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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 176 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-05048

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2021
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Humza Yousaf on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action has been taken on the use of mesh in hernia repair.

In February 2018, the then-Chief Medical Officer wrote to NHS Scotland Medical Directors about public interest in the use of mesh implants, including in hernia repair. Medical Directors were asked to ensure that clinicians offer patients all appropriate options for surgery, as well as the option of no surgery. In addition, the importance of shared decision making, informed consent and listening and acting upon patients concerns was noted.

The Scottish Government commissioned a review by the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) of primary inguinal hernia repair in men. SHTG published their report in early 2020 and this concluded that, compared to non-mesh procedures, using mesh resulted in lower rates of recurrence, lower rates of serious adverse events and similar or lower risk of chronic pain. The advice for NHS Scotland was that surgical mesh should be used in elective repair of inguinal hernia in adult males.

Further to this, the Scottish Government asked SHTG to examine hernia repair more broadly, to include women, and to review the outcome of mesh versus non-mesh surgery in a variety of groin or abdominal wall hernias. SHTG have published their report today which is available online at: Elective surgery using mesh to repair primary or incisional hernias in adults (shtg.scot) . This states that the current evidence supports the continued availability of surgical mesh for elective repair of primary ventral hernias, incisional hernias, and primary inguinal hernias in adults in Scotland. This notwithstanding, SHTG also recommends that consideration should be given to patient preference and that patients should have access to alternative hernia treatment options such as non-mesh (suture and natural tissue) repair. Once again, the importance of shared decision making and informed consent has been emphasised.

The Chief Medical Officer has written to Board Chief Executives and Medical Directors to draw their attention to the report’s findings. The Scottish Government will continue to work with Health Boards, Specialist Associations and the relevant Royal Colleges on the issues raised within the report.

Question reference: S6O-00523

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with Optometry Scotland regarding the request for a fee uplift and regular yearly review of fees, and the anticipated timeframe for a mutually agreeable settlement to be reached.

Question reference: S6O-00400

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to emphasise the harmful effects of tobacco as part of its aim to reduce smoking and protect public health.

Question reference: S6W-03967

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what further financial support will be made available to NHS boards and integration authorities in responding to COVID-19 in 2021-22.

Following the allocation of £2.1 billion provided to date to NHS Boards and Integration Authorities to support additional COVID-19 costs, a further £482 million is now being provided to NHS Boards and Integration Authorities in 2021-22 to meet ongoing costs associated with Covid-19. This includes funding for PPE, Test and Protect and delivery of Covid-19 vaccinations.

The Scottish Government will continue to ensure that our health and care services have the funding that they require to respond to this pandemic.

Details of funding allocations to NHS Boards and Integration Authorities are set out in the following table:

All figures in £ millions	NHS Boards	Integration Authorities	Total
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	19.6	5.0	24.6
NHS Borders	3.4	1.8	5.2
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1.8	2.0	3.8
NHS Fife	6.8	7.0	13.8
NHS Forth Valley	9.8	0.3	10.1
NHS Grampian	31.6	5.4	37.0
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	71.6	13.3	84.9
NHS Highland	20.6	10.0	30.6
NHS Lanarkshire	10.7	19.6	30.3
NHS Lothian	46.6	9.7	56.3
NHS Orkney	2.7	1.2	3.9
NHS Shetland	1.6	1.6	3.2
NHS Tayside	15.8	15.1	30.9
NHS Western Isles	1.7	0.8	2.5
NHS National Services Scotland	109.4	-	109.4
Scottish Ambulance Service	22.5	-	22.5
NHS Education for Scotland	-	-	-
NHS 24	1.1	-	1.1
The State Hospital	0.4	-	0.4
National Waiting Times Centre	2.6	-	2.6
Public Health Scotland	8.9	-	8.9
Healthcare Improvement Scotland	-	-	-
Total	389.2	92.8	482.0

Question reference: S6W-03427

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the principles and commitments that support the care for people with long COVID.

Question reference: S6O-00186

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the reported labour shortages being faced by food producers in Scotland following Brexit.

Question reference: S6O-00100

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what importance it places on recognising and addressing the societal issues that contribute to poor mental health.

Question reference: S6W-01193

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 July 2021
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support will be made available to NHS Boards in responding to COVID-19 in 2021-22.

Additional funding of £1.08 billion has been confirmed through the Scottish Budget for health and care for 2021-22 to support the response to the pandemic.

From this, the Scottish Government is providing an initial £380 million to NHS Boards in 2021-22 to meet ongoing costs associated with Covid-19. This includes funding for PPE, Test and Protect and delivery of Covid-19 vaccinations.

The Scottish Government will continue to ensure that our health and care services have the funding that they require to respond to this pandemic, and will make available further additional support following our detailed Quarter One financial review.

Details of funding allocations to NHS Boards are set out in the following table:

	Covid Funding (£m)
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	13.7
NHS Borders	3.4
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	4.9
NHS Fife	11.6
NHS Forth Valley	10.1
NHS Grampian	16.2
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	45.8
NHS Highland	9.8
NHS Lanarkshire	25.9
NHS Lothian	27.0
NHS Orkney	0.7
NHS Shetland	0.7
NHS Tayside	13.7
NHS Western Isles	0.9
National Waiting Times Centre	3.9
Scottish Ambulance Service	17.4
The State Hospital	0.3
NHS 24	2.7
NHS Education for Scotland	1.8
NHS National Services Scotland	156.3
Healthcare Improvement Scotland	0.4
Public Health Scotland	12.6
Total	379.6

Question reference: S5W-36215

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 5 May 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received free personal and nursing care since the policy was introduced.

Official statistics confirming the number of individuals who have received free personal and nursing care since 2008-09 are shown in the table below.

Individuals may receive care across both settings within the same year and/ or receive care across in either setting in multiple years.

	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
Number of self-funders receiving FPNC / FPC payments (aged 65+) or FNC payments (all ages) in Care Homes*	9,640	9,380	9,550	9,720	9,580	9,840	9,910	9,870	10,390	10,120
Number of people aged 65+ receiving FPC at home*	44,200	46,660	46,950	47,010	47,170	47,810	46,750	46,910	45,660	47,070

* data source Free personal and nursing care, Scotland, 2017-18 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S5W-36221

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 29 April 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received a medical prescription since charges for these began to be phased out in 2008.

Information on number of patients receiving prescriptions prior to April 2009 is not available centrally since Community Health Index (CHI) numbers were not widely recorded in the prescribing systems at that time. Consequently, patient numbers cannot be calculated for this period.

Table 1 contains the number of patients with a paid prescription by financial year from financial year 2009-2010 to financial year 2020-2021 (partial year)

Paid Financial Year	Number of Patients
2009-10	3,981,815
2010-11	4,047,306
2011-12	4,132,694
2012-13	4,190,194
2013-14	4,209,457
2014-15	4,235,198
2015-16	4,241,495
2016-17	4,233,408
2017-18	4,220,947
2018-19	4,213,039
2019-20	4,217,893
2020-21 p	3,721,542

Source: Public Health Scotland, PIS (Prescribing data)

p – partial financial year, data available until December 2020

Table 2 – Total number of patients with a paid prescription from April 2009 to December 2020.

Total number of patients April 2009 - Dec 2020

6,515,438

Please note that the patient count in table 2 is higher than the population of Scotland as this counts individual patients across a ten-year period and will include patients who have subsequently died or left the country. Patients will receive prescriptions in multiple years and as such the same patient is counted for each year they received a prescription in Table 1. In Table 2 a patient is only counted once.