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: S6W-11379

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government who has been appointed to the post of place director in each community planning partnership in Scotland.

Place directors are not appointed - these roles are voluntary positions taken on by civil servants at deputy director and director level, alongside their day-to-day responsibilities. A list of current place directors and their local authority and Community Planning Partnership areas can be found on the Scottish Government website, under Community Planning [ Community planning - Improving public services - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ].

Question reference: S6W-11384

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have had an emergency presentation for cancer in each year since 1999.

PHS collate data on Direct Cancer Referrals. This includes self, GP or NHS24 referral to A&E or other, where the signs and symptoms are consistent with the cancer diagnosed as per the Scottish Referral Guidelines. Data on these patients are only available from PHS from 2010 onwards as outlined in the following table.

Table 1: Number of direct cancer referrals 1,2,3 on the 31 day pathway since data-set began

Reference Date Year	Number of Referrals
2010	2693
2011	2912
2012	3001
2013	2975
2014	2810
2015	2660
2016	2596
2017	2772
2018	2927
2019	3107
2020	3002
2021	2922

_{Source: Cancer Waiting Times Datamart, Public Health Scotland (PHS)}

_{Data extracted: October 2022}

_Notes:

1. _{Cancer registration is a dynamic process: the data presented here may differ from other published data relating to the same time period.}

2. _{Cancer types for which data are recorded: breast, cervical, colorectal, head and neck, lung, lymphoma, melanoma, ovarian, upper GI, and urological.}

3. _{Direct referral to hospital includes self, GP or NHS24 referral to A&E or other.}

Question reference: S6W-11361

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comments by the First Minister on 22 September 2022 that "there are many more staff working in our national health service today than was the case when this Government took office" and that "more than 20,000 additional staff have been recruited in that period" (Official Report, c. 16), how many nurses have (a) joined and (b) left the NHS in Fife in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-11396

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its plan is for stopping the use of National Cancer Medicines Advisory Group recommended medicines that are not Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) approved, and therefore not considered cost effective, when there are SMC approved and cost-effective alternatives available to the NHS boards.

The National Cancer Medicines Advisory Group (NCMAG) provides advice on the off-label uses of certain cancer medicines, which are out with the remit of the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC). Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCMAG provided rapid national decisions regarding the use of cancer medicines (sometimes out with the licensed indication for the medicine) to help meet the overall aim of reducing patient risk of COVID-19 infection and to mitigate the potential burden on cancer services.

Cancer services remain under considerable pressure, and cancer patients continue to be vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. As a result, it was agreed that existing COVID-19 NCMAG advice would remain in place until the end of March 2023, after which it will be withdrawn. More generally, extant Scottish Government guidance states that unless there is a specific clinical reason, clinicians should not continue to use an unlicensed medicine or a medicine off-label where there is an available licensed medicine, which has been accepted for routine use by the SMC.

Question reference: S6W-11224

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10960 by Angus Robertson on 22 September 2022, whether the money being spent on the referral to the Supreme Court is from the £20 million set aside for preparations for an independence referendum.

Question reference: S6W-11544

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) suicides and (b) attempted suicides have been recorded in mental health facilities in each year since 1999, broken down by location.

This data is not held centrally by The Scottish Government, National Records of Scotland or Public Health Scotland.

In September 2022 the Scottish Government and COSLA published Scotland’s 10 year suicide prevention strategy and action plan, ‘Creating Hope Together’. This sets out a comprehensive plan to reduce suicide deaths in Scotland.

The initial 3 year action plan will support continuous improvement in the quality of clinical care and support provided by mental health services for people who are suicidal. This includes embedding the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH) guidelines into operating practices. NCISH is the UK’s leading research programme into suicide prevention in clinical services, and is supported by the Scottish Government. Data tables from their 2022 Annual Report are available to view here which provides information on location of suicides, but is not broken down specifically to mental health settings.

The new strategy includes a continued focus on rolling out multi-agency suicide reviews across Scotland, which will provide valuable learning about where service opportunities have been missed in preventing a suicide. The suicide reviews will include information on whether the person who died was a mental health services inpatient. It is expected the system will identify the location of death, including whether the person was an inpatient at the time of death. Along with other types of data and insight, the learning from suicide reviews will produce valuable intelligence to inform ongoing service improvements.

Question reference: S6W-11573

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any assessment it has made of the impact of stigma on late presentation of liver disease.

We understand that stigma associated with particular health conditions, including liver disease, can create very specific challenges - it can isolate people from their communities and act as a significant barrier to seeking help and support. This can increase the harms experienced due to delayed presentation especially given the generalised association between liver disease and alcohol misuse and/or drug abuse.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling this stigma. We are continuing to work on tangible actions that can help reduce stigma experience by people who use drugs and/ or drinking alcohol at hazardous and harmful levels

On 20 June 2022, Public Health Scotland launched the Challenging Weight Stigma Learning Hub. The learning hub aims to raise awareness of the impact weight stigma can have on people living with overweight and obesity and what health professionals can do to mitigate this. It is interactive and has been developed alongside academics, health professionals and those with lived experience of stigma.

Question reference: S6W-11572

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of premature mortality due to liver disease on years of working life lost in 2021.

Data specific to Years of Working Life Lost (YWLL) for liver disease is not routinely published. Scottish Burden of Disease data published in Sept 2021 showed that for liver disease (cirrhosis and other chronic liver disease) the number of years of life lost (YLL) have fallen from 37,467 in 2016 to 32,279 in 2019. This is around 2.9% of all YLL reported in the 2019 study (1,100,944).

We know that 60 per cent of liver disease is caused by alcohol misuse and we are working on initiatives that will support communities across Scotland to reduce alcohol consumption.

Question reference: S6W-11310

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has held with the UK Government in relation to potential funding for improving the A75 and A77.

The A75 and A77 routes were considered as part of the UK Government’s Union Connectivity Review (UCR), with potential funding following on from the recommendations.

In March 2022, Transport Scotland (TS) officials had an initial discussions with their UK counterparts in from the Department for Transport (DfT). The subject of possible UCR related funding opportunities, which was first identified in March 2021, was raised by DfT officials and TS officials followed-up with a number of specific clarification questions. Answers to these were received in May, and a follow-on meeting occurred on 16 June.

A subsequent discussion is scheduled for 31 October which will cover UCR recommendations and associated proposed funding for the A75. Potential development work for the A77 was not identified for funding by the UCR process, so will not be on the agenda for discussion, as, along with all other transport recommendations identified by STPR2, it remains a devolved matter.

Question reference: S6T-00933

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address the reported findings of an independent review of the cladding remediation programme that “successful delivery of the project is in doubt with major risks or issues apparent".