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: S5O-02753

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential economic impact of a direct rail link between Glasgow city centre and Glasgow Airport.

Question reference: S5W-20447

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to promote wealth building within local communities, as outlined in its 2017-18 Programme for Government.

The specific commitment in the 2017-18 Programme for Government (PfG) confirmed that:

“Building on existing support, including the work of Business Improvement Districts Scotland, we will actively promote wealth building within local communities. We will seek to maximise the benefits of economic activity for local communities by:

- working with anchor institutions to consider how procurement activity can be better used to support local economic activity;

- helping local enterprises to supply goods and services to these anchor institutions – keeping money within communities.”

In line with the commitment made, we are focussing on the role that public and third sector “anchor institutions” can play in delivering inclusive growth to communities, by ensuring that procurement activity is informed about the range of local providers and employers who might win contracts to provide goods and services.

Work linked to the PfG commitment sits within the context of our wider procurement reform programme aimed at helping local businesses and communities to prosper. A good example of this involves work with stakeholders through the Supplier Development Programme to engage with suppliers to maximise procurement opportunities. Ongoing implementation of the PfG commitment includes dialogue between the Scottish Government and partners in Glasgow, led by the University of Strathclyde, who have set-up a Procurement Collaboration Group across public bodies operating in the city. Scottish Government officials are also in dialogue with other local authorities interested in the benefits of the community wealth building approach.

The Scottish Government supports wealth building in local communities across a range of policy areas. We have delivered substantial investment in community-led regeneration, supporting interventions which respond to local circumstances and increase opportunities to attract investment and jobs in communities. In addition, our programme to develop Scotland’s entrepreneurial and innovation potential, Scotland CAN DO, works with community groups to help transform redundant buildings into CAN DO Spaces for collaboration and co-working, the programme helps breed entrepreneurship and broader cultural resilience at a local level. This supports inclusive growth by helping communities retain wealth and talent and define their own economic future.

Question reference: S5W-20446

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government which organisations it is working with to ensure that their procurement activity can be used to effectively support local economic growth.

We continue to engage the network of public, private and third sector organisations established through the Procurement Reform Programme in Scotland to communicate and support the use of public procurement to contribute to sustainable and inclusive growth. This includes achieving local socio-economic benefit as required by the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. Primarily, it involves engagement with public bodies from across the public sector but we also have a direct link to business organisations through the Procurement Supply Group. Additionally, in partnership with enterprise agencies and local authorities we fund the Supplier Development Programme to provide Scottish businesses and social enterprises access and training on public sector procurement.

Question reference: S5W-20216

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is for cardiac surgery (a) in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (b) at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

Table one shows the median wait in days for outpatients treated for Cardiothoracic surgery and Cardiac surgery for the year ending 31 March 2018.

Table 1 – New Outpatient median wait in days for year ending 31 March 2018

Specialty	NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	Golden Jubilee National Hospital
Cardiothoracic Surgery	25	12
Cardiac Surgery	-	28

Source: ISD Waiting Times Warehouse

Note: ‘-‘ indicates that the NHS Board does not record patients under this specialty

Table two shows the inpatient and day case median wait in days for patients treated for Cardiothoracic surgery and Cardiac surgery for the year ending 31 March 2018.

Table 2 – Inpatient and Day Case median wait in days for year ending 31 March 2018

Specialty	NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	Golden Jubilee National Hospital
Cardiothoracic Surgery	15	-
Cardiac Surgery	-	62

Source: ISD Waiting Times Warehouse

Note: ‘-‘ indicates that the NHS Board does not record patients under this specialty

Question reference: S5W-20212

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is for ophthalmic surgery (a) in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (b) at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

The following tables show details of the median waits of ophthalmology patients treated at Greater Glasgow & Clyde and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

Table one sets out the median wait for patients treated by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and table two shows the median wait for residents of territorial NHS Boards treated at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

Table 1 - Median wait in days for patients treated by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for year ending 31 March 2018

New outpatients	Inpatient and Day Case
38	50

Source: ISD Waiting Times Warehouse

Table 2 – Median wait in days for residents of NHS Boards treated at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital for your ending 31 March 2018

NHS Board of Residence	New Outpatients	Inpatient and Day Case
NHS Grampian	215	46
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	72	67
NHS Highland	77	0
NHS Lanarkshire	72	45
NHS Lothian	54	41

Source: ISD Waiting Times Warehouse

Question reference: S5W-20240

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for which surgical procedures NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is currently in breach of the Treatment Time Guarantee.

Data on NHS Boards’ performance against the Treatment Times Guarantee
standard is collected at specialty level. NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde’s
performance for surgical specialties for the quarter ending 30 September
2018 is set out in the following table.

Table 1 – Performance against Treatment Time Guarantee for surgical
specialties at NHS GG&C for quarter ending 30 September 2018

Specialty	Performance	Number of patients seen	Number of patients who waited over 12 weeks
Oral Surgery	13.5%	96	83
Paediatric Dentistry	20.8%	178	141
Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery	44.5%	3134	1740
Paediatric Surgery	49.1%	275	140
Cleft Lip and Palate Surgery	53.7%	67	31
Neurosurgery	67.9%	196	63
Ear, Nose & Throat (Ent)	73.2%	1621	434
Urology	79.2%	1842	383
General Surgery (Excl Vascular)	85.6%	2385	344
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery	85.9%	305	43
Ophthalmology	87.9%	2801	340
Cardiothoracic Surgery	93.3%	30	2
Plastic Surgery	96.6%	1205	41
Vascular Surgery	99.3%	430	3

Source: ISD

Question reference: S5W-20214

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is for thoracic surgery (a) in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (b) at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

The following tables show the median wait in days for Thoracic Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery outpatients and inpatient/day cases treated at NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital for year ending 31 March 2018.

Table 1 – New outpatient: median wait in days for patients treated for Thoracic surgery and Cardiothoracic surgery for year ending 31 March 2018

Specialty	NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	Golden Jubilee National Hospital
Thoracic Surgery	16	13
Cardiothoracic Surgery	25	12

Source: ISD Waiting Times Warehouse

Table 2 – Inpatient and Day Case: median wait in days for patients treated for Thoracic surgery and Cardiothoracic surgery for year ending 31 March 2018

Specialty	NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	Golden Jubilee National Hospital
Thoracic Surgery	-	14
Cardiothoracic Surgery	15	-

Source: ISD Waiting Times Warehouse

Note: ‘-‘ indicates that the NHS Board does not record patients under this specialty

Question reference: S5W-20396

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 14 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings ministers have had with (a) businesses and (b) Glasgow City Council since the 2018 fire at the Glasgow School of Art.

On 22 October I had a productive meeting with several businesses from the Sauchiehall Street area discuss the challenges they faced following the Fire at Glasgow School of Art.

On 26 October I met with the Leader and Chief Executive of Glasgow City Council to discuss the issues facing Sauchiehall Street following the fires at Glasgow School of Art and near Victoria's Nightclub.

Following those meetings, I announced that I would make the remaining £1.85m of the Glasgow Fire Recovery Fund available to Glasgow City Council to support business recovery. This sum will allow the Council to effectively give businesses a rates holiday from the start of the new year. I also announced £150k of support for the Centre for Contemporary Arts to promote recovery of the CCA itself as well as businesses within it.

Question reference: S5O-02716

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to make funeral costs more affordable for people in Glasgow.

Question reference: S5W-20215

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many thoracic surgery procedures have been carried out at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital since January 2018, also broken down how many were performed on patients from the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.