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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 307 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-29268

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 August 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 24 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-28109 by Jenni Minto on 25 June 2024, what steps it has taken to assess the adherence of NHS boards to the standards outlined in the (a) National Specification for the Delivery of Psychological Therapies and Interventions and (b) Core Mental Health Quality Standards.

The Scottish Government published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions and the Core Mental Health Standards in September 2023.

We have made a commitment to take a phased approach to implementation, to ensure the Standards and Specification would be implemented effectively in light of existing pressures across the health and social care system.

Assessment tools to assess and support adherence to the Specification and Standards were developed and piloted in spring 2024 and will be rolled out across all boards in 2024-25.

Additionally, Public Health Scotland have reviewed the publication of the Mental Health Quality Indicator Framework and will be publishing this in interactive dashboard format including new Board and HSCP level data from 26 November 2024. This will provide transparency of key access and quality indicators relevant to the Specification and Standards in one place, with the intention to expand this collection in due course.

Question reference: S6W-29696

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of introducing prescription charges for medicines on the NHS on people with (a) chronic kidney disease and (b) long-term conditions.

Question reference: S6W-29695

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the article in The Times on 26 August 2024, whether it is considering introducing prescription charges for medicines on the NHS to balance its budget deficit.

There is no plan to re-introduce prescription charges in Scotland. Prescription charges were abolished in April 2011 because Scottish Ministers believed that they were a tax on ill health and a barrier to good health for many people. This was particularly so for those with long-term conditions and those on a low income who in the past faced choices about which medicines they could afford. The introduction of free prescriptions has been fully funded by the Scottish Government, at no cost to NHS budgets.

Question reference: S6W-29697

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken an impact assessment regarding the potential introduction of prescription charges for medicines on the NHS.

Question reference: S6W-29694

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated administrative cost would be of the potential introduction of prescription charges on the NHS.

Question reference: S6O-03714

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent Centre for Social Justice report, Where have all the children gone?, which found that there has been a 72% increase in severe school absence rates in the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-28110

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 June 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of preliminary data collected by Kidney Care UK, which currently suggests that there is a severe lack of designated psychosocial support for adults and children with kidney disease in Scotland, what steps it is taking to improve NHS psychosocial support provision for people with chronic kidney disease.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living with kidney disease in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

We expect all NHS Boards in Scotland to adhere to current guidelines and follow best practice when providing psychosocial care for people with chronic kidney disease.

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy published in 2023, sets out a long-term vision, and a set of outcomes, for the mental health and wellbeing of the population.

In September 2023, we published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions , to ensure effective, equitable, efficient and high-quality person-centred Psychological Therapies (PT) are delivered consistently across Scotland. The Specification sets out the standards to which we expect Psychological Therapies to be delivered, including appropriate staffing

We recently met with Kidney Care UK and welcome and value their work and remain committed to engaging with them on these important matters.

Question reference: S6W-28109

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 June 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is planning to implement minimum standards of psychosocial care to ensure that all patients living with chronic kidney disease receive equal access to the care that they need, regardless of geography.

The Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards in Scotland to adhere to current guidelines and follow best practice when providing psychosocial care for people with chronic kidney disease.

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy published in 2023, sets out a long-term vision, and a set of outcomes, for the mental health and wellbeing of the population.

We published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions in September 2023, and Public Health Scotland updated the national waiting times guidance , to ensure that PT is delivered to a high quality and measured consistently across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-27726

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 3 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to investigate any reasons for the standardised mortality ratio reportedly being (a) above the upper warning limit for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and (b) below the lower warning limit for the Western General Hospital, in 2023.

Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio data is one of a series of measures we use to monitor safety in Scotland’s hospitals. With regard to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE), the Deputy National Clinical Director (DNCD) has been in contact with NHS Lothian and has received assurance that this has been investigated.

The investigation provided evidence that there were a number of factors that have contributed to the higher-than-predicted mortality for admissions to RIE. The DNCD is confident that appropriate action has been put in place to address the findings of the investigation.

The Regional Centre for Cancer and Clinical Neuroscience is based at the Western General, and this is an important factor in its HSMR data. The slightly different case-mix of patients have understandably higher predicted probabilities of mortality.

The mix of patients seen varies between hospitals, and the mortality rate may be higher or lower at a hospital for many reasons; the patients seen, for example, may be more seriously ill than average. HSMRs therefore take account of some of the factors known to affect the risk of death, so that comparisons between individual hospitals and Scotland are made on a comparable basis.

Question reference: S6W-27205

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Public Health Scotland having changed its dental activity data publication format such that new indicators reportedly cannot be equated with previous releases, how it is possible to compare current dental activity with previous activity levels and evaluate how far is left to go in attaining and surpassing pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels of dentistry provision.

The new publication format from Public Health Scotland is experimental and will continue to develop as the new Payments Model beds in.

The new publications draw from the revised Statement of Dental Remuneration (SDR) which sets out 45 comprehensive care and treatment activities from 1 November, as opposed to the previous SDR which was input-focused and included over 700 individual item codes. In reforming the SDR to focus on comprehensive care and treatment activities, we have also ensured that the overall model of care is predicated on being patient-centric and responsive to individual need and risk.

While we are therefore still able to draw broad comparisons on activity reported for clinical treatments pre- and post-pandemic, given the significant change to the basis on which raw data is collected, it is not appropriate for the two data-sets to be presented as equivalent in statistical reporting and comparisons drawn must be treated with appropriate caution. While broad comparisons are useful for providing indicative metrics on sector capacity pre- and post-pandemic, our focus is to ensure that all activity is of clinical value and appropriate to the patient's need.