Chamber and committees

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: S6O-00073

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to implement the provisions on pavement parking prohibition in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.

Question reference: S6W-01812

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 25 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what evidence-based assessment it has made of the (a) quality and (b) provision of palliative care services, in all settings, in each NHS board area.

Ensuring high quality palliative and end of life care for people towards the end of life is an important priority for the Scottish Government.

Since 2016, it has been the responsibility of Integration Authorities to commission and plan palliative and end of life care services and supports to meet the needs of their local population. The assessment of palliative and end of life care services is also their responsibility.

For this reason, the Scottish Government does not collect this data centrally.

However, Integration Authorities report on their progress using a range of indicators within their Annual Performance Reports, which provides some data on palliative and end of life care services. Information on the Core Suite of Integration Indicators can be found at https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/8411/2021-07-13-coresuiteindicators-background-and-glossary.pdf. It is, however, important to note that due to the pandemic, full data is not currently available for all indicators at present.

Public Health Scotland also publish official statistics on the percentage of time spent at home or in a community setting in the last six months of life. ( Percentage of end of life spent at home or in a community setting - Financial years ending 31 March 2011 to 2020 - Percentage of end of life spent at home or in a community setting - Publications - Public Health Scotland ).

Question reference: S6W-01813

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in appointing a new National Clinical Lead for palliative and end of life care.

Question reference: S6W-01811

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of individuals have (a) requested and (b) received hospital-based palliative care, broken down by NHS board area, for the most recent year for which figures are available.

The information about the number of individuals requesting hospital-based palliative care is not collected centrally.

The following table shows the number of people recorded as receiving inpatient palliative care in 2019-20. However, this information may not reflect the totality of hospital-based palliative care as it only contains the patients recorded under the care of a palliative medicine consultant, in a Palliative care unit or diagnosed with a Palliative care condition.

NHS Board of Residence	Number of individuals
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	273
NHS Borders	381
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	284
NHS Fife	451
NHS Forth Valley	354
NHS Grampian	881
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	1379
NHS Highland	529
NHS Lanarkshire	307
NHS Lothian	678
NHS Orkney	78
NHS Shetland	21
NHS Tayside	546
NHS Western Isles	51
Not Known	24

Table 1: Number of individuals recorded as receiving inpatient palliative care by NHS Board of Residence in 2019-20.

Question reference: S6W-01686

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 11 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many children are currently eligible for the Scottish Child Payment, and, of those who are eligible, how many (a) have and (b) have not applied for the payment.

Using the latest available forecasts published by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in January 2021 1 , it is estimated that 163,000 children are eligible for Scottish Child Payment in 2021-22.

Social Security Scotland publish official statistics on the number of applications they have received, processed and the number of children who have benefited from Scottish Child Payment. The latest statistics published in May 2021 2 cover the period from 9 November 2020 to 31 March 2021. The next publication, covering up to 30 June 2021, will be released on 31 August 2021.

1 Scottish Fiscal Commission (January 2021) Scotland’sEconomic and Fiscal Forecasts. Available at https://www.fiscalcommission.scot/publications/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts-january-2021/ .

2 Social Security Scotland (May 2021) Scottish Child Payment: high level statistics to 31 March 2021. Available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-child-payment-high-level-statistics-on-applications-to-31-march-2021/ .

Question reference: S6W-01687

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 11 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase the take-up of the Scottish Child Payment.

Social Security Scotland has been proactively promoting Scottish Child Payment by writing to those eligible on Universal Credit and HMRC tax credit databases to invite them to apply. Social Security Scotland also continue to work closely with public sector services and third sector organisations to reach out to families. This includes information in the baby box, NHS midwife and health visitor packs, nurseries and schools, food banks and other family support and welfare advice groups.

To drive take up of Scottish Child Payment further, as well as Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods, we launched a Five Family Payments campaign in March 2021, which will continue throughout this financial year, and targets parents through TV, radio, online adverts and social media.

Question reference: S6W-01234

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 9 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will make a commitment to include a stroke action plan in the forthcoming Programme for Government.

Our focus for the current Programme for Government stroke commitments is to continue our work to deliver a national thrombectomy service for stroke and define a progressive stroke pathway. We are making progress against both of these commitments, with a report on progressive stroke services due by the end of December 2021, and a Scotland wide thrombectomy service operational by 2023.

The progressive stroke pathway report, will set the intention for improving care for people with stroke and following completion of the report, we will consider the appropriate next steps to planning its implementation.

Question reference: S6W-01264

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 9 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards have self-organised groups of disabled staff members.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. We are however developing a meaningful equality and diversity objective for Chairs of NHS Boards that directly support the work of staff equality networks, ensuring they have a voice and influence to drive change, with clear and defined lines of accountability. While this is in development we are actively encouraging Health Boards to develop staff led equality networks across a range of protected characteristics, which includes disability.

We are also working with service-led disability organisations to support graduates with disabilities enter the NHS workforce and the development of a user-focussed workplace adjustment policy.

Question reference: S6W-01233

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 9 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (a) has or (b) plans to introduce a 24/7 rota to provide thrombolysis for stroke patients, and what the reasons are for the NHS board's position on this matter.

Around 10-15% of patients presenting with acute stroke in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GG&C) Health Board area are candidates for reperfusion with thrombolysis. The other 85-90% of admissions require specialist local care. Within NHS GGC, acute stroke thrombolysis is already available on a 24/7 basis. This is currently based at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) with a thrombolysis on-call rota covering the entire NHS GG&C area.

Patients presenting to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI) out of hours and at weekends with acute stroke, are assessed immediately on arrival and have appropriate imaging performed. If it is thought that the individual patient would potentially benefit from thrombolysis, then they will be transferred to QEUH. Patients presenting at GRI during weekday hours, who are thought to potentially benefit from thrombolysis, would have thrombolysis performed at GRI.

Patients presenting to other NHS GG&C sites with acute stroke, and who are thought to potentially benefit from thrombolysis, are either assessed, have appropriate imaging performed, and transferred to QEUH where appropriate, or are taken directly to QEUH by the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), where stroke thrombolysis can take place.

Reperfusion in acute stroke circumstances is time-critical, as the benefit of thrombolysis diminishes with any delay to treatment. Therefore, work is ongoing within the NHS GG&C Stroke Improvement Group to develop a consultant telemedicine thrombolysis model with local stroke specialist nurse support for patients presenting with acute stroke.

NHS GG&C can provide further information on the Acute Stroke Service.

Question reference: S6W-01468

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on discussions with the UK Government on work to deliver the six-to 16-year-old data required to roll out the Scottish Child Payment.