: S6W-04730

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what funding (a) it and (b) Zero Waste Scotland has provided to local authorities to help them to promote their recycling and re-use services, in each year since 2011.

Through Zero Waste Scotland, Scottish Government has provided the amounts shown in the table below, since 2011, directly to support local authorities’ recycling and re-use services. These grants included support for communications.

Year	Local Authority Recycling & Reuse Support grants
2011-12	£3,182,681
2012-13	£6,203,051
2013-14	£9,149,943
2014-15	£7,626,023
2015-16	£3,960,213
2016-17	£2,401,370
2017-18	£3,443,053
2018-19	£1,787,127
2019-20	£1,248,233
2020-21	£1,016,949 (costs related to supporting local authorities during pandemic)

In addition to this funding, the second table below shows direct support for local authorities for communications support since 2011, where communications were not related directly to wider recycling and reuse grant awards.

Year	Specific recycling/reuse communications funding
2011-12	678,500
2012-13	39,900
2013-14	£64,704 + additional included in recycling costs above where relevant
2014-15	£220,852
2015-16	£1,611,301
2016-17	N/A included in wider recycling reuse grants above
2017-18	N/A included in wider recycling reuse grants above
2018-19	N/A included in wider recycling reuse grants above
2019-20	£30,000
2020-21	Costs not yet available

The funding set out in the tables is over and above monies provided through the Local Government Settlement, which for 2022-23 was over £12.5bn. Local councils are responsible for deciding how to spend revenue and operate day-to-day services.

Question reference: S6W-04690

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the number of emergency bed days that have been allocated to patients as a result of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in each year since 2018, broken down by NHS board.

The total number of bed days recorded for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with an emergency admission during their continuous inpatient stay (CIS) by NHS Board and financial year (2018/19–2020/21) is provided in the following table.

Table 1: Total bed days for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with an emergency admission during their continuous inpatient stay (CIS) by NHS board of Treatment and Financial Year, 2018/19 - 2020/21.

NHS Board of Treatment	Total bed days 2018-19	Total bed days 2019-20	Total bed days 2020/21
National Waiting Times Centre	0	0	29
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	13,675	12,111	6,520
NHS Borders	2,436	2,057	967
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	3,730	4,538	2,663
NHS Fife	5,592	5,504	3,510
NHS Forth Valley	6,231	5,354	2,310
NHS Grampian	7,598	7,767	4,379
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	38,015	40,686	21,360
NHS Highland	6,385	5,592	2,193
NHS Lanarkshire	14,880	15,050	8,474
NHS Lothian	13,502	12,494	6,483
NHS Orkney	194	336	67
NHS Shetland	118	102	123
NHS Tayside	7,149	6,895	4,263
NHS Western Isles	574	301	156
Non-NHS Provider	68	96	295
Total	120,147	118,883	63,792

Source: Public Health Scotland, SMR01
Extracted: December 2021

Question reference: S6W-04642

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many appointments were held in each NHS board area from (a) 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 and (b) 1 April to 25 November 2021 for ophthalmology care in (i) an outpatient setting and (ii) day cases, also broken down by the specific eye condition, including cataracts, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration.

Information on cataract procedures is set out in the acute hospital publication available through the link below. However, this does not cover the full time period requested as the latest publication shows procedures during the 2020-21 financial year. Information on the other conditions you have asked about is not held centrally.

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/9294/table-7-procedures.xlsx

Question reference: S6W-04640

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the waiting times for ophthalmology care in (a) an outpatient setting and (b) day cases, in each NHS board area from (i) 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 and (ii) 1 April to 25 November 2021.

The link below leads to the latest elective waiting times publication which was published on Tuesday 30 November for the quarter ending 30 Sep 2021. This provides number of patients waiting and seen by specialty for outpatients and inpatient / day cases.

Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients 30 November 2021 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland

The split between inpatient and day case is not published. in addition, this publication only covers details up to the end of September 2021, with the information on the quarter ending 31 December 2021 due to be published at the end of February.

Question reference: S6W-04659

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to run public awareness campaigns on deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and when the last public awareness campaign on DVT took place.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to run public awareness campaigns on deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and there has been no public awareness campaign on DVT by the Scottish Government since 2011.

The Scottish Government carries out a regular planning process to identify which topics may require support from marketing activity, including public awareness campaigns.

NHSinform.scot contains information on DVT ( https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/blood-and-lymph/deep-vein-thrombosis/ ).

Question reference: S6W-04641

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients were on waiting lists in each NHS board area from (a) 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 and (b) 1 April to 25 November 2021 for ophthalmology care in (i) an outpatient setting and (ii) day cases, also broken down by the specific eye condition, including cataracts, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration.

Question reference: S6W-04217

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the NHS Scotland COVID Status App has been updated on Android, Apple and other app stores in order to prevent potential screenshotting.

The NHS Scotland Covid Status App was updated on 26 October (to version 2.1.0) to disable the ability to take a screenshot on Android devices. This cannot be achieved in the same way directly via Apple iOS without disabling the app as a whole, so is therefore not disabled for Apple devices. However, the shimmer feature on the app can immediately alert someone who is visually checking Covid status apps if it genuine or if a screen shot.

Question reference: S6W-04215

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government which venues or events it is considering including in any future expanded use of the NHS Scotland COVID Status App.

The First Minister updated Parliament on 23 November confirming that people attending venues or events covered by the Covid Certification scheme now have the option of providing either a record of their recent negative test, or vaccination. This change will came into effect from Monday 6 December. No further changes to the scope of the scheme are proposed at this stage but this is kept under review.

Decisions are taken, and reviewed on the latest data and clinical evidence. Our review process includes consideration of the impact assessments, including the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment.