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-20887

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to protect trans people from prejudice in (a) the NHS and (b) other public services.

The Scottish Government is taking steps to tackle inequalities for LGBTI people across all areas of Scottish life, including in public service delivery. Funding of over £1m has been provided to organisations working to promote LGBTI equality in 2018-19, including work to address discrimination.

In relation to the NHS, the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 aims to improve people’s experiences of using health services. Under the Act, Scottish Ministers have published a Charter of Patient Rights and Responsibilities , summarising the duties of relevant NHS bodies as well as the behaviour expected from people accessing services. It highlights everyone’s right to be treated with dignity and respect, and not to be unlawfully discriminated against, including on the basis of gender reassignment.

Our national partnership between Stonewall Scotland and NHS Scotland is also supporting health boards to ensure that the workforce has the skills and knowledge needed to meet the specific healthcare needs of LGBTI service users.

More broadly in relation to public services, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has also published ‘Provision of Goods, Facilities and Services to Trans People: Guidance for public authorities – Meeting your equality duties and human rights obligations’. The guidance is for managers and front line staff of all levels and sets out what public authorities are expected to do to comply with the law and provide their trans service users with the goods, facilities and services to which they are entitled.

Question reference: S5W-20919

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether medical cannabis will be made available for people with arthritis.

The law does not restrict the type of condition for which cannabis based products for medicinal use can be prescribed. However, the expectation is that they should only be prescribed for indications where there is clear published evidence of benefit or UK guidelines and in patients where there is a clinical need which cannot be met by a licensed medicine and where established treatment options have been exhausted.

The Scottish Government considers it is critical that the decision to prescribe remains with clinicians: they are the ones with the expertise and they bear the responsibility for prescribing.

Question reference: S5W-20917

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring it has been carrying out of the prescription of medical cannabis by GPs since the guidelines on this were issued.

The prescription of cannabis based products for medicinal use is limited in law to doctors on the GMC’s specialist register. Patients are not able to obtain cannabis based products from their General Practitioner. Therefore, no monitoring of the prescription of cannabis based products for medicinal use by GPs has been carried out.

Monitoring arrangements for the prescription of cannabis based products for medicinal use were described in the guidance issued on 31 October 2018 which can be found at the following link: https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/cmo/CMO(2018)15.pdf

Question reference: S5W-20918

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will list the medical cannabis products that are available for prescribing.

As explained within the supplementary information issued on 21 November 2018 ( https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/cmo/CMO(2018)16.pdf ) there is no list of approved products or suppliers. These are unlicensed special medicines and only a supplier that has the appropriate Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Home Office (HO) licences, and meets the conditions set out in MHRA guidance, can supply cannabis based products for medicinal use.

Question reference: S5F-02994

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 January 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 January 2019

To ask the First Minister what assistance the Scottish Government is giving EU nationals to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.

Question reference: S5O-02789

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to allow young people access to cheaper transport, and what its position is on the discounts that are currently offered by the bus and train operators.

Question reference: S5W-20668

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is for treatment following a positive result from a bowel screen test.

Cancer waiting times statistics for the period July to September 2018 were published on 18 December 2018 by Information Services Division. https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/index.asp

For this period, the median wait from a referral from the bowel screening programme to first treatment was 74 days. For bowel screened patients, the median wait from a decision to treat to first treatment was 13 days.

Question reference: S5W-20669

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that everyone engaging in the bowel screening programme receives an appropriate diagnosis following an initial positive test result.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland sets clinical standards for the Scottish Bowel Screening Programme to ensure the delivery of a quality-assured, safe and effective service. This includes a specific standard for diagnostics to ensure that safe and effective investigation is available to people with a positive bowel screening test. More information can be found at: http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/our_work/cancer_care_improvement
/programme_resources/bowel_screening_standards.aspx .

Question reference: S5O-02768

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that the transition to low-carbon emissions will have on lower-income families.

A combined Equality Impact Assessment, Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment and Fairer Scotland assessment on socio-economic inequalities was produced for the Climate Change Bill. Poor and deprived communities were one of the main groups identified as likely to be impacted by climate change and action to reduce emissions.

This is one reason why we have established a Just Transition Commission to advise Minsters on the move to a carbon-neutral economy. I anticipate that the impact of the transition on lower-income families will form part of its considerations. We are committed to a carbon-neutral, inclusive economy.

Question reference: S5T-01438

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support the reported increasing number of people who are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage.