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-29523

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 8 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government by which year it expects Scotland to have eradicated hepatitis C as a public health concern within the framework of its current annual hepatitis C treatment target.

Given the scale of hepatitis C in Scotland and the high cost of the new therapies available, it is not straightforward to create a model which would accurately set a year by which we expect to see hepatitis C eliminated. NHS boards are working hard to eliminate hepatitis C as public health concern by meeting their treatment targets and we are also aiming for a 75% reduction in the annual number of people developing hepatitis C-related liver failure and/or liver cancer by 2020.

Question reference: S4W-29524

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 8 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4O-04930 by Maureen Watt on 10 December 2015 (Official Report, c. 5), what discussions it has had with the Hepatitis C Treatment and Therapies Group on reviewing the annual hepatitis C treatment target, and whether the group recommended revising the target upward.

Question reference: S4W-29579

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 29 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 8 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what guidelines it has provided to NHS boards regarding levels of alcohol brief interventions.

Question reference: S4W-29581

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 29 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 8 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many alcohol brief interventions there have been in each year since 2010-11, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S4W-29525

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 8 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to introduce opt-out hepatitis C testing for all new prisoners in line with the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework 2015-2012 Update and what the timescale is for implementation.

Question reference: S4W-29526

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 8 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS boards (a) have the right to exceed and (b) are exceeding their individual hepatitis C treatment targets.

Question reference: S4W-29490

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many former NHS sites have been converted to social housing in each year since 2007-08, and how many housing units they have provided.

Question reference: S4W-29444

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 5 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the finding in the report, Shifting the Curve, by the Independent Advisor on Poverty, that 47% of part-time couples with dependent children were in poverty in 2013-14, and what action it is taking in light of this.

The Scottish Government welcomes the report of the independent advisor and the contribution it makes to our ambition to tackle poverty and inequality and to create a fairer, more prosperous Scotland. We will carefully consider the recommendations and will respond formally to the report before the end of March 2016.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling the long term drivers of poverty and inequality through early intervention and prevention. This commitment is made clear in our 2015 Programme for Government and our national approach is articulated in the revised Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland 2014-15. This includes an innovative measurement framework that reflects both the wide range of drivers of poverty and the impacts poverty has on the lives of children and their families. This enables us track progress and inform our future actions.

As noted in Shifting the Curve, the Scottish Government has already introduced a range of anti-poverty actions, particularly around welfare reform, including fully mitigating the bedroom tax, setting up a welfare fund, supporting social housing and promoting the living wage. We are investing around £296 million from 2013-14 to 2015-16, contributing to the collective investment of over £274 million with local authorities, NHS and other partners in the Early Years Change Fund and the provision of free school meals for all primary 1 to 3 children which delivers a saving for families of around £380 per child per year. Of course, tackling child poverty is increasingly difficult in the face of the UK Government's £12 billion of annual welfare cuts, which have a significant and detrimental impact in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-29491

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to convert NHS brownfield sites into residential housing.

Scottish Ministers’ policy is that property holdings should be kept to a minimum and, as such, once surplus assets have been identified they should usually be sold as quickly as possible, subject to value for money considerations. Health officials liaise with those working in housing to allow sites with housing potential to be identified. In addition, the Scottish Government has funded the establishment of a strategic disposals team within Scottish Futures Trust. The strategic disposals team provides support to NHS boards across Scotland on the preparation of disposal strategies for surplus sites, and commissioning of technical work to assess site constraints and opportunities, including for residential development, prior to marketing.

Question reference: S4W-29492

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the percentage of NHS (a) brownfield and (b) greenfield sites that could be used for social housing.