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-04932

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the detection of atrial fibrillation.

We have not made a direct assessment of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the detection of atrial fibrillation. However, we regularly assess statistics on Covid-19’s impact on cardiovascular services more widely to inform our work.

Public Health Scotland Statistics on COVID-19’s impact on the health care system including cardiovascular procedures can be found at:

https://scotland.shinyapps.io/phs-covid-wider-impact/

To address the wider impacts of the pandemic our NHS Recovery Plan, backed by over £1bn of investment, sets out our plans for health and care over the next five years. Through the plan we will take forward our aim of increasing NHS capacity by at least 10% as quickly as possible to address the backlog of care and meet the ongoing healthcare needs for people across the country.

Question reference: S6W-04931

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on implementing the recommendations in the Cross-Party Group on Heart Disease and Stroke report, A Focus on Atrial Fibrillation in Scotland, published in January 2018.

The Scottish Government published our Heart Disease Action Plan in March 2021. This sets out a number of actions to enable us to achieve our vision of minimising preventable heart disease and ensuring equitable and timely access to diagnosis, treatment and care for people with heart disease. It is relevant to a number of the recommendations of the CPG inquiry report.

Within Priority 1 of the Action Plan, there is a focus on improving the detection, diagnosis and management of risk factor conditions, including atrial fibrillation. Work is underway to deliver the commitments outlined.

In particular, the Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE) is developing reporting on atrial fibrillation. This will allow GP practices to monitor patients on particular medications and make sure they are getting the right follow-up care.

The Action Plan also makes commitments to addressing the challenges facing the cardiac physiology workforce. Work is progressing on this. Furthermore, we are progressing commitments in the Integrated Health and Social Care Workforce Plan (2019) for Scotland to promote recruitment of cardiac physiologists over the next 3-5 years into Scientist Training Programmes and Practitioner BSC Programmes.

The CPG inquiry report also identifies the importance of improving access to data to drive improvement. In April 2021 we commissioned Public Health Scotland to develop the Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme. Extensive clinical and patient engagement is currently underway to develop the audit. Two key work streams within that engagement are atrial fibrillation and cardiac devices.

Question reference: S6W-04934

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans to take to update the SIGN guideline on the prevention and management of venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Question reference: S6W-04933

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what data it or the NHS has on the (a) prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and (b) management of patients at risk of recurrent VTE.

Question reference: S6W-04868

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the BC 007 treatment for long COVID, and whether it has considered trialling the treatment.

Following observations on a small number of patients with long COVID symptoms who received an experimental drug called BC 007 at the Universittsklinikum Erlangen in Germany, a trial of this drug as a potential therapy for long COVID is reportedly being planned by this research institute.

Applications from the Scottish clinical research community for research projects on possible treatments for long COVID can be submitted to the independent research funding committees operated by the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office ( Response Mode Funding Schemes – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk) ). Applications are assessed through independent expert peer review and funded based on the recommendations of the funding committees. No applications to trial BC 007 have been received for consideration.

Question reference: S6W-04784

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether (a) small brewers and (b) other producers will have to register with SEPA, in relation to its Deposit Return Scheme, as planned from January 2022.

On 14 December I confirmed in my statement to Parliament that the implementation date of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme will be 16 August 2023. Accordingly, revised regulations were laid on 15 December which will change the date by which producers are required to register with SEPA to 1 March 2023 (instead of 1 March 2022). Once the revised regulations come into force, the registration window for producers is in effect changed to the period from 1 January 2023 to 28 February 2023.

Question reference: S6W-04241

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many taxi drivers (a) applied for and (b) received a Disclosure Scotland certificate before starting work with the Scottish Ambulance Service.

The Scottish Ambulance Service do not directly employ taxi drivers. The Service have accessed taxis through established contracts with territorial Health Boards. These taxis firms are regularly used by Health Boards for transporting patients and staff and have longstanding contracts with the NHS. Drivers who work under the contract have live PVG (Protection on Vulnerable Groups) registration via Disclosure Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-00511

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work, outlined in the Programme for Government, to determine how best to support new and young entrants into farming.

Question reference: S6W-04095

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding (a) it has allocated to and (b) has been distributed through the Woods in and Around Towns programme in each year since its inception.

The Woods In and Around Towns (WIAT) programme provides support to expand and sustainably manage Scotland’s urban woodlands while encouraging people to use and enjoy them. The programme supports activities in socially deprived communities and contributes to improving people’s health and well-being, sequestering carbon and helping our urban communities adapt to a changing climate.

The programme facilitates collaboration between local authorities, the private and the community sector to deliver initiatives ranging from the Central Scotland Green Network, Clyde Climate Forest and recent Lost Woods Project that provided the opportunity for children from all of Glasgow’s primary schools to take part in a mass tree planting scheme.

Under the current Forestry Grant Scheme the average annual funding available for the improvement and management of existing urban woodland is £750,000-£900,000 and for the creation of new woodland in areas covered by the Central Scotland Green Network, which is a focus area for the programme, is £8 million.

The total value of approved projects under these grants is:

	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Improvement and management	£157,783	£800,617	£855,885	£939,162	£550,977	£582,772
Woodland Creation (CSGN)	£4,350,219	£8,799,331	£13,329,490	£8,738,268	£8,363,875	£11,537,432

This spending is often part of larger projects that draw funding from a range of sources.

Question reference: S6W-04232

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of babies that were eligible for a first health visitor check received one on time in each year since 2019.

Public Health Scotland collect and publish data on the coverage of health visitor first visits pertaining to each financial year. In 2019-20, of children who became eligible for their first health visitor review, coverage was 97.5% and in 2020/21 coverage was 97.2%.

Information for 2019/20 is available on the Public Health Scotland website in their Annual Report on Child Health Pre-School Review Coverage - https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/child-health-pre-school-review-coverage/child-health-pre-school-review-coverage-2019-to-2020/ .

The Annual Report on Child Health Pre-School Review Coverage for 2020/21 is not yet published but updated statistics on first visit coverage can be calculated using data published alongside the Public Health Scotland Infant Feeding Statistics - https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/infant-feeding-statistics/infant-feeding-statistics-financial-year-2020-to-2021/ . It should be noted that health visiting data from previous years are updated within each annual infant feeding publication, and can change slightly from earlier publications due to increased data completeness. This is mainly due to late submission of data rather than reviews being carried out very late.

Data up to and including August 2021 are available on the Public Health Scotland (PHS) wider impacts dashboard - https://scotland.shinyapps.io/phs-covid-wider-impact/ .

Public Health Scotland data does not show exactly when each review took place, only that an eligible child received the review. It is therefore not possible to say how many reviews took place between days 11 – 14 of a baby’s life (the agreed timeframe for the first visit). In determining the extent of coverage for the first visit, Public Health Scotland will calculate the percentage of eligible children who received the review by the time the data is extracted. Further detail on how coverage is calculated can be found within relevant Public Health Scotland publications.