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: S6O-01685

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the papers on taxation policy recently published by the Scottish Trades Union Congress and Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-12566

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will support the introduction of a SIGN guideline on Huntington’s disease by working with NICE and the UK and devolved governments and agencies in order to share expertise and contribute to UK-wide coverage tailored to each health and social care system.

SIGN guidelines are produced by Health Improvement Scotland’s (HIS) evidence directory and we understand there are no plans by HIS to publish a SIGN guideline on Huntington’s Disease at present.

SIGN guidelines are produced in collaboration with clinicians, other health and social care professionals, patient organisations and individuals. The prioritisation and development of SIGN guidelines is evidence based.

The member may find it helpful to view the documents contained on the evidence page of HIS’s website: Evidence: Advice, guidance and intelligence (healthcareimprovementscotland.org) , which provides information and guidance on how requests for the development of guidelines are assessed, and how and evidence-based decisions are made.

Any group or individual in Scotland can propose a guideline topic to SIGN and SIGN welcome requests to provide evidence or analysis on clinical issues regarding Huntington’s Disease care.

Question reference: S6W-12565

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-07643 by Maree Todd on 25 April 2022, when the meeting between its officials and the Scottish Huntington’s Association took place; what its officials understood “the need for further provisions and service development” for Huntington’s disease to be as a result of this meeting, and what it has done since the meeting to bring about these changes in order to improve services for Huntington’s disease families in Scotland.

Officials met with the Scottish Huntington’s Association (SHA) on 16 May 2022 and discussed the excellent services offered by the charity and ongoing work to secure HD specialists for four further health board areas.

Since then we have progressed our work in commissioning Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to support quality assurance of the implementation of the HIS General Standards for Neurological Care and Support. A self-assessment template and guidance is being developed, supporting service-led self-evaluation of neurological services.

We welcome the engagement and expertise of third sector organisations including the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS) and the SHA and support their involvement and leadership in the development and implementation of this key activity.

Undertaking this work will identify areas of improvement across NHS Scotland and help to drive forward better standards of care for people with neurological conditions, including Huntington’s Disease.

We are also undertaking work to better understand specialist service provision for people in Scotland with neurological conditions, including Huntington’s Disease and the specialist provision provided by SHA and the NHS, with the aim of developing improvement. We have invited representation from NAoS and welcome input from SHA and other condition specific organisations to inform this.

This process will also align with relevant commitments from the Neurological Framework, Transforming Roles agenda and the National Workforce Strategy.

Question reference: S6F-01600

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2022

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that alcohol sport sponsorship can cause harm to vulnerable groups such as young people and those in recovery.

Question reference: S6O-01612

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to reduce the risk of game birds raised as poultry spreading avian flu when they are released from captivity.

Question reference: S6O-01542

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how the £50 million allocated for the Ukraine Longer Term Resettlement Fund is addressing any issues of insecurity faced by affected Ukrainians.

Question reference: S6W-11714

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce the stigma reportedly faced by liver disease patients from healthcare professionals in (a) primary and (b) secondary care.

I recognise that stigma associated with liver disease can create very specific challenges, including by isolating 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, including among health care professionals across the healthcare system. We are currently developing a national stigma action plan for drugs and alcohol that will include taking the principles of the stigma charter developed by the Drugs Death Taskforce and putting these into action.

The issue of stigma is also clearly referenced on the NHS Inform website which states that a drug or alcohol problem is a health condition and people should receive help and support, not judgement.

Alcohol and drugs are of course not the exclusive causes of liver disease. 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-11713

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the use of transient elastography in community settings to improve the early diagnosis of liver disease.

Transient elastography, commonly measured with a FibroScan, is currently used in several NHS Boards throughout Scotland to assess liver disease in hospital settings.

However its use in community settings is less well established. Local trials of its use in the community to assess those at high risk of liver disease have been initiated.

As we strive to deliver evidence-based policy, we await a more full evaluation of the data before considering the next steps. Experience so far has shown it to be feasible to introduce this technology in primary care and community settings and this could improve early detection of liver disease. Early detection of those with unrecognised advanced liver disease provides greater opportunity to prevent liver-related illness and deaths.

Question reference: S6W-11354

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the current waiting time is for a paediatric audiology appointment in NHS Highland.

Question reference: S6W-11353

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time has been for children to receive hospital treatment from audiology services in NHS Highland, following a GP or other referral, in each year since 2014.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) receives monthly data from most NHS Boards on the number of patients covered by the 18 weeks Referral to Treatment (RTT) standard seen within each specialty, including audiology. Due to the aggregate nature of this data collection, the requested detail on average length of wait and age are not available.

However, Table 1 shows the total number of patients seen and the number that waited over 18 weeks to be seen for audiology services across NHS Scotland, from January 2014 to December 2021 – the latest complete calendar year. This includes all patients reported as seen on the 18-week RTT pathway for audiology. Please note, almost all patients on this pathway are not admitted for treatment and their journey ends after seeing an audiologist in an outpatient setting.

Due to the complexities of 18 week RTT local data collection and reporting, the length of wait cannot be accurately measured by the Board of treatment for all patients. The impact of which for audiology is reflected in the number of unknown waits reported in the following table.

Table 1: Total patients seen and number of patients that waited over 18 weeks, January 2014 – December 2021, NHS Scotland, Audiology.

Calendar Year

Total Number Seen

Number seen within 18 weeks

Number seen after 18 weeks

Unknown

2014

103,960

95,527

7,891

542

2015

107,894

99,882

7,499

513

2016

107,742

94,918

93,140

170

2017

94,918

82,647

12,218

2018

93,140

74,373

18,731

2019

92,673

71,274

21,341

2020*

47,793

31,677

16,052

2021*

60,750

47,164

13,543

Source: PHS 18 Weeks RTT Database

* There is missing data for these years, as NHS Grampian have been unable to submit data since February 2020, NHS Ayrshire and Arran have not submitted data since April 2020 and NHS Tayside have been unable to submit data since May 2021. This should be taken into consideration when interpreting the data.