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-28445

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it expects Police Scotland to spend in total on the (a) salary and (b) other associated costs for officers ranked as chief constable, deputy chief constable and assistant chief constable in 2015-16.

Question reference: S4W-28342

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many different IT systems are currently in use by GP surgeries.

All GP surgeries in Scotland use one of two clinical IT systems – InPS or EMIS. GP practices are linked into secondary care systems via Scottish Care Information (SCI) Gateway for onward referrals. SCI Store is locally hosted by each health board and can be accessed for test results. Other national systems available to GPs include Docman for scanned records, and ePharmacy.

The strategic technical approach in Scotland has been to facilitate information exchange between national strategic primary and secondary care applications, such as SCI Store, PACS, and CHI for access and use by professionals including GPs. Patient information summaries have been developed from the GP records (ECS, KIS, ePCS) for sharing with other care services. Ongoing clinical portal development by health boards will provide the gateway to a consistent and up-to-date view of information for relevant professionals, including GPs, and will in time provide the means to manage workflow across care organisations. Other work to progress a national patient portal will deliver access to GP information and services for patients.

The recently announced primary care digital services development fund of £6 million over three years, aimed at increasing online services offered by GPs to their patients, means that new, potentially national, applications are likely to be trialled over the next three years, for example in the area of online consultations, with the aims of increasing access for patients, while reducing administrative burden for staff.

Question reference: S4O-04867

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs have been lost at Young's Seafood's processing plant in Fraserburgh and how many remain at risk.

Question reference: S4W-28341

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has taken steps to integrate the different IT systems used by GP surgeries to allow for easier transfer of patient information.

NHS National Services Scotland is preparing for the introduction of GP2GP, which will enable patients' electronic health records to be transferred directly and securely between GP practices. It will enable GPs to have full and detailed medical records available for each patient's first appointment on joining the practice. There are approximately 485,000 patient transfers in Scotland each year.

Development of the GP2GP functionality is nearing completion. User acceptance testing will commence in late November 2015, with a three month pilot planned to commence in April 2016.

Question reference: S4W-28065

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-27401 by Michael Matheson on 22 September 2015, how many police (a) officers and (b) staff were working at the (i) 101 service centre in Bucksburn and (ii) the 999 control room at Queen Street in Aberdeen on 30 September 2015.

Question reference: S4W-28064

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it had with NHS Grampian regarding the closure of the Brimmond GP practice, and what action it took to open the new practice and transfer the patients to this.

I met with GPs, elected representatives and NHS Grampian to listen to those involved about the difficulties facing general practice in the area and discuss how best to support GPs to find new ways of working that address workload and staffing difficulties.

The provision of primary medical services is the contractual responsibility of the health board for that area and considerable work has been done by NHS Grampian to ensure service continuity following the closure of Brimmond GP practice.

Aberdeen Health and Social Care Partnership worked closely with the New Dyce Medical Practice. Crucially, patient registration with a GP practice continued throughout this complex process and all patients had access to a GP from the changeover date of 1 October 2015.

Question reference: S4W-28066

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the British Medical Association’s Scottish General Practitioners’ Committee regarding the new GP contracts that are scheduled to be introduced in 2017.

Question reference: S4W-28067

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the British Medical Association's Scottish General Practitioners’ Committee regarding the six-month notice period for the closure of GP surgeries, and whether these have led to proposals being made to (a) extend or (b) amend the process.

No discussions have taken place with British Medical Association's Scottish General Practitioners’ Committee regarding the six-month notice period for the closure of GP surgeries.

When practices experience capacity issues, or any other issues affecting service provision, practices and their health boards are fully expected to work together as constructively and as flexibly as appropriate to manage the situation for the benefit of their patients.

Question reference: S4W-27880

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether, in light of its consultation on non-domestic solar panels and domestic air source heat pumps (ASHP), it has considered a further relaxation of the number of permitted ASHPs on multi-flatted, multi-floor properties to allow all residents to benefit from the technology.

Question reference: S4W-27877

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has responded to the EU's Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT) review of the birds and habitats directive, either directly or via the UK Government, and whether it will publish its submission.

In its capacity as the relevant member state government department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs coordinated and submitted a response on behalf of all of the UK administrations.

Responses received from a range of organisations (including those member state authorities which participated) are available on the European Commission website via the following weblink:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/legislation/fitness_check/evidence_gathering/index_en.htm