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-04032

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the waiting time has been for people with suspected psoriatic arthritis to see a consultant following referral by their GP in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

The specific information is not available centrally as outpatient waiting times information is collected at specialty level only. I understand that patients with suspected psoriatic arthritis are mostly likely to be referred to a dermatologist. The following tables provides information on the waiting time for a dermatology outpatient consultation for each year from June 1999 to June 2016.

It should be noted that due to data collection changes data has been provided from two different data collection systems and data from June 2009 is not directly comparable with earlier years median waits.

NHSScotland: Median Waiting Time For A First Outpatient Dermatology Consultation: June 1999 to June 2003

Board	June 1999	June 2000	June 2001	June 2002	June 2003
	Days	Days	Days	Days	Days
Ayrshire & Arran	42	62	93	104	91
Borders	66	50	69	76	91
Dumfries & Galloway	39	21	33	63	41
Fife	65	68	62	71	84
Forth Valley	105	106	117	109	93
Grampian	101	111	125	126	119.5
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	54	60	56	62	56
Highland	59	60	45	32	50
Lanarkshire	41	52.5	62	98	94
Lothian	51	66	70	66	68
Orkney	37	54	41	42.5	169
Shetland	43	57	42.5	63	59
Tayside	78	35	27	43	41
Western Isles	111	83	28	26	27
NHS Scotland	54	61	59	68	65

Source ISD: SMR(00)

NHSScotland: Median Waiting Time For A First Outpatient Dermatology Consultation: June 2004 to June 2008

Board	June 2004	June 2005	June 2006	June 2007	June 2008
	Days	Days	Days	Days	Days
Ayrshire & Arran	82	55	39	36	43
Borders	83	83	61	38	29
Dumfries & Galloway	25	20	19	14	18
Fife	81	75	59	38	52
Forth Valley	180	91	68	51	42
Grampian	107	85	43	73	92
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	47	50	47	52	53
Highland	27	37	73	46	45
Lanarkshire	70	83	56	58	94
Lothian	57	59	51	46	61
Orkney	80	96	74	104.5	100
Shetland	153	70	80	100	63
Tayside	48	52	57	57	52
Western Isles	28	32	29	26.5	29
NHS Scotland	53	55	49	49	53

Source ISD: SMR(00)

NHSScotland: Median Waiting Time For A First Outpatient Dermatology Consultation: June 2009 to June 2012

Board	June 2009	June 2010	June 2011	June 2012
	Days	Days	Days	Days
Ayrshire & Arran	48	26	48	62
Borders	55	44	53	77
Dumfries & Galloway	24	26	28	34
Fife	47	45	39	40
Forth Valley	47	50	62	46
Grampian	50	63	71	73
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	43	34	38	35
Highland	46	40	27	36
Lanarkshire	61	66	65	76
Lothian	48	34	32	33
Orkney	72.5	58	50.5	46
Shetland	50	44	59	62
Tayside	42	37	45	50
Western Isles	39	35	41	42
NHS Scotland	47	41	43	41

Source; ISD New Ways Data Warehouse

NHSScotland: Median Waiting Time For A First Outpatient Dermatology Consultation: June 2013 to June 2016

Board	June 2013	June 2014	June 2015	June 2016
	Days	Days	Days	Days
Ayrshire & Arran	74	83	87	48
Borders	49	36	65	75
Dumfries & Galloway	60	59.5	49	59
Fife	51	56	67	48
Forth Valley	49	50	33	36
Grampian	70	75	83	79
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	41	49	59	62
Highland	42	42	48	52
Lanarkshire	73	64	43	53
Lothian	36	40	45	41
Orkney	49	71.5	100	90
Shetland	49	85	63	98
Tayside	43	40	42	45
Western Isles	26	32	37	40
NHS Scotland	46	50	53	53

Source; ISD New Ways Data Warehouse

Question reference: S5W-04030

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many people with psoriatic arthritis are receiving biologics, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-04031

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Lothian region would benefit from (a) a dedicated psoriatic arthritis integrated clinic and (b) the provision of mobile MRI and ultrasound scanners to treat people with psoriatic arthritis.

The Scottish Government provides policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards to allow them to deliver services that meet the needs of their local populations.

Within this context, the actual provision of healthcare services, including (a) a dedicated psoriatic arthritis integrated clinic and (b) the provision of mobile MRI and ultrasound scanners to treat people with psoriatic arthritis in Lothian region is a matter for Lothian Health Board, taking into account national guidance, local service needs and priorities for investment.

Question reference: S5W-03353

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many deaths from alcoholic liver disease there have been in each year since 1999.

Information collected by National Records of Scotland is set out in the following table.

Deaths where Alcoholic Liver Disease [1] was the underlying cause, Scotland, 1999 to 2015

Year [2]	Deaths
1999	638
2000	779
2001	866
2002	957
2003	976
2004	876
2005	976
2006	1003
2007	920
2008	936
2009	820
2010	814
2011	764
2012	646
2013	682
2014	658
2015	650

[1] Deaths classified under the International Classification of Diseases. 1999 figures based on the 9^th revision (ICD-9) using codes 571.0 to 571.3. 2000 figures onwards based on 10^th revision (ICD-10) using code K70.

[2] Deaths registered during the calendar year.

Question reference: S5W-04035

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 3 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the advertising spend on campaigns for the Scottish Government Marketing Unit in (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16.

I refer the member to the Scottish Government website where marketing spend for 2014-15 and 2015-16 was published on 1 November 2016. Please see the following links:

https://beta.gov.scot/publications/advertising-spend-2015-2016/

https://beta.gov.scot/publications/advertising-spend-2014-2015/

The Scottish Government’s award-winning marketing promotes Scotland around the world as a modern, creative and dynamic nation; and helps people in Scotland make informed choices, improve their opportunities and understand the positive role of public services in their lives.

Our marketing work is an integral part of our life-saving and improving campaigns. For example, our Detect Cancer Early campaign resulted in an 8% increase in early stage diagnosis of breast, lung and colorectal cancers from baseline and a 35.6% increase in proportion of lung cancers diagnosed at the earliest stage, alongside a 50% increase in women consulting their GP with breast symptoms and increased uptake of the national bowel screening programme.

However, we continue to pursue cost-effective means of public engagement, and have cut marketing costs by 12% in the last year.

Question reference: S5W-03503

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many "never events" there have been in the NHS in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S5W-03471

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether the national social isolation strategy, committed to in its Programme for Government, will have increased funding beyond that provided to the current Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund.

Question reference: S5W-03504

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of the medicine, Sativex, in the NHS.

Sativex is currently licensed to treat patients with moderate to severe spasticity due to Multiple Sclerosis. In Scotland, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) provides advice to NHS Scotland on the clinical and cost effectiveness of all new medicines. They do this following submissions made by the manufacturer. For Sativex, whilst the manufacturer does hold a product licence, they have not yet made a submission to the SMC to have Sativex considered for routine availability on the NHS in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-03472

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether the national social isolation strategy, committed to in its Programme for Government, will include measurable outcomes by which its success can be judged over a defined period of time.

Question reference: S5W-03502

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to produce guidance on specific cancers as part of its cancer strategy and, if so, which types of cancer will be covered.