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-16087

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what duties Scottish Canals has to consult with stakeholders on proposed new projects, and whether consultation should take place from inception to completion of such projects.

Question reference: S5W-15986

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what investments it has made in the last two years to help reduce the number of people under 65 with neurological conditions who are cared for in care homes for older people; what information it has on how many of those people are being cared for in such homes, broken down by local authority, and what further action it plans to take to increase the availability to them of age-appropriate care services.

We want to ensure that people living with neurological conditions have consistent access to the best possible care and support. The integration of health and social care places a greater emphasis on community-based and more joined-up and anticipatory care which will benefit a wide range of people including people with neurological conditions. Strategic commissioning plans have been developed by each Integration Authority based upon a strategic needs assessment of local people's needs, including people with neurological conditions.

Data regarding how many people with a neurological condition are being cared for in care homes, broken down by local authority, is currently not held centrally. The Scottish Care Home Census is now collating data on the numbers of long-stay residents that have a neurological condition and the first publication of this data will be in Autumn 2018.

Comprehensive assessments, including any specialist assessments for neurological conditions where this has identified as being required, are undertaken prior to people being admitted to care homes and placed there by the relevant local authority/ integration authority. This incorporates a full needs assessment, including clinical needs of all conditions, particularly for nursing care, as well as a financial assessment.

We are currently developing Scotland's first National Action Plan on Neurological Conditions. This work is being taken forward in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders across the neurological community and a draft plan will be published for consultation in Autumn 2018.

Question reference: S5W-15932

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have indicated in each year since 2005-06 that they were attempting to quit smoking, and what analysis it has made of the trend.

Information used for analysing trends is based on the number of quit attempts made through NHS services and data on that is available for financial years 2009-10 to 2016-17 in the Information Services Divisions latest NHS Smoking Cessation Services Scotland 2016/17 report published in October 2017. Data on numbers of quit attempts for financial years 2006-07 and 2007-08 can be viewed in the 2015-16 NHS Smoking Cessation Service Scotland report published in October 2016. No data for 2005-06 is available.

Question reference: S5W-15534

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS operations have been undertaken in independent hospitals in each year since 1999.

The information requested is provided in the following table. In 2017 private sector operations were less than 0.4% of NHSScotland inpatient and day case operations.

Number of inpatient and day case operations undertaken by NHSScotland and in independent hospitals in Scotland, 1999-2017.

Year	NHS	Private
1999	963,440	397
2000	960,103	245
2001	939,457	638
2002	920,993	645
2003	957,768	1,066
2004	1,019185	1,185
2005	1,045,345	1,922
2006	1,143,658	1,807
2007	1,219,259	2,288
2008	1,015,107	4,084
2009	952,766	6,075
2010	943,260	2,447
2011	901,613	1,581
2012	916,730	6,500
2013	906,462	7,744
2014	909,687	8,904
2015	913,053	8,677
2016	925,405	3,985
2017	914,056	3,624

Source:ISD Scotland, SMR01.

Question reference: S5W-15783

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14562 by Shona Robison on 28 February 2018, in light of the cabinet secretary's comment that "I expect to see improvements between now and the end of March 2018", what progress has been made with reducing waiting times for orthopaedic appointments and procedures in NHS Lothian.

Question reference: S5W-15785

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 25 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to raise awareness among (a) GPs, (b) audiologists and (c) other NHS clinicians of benign brain tumours.

The Managed Service Network (MSN) - Neurosurgery consulted with the Royal College of General Practitioners during the development of the brain tumour pathway.

The MSN has not had direct interaction with audiologists, however, they are working with NSD to establish a ‘base of skull’ national multidisciplinary team meeting for conditions including acoustic neuromas and patients with Neurofibromatosis 2 who may require the support of audiology services in their regional centres.

Question reference: S5W-15786

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 25 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to people with a benign brain tumour, including post-surgery support.

The Managed Service Network (MSN) - Neurosurgery provides links to third sector organisations on their website and also in clinical areas in the four neurosurgical centres in Scotland.

The impact of a brain tumour is to some extent dependent on location and size (and therefore adjacent structures within the brain). The needs of the post-operative patient with a benign brain tumour during their rehabilitation will form a component of the work the MSN will undertake during the course of 2018-19 as part of the Neurosurgical Research Collaborative (NRC) research programme.

