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-18979

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the provision of electronic prescribing in the NHS.

The ePharmacy Programme is a multi-year programme that has helped revolutionise the way GP prescriptions are issued, dispensed at community pharmacies and processed for payment by the NHS, using Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions.

Over 100 million prescriptions are dispensed in the community annually in Scotland, with over 90% of these prescribed by GP practices and dispensed at a community pharmacy. Over 97% of GP prescriptions in the community are now issued electronically; of these over 93% are claimed by the pharmacies electronically and of these over 90% of these items are processed for payment automatically. This means that over 75 million items per year are now fully automated, with no transcription errors between prescribing and dispensing, delivering efficiency savings, and improvements in payment accuracy. All this has been achieved through the electronic prescription and pharmacy dispensing systems provided through the ePharmacy Programme.

Question reference: S5W-18939

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports that cladding work at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow has led to some seriously-ill children being advised not to use the children's entrance; what discussions it has had with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde regarding this, and by what date the issues will be rectified.

The Scottish Government and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have been in regular contact to discuss NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's plans to ensure easy access into their buildings. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the Royal Hospital for Children's project team and the Contractor have ongoing meetings since March 2018 to ensure that all matters that may impact on the patients and staff due to these works are kept to a minimum.

The temporary relocation of the entrance to the Royal Hospital for Children has been planned in conjunction with the site management team and appropriate safety precautions and temporary signage directing patients and visitors to the reassigned principal entrance are in place.

This phase of the works to the Children’s Hospital is scheduled for completion by the 6th March 2019, given the current progress of the works on site it is considered that this date will be brought forward and the front entrance will be reinstated quicker than the current programme.

Question reference: S5W-18944

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many clinicians have used the Peer Approved Clinical System (PACS) Tier Two system to apply for the breast cancer drug, Perjeta, and how many applications have been approved.

Question reference: S5O-02423

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that pupils in Lothian have access to as broad a range of exam level subjects as possible.

Question reference: S5W-18852

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to update its procurement policy to reduce the levels of imported stone in any public buildings.

Scottish procurement legislation, which implements EU public procurement Directives, requires that any technical specifications in relation to public contracts assures equal access of suppliers to the contract and must not narrow competition. In most cases, therefore, it is simply not possible to specify Scottish materials when placing public contracts. There may be some exceptions to this, for example where the materials in question have unique characteristics and they are required to be used under the contract in order to retain a building’s characteristics.

Question reference: S5W-18947

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made of providing people with septo-optic dysplasia access to NHS stem cell treatment.

Question reference: S5W-18853

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-30384 by Alasdair Allan on 21 March 2016, how many applicants there have been for postgraduate educational psychlogist positions in (a) 2017 and (b) 2018.

Question reference: S5W-18458

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government in light of reported concerns about the impact on health of traces of glyphosate being found in food products.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) leads on matters relating specifically to food safety in Scotland. FSS liaises closely with Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the rest of the UK on food safety matters, particularly those regulated at EU level.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) leads for the UK on pesticide safety assessments. Neither FSA nor HSE have contacted FSS to discuss glyphosate as current residue levels in food are not considered to provide concern for food safety.

Question reference: S5W-18456

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage a reduction in the use of pesticides containing glyphosphate by the agricultural sector, and what progress has been made in achieving a reduction.

The Scottish Government promotes the use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which aims to help landowners reduce their reliance on the use of pesticides, including those containing glyphosate, and help them to make the best possible and most sustainable use of all methods for controlling pests, weeds and diseases.

IPM is a site specific, whole farm approach to maximising the efficiency of production whilst minimising negative effects on the environment. IPM is a broad set of tools which aim to minimise pest, weed and disease risks whilst also reducing reliance on pesticides.

Question reference: S5W-18431

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any progress being made in reducing waiting times for orthopaedic appointments and treatment in NHS Lothian.

I recognise the waiting times for orthopaedics in NHS Lothian are very much below the level I require, with patients experiencing exceptionally long waits to be seen and treated. NHS Lothian has received £3.7 million as part of the £25 million initially issued to Boards from the £50 million announced at the end of May. The Board are using £500,000 of this funding, plus £1.5 million from Access Support funding to improve waiting time performance for orthopaedics. The further £25 million funding will be issued to NHS Boards shortly

NHS Lothian recognise the issue of growing demand and has undertaken significant work to redesign the musculoskeletal pathway in the community, first for lower back pain through the development of an integrated back pain pathway, and now a foot and ankle and upper limb integrated community pathway. The foot and ankle and upper limb musclosketal allied health professional community pathways has reduced orthopaedic demand by 2,700. They have also redesigned their arthroplasty service to provide a service better aligned to realistic medicine which reduces the number of return appointments. These initiatives have created more additional new outpatient capacity. This combined work has effectively reduced acute orthopaedic demand, and increased service efficiency and productivity - as result of the changes the Board now have 810 more new outpatient capacity which has brought the outpatient service into balance.

The Board are also taking action to reduce the number of cancelled elective orthopaedic operations caused by long stays of hip fracture patients by providing

Additional Occupational Therapy resource - enable patients to be returned home quicker.
Additional resource for orthopaedic supported discharge and orthopaedic rehabilitation - to reduce delayed discharges
Enhanced AHP resource in Midlothian IJB - enable faster flow of patients from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to rehabilitation

The Board will also make use of the independent healthcare sector to see and treat between an estimated 580-690 of the longest waiting outpatients.

I will be raising the issue of waiting time performance with the Chairs of all Boards at their next meeting.