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-27604

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 29 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) information it has and (b) research it has commissioned on the mental health of children and young people in care, and what its position is on launching an inquiry on this issue.

a) Scottish health boards are required to provide a health assessment to looked after children within four weeks of notification. In May 2014 the Scottish Government published Guidance on Health Assessments for Looked After Children and Young People in Scotland. This guidance recommended that health boards put procedures in place to offer a mental health screen to every looked after child or young person by 2015 and recommended a number of suitable screening tools for this assessment.

b) There has been no centrally commissioned research into the mental health of looked after children and young people.

The first Mental Health and Learning Disability Inpatient Bed Census, carried out by the Scottish Government and NHS boards, was published in October 2014. The report provides evidence for Commitment 26 of the Mental Health Strategy for 2012 to 2015, but also enhances the Scottish Government’s and NHS Scotland’s understanding of mental health, addiction and learning disability services, and about the patients who use these services. A copy of this report is available on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/06/7555/0.

The Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health is considering what will follow the current mental health strategy and is considering the priorities for any next mental health strategy. Any future strategy will be launched in 2016. The progress on each commitment is updated where appropriate on our website. We will report the status of each commitment on this website by spring 2016, after the completion of the strategy’s timeframe.

Question reference: S4W-27826

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many instances of overcrowding in hospitals there have been in each month since 2012, broken down by NHS board.

Emergency Department Capacity Management Guidance was issued in partnership with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in September. The guidance recognises that there are many inter-related types of crowding, and that thresholds for crowding need to be agreed locally to take account of the different physical layouts and size of units. The Scottish Government has asked NHS boards to develop local measures of overcrowding, at board and hospital level, as part of a whole system approach to improving unscheduled care.

Question reference: S4W-27825

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) financial and (b) other types of support it is providing for capacity planning as recommended in the Emergency Department Capacity Management Guidance.

The Scottish Government has invested £9 million this year (2015-16) to support NHS boards across Scotland to implement the unscheduled care six essential actions. In the five months since the launch of the programme we have set up the basic essential elements that will ensure the continuous progress of the programme, for example, we have:

Recruited a national team made up of experts with a range of professional expertise to work with local team across Scotland;

Supported boards to recruit local teams dedicated to implementing the six essential actions.

The national team will support the local teams to roll out this guidance, which complements the six essential actions, and will monitor progress throughout the term of the two year programme. Additionally, the winter investment of £10.7 million, which will help ease pressure on Scotland's NHS across the winter months, will also support capacity planning.

Question reference: S4W-27824

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has put in place to implement the Emergency Department Capacity Management Guidance in advance of the winter months.

The Scottish Government's national unscheduled care team is working closely with all NHS boards across Scotland around the implementation of Emergency Department Capacity Management Guidance. An event has been arranged for 6 November 2015 in order to get an update from each site across NHSScotland; this will give us a baseline of current state of implementation and inform a timeline for full implementation in each site. Progress against the implementation of the guidance will be monitored through the national unscheduled care team.

This work will complement and build on the work of the six essential actions and our winter planning guidance, issued in August 2015, which asked boards to have in place strategies for staffing additional capacity and maintaining progress towards minimising delays in discharging patients – this will be supported through our additional winter investment of £10.7 million.

Question reference: S4W-27823

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the progress of implementation of the Emergency Department Capacity Management Guidance.

In partnership with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Scotland I launched the Emergency Department Capacity Management Guidance on 30 September 2015. This guidance, which aims to reduce and eliminate emergency department crowding by improving patient flow through the urgent and emergency care system, and through the hospital, complementing the six essential actions work already underway, will improve the quality and safety of care for patients and their families when they attend hospital.

While implementation of the guidance is in its early stages, and therefore too early to offer a formal update on progress, I can advise that a second event has been arranged for 6 November 2015 in order to get an update from each site across NHSScotland; this will give us a baseline of current state of implementation and inform a timeline for full implementation in each site. Progress against the implementation of the guidance will be monitored through the national unscheduled care team.

Question reference: S4W-27792

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to raise awareness of tobacco as a risk factor for dementia.

The Scottish Government invests around £11 million per year in NHS tobacco control activity, including the delivery of smoking cessation services. There is evidence that healthy living behaviours, such as quitting smoking, better diet or physical activity, may reduce the risk of a person developing vascular dementia or delay its onset.

While the Scottish Government does not run an awareness raising campaign around tobacco as a risk factor for dementia, its public health message does promote the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle.

We will continue to encourage care professionals to reinforce the message that smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke have a number of health implications, and that help is available to support people to stop, including advice, behavioural support and referral pathways.

Question reference: S4W-27776

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on research into the mental health of children in care since 2010.

There has been no centrally commissioned research into the mental health of looked after children and young people.

The first Mental Health and Learning Disability Inpatient Bed Census, carried out by the Scottish Government and NHS boards, was published in June 2015. The report provides evidence for Commitment 26 of the Mental Health Strategy for Scotland: 2012-2015, but also enhances the Scottish Government’s and NHS Scotland’s understanding of mental health, addiction and learning disability services, and about the patients who use these services. A copy of this report is available on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/06/7555/0.

Question reference: S4T-01144

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 26 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Audit Scotland report, NHS in Scotland 2015.

Question reference: S4O-04722

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a progress report on how the Borders rail link is operating.

Question reference: S4W-27774

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 21 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-25516 by Jamie Hepburn on 21 May 2015, when it will publish the follow-up report to National Mental Health Services Assessment, Towards implementation of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 Final Report (the Sandra Grant Report) and for what reason this was not published in the summer.