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: S5T-02212

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have died after contracting COVID-19 in a hospital and what action has been taken to investigate outbreaks in NHS settings.

Question reference: S5W-28971

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 26 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what additional resources have been made available to NHS boards to help them support the mental health of vulnerable people who are shielding or self-isolating in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

In order to maximise the reach of services for people who are isolating, the Scottish Government is investing a total of £6 million of additional funding to support the population’s mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes £3.8 million to increase the capacity of NHS 24’s telephone and online services, and to extend digital therapies, and £1 million to roll out the Distress Brief Intervention programme on a national basis.

In addition, NHS Boards and Integration Authorities are submitting COVID-19 local mobilisation plans to the Scottish Government, setting out their additional resource needs, including for supporting people who are shielding, and other vulnerable groups who are being asked to self-isolate.

Question reference: S5W-28983

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government Care who the members of the care home rapid action group that has been set up in response to the COVID-19 outbreak; when it has met, and what was discussed.

The remit of the Care Home Rapid Action Group is to bring together representatives from across the care home system to monitor data on developments in the sector, enabling a swift reaction to any developing issues. The Group meets twice a week, once in plenary form, with a sub-group meeting separately to discuss data.

Specific objectives of the Group are to:

enhance existing collaborative working across industry leaders;
identify issues for urgent resolution;
request and analyse information and data on a range of metrics; and
identify issues for urgent resolution, making proposals to Scottish Government and the care sector leadership for other national level actions

The Group will not give clinical advice or substitute for the decision making powers of statutory and other bodies, national or local. Instead, the discussion focuses around key developments in the care home sector, and relevant national actions. Membership is constantly being reviewed to ensure fair representation from across the sector and currently includes the following organisations:

1. BMA Scotland

2. Care Inspectorate

3. Chief Executives Group

4. Chief Officers Group

5. COSLA

6. Mental Welfare Commission

7. NHS Scotland Health Boards

8. Public Health Scotland

9. RCGP Scotland

10. RCN Scotland

11. Scottish Care

12. Scottish Directors of Public Health

13. Scottish Social Services Council

14. SOLACE

Question reference: S5W-28969

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 26 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many times each NHS board has notified it of critical issues relating to mental health service continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Ayrshire and Arran both notified the Scottish Government of critical issues relating to mental health service continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic once. Both instances were to relate changes in service delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Changes were brought to the attention of The Minister for Mental Health and advice was sought from professional advisors. The assessment of professional advisors in both cases was that the NHS Boards' proposals for service changes were sound and would achieve the objective of safe continuity of service.

Question reference: S5W-28970

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 26 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many new referrals to mental health services have been received by each NHS board in each month since March 2020, and what analysis it has carried out of the impact of the COVID-19 on these figures.

The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally on how many new referrals to mental health services have been received by each NHS board in each month since March 2020. Waiting times data on CAMHS and psychological therapies is published by Public Health Scotland each quarter and the September 2020 publication will report on April to June referrals.

Regarding analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health referrals, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W- 28194 on 30 April 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-28972

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what business support it is making available to dental practices in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the outset of this pandemic the Scottish Government has endeavoured to provide support across all sectors of our economy, and to ensure that it is distributed in the most equitable way possible whilst addressing some of the specific sectoral and geographical issues in Scotland’s macro economy.

The Scottish Government is providing additional emergency funding to the NHS General Dental Services budget to support NHS dental practices and practitioners. The funding will provide additional support to dental practices for the temporary loss of patient contributions.

Dentists in Scotland are independent contractors who may provide both NHS and private dental services. Depending on the circumstances dental practices may be eligible to apply for support measures such as furloughing staff through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme or accessing a Business Support Grant through their local authority.

In addition to grant funding the Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan scheme offers eligible small and medium-sized businesses with loans of between £2,000 and £50,000. The loans are backed by the UK Government and there are no fees, interest charges or repayments due for the first 12 months, with loan terms of up to 6 years.

Another avenue of support is the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), which aims to support small and medium sized businesses, including limited companies, to access finance of up to £5 million for up to 6 years. Applications are made through approved commercial lenders and backed by the UK Government’s British Business Bank.

Some businesses do not qualify for any government schemes which is why we committed a further £185 million of additional grant support for small and medium sized businesses and the newly self-employed.

The range of business supports is kept under review and up to date information is available online at findbusinesssupport.gov.scot.

Question reference: S5W-28979

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many dormitory wards there are in each hospital.

NHS Scotland does not use the term ‘dormitory ward’ for the classification of hospital wards, nor do we publish data at individual ward level of each hospital. However, the Information Services Division (ISD) does publish a list of the total number of hospitals in NHS Scotland (over 270) and it does provide a more detailed analysis of the number of beds in use.

The list of hospitals can be accessed here: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Hospital-Care/Hospitals/ .

Whereas the bed level data is published here: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Hospital-Care/Beds/ .

Question reference: S5W-28976

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 21 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many dental practices carry out both NHS and private work.

Dentists in Scotland are independent contractors who may provide both NHS and private dental services. While the Scottish Government does not hold specific information about the number of dental practices that provide private dental care, the majority of dental practices that provide NHS also perform some elements of private work, although for some the volume of that work will be negligible.

The total number of dental practices in Scotland in receipt of NHS funding is presently 1,028.

Question reference: S5W-28977

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 21 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS patients are registered at dental practices that also carry out private work.

Under NHS arrangements in Scotland patients are registered with individual dentists rather than dental practices. The majority of dentists who accept patients for NHS registration will operate with practices which also perform some elements of private work, even if the volume of that work is negligible. The most recently published dental registration statistics indicated that 5.2 million people were registered with an NHS dentist as of 30 September 2019, representing 95.7% of the Scottish population.

Question reference: S5W-28630

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 May 2020

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