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-24785

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the paper that was published in the Scottish Medical Journal on 7 January 2015, “Acupuncture-induced pneumothorax: the hidden complication”, for what reason each NHS board has stated in response to an FOI request regarding figures from 2016 that they do not record acupuncture as a cause of pneumothorax (collapsed lung) as they do not hold a specific code for such treatment.

Question reference: S5W-24663

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports in The Herald on 6 August 2019, whether its representatives on the project board of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People were aware of the minutes of a meeting of NHS Lothian’s Finance and Resources Committee in September 2018, which refer to “residual technical issues” impacting on the project “with the key issue being around drainage systems”, and on what date these issues were communicated to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport.

Question reference: S5W-24659

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the Royal Hospital for Sick Children was due to be handed to developers; what flexibility there is in this arrangement, and whether NHS Lothian will incur any penalties for a late handover.

Question reference: S5W-24657

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the BBC report, Union warns Edinburgh’s £150m hospital may never open, which states that UNISON claims that NHS Lothian has paid millions of pounds in a settlement to help resolve some of the problems at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, how much has been paid; when this was approved; who approved it; when the Scottish Government learned of the arrangement, and whether it will place the details of the arrangement and all accompanying documentation in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).

Question reference: S5W-24660

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it being considered unsafe to open, for what reason NHS Lothian is reportedly paying approximately £1.4 million per month for the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People; whether the (a) Scottish Government and (b) Scottish Futures Trust (i) advised on or had sight of the agreement and (ii) sought to remove or limit the impact of the contractual obligations that led to this situation, and whether it will place all documentation associated with this arrangement in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).

Question reference: S5W-24656

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government who is on the Oversight Board established to provide coordinated advice on the readiness of, and migration to, the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People; on what dates the board (a) has met and (b) plans to meet, and whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe), as it receives them, the board's advice and reports to it and NHS Lothian.

Question reference: S5W-24658

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated cost is of repairing the parts of (a) the ventilation, (b) the drainage and (c) any other system that have been found to be faulty since the handover of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People from Integrated Health Solutions Lothian to NHS Lothian in February 2019, and who is liable to pay each cost.

Question reference: S5W-24661

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much NHS Lothian has paid in repayments for the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People to date, and how much it is expected to pay in each of the next 12 months.

Question reference: S5W-24655

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it instructed or advised NHS Lothian not to talk to unions regarding the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and, if so, whether it will place a copy of this advice in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).

Question reference: S5W-24662

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 29 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether any part of the financing or management of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People project is included in its target for the Scottish Futures Trust to save between £100 and £150 million a year across its infrastructure programmes.

The Royal Hospital for Children and Young People is part of the Scottish Government’s Non-Profit Distributing (NPD) programme. Of the £139m of annual Benefits delivered by the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) during 2017-18, approximately 12% was attributed to the NPD programme but is not broken down by project. SFT’s Statement of Benefits is subject to an independent, external review undertaken by Grant Thornton.

This reflects the advantages of SFT providing procuring authorities with a centralised support function. It includes the development, roll-out and management of the NPD standard form contract documents across the ten projects, as well as delivering project assurance processes at key milestones during the development and procurement stages of the NPD projects. It also takes into consideration the provision of commercial and financial expertise provided to procuring authorities that attracted value-for-money finance for their projects, which included securing over £750m funding from the European Investment Bank across the NPD programme.