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: S4W-17923

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how common blacklisting is in the construction industry in Scotland and whether it considers that it is endemic.

The Scottish Affairs Committee’s Interim Report published in April this year, concluded that the service offered by the Consulting Association was a blacklisting one which affected a great number of people. However, one of the issues they are continuing to investigate is whether blacklisting is still taking place, both within the construction industry and more widely, and especially in Scotland. I welcome the fact that the Committee is continuing to investigate this very serious matter and I look forward to seeing their final recommendations.

Question reference: S4W-17927

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether blacklisting is an abuse of a person's rights.

Question reference: S4O-02593

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what action the education sector is taking to promote good health and help tackle health inequalities.

Question reference: S4F-01673

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2013

To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government is taking to address the amount that the NHS spends on medical overtime.

Question reference: S4O-02547

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve social care for vulnerable and older people.

We are doing many things to improve social care to ensure vulnerable and older people are treated with respect and dignity:

the integration of health and care to ensure seamless service provision for all adults;

our Reshaping Care for Older People programme, which recognises people want to live in their own communities for as long as possible, with appropriate support;

effective care standards, regulation and inspection of care to ensure that all people receive quality and compassionate care that protects their dignity and independence on every occasion and in any setting;

the move to strategic commissioning of care;

more choice and control through self-directed support;

the commitment to Free Personal and Nursing Care as a universal benefit for over 65s;

our dementia strategy to ensure people are treated with consideration for their condition; and

access to care information and advice via Care Information Scotland which is being developed to signpost information for all care groups, not just older people in the coming year.

Question reference: S4W-17532

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many individual patient treatment requests have been (a) approved and (b) refused in each year since 2010.

Question reference: S4W-17531

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government which of the drugs made available by NHS England's Cancer Drugs Fund are only accessible in Scotland through individual patient treatment requests.

<>This information is not held centrally. The Individual Patient Treatment Request (IPTR) process allows a clinician to submit a clinical case to their NHS Board on behalf of an individual patient where they believe that the patient would benefit from a medicine which the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has not accepted it for use within the NHS in Scotland. SMC advice is publicly available on its website: http://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk.

NHS England published its latest National Cancer Drugs Fund List on 23 September 2013, the list can be viewed via the attached link:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/pe/cdf/.

The Scottish Government’s response to the Health and Sport Committee’s Inquiry into Access to New Medicines outlining that IPTR would be replaced with PACS can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/29829.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-17534

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government on what grounds individual patient treatment requests can be refused and whether it will provide a breakdown of how often each of these reasons has been used.

The individual patient treatment request (IPTR) process allows a clinician to submit a clinical case to their NHS board on behalf of an individual patient where they believe that the patient would benefit from a medicine which the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has not accepted it for use within the NHS in Scotland. The clinician is expected to provide evidence that the patient is likely to gain significantly more benefit from the medicine than would normally be expected. In order to do so, the clinician is expected to clarify that the patient’s clinical circumstances are significantly different from either the general population of patients covered by the medicine’s licence; or the population of patients included in the clinical trials for the medicine’s licensed indication as appraised. This would indicate that the medicine in question is likely to be more clinically and cost-effective for treating the patient in question than was demonstrated in the evidence submitted to the SMC.

Where the IPTR panel accepts that the clinical evidence provided suggests that the patient will achieve a significantly improved clinical response for the individual patient than would normally be expected, the IPTR will be approved. Where the panel does not accept this, the IPTR will be rejected.

Information on the reasons for IPTRs refused are not held centrally.

The Scottish Government’s response to the Health and Sport Committee’s Inquiry into Access to New Medicines outlining that IPTR would be replaced with PACS can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/29829.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-17346

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the supplementary to question S4F-01561 by Alex Salmond on 19 September 2013 (Official Report, c. 22684), what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the renationalisation of the Royal Mail in an independent Scotland.

The privatisation of the Royal Mail was opposed by the majority of Scottish MPs in a vote in the House of Commons. On 15 September 2013 the First Minister called on the UK Government to put in place a moratorium on the privatisation of the Royal Mail. The First Minister announced on 19 September 2013 that with independence this Scottish Government will bring the Royal Mail back into public ownership if it has been privatised. The First Minister also wrote to Labour leader Ed Miliband urging the Labour party to support an approach to renationalisation, a position endorsed by Labour party conference on 25 September 2013. The Scottish Government is in contact with a range of stakeholders over its proposals for the future of the postal service.

Question reference: S4W-17347

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the supplementary to question S4F-01561 by Alex Salmond on 19 September 2013 (Official Report, c. 22684), what the cost of renationalisation of the Royal Mail would be in an independent Scotland.

The privatisation of the Royal Mail was opposed by the majority of Scottish MPs and is opposed by the majority of people in Scotland alongside the National Federation of SubPostmasters and the Communication Workers Union. The First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister on 19 September 2013 opposing the privatisation of the Royal Mail and calling for a moratorium on the privatisation of the Royal Mail. The First Minister announced on 19 September 2013 that with independence this Scottish Government will bring the Royal Mail back into public ownership if it has been privatised. The First Minister also wrote to Ed Miliband urging the Labour party to support an approach to renationalisation, a position endorsed by Labour party conference on 25 September 2013. The cost of securing a publicly owned mail service in Scotland will be based on the value of assets at the time.