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: S3W-39148

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on developing a referral-to-treatment target to drive faster access to psychological therapies and reduce antidepressant prescribing.

Question reference: S3W-39136

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the abolition of prescription charges will have on the NHS budget.

Question reference: S3W-39152

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities last met and what issues were discussed.

The Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities last met on Tuesday 13 April 2010. This was the Task Force''s third and final meeting as part of its review of Equally Well. The Task Force considered papers on: Persistent Poverty; Health Inequalities and links to Justice, and the Curriculum for Excellence. It also discussed its report of the review of Equally Well which was subsequently published on 23 June 2010:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/06/22170625/0.

Question reference: S3W-39135

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated cost to the NHS will be when prescription charges are reduced to zero in April 2011.

The abolition of prescription charges in Scotland is being fully funded by the Scottish Government and as such will be achieved at no cost to the NHS. The Scottish Government estimates that the final step in abolition on 1 April this year will increase costs from £32 million to £57 million. The £57 million funding has been included within NHS boards'' baseline budgets for 2011-12.

Abolishing prescription charges will remove a financial barrier to better health management for many people in Scotland, particularly those on low incomes and who may need regular medicines. Prescription charges can prevent some people from collecting some or all of their medication, and may even deter them from seeing their GP when ill.

Question reference: S3W-39150

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there has been an increase in the number of patients registering with an NHS dentist since 1 April 2010.

In the period from 30 March 2010 to 30 September 2010 there was an increase in NHS general dental service registrations for children from 815,248 to 867,200.

In the period from 30 March 2010 to 30 September 2010 there was an increase in NHS general dental service registrations for adults from 2,571,860 to 2,815,576.

Data showing the number of NHS general dental service registrations in Scotland is available at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4680.html.

Source: Information Services Division, National Services Scotland

Question reference: S3W-39149

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 2 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it considers the NHS is sharing good practice.

The NHS shares good practice through a range of general and topic specific mechanisms.

The NHS event held annually, The NHS Education Evidence into Practice website and the annual NHS Awards contribute to the sharing of good practice generally.

More specifically, national improvement programmes engage every NHS board to share good practice and test service innovation. These programmes include:

The 18 Weeks Referral to Treatment programme,

The Mental Health Collaborative,

The Long Term Conditions Collaborative,

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme and

Releasing Time to Care in acute and mental health wards and in community hospitals.

These programmes share good practice through a variety of channels, including education and network events, newsletters, good practice publications, case studies and through a supporting website http://www.improvingnhsscotland.scot.nhs.uk.

Question reference: S3W-38868

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37293 by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 November 2010, whether the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation considered its work plan for 2011-12 at its meeting on 30 November 2010 and, if so, what its work plan is.

The meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation (TAGRA) on 30 November 2010 was cancelled due to the severe weather conditions. TAGRA''s work plan for 2011-12 has been discussed through correspondence with members, and will cover:

GP out of hours services;

Moving from episodes to spells within specialty as the basis of acute activity costs;

Commencing a review of the morbidity and life circumstances adjustment, and

Reviewing the split between fixed and variable costs.

A new working group will also be established between members of TAGRA and the North of Scotland Planning Group to progress issues concerning the provision of healthcare in remote and rural areas.

Question reference: S3W-38867

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37293 by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 November 2010, what issues were discussed at the meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation on 30 November 2010.

The meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation (TAGRA) on 30 November 2010 was cancelled due to the severe weather disruption. The issues which were due for discussion were:

Updates to the morbidity and life circumstances adjustment within the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula;

Options for the future development of the NRAC formula;

TAGRA''s 2011-12 work plan; and

Potential changes to the Costs Book which may affect NRAC formula data.

These issues have been discussed through correspondence with members.

Question reference: S3W-38869

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37923 by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 November 2010, whether the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation has agreed a timetable for implementation of the recommendations in its recently published report on the impact of the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula on remote and rural areas.

Question reference: S3W-37608

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 November 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 21,660 incidents of domestic abuse recorded in 2009-10 referred to the procurators fiscal resulted in a prosecution.