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-07627

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether patients from the Lothian region will be treated at the new children’s hospital at the South Glasgow Hospitals Campus when it opens and, if so, how many.

Question reference: S4W-07632

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether proposals to keep the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh at the current location in Sciennes would be compatible with the recommendations in the Review of Tertiary Paediatric Services in Scotland in relation to the co-location of children’s specialist acute services with adult, maternity and neonatal services.

Question reference: S4W-07625

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive when the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh will open.

The opening of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences, in Edinburgh, is planned for physical completion by the end of 2016 and operation in spring 2017 following commissioning. This timetable is dependent on the full resolution of the current issues being negotiated with the funders of the existing PFI contract regarding land and associated commercial issues.

Question reference: S4W-07631

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with NHS Lothian regarding the continued provision of acute children’s services at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Sciennes during the delayed construction of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

Question reference: S4W-07628

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with (a) NHS Lothian and (b) Consort regarding delays to the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S4W-07379

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the recent investigation by the board’s auditors, what discussions it has had with NHS Lothian regarding the use of private healthcare providers.

The Scottish Government has always made clear our policy is to invest in the NHS in Scotland and to build sustainable services for the benefit of all NHS patients. However, NHS boards retain the option to use the independent sector where necessary to help meet short-term pressures and to provide temporary additional capacity from time to time to enable them to treat patients quickly. This will always be at the margins.

Scottish Government officials, including senior managers and members of the expert team, have had a number of discussions about use of the independent sector as one of the options to manage the backlog of patients awaiting treatment who are outwith target treatment times, while work is ongoing to put in place a more sustainable system of capacity planning and delivery which will enable patients to be treated swiftly within the board's own resources

Question reference: S4O-01136

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what work it is doing to improve the local environment around the canal network.

Question reference: S4W-07378

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive under what circumstances it supports the use by the NHS of private healthcare providers.

Question reference: S4W-07401

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 31 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring has been carried out regarding the impact of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 on discounts to council tax bills and whether it plans to continue this.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 placed a duty on individual local authorities to introduce a discount scheme for council tax for those who make their homes more energy efficient. The Scottish Government has a duty to report to Parliament on the impact of these schemes and collects information from local authorities on the number of properties receiving relief from council tax through energy efficiency schemes and the total amount of relief received. The Scottish Government will continue to collect this information, as required by the act.

Question reference: S4W-07404

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 31 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the financial impact has been of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 on council tax bills.