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: S5W-06110

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many inward investment projects have been confirmed since April 2016.

Question reference: S5W-05860

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 17 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when the national maternity and neonatal review will publish its report.

Question reference: S5W-05859

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the timetable is for (a) NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's public consultation on maternity services and (b) the ministerial decision on the birthing unit at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

Question reference: S5W-05705

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 16 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the sixth supplementary to question S5F-00643 by the First Minister on 15 December 2016 (Official Report, c. 16), how many women have been transferred for treatment outwith (a) their NHS board area and (b) Scotland due to a lack of neonatal facilities in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-05672

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Minor Injuries Unit and Medical Assessment Centre at the Vale of Leven Hospital will continue to function as normal over the winter months.

Question reference: S5W-05708

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has been able to borrow in each year since 2015-16 and will be able to borrow until 2019-20, and from what source.

In 2015-16 and 2016-17 capital borrowing was limited by the Scotland Act 2012 to up to 10% of the Scottish Government's Capital DEL budget and a total of £2.2 billion over ten years. This provided borrowing limits of £312 million in 2015-16 and will equate to £322 million in 2016-17.

From 2017-18, under the Scotland Act 2016, the aggregate borrowing cap will increase to £3 billion, with an annual limit of 15% of the overall borrowing cap, which amounts to £450 million.

For the purposes of budgeting to date, the Scottish Government has modelled borrowing from the National Loans Fund, but the terms of the Scotland Act 2016 mean that the Government can consider a range of options to maximise borrowing flexibility, including issuing bonds.

Question reference: S5W-05711

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) revenue cost was in 2015-16 and (b) is in 2016-17 of repaying its borrowing.

Question reference: S5W-05707

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the capital borrowing repayment of £30 million at table 5.06 of the draft budget is for; whether this recurs every year and, if so, (a) for how long it has been paid and (b) when the payments will be completed.

The £30 million represents estimated repayments from 2017-18 for planned borrowing in 2016-17. To date, no borrowing has been undertaken in 2016-17, but the Scottish Government has indicated that it plans to borrow up to the full amount available this year and it is prudent to budget now for future borrowing repayments. Decisions about actual required borrowing in 2016-17 will be taken nearer the end of the financial year. The estimated borrowing repayments in 2017-18 have been modelled on the basis of a 10 year repayment period, with repayments in equal instalments.

Question reference: S5W-05706

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the sixth supplementary to question S5F-00643 by the First Minister on 15 December 2016 (Official Report, c. 16), how many neonatal cots have been available in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) hospital and (b) NHS board.

Information to answer the question can be found in the following table.

	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
University Hospital Crosshouse	20	20	20	20	20
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	20	20	20	20	20
Borders General Hospital	7	8	8	8	8
NHS Borders	7	8	8	8	8
Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary	10	9	9	9	9
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	10	9	9	9	9
Victoria Maternity Unit	20	20	20	20	20
NHS Fife	20	20	20	20	20
Stirling Community Hospital	6	-	-	-	-
Forth Valley Royal Hospital	17	21	21	21	20
NHS Forth Valley	23	21	21	21	20
Aberdeen Maternity Hospital	38	38	38	38	38
Dr Gray's Hospital	-	-	-	2	4
NHS Grampian	38	38	38	40	42
Queen Elizabeth University Hospital	24	28	33	28	6
Royal Hospital for Children	13	12	16	18	47
The Princess Royal Maternity Unit	44	29	34	36	40
Royal Alexandra Hospital	19	19	18	18	19
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	100	88	101	99	112
Raigmore Hospital	13	13	13	13	13
NHS Highland	13	13	13	13	13
Wishaw General Hospital	34	34	29	29	29
NHS Lanarkshire	34	34	29	29	29
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France	44	44	44	44	44
St John's Hospital	10	10	10	9	10
NHS Lothian	54	54	54	53	54
Ninewells Hospital	22	23	24	21	21
NHS Tayside	22	23	24	21	21
NHS Scotland	341	327	337	334	349

Source: ISD Scotland ISD(S)1

Notes

1. ISD(S)1 provides routine quarterly aggregate information for monitoring activity in hospitals, and activity carried out in health centres and clinics in NHSScotland.

2. An available staffed bed is a bed which is resourced for inpatient or day case care.

3. Average Available Staffed Beds reflect the average number available in that specialty and significant facility over the whole year.

4. Numbers are shown rounded to the nearest whole number for ease of interpretation but may in fact be fractions, thus totals may not match for the constituent NHS Boards.

5. Where beds figures are unavailable due to data submission issues, data has been estimated using the last 3 data submissions from the relevant NHS Board. Please note this method is different to the estimation process within the publication. Please note the following caveats on data submission and data estimation:

NHS Board of Treatment	Specialty	Time period affected quarters	Reason for imputation/estimation

NHS Highland	All specialties	Mar-14 to Sep-15	Data submissions issues following the implementation of a new patient management system in March 2014.
NHS Grampian	All Specialties	Sep-12 to Jun-14	No data submission due to the implementation of a new patient management system (TrakCare) in November 2011.

The codes used to define specialties are as follows:

Paediatrics - AF

Paediatric Surgery - CA

Question reference: S5W-05617

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will report on its review of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 2003 in relation to people with learning disabilities and autism.

This Government is committed to undertake a review which will focus on whether the provisions in the 2003 Act fulfil the needs of people with learning disability and autism.

The work to identify a Chairperson is underway. An initial scoping exercise has now concluded which made clear that this role will be key to the success of the review. It’s also important that the Chairperson is supported by a core group of people who can include all perspectives equally for an inclusive and credible review.

A remit for the review will be agreed with the Chairperson and informed by the scoping exercise report. It will be for the Chairperson to decide on an engagement strategy which will include gathering evidence for the review in a variety of ways. We have been clear from the outset that we have no wish to impose an unrealistic timeline in which the review should operate, and there was no consensus from the scoping exercise on a suitable timeline. It is, therefore, sensible for the Chairperson to determine the length of time they need to complete a comprehensive review. An official report will be published following its conclusion.