Question reference: S5W-15934

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 25 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans to take to encourage more smokers to attempt to quit.

On 9 April we embarked on a four-month national and local TV, radio, community action and social media campaign. The intention of the campaign is to motivate smokers who are ready to quit – focused on areas where smoking rates are highest and linking to the NHS free stop-smoking support available to help them.

In addition we have maintained funding for NHS Health Boards for stop-smoking services since 2013 at around £10,000,000.

Question reference: S5W-15518

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 23 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of self-harm have been recorded in each year since 1999, also broken down by NHS board.

The recording of self-harm is complex because the decision to report ‘intentional self-harm’ on the patient’s record lies with the clinician. The assessment of intent is a clinical one and subject to variation.

The number of recorded cases of self-harm is shown in the following table for the calendar years 1999 to 2016, broken down by NHS board of treatment. Please note that the complete figures for 2017 and 2018 have not yet been published.

Ref No: IR2018-00574

Extract Date: March 2018

Number of cases with self-harm diagnoses 1 by health board of treatment, 1999 - 2016.

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Ayrshire & Arran	1,472	1,452	1,537	1,668	1,577	1,534	1,428	1,387	1,383	1,223	1,254	1,357	1,399	1,198	1,136	1,201	1,093	1,172
Borders	323	316	352	416	373	396	367	324	354	406	375	350	378	301	343	306	345	334
Dumfries & Galloway	433	410	410	395	385	305	282	253	271	334	323	313	319	301	369	328	349	355
Fife	888	894	926	1,026	1,014	830	803	865	971	1,003	1,063	958	961	1,004	1,085	926	826	921
Forth Valley	898	846	895	927	791	677	586	603	618	636	655	593	680	698	877	843	858	735
Grampian	1,530	1,606	1,676	1,706	1,745	1,398	1,413	1,307	1,380	1,430	1,407	1,484	1,620	1,500	1,694	1,403	1,240	1,310
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	4,189	4,270	4,429	4,358	3,816	3,651	3,081	3,472	3,794	4,135	4,164	4,380	4,471	4,034	3,962	3,524	3,715	4,668
Highland	523	568	523	446	412	732	695	797	767	667	651	643	713	626	780	714	797	712
Lanark shire	1,374	1,478	1,834	1,760	1,659	1,504	1,314	1,245	1,431	1,596	1,438	1,397	1,425	1,451	1,616	1,552	1,742	1,708
Lothian	3,033	2,073	1,734	3,105	2,912	2,577	2,300	2,576	3,149	2,743	2,318	2,398	2,308	2,249	2,395	2,384	2,166	2,021
Orkney	29	35	25	27	29	21	23	23	22	38	35	33	37	29	39	101	61	48
Other 2	*	-	-	*	*	*	-	*	-	6	*	*	*	*	7	*	*	*
Shetland	44	69	48	56	61	68	70	69	46	41	67	45	53	49	70	62	90	60
Tayside	1,560	1,705	1,548	1,535	1,322	1,318	1,097	1,074	1,080	1,189	1,142	1,080	1,090	1,163	1,046	1,074	947	1,070
Western Isles	53	61	56	99	73	92	82	83	83	87	54	80	70	86	65	43	58	42
Source: SMR01, SMR04 Notes * - Denotes values which have been suppressed to protect patient confidentiality.
1 - A self-harm diagnosis is based on current classifications in Chapter V of the ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders.
2 - Due to small numbers, the National Facility, Non-NHS Provider/Location, and State Hospital health boards have been grouped under Other to protect patient confidentiality.

Question reference: S5W-15517

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had on capping the costs that lawyers can recover in NHS criminal negligence cases, including with (a) legal and (b) health organisations.

Where a claim for compensation is made following any prosecution this would be a civil matter.

Under the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Bill which is currently before the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Ministers would be given a power to make regulations which would cap the success fees which can be charged under success fee agreements. The Government has indicated an intention that it is minded to follow the recommendations of Sheriff Principal James Taylor in his Review of the Expenses and Funding of Civil Litigation in Scotland, which means the caps would be set at 20% of the first £100,000 of damages, 10% of the next £400,000 and 2.5% of anything above £500,000 (inclusive of VAT).