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-15520

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 how many NHS surgeon positions remained unfilled in each year since 1999, also broken down by NHS board.

NHSScotland staff numbers have increased by over 10% under this Government to a record high of than 127,000 WTE, with staff in post numbers of consultants working in surgical specialities increasing by over 40% in the same period.

Information on how many NHS surgeon positions remained unfilled in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS Board, is not centrally held. Specific local information may be available from individual NHSScotland Boards.

Information on consultant vacancy figures, of which consultants working in surgical specialities is a sub category, is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following web links:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2018-03-06/Consultant_Vacancies_D2017.xls .

and

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2012-11-27/Consultant_Vacancies_S2012.xls?40942485 .

Question reference: S5W-15524

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 the postage costs for the NHS has been in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S5W-15516

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 how much has been paid out as a result of successful criminal negligence cases brought against the NHS in each year since 1999, also broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-15525

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 the NHS publication and printing costs have been in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S5W-15522

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

To ask the Scottish Government how many adult carer places have there been on college courses in each year since 1999, also broken down by college.

Information on the number of adult carers at Scottish colleges has only been collected since the 2013-14 academic year. At the time of first collection not all colleges were in a position to provide this information.

The following table shows the number of college students who have declared caring responsibilities, 2013-14 to 2016-17.

College Students who have declared caring responsibilities, 2013-14 to 2016-17

College	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Argyll College	-	-	24	-
Ayrshire College	4	20	119	569
Borders College	105	254	110	62
City of Glasgow College	1,644	1,520	1,727	1,879
Dumfries and Galloway College	-	-	-	42
Dundee and Angus College	34	740	835	656
Edinburgh College	-	514	783	959
Fife College	35	101	67	63
Forth Valley College	21	161	212	229
Glasgow Clyde College	269	830	883	906
Glasgow Kelvin College	382	640	203	136
Inverness College	48	148	293	320
Lews Castle College	55	67	90	55
Moray College	35	139	201	224
New College Lanarkshire	25	12	-	3
Newbattle Abbey College	-	1	3	14
North East Scotland College	-	40	99	128
North Highland College	14	38	42	110
Orkney College	18	52	100	113
Perth College	62	162	167	169
SRUC Land Based	-	-	-	24
Shetland College of Further Education	2	10	22	38
South Lanarkshire College	-	2	158	329
West College Scotland	80	539	980	1,413
West Highland College	-	6	11	-
West Lothian College	-	-	36	142
Total	2,833	5,996	7,165	8,583
Source: SFC College Data

NOTE: Data collection is still under improvement and numbers should not be compared across years.

Question reference: S5O-02019

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to encourage more diesel taxi owners to convert to liquefied petroleum gas.

Question reference: S5W-15660

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14867 by Shona Robison on 7 March 2018, how many real-time continuous glucose monitoring devices and insulin pumps have been made available to patients in 2017-18.

The Scottish Government's letter DL (2017) 13 issued to all NHS Boards on 12 June 2017 provides an indication of the number of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices and insulin pumps for adults that the 2017-18 financial year £2m additional funding would provide.

The Scottish Diabetes Survey (SDS) continues to publish data on insulin pumps provision for each calendar year. The intention is to include CGMs in the future. As this is new data, robustness and completeness will be considered in the context of the 2017 SDS publication.

Question reference: S5W-15661

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14867 by Shona Robison on 7 March 2018, how much has been provided in 2017-18 to each NHS board to pay for real-time continuous glucose monitoring devices and insulin pumps.

Question reference: S5W-15617

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-15082 by Maureen Watt on 14 March 2018, whether guidance has been issued that confirms that a person must not be assumed to have Significantly Impaired Decision Making Ability (SIDMA) unless it has been properly established that a mental disorder has affected that person's ability to believe, understand and retain information, and to make and communicate decisions.

The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 sets out the principles according to which those who perform duties under the Act must discharge those functions. This includes professionals such as medical practitioners who take decisions concerning compulsion.

Scottish Ministers are under a duty to prepare, publish and revise a Code of Practice under the 2003 Act. The Code sets out guidance to professionals on their duties, therefore doctors, mental health officers and others exercising statutory functions under the Act are under a duty to have regard to the Code.

Volume 2 of the Code deals with the range of issues relating to civil compulsory powers and includes specific sections that make clear which criteria should be met before the various orders and certificates may be granted. It makes particular mention on the concept of significantly impaired decision making ability (SIDMA), in that:

SIDMA must always be linked to a person’s mental disorder but it should not necessarily be taken to be synonymous with mental disorder
SIDMA means a significant impairment in relation to decisions about the provision of medical treatment for mental disorder
A person’s decision making ability should not be considered to be significantly impaired by reason only of a lack of deficiency in a faculty of communication
Similarly, it should not be taken as equivalent to disagreeing with the opinions of professionals

Other forms of guidance are available - the Mental Welfare Commission have published good practice guides for practitioners on various issues, one of which is called 'Consent to Treatment'. Similarly, the General Medical Council publishes guidance for all UK doctors, entitled 'Consent: patients and doctors making decisions together'.

Question reference: S5W-15533

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 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many pharmacists it estimates will be required under its NHS workforce plan.

Pharmacists are core members of the healthcare workforce, and reforms introduced in the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan will ensure that all GP practices have access to enhanced pharmacist and pharmacy technician support by 2021.

In 2017-18 funding for general practice pharmacy support was increased by a further £4.2 million. Based on this additional funding, over and above the original three year figure of £16.2 million, NHS Boards plan that by March 2018 they will have appointed over 200 whole time equivalent pharmacists and over 50 whole time equivalent pharmacy technicians working with or within GP practices. The final numbers of pharmacists required will depend on local planning arrangements to meet population needs, emerging new models of care, skill mix and developing multidisciplinary team working.

The Plan also sets out how we intend to recruit, develop and retain the multidisciplinary and flexible workforce we need to continue to deliver high quality healthcare for the people of Scotland. This will ensure we have the right people in the right place at the right time to continue to deliver high quality care that meets the needs of Scotland’s population.