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: S5W-20318

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many young carers have been given a pass for free bus travel under the Young Carers Grant since its introduction.

Question reference: S5W-20320

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on public health information campaigns in each year since 1999.

Annual expenditure on marketing campaigns by the Scottish Government has been published since 2004-2005. Information prior to this date is not accessible. The annual reports only separate social advertising expenditure and public information expenditure in 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. Therefore, the expenditure figures provided covers public information and social advertising.

The following health expenditure figures (exclusive of VAT) have been extracted from these annual reports to include all health campaigns.

2004-2005: £2,718,169

2005-2006: £3,138,279

2006-2007: £2,121,937

2007-2008: £2,187,631

2008-2009: £2,493,605

2009-2010: £3,084,082

2010-2011: £2,985,167

2011-2012: £2,670,495

2012-2013: £2,433,797

2013-2014: £2,520,113

2014-2015: £2,485,620

2015-2016: £2,352,283

2016-2017: £1,582,271

2017-2018: £1,090,757

Question reference: S5W-20319

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to include dentists in smoking cessation programmes.

As part of the Oral Health Improvement Plan we have committed to ensuring that oral health features in any future strategies on smoking cessations.

We are in the first instance intent on introducing an Oral Health Risk Assessment (OHRA), part of which will be advising patients on healthier behaviours to reduce the likelihood of them developing either oral or oropharyngeal cancer. Smoking is an important factor in this and will inform their personalised care plan. The OHRA will be an appropriate tool for ensuring that dentists in the future can take an active role in smoking cessation.

Question reference: S5W-20317

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many young carers have received the Young Carers Grant since its introduction, also broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) year.

Question reference: S5O-02690

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on a feasibility study being carried out to address congestion on the Edinburgh city bypass.

Question reference: S5W-20022

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 3 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is available to (a) local authorities and (b) integration joint boards to encourage housing associations to adapt homes to make them accessible for tenants with an assessed need.

Since the integration of health and social care, Integration Joint Boards are responsible for the planning and delivery of adaptations largely using budgets created by delegation from local authorities. Local authority budgets for adaptations are agreed locally from within the local government settlement and where appropriate Housing Revenue Account budgets.

We have also provided £10 million directly to Registered Social Landlords this year, to assist them in providing adaptations for their tenants.

Question reference: S5W-20105

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 3 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-09015 by Shona Robison on 10 May 2017, whether it will provide an update regarding how many GPs (a) use and (b) do not use Vision Online Services.

There are two suppliers for GP IT services in Scotland – INPS Vision and EMIS.

There are currently 944 GP Practices in Scotland, split 431 using INPS Vision and 513 using EMIS.

Vision Online is an add on to Vision which offers patients the ability to book appointments and/or order repeat prescriptions online.

As well as the 362 Practices currently using Vision Online, a further 31 Practices have requested and are currently awaiting installation of Vision Online.

94% of GP practices in Scotland offer an online means of accessing either repeat prescriptions or appointments via GP IT system functions or practice websites.

Question reference: S5W-20138

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 3 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of single-sex wards in hospitals, and what guidance it issues regarding this.

All patients should routinely be cared for in wards or bays which are for single sex occupancy. The Scottish Government provided guidelines and recommendations on the elimination of mixed sex accommodation in 1999 and 2000. Further guidance and direction regarding the provision of clinically appropriate single room accommodation in all planned new buildings and major refurbishments is provided in CEL 48 (2008) and CEL 27 (2010).

There are some exceptions such as high dependency areas and intensive care units where single sex accommodation may not be practicable. There may also be times where hospitals experience extreme situations or pressure on beds that may necessitate patients being admitted to an area occupied by patients of the opposite sex. If this occurs they should be transferred to single-sex accommodation as soon as possible.

Question reference: S5W-20051

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 3 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-12931 by Maureen Watt on 5 December 2017, whether it will provide the same information for 2017-18.

Information on NHS expenditure, mental health expenditure and percentage of expenditure that have been spent on children and adolescent mental health services in the hospital and community sectors in year 2017-18 is shown in the following table.

Child and Adolescent mental health expenditure 1 , Total NHS expenditure 2 and Mental Health expenditure 3

Scotland 2017-18

NHS Board	Child and Adolescent mental health expenditure 1 (£000)	Total NHS expenditure 2 (£000)	Percentage of Total NHS expenditure %	Mental Health expenditure 3 (£000)	Percentage of (Child and Adolescent) on Mental Health expenditure
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	3,957	£800,789	0.49	67,241	5.89%
NHS Borders	994	£215,890	0.46	18,545	5.36%
NHS Fife	2,917	£676,779	0.43	54,527	5.35%
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	18,131	£3,048,544	0.59	286,150	6.34%
NHS Highland	2,620	£661,923	0.40	50,451	5.19%
NHS Lanarkshire	5,939	£1,147,804	0.52	74,984	7.92%
NHS Grampian 5	293	£1,099,506	0.03	73,442	0.40%
NHS Orkney	79	£49,874	0.16	1,425	5.56%
NHS Lothian	13,761	£1,779,314	0.77	136,449	10.08%
NHS Tayside	7,166	£932,863	0.77	94,292	7.60%
NHS Forth Valley	3,053	£560,084	0.55	48,344	6.32%
NHS Western Isles	270	£70,746	0.38	1,990	13.58%
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	1,580	£315,599	0.50	22,555	7.00%
NHS Shetland	314	£50,413	0.62	1,719	18.28%
State Hospital	-	£34,923	-	34,923	-
Golden Jubilee	-	£123,566	-	-	-
Scotland	£61,074	£11,568,618	0.53	£967,038	6.32%

Source: Scottish Health Service Costs, Report R300, R340, R04LSX and SFR8.3, ISD Scotland

1. Child and Adolescent mental health expenditure as recorded in the Costs Book (Report R04LSX and SFR 8.3). Data covers expenditure identified by NHS Boards as relating to NHS Mental Health services delivered in the hospital or the community that are specifically aimed at children and adolescents. Other expenditure relating to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services may be recorded, by different NHS Boards, through different SFRs and reports.

2. Total NHS expenditure as recorded in the Costs Book (Report R300).

3. Mental health expenditure as recorded in the Costs Book (Report R340).

4. Data covers expenditure identified by NHS Boards as relating to NHS Mental Health services delivered in the hospital or the community that are specifically aimed at children and adolescents. Figures shown in ‘cash terms’ (not adjusting for inflation).

5. Community Mental Health teams data is missing from NHS Grampian therefore the expenditure on CAMHS for this board is incomplete. This will also result in the Scotland total being incomplete.

6. The Scotland figures excludes the costs for the State Hospital special board.

Question reference: S5W-20158

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 3 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19790 by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2018, what the flu vaccine uptake rate has been among (a) nursing and (b) midwifery students in each of the last 10 years, broken down by place of study.