- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what review it has undertaken of any arrangements for an emergency that involves the loss of both power and telecoms, and engagement with utilities companies and local planning where required to ensure linkage with national developments.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s Storm Arwen Review provided a detailed review of such a situation, and our two follow-up reports made clear that the organisations who are responsible for emergency planning and response in Scotland had formally incorporated those recommendations into their workplans.
The Scottish Government regularly engages with UK Government Departments and the utilities operators in Scotland, as well as our own emergency responders, to ensure that information relevant to emergency planning is shared between the two.
- Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to tackle the reported rising number of cases of sexually transmitted infections.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s forthcoming Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan will set out priority areas for action over the next three years. Ensuring that people have access to the information and services they need to make informed choices and take care of their sexual health are key outcomes of the plan.
A national sexually transmitted infection (STI) awareness campaign led by Public Health Scotland launched in July with targeted work for groups who have seen the highest rates of STIs, particularly gonorrhoea.
The Scottish Government is also investing in a national roll-out of an online STI testing service.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the eligibility criteria for the Young Patients Family Fund.
Answer
We continue to monitor the impact and effectiveness of the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) and keep this under review.
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the effectiveness of the Scottish Dental Access Initiative in recruiting dentists in Dumfries and Galloway.
Answer
The purpose of the Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) is not for the recruitment of dentists, but to improve access to NHS dental services by encouraging dentists to set up a new practice or extend an existing practice in areas where access to NHS dental services is challenging.
Since 2007, there have been seven dental practices in Dumfries and Galloway that have been provided with SDAI grants.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital pharmacists have been employed in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
Answer
Information on how many hospital pharmacists have been employed in each NHS board area in each year since 2012, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot .
Data is not held from before 2012. The following figures include all pharmacists working in any territorial board, in Acute, Mental Health, or in a Community Hospital setting. It excludes ‘central staff’ since some of these were employed in primary care, but includes Golden Jubilee National Hospital and National Waiting Times Centre staff. Figures provided are head count.
NHS Board | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Ayrshire & Arran | 61 | 66 | 70 | 66 | 78 | 65 | 74 | 70 | 67 | 67 | 86 |
Borders | 14 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 18 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 23 | 24 | 27 | 18 | 23 |
Fife | 29 | 24 | 30 | 35 | 36 | 52 | 43 | 42 | 49 | 52 | 53 |
Forth Valley | 37 | | 36 | 36 | 38 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 38 | 35 | 45 |
Grampian | 74 | 77 | 70 | 87 | 84 | 85 | 90 | 84 | 88 | 95 | 87 |
Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 203 | 296 | 245 | 236 | 236 | 238 | 241 | 222 | 233 | 239 | 236 |
Highland | 49 | | 53 | 47 | 46 | 43 | 45 | 46 | 44 | 41 | 46 |
Lanarkshire | 82 | 83 | 82 | 82 | 87 | 90 | 95 | 100 | 98 | 97 | 91 |
Lothian | 137 | 152 | 162 | 151 | 159 | 163 | 175 | 146 | 167 | 172 | 171 |
Orkney | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
Shetland | | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
Tayside | 70 | 69 | 67 | 71 | 69 | 68 | 78 | 68 | 68 | 76 | 70 |
Western Isles | 3 | 66 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
GJNH / National Waiting Times Centre | 11 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 20 | 19 |
National total | 788 | 810 | 865 | 865 | 892 | 903 | 949 | 887 | 923 | 938 | 955 |
- Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its new palliative care strategy, in light of it initially being due in 2021.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21186 on 22 September 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the (a) crewing levels and (b) frequency of ferry services between the mainland and the Orkney Islands.
Answer
A transport appraisal of passenger and freight ferry services between the Northern Isles and the Scottish mainland, in line with the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG), was undertaken in 2016-2017 to inform the specification of the Northern Isles Ferry Services contract awarded in 2020. The study report is published here:
final-report-appraisal-of-options-for-specification-of-2018-northern-isles-ferry-services-april-2018.pdf (transport.gov.scot)
Crewing is a matter for the ferry operators.
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many adult patients have been deregistered from NHS dental services in Dumfries and Galloway in the last two years.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. I would advise the member to contact the NHS Health Board to obtain this information.
- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many women have had to travel outside their NHS board area for an abortion in each year since 2019-20, also broken down by the patients' NHS board.
Answer
Public Health Scotland (PHS) data is provided below on numbers of patients receiving abortion treatment in a Health Board other than their Board of residence.
It is not possible to distinguish how many patients had to receive treatment in another Health Board or how many chose to do so.
Number of terminations where Board of treatment is different from Board of residence, Scotland, 2019 to 2022.
Health board of residence | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 (Provisional) |
NHS Ayrshire and Arran | 15 | 8 | 7 | 9 |
NHS Borders | * | * | * | * |
NHS Dumfries and Galloway | * | * | * | * |
NHS Fife | 82 | 73 | 84 | 85 |
NHS Forth Valley | 12 | 23 | 14 | 12 |
NHS Grampian | 11 | * | 10 | * |
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde | 9 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
NHS Highland | 116 | 131 | 158 | 144 |
NHS Lanarkshire | 348 | 343 | 266 | 273 |
NHS Lothian | 5 | 10 | 6 | 8 |
NHS Tayside | 9 | 14 | 11 | 14 |
Island Boards | 53 | 45 | 37 | 45 |
Total | 665 | 660 | 605 | 605 |
Excludes terminations where board of residence is not known or terminations were carried out privately.
* Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure.
- Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many breaches of discipline have been recorded by the Scottish Prison Service for a prisoner possessing an authorised personal communication device that was not provided by the prison governor for use by that prisoner, since the introduction of this rule to the present date, broken down by financial year.
Answer
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
The following table shows the number of breaches of discipline where an individual had in his or her possession, or used, an authorised personal communication device which was not provided by the Governor for use by that prisoner, up to and including 31 July 2023, the date in which the provision was withdrawn:
2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023* | TOTAL |
332 | 541 | 537 | 186 | 1,586 |
* 01-04-2023 – 31-07-2023