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-24388

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 14 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21323 by Jeane Freeman on 20 February 2019, what progress officials have made in identifying options to capture the views of family and carers who have recently been bereaved.

Question reference: S5W-24296

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06770 by Shona Robison on 24 February 2017, whether it will provide the same information for each year since 2016-17.

The following table includes patients with a Key Information Summary (KIS) or Shared Clinical Data Record (SCD) which has been provided to us by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). NSS recently ran a maintenance job which removed all people from the record who had been deceased for more than 3 years which explains part of the drop off in numbers from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017 but gives us an active accumulative total to view. It should also be noted that the 2015-2016 figures provided also gave the total from 1 January 2015 - 1 January 2017 so we have again provided you with the following details by calendar year.

Includes all KIS/SCD:

Health Board	2016
Health Board	KIS or SCD Insert	Now Deceased (as at May 2019) from total with a KIS in 2016 (Patients)	Total Deceased during 2016
Ayrshire & Arran	2766	1337	522
Borders	799	424	142
Dumfries & Galloway	1937	700	216
Fife	2894	1313	422
Forth Valley	2304	1012	349
Grampian	10632	2132	591
Greater Glasgow	9630	4019	1306
Highland	4855	1183	339
Lanarkshire	4067	1777	586
Lothian	10675	2852	825
Orkney	255	78	11
Shetland	154	71	29
Tayside	3458	1597	521
Western Isles	291	130	42

Health Board	2017
Health Board	KIS or SCD Insert	Now Deceased (as at May 2019) from total with a KIS in 2017 (Patients)	Total Deceased during 2017
Ayrshire & Arran	3107	1411	809
Borders	1045	456	242
Dumfries & Galloway	1953	745	408
Fife	3115	1329	765
Forth Valley	2844	1095	545
Grampian	10565	2145	1131
Greater Glasgow	8716	3688	2140
Highland	4613	1198	600
Lanarkshire	3358	1628	958
Lothian	14031	2964	1416
Orkney	265	89	46
Shetland	286	91	43
Tayside	4575	1882	1011
Western Isles	266	101	61

Health Board	2018
Health Board	KIS or SCD Insert	Now Deceased (as at May 2019) from total with a KIS in 2018 (Patients)	Total Deceased during 2018
Ayrshire & Arran	2534	1013	777
Borders	946	350	268
Dumfries & Galloway	2118	530	388
Fife	3053	1040	740
Forth Valley	2333	719	485
Grampian	10718	1346	953
Greater Glasgow	6704	2629	1983
Highland	4234	785	562
Lanarkshire	3037	1114	864
Lothian	10749	1883	1322
Orkney	194	54	37
Shetland	148	49	37
Tayside	7013	1220	888
Western Isles	208	88	64

Question reference: S5W-24332

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether ScotRail is meeting the terms of its franchise agreement and remedial plan.

My Officials at Transport Scotland monitor ScotRail’s progress against the obligations contained in the franchise agreement through a series of regular engagement and meetings including the monthly Franchise Performance meeting. Notes of this meeting are published on Transport Scotland’s website.

Since implementation of the Performance Remedial Plan, Transport Scotland officials and it’s independent advisor have additionally met with ScotRail four weekly to review progress with delivering the commitments alongside assurance review close out sessions.

Question reference: S5W-24333

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in response to the operator’s performance, whether it plans to initiate the break clause in the ScotRail franchise agreement and terminate the franchise in 2022.

Question reference: S5W-24334

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23751 by Michael Matheson on 25 June 2019, whether the group will be convened prior to the ScotRail franchise break clause review date.

There is not a defined "ScotRail franchise break clause review date" in the franchise contract. The public sector bidder stakeholder reference group will reconvene once the recommendations of the UK Rail Review, chaired by Keith Williams, are known. As indicated in my previous answer, this is likely to be in the autumn. The Group will then have the opportunity to discuss the recommendations and what that will mean for the railway in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-24335

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it would have to notify Abellio of a decision to let the ScotRail franchise expire at the first possible expiry date of March 2022.

Question reference: S5W-24120

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 22 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-02383 by Kevin Stewart on 20 September 2018 (Official Report, c.5) on funding for the Stranraer Waterfront regeneration, whether the £6 million will be in addition to any funding allocated through the Borderlands Growth Deal.

Question reference: S5W-23870

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the latest ISD Scotland figures, which show that, since the beginning of 2019, 642 patients in NHS Ayrshire and Arran have had to wait longer than 12 hours to be seen and were then either transferred, admitted or discharged.

Waiting Time figures recorded by ISD reflect the complete patient journey, not just the time a person attending A&E waits to be seen and treated by a member of staff – but from the time they arrive at the A&E department until they are either admitted, discharged or transferred to another hospital.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with hospitals across Scotland, including NHS Ayrshire and Arran, to minimise unnecessary long delays in A&E departments and deliver safe, person centred and effective care to every patient, every time through the six essential action improvement programme.

To support this work and winter planning NHS Ayrshire and Arran received over £1.4 million in 2018-19.

Scotland’s core A&E departments continue to be the best performing in the UK and have been for almost four years. The level of attendances in NHS Ayrshire and Arran increased significantly this year; with the first four months of 2019 seeing a rise in ED attendances of nearly 5% compared to the same period last year. We continue to work closely with those boards facing the greatest challenges to support improvements.

Question reference: S5W-24017

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the comment by the First Minister on 15 November 2018 (Official Report, c. 16) that "I understand and appreciate the arguments for a Galloway national park. We want to give full consideration to the proposal, and I am happy to ask the relevant minister to engage with...others who have an interest on how we can take the matter forward", what progress has been made with this consideration, and what action it has taken or plans to ensure that (a) Members, (b) public bodies, (c) the community and (d) other stakeholders can participate in this.

Question reference: S5W-23953

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 27 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23516 by Mairi Gougeon on 7 June 2019, what account the review of electronic shock collars will take of there being no prosecutions for causing unnecessary suffering since 1 October 2018.