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: S4W-19434

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what Barnett consequentials arose from the Chancellor's Autumn Statement and how these have been allocated.

The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement on 5 December 2013 generated the following Barnett consequentials for Scotland:-

	2013-14 £m	2014-15 £m	2015-16 £m
Resource DEL net total	+1.0	+97.8	+111.6
Capital DEL conventional	-	+11.9	+9.2
Financial Transactions	-	+9.9	+66.7
Total DEL	+1.0	+119.6	+187.5

To date the following amounts have subsequently been allocated to the Scottish budget:

	2013-14 £m	2014-15 £m	2015-16 £m
Business Rates measures announced on 11 December 2013	-	38.5	38.5
Free School Meals (all P1 to P3 - implement Jan 2015)	-	13.0	42.0
Extending childcare for 2 year olds - workless households	-	15.0	44.0
Childcare workforce expansion		3.5	-
Welfare Reform Mitigation Discretionary Housing Payments		23.0	-
Total	-	93.0	124.5

In order to meet the commitments flowing from Free School Meals and the extension of childcare in 2015-16, the current plan is to carry forward Resource DEL consequentials from 2014-15 into 2015-16 through Budget Exchange flexibilities.

In respect of capital consequentials we have been allocated £5 million in both 2014-15 and 2015-16, ring-fenced in the Autumn Statement for the Shetland Islands Council to support infrastructure development.

The consequentials include £76.6 million of financial transactions that can only be used for loans and equity investment, £9.9 million in 2014-15 and £66.7 million in 2015-16. We are currently considering how these consequentials can be best deployed and will inform Parliament in due course.

Question reference: S4W-19430

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 19 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it will report on the consultation on the Independent Living Fund.

Question reference: S4O-02918

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been distributed by the Scottish Welfare Fund in its first six months of operation.

Question reference: S4F-01853

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2014

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about the number of families living below the minimum income standard.

Question reference: S4W-19221

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 23 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has discussed with the Department for Health the recommendations of the 2013 report, Transforming Care: A national response to Winterbourne View Hospital, which examined the abuse of adults with learning difficulties at the hospital.

Question reference: S4W-19222

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 23 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the 2013 report, Transforming Care: A national response to Winterbourne View Hospital, which examined the abuse of adults with learning difficulties at the hospital and what action it is taking to ensure that such adults in Scotland are not subject to similar abuse.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that lessons are learned from Winterbourne View Hospital. The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 has been in place since 2008 in Scotland and protects adults who are at risk of being harmed. The Act requires councils and a range of public bodies to work together to support and protect adults who are unable to safeguard themselves. Since Winterbourne, the Adult Protection Policy Forum is focussing on five national priority projects in order to reduce the risk of harm.

The Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland undertook a joint review to learn lessons from Winterbourne to identify any risks and take mitigative action here in Scotland.

The keys to life learning disability policy, has a number of recommendations which will improve the quality and consistency of support for people with learning disabilities focussing on outcomes. In addition it calls on all public bodies involved in providing support to those with learning disabilities to carry out equality impact assessments to ensure that the rights of people with learning disabilities to dignity, equality and non-discrimination are respected and upheld.

Question reference: S4W-19223

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 23 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many adults with learning difficulties there are in residential care homes.

Question reference: S4W-19150

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that NHS boards have a sufficient number of lung cancer specialist nurses and appropriately skilled nursing cover during absences.

The Scottish Government works closely with regional cancer networks and NHS boards to ensure there is the required workforce to meet current and anticipated increases in demand for oncology services.

However, it is for each NHS board to plan and deliver high quality, safe and sustainable services taking account of national and local priorities. This includes how best to utilise funding and deploy staff.

The Scottish Government has supported the development of nursing workload and workforce planning tools to inform decisions about nursing and midwifery establishments. Application of these evidence based tools, takes into account professional judgement and local context, and includes assumptions in relation to absence levels. The suite of available tools includes clinical nurse specialists. Application of the tools has been mandatory since April 2013, and all NHS boards are expected to use the tools to inform local nursing and workforce planning.

Question reference: S4W-19144

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS lung cancer nurse specialists there have been in each NHS board area in each year since 2010-11.

Information on how many NHS lung cancer nurse specialists there have been in each NHS board area in each year since 2010-11 is shown in the following table.

It should be noted that a change in the definition of a clinical nurse specialist in 2011 means that the numbers are not strictly comparable across the years. Also, due to the multidisciplinary nature of the role, a nurse may work in more than one specific specialty although only one specialist area is recorded for each nurse. The figures shown may not include those nurses recorded against another specialty, but who also spend part of their time working in the lung cancer area.

The number of lung cancer clinical nurse specialists staff in post in NHS Scotland from Sep 2010 to Sep 2013 (Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) and headcount) by NHS board.

Sept 2010

Sept 2011

Sept 2012

Sept 2013

	WTE	HEAD COUNT	WTE	HEAD COUNT	WTE	HEAD COUNT	WTE	HEAD COUNT
NHS Scotland	25.2	27	26.7	29	28.3	30	27.1	29
National Waiting Times Centre	-	-	-	-	1.0	1	1.0	1
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	2.0	2	2.0	2	2.0	2	2.0	2
NHS Borders	1.0	1	1.0	1	1.0	1	-	-
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1.0	1	1.0	1	-	-	-	-
NHS Fife	2.0	2	2.0	2	2.0	2	2.0	2
NHS Forth Valley	0.6	1	0.6	1	0.6	1	0.6	1
NHS Grampian	2.0	2	1.0	1	1.0	1	1.0	1
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	6.8	7	7.8	8	8.8	9	8.8	9
NHS Highland	1.0	1	1.0	1	1.0	1	1.0	1
NHS Lanarkshire	2.4	3	4.5	5	4.5	5	4.3	5
NHS Lothian	3.4	4	2.8	4	3.4	4	3.4	4
NHS Orkney	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
NHS Shetland	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
NHS Tayside	3.0	3	3.0	3	3.0	3	3.0	3
NHS Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS), ISD Scotland

Question reference: S4W-19148

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what progress the Detect Cancer Early Programme has made on increasing the five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients.

The Detect Lung Cancer Early campaign fronted by Sir Alex Fergusson was launched on 6 November 2013, with a repeat phase of media marketing running from 13 January 2014.

It is too early to measure the impact of the programme on five-year survival rates for lung cancer. Capital and revenue has been made available to NHS boards to support an increase in diagnostic and treatment capacity. In addition Health Improvement Scotland are undertaking a review of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer which includes lung cancer. A series of primary care education sessions focussing on lung and colorectal cancers have also taken place.