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-09019

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many mentors have been allocated to GPs who have been suspended in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S5W-08991

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on conducting a cost-benefit analysis of the introduction of antibiotic tests in the primary care sector, and whether it has assessed the effectiveness of such testing in other countries.

Prescribing of systemic antibacterials in primary care has reduced for the third year running and we continue to take forward plans to limit the threat of immunity to antibiotics and drug resistance in Scotland.

Scotland’s work on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is globally recognised. However, Antimicrobial Resistance is a global phenomenon and the UK is taking a cross-Government approach to tackling the problem.

As tackling AMR remains a priority and a constant challenge we are working with stakeholders through our Controlling Antimicrobial Resistance Scotland (CARS) group and Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG) in a bid to reduce inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics in all healthcare settings.

We are aware of several published studies on the cost-benefit analysis of the
C-Reactive Protein (CRP) test that have been conducted in other countries. In Scotland, whilst a pilot study of the test has been undertaken, a cost-benefit analysis has not yet been completed. However, discussions on cost-benefit of the test to NHS Scotland are currently taking place.

Question reference: S5W-09014

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many children under one have had teeth extracted in each year since 1999.

The following table shows the number of children under 1 year of age who have had teeth extracted:

Year	Number
2000-01	40
2001-02	33
2002-03	25
2003-04	19
2004-05	33
2005-06	22
2006-07	24
2007-08	28
2008-09	20
2009-10	16
2010-11	15
2011-12	15
2012-13	16
2013-14	13
2014-15	7
2015-16	4

Source: ISD Scotland

The table shows the number of children undergoing tooth extractions in primary care, secondary care, and as an out-patient, for financial year 2000-01 to 2015-16. Data is only available from the year 2000.

Question reference: S5W-09007

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-28016 by Fiona Hyslop on 30 October 2015, whether it will provide the information that was requested for the period since the response was issued.

Question reference: S5W-08530

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 5 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07759 by Aileen Campbell on 30 March 2017, whether it will confirm that the ISD data shows new patient referrals and not all chronic pain patient referrals, in light of concerns that return chronic pain patients are not counted by NHS boards.

Question reference: S5O-00973

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on plans to increase the capacity of the Edinburgh city bypass.

Question reference: S5W-08529

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07759 by Aileen Campbell on 30 March 2017, whether it will clarify the reference to "the percentage of patients receiving treatment at a pain clinic within 18 weeks has risen from 60.4% to 64.5%", in light of the ISD figures provided, which appear to indicate that the percentages refer only to patients being seen, and whether it considers that, for the purpose of these statistics, being seen and being treated are the same.

Question reference: S5W-08382

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the planned closure by Jabil of its plant in Livingston; how it will support the 260 employees who face redundancy, and whether it will consider setting up a jobs task force for Livingston in light of this announcement.

The Scottish Government was very concerned to learn of the proposed closure of the manufacturing operations at the Jabil Livingston site. We understand that this will be a very difficult time for the company’s employees and their families affected by the announcement. At the earliest opportunity, I spoke with the company to understand the reasons for this announcement and to offer the full support of the Scottish Government and our enterprise agencies, in exploring all possible avenues of support to help maintain these highly skilled manufacturing jobs in Livingston.

Scottish Enterprise is, at my instruction, continuing to engage with Jabil, on the Scottish Government’s behalf, and along with West Lothian Council met with the company on Monday 27 March to take forward early stage discussion about support for the Livingston site and its workforce.

If any redundancies proceed, and I would not wish to pre-judge the Consultation, through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE), we would then provide skills development and employability support to minimise the time that any individuals affected by redundancy might be out of work. I would want to stress that PACE has a strong track record in supporting individuals affected by potential redundancy.

Each economic shock is different and the task force approach is not always appropriate. We are always mindful of the wider economic context in these situations and undertake a co-ordinated plan of action together with the company and local stakeholders, which is tailored to each situation. That is what we are doing here and will continue to do to provide our full support to those affected. However, I have asked officials at the office of Chief Economic Advisors to assess the overall impact of proposed, aggregated job losses, on the local labour market and to assess the potential for those facing redundancy to be absorbed by alternative employment opportunities.

We are also continuing to work closely with partners in the region to deliver the West Lothian Economic Growth Plan. The Plan captures a range of interventions to support economic growth in the area over a five year period to 2017-18.

We have supported the delivery of the Plan with £12 million of additional resource which, along with existing budgets represents an overall package of financial support of £29 million to strengthen the West Lothian economy and to help it weather future economic challenges.

Question reference: S5W-08617

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in implementing the new assessment process for ultra-orphan treatments, which was recommended by the Review of Access to New Medicines.

Dr Montgomery’s independent review on access to new medicines recognised that the Scottish Government has made significant reforms and investment to improve access to newly licensed medicines in recent years.

I announced in December that we will be taking forward the recommendations from the review. We are collaborating with a range of clinical experts, patient groups and other stakeholders to take forward, as quickly as possible, implementation of the new assessment and approval pathway for ultra-orphan medicines recommended by the review.

We continue to build on the improvements made by our previous reforms but we require drug manufacturers to make reforms too, so they bring forward medicines at a fair price.

Where a medicine is not accepted by the SMC for routine use in Scotland, NHS Boards do have systems in place where clinicians can request access to these medicines on an individual patient case by case basis.

Question reference: S5W-08616

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports people who cannot access innovative treatments for ultra-rare conditions as these are being considered by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), in light of concerns that the SMC process might be inappropriate and is due to be replaced.