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-05640

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government which of its (a) ministers and (b) departments is responsible for oversight of audiology services.

Question reference: S6W-05597

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been (a) treated in Scotland or (b) referred to England for hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, in each year since 2017.

Question reference: S6W-05476

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the British Academy of Audiology’s report into NHS Lothian Paediatric Audiology, how many families have been contacted out of the 22,900 patients identified as possibly needing to be retested due to service failures between 2009 and 2018.

NHS Lothian have, as part of their action plan agreed with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, the British Academy of Audiology and the Scottish Government, contacted 92 children identified in the review as being of clinical concern and requiring possible retesting.

The Board continues to undertake work to review children known to the service who have risk factors for hearing loss and, based on the outcome of each review, recall children where appropriate in line with national guidance.

Question reference: S6W-05641

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what mechanism is in place for NHS boards to report on audiology service standards.

Organisations delivering services are responsible for implementing standards at a local level, and local quality frameworks and procedures will assist them in monitoring progress.

We are committed to exploring national governance arrangements as a part of the Independent Review of Audiology Services announced on 21 January 2022. This will include reviewing opportunities to improve data collection and a national peer review mechanism for monitoring progress in implementation of these standards across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-05599

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy procedures have been (a) cancelled or (b) postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6F-00720

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 January 2022

To ask the First Minister how much has been spent on private sector contracts in the preparation of the proposed national care service.

Question reference: S6W-05131

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to invest in the introduction of an electronic single patient record across Scotland, in order to save time and improve patient safety.

It is our intention to make it easier for health & care professionals to access relevant information about the person being cared for, regardless of organisational boundaries. We also intend on providing patient access to their health & care information, as set out in our Digital Health & Care Strategy and in the Programme for Government. The ambition is to enhance and improve existing investments in technology to provide digital views on patient records for both clinicians and citizens to access relevant information when and where they need it. This will support urgent care, decision making and improve patient safety.

Question reference: S6W-05570

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to appropriately preserve information across government for the public inquiry into the handling of COVID-19 in Scotland.

Our approach to information governance underpins all government business, including our ongoing response to the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government Information Management Strategy and Records Management Plan clearly set out the Scottish Governments approach to the preservation of information, in line with the requirements set out in the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011.

For further information refer to the Scottish Government Information Management Strategy
For further information refer to the Scottish Government Corporate Records Management Plan
For further information refer to the NRS Public Records [Scotland] Act 2011

Question reference: S6W-05520

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that COVID-19 case numbers are not doubling every two days, what the current modelling of the number of cases of the Omicron variant show about likely patterns of transmission.

The results of the current COVID modelling from a range of sources is available in the latest weekly Scottish Government report ( https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/ ). In the issue published on 13th January we noted that on 5 January 2022, 91.1% of all PCR tests from Pillar 2 Lighthouse Labs had the S-gene target failure, used as a proxy for Omicron cases. Therefore SG have stopped producing estimates of doubling times of the Omicron variant.

The modelling the epidemic has been published continuously since May 2020 and provides modelling outputs on the current epidemic in Scotland, based on a range of methods. Results of Scottish Government modelling, as well as those of the modelling groups which feed into the SAGE consensus, are provided in these research findings. We apply a variety of analytical methods in order to understand changes in behaviour which could lead to altered transmission rates. For example, we use the Scottish Contact Survey (SCS) to learn about how people’s contact patterns have changed. The findings from the SCS are then used to help us understand the patterns of contacts and informs the current modelling to indicate the likely number of cases in the medium term (the next 2-6 weeks). We included the medium term projection of the number of infections in the most recent weekly modelling the epidemic report of the current modelling ( https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/ ).

Question reference: S6W-05536

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional beds have been provided in the NHS to manage winter pressures, broken down by NHS board.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03606 on 23 December 2021. 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

Hospitals balance the provision of beds against a number of factors such as staffing levels and anticipated demand to enable them to provide a safe and effective service to patients. Whilst overall workforce numbers in the NHS have never been higher, increased demand for health and social care services is creating significant workforce capacity challenges.

Recently, capacity pressures have been exacerbated by Omicron-related absences. In the week ending 11 January, health boards reported a 31% increase in coronavirus absence compared with the previous week. On average, 7,174 NHS staff were absent per day for reasons related to Coronavirus, or around 4.0% of the NHS workforce.

We continue to work with NHS Boards and their partners to put in place a range of initiatives to maximise capacity. For example, on the 11 November I announced measures to support people with Covid to stay safely at home and free up hospital beds, including £500,000 to fund 25,000 remote monitoring kits, and a dedicated team which will support the early identification of patients who would benefit from antivirals treatments and get these started as soon as possible.

I am assured that NHS boards have opened all available staffed beds.