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-00455

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what medicines are excluded from free prescriptions.

All medicines prescribed for patients in Scotland on the NHS are free. Prescription charges were removed by the Scottish Government in 2011. Scottish Ministers believe that prescription charges are a barrier to good health for many people. This is particularly so for those with long-term conditions and those on low incomes who in the past have faced choices about which medicines they can afford to take. Evidence shows that this can lead to deterioration in health, absence from work, or extra hospital admissions.

Scottish Ministers believe that healthcare should be free at the point of access for everyone: this is the founding principle of the NHS. By abolishing prescription charges, we have ensured that everyone can access the medicines they need and make choices about managing and improving their health, whatever their income.

Question reference: S6W-00453

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on prescriptions in each of the last five years, and how many people received a prescription.

The cost of medicines and appliances in the past five financial years, 2016-17 to 2020-21, is shown in Table 1. These data relate to community dispensing only.

Table 1 – Gross Ingredient Cost (£), 2016/17 – 2020/21 Year	Gross Ingredient Cost (GIC) (£)
2016-17	1,137,588,236
2017-18	1,170,761,719
2018-19	1,142,104,457
2019-20	1,175,878,909
2020-21	1,118,110,484

Source: Public Health Scotland, PIS (Prescribing Data)

Reference: IR2021-00410

The number of people who have received a prescription in the last five years has recently been provided in an answer to S5W-36221 on 30 April 2021. This presented the number of patients with a paid prescription by financial year from financial year 2009-2010 to financial year 2020-2021 (partial year to December 2020 data).

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

Question reference: S6W-00474

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people aged (a) under 12, (b) 12 to 15 and (c) 16 to 17 have been in hospital with COVID-19 each week in 2021.

This data is available on the Public Health Scotland Education Surveillance Dashboard which provides a three-weekly rolling average of hospital admissions for 2-17 years olds - COVID-19 Education Surveillance dashboard - Enhanced surveillance of COVID-19 in education settings - COVID-19 data and intelligence - COVID-19 - Our areas of work - Public Health Scotland

Equivalent weekly data for children under 2 years is not currently published however, data on Cumulative COVID-19 Hospital Admissions since the start of the pandemic is available and shows that as of 26 May 2021, 238 children between 0-4 years have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 since March 2020. The full set of data can be found here - https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/weekly-covid-19-statistical-data-in-scotland/resource/bd8a865f-10e6-47d2-a461-8633c61693fe .

Question reference: S6F-00144

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 June 2021

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government is supporting the NHS, in light of reports of wards being full and an increase in patients with serious and complex conditions.

Question reference: S6W-00475

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on providing COVID-19 vaccinations for under 16-year-olds.

We are not currently vaccinating children under 16 years old, except for those seriously at risk. As COVID-19 vaccines are currently unlicensed for those under 16, vaccines can only be offered on an exceptional case by case basis by a prescriber based on a risk assessment of an individual.

Clinical trials are currently underway for vaccination of children and young people, and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is currently reviewing vaccinations for 12-15 year olds.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with vaccine developers and the JCVI so that if trials are successful we are ready to vaccinate younger age groups, if that is what the clinical and scientific evidence supports.

Question reference: S6W-00456

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what medicines or other products are unavailable from the free prescription service due to shortages of supply, broken down by (a) the reason for each shortage, (b) when it expects each shortage to be resolved and (c) whether it will allow a substitution option for each medicine or product until supplies resume.

Shortages of medicines are an ongoing part of the day to day management of the NHS. The pricing and supply of medicines are reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government have regular engagement with the UK Government regarding the management medicine shortages as part of the UK Medicine Shortage Response Group.

Medicine shortages can occur for a range of reasons including supplier difficulty in sourcing core ingredients, removal of drugs from pharmaceutical provider lists and international supply issues. Most shortages are short in nature. Shortages are ameliorated by prescribing alternative medicines or therapeutics until a shortage is over. Information on current and ongoing supply issues relating to individual drugs or devices is shared by NHS Scotland via Medicine Supply Alert Notices (MSAN) with the relevant networks within the service to help prescribers and dispensers meet patients’ on-going medical needs. MSANs are published at SHOW - SGHSC - Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates . The NHS Scotland Prescribing Advisers’ Network provides support to prescribers on the use of alternative products.

Question reference: S6W-00313

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many radiotherapists worked for NHS Scotland at the end of each financial year since 2015-16.

The number of Allied Health Professionals with a specialty of Therapeutic Radiography working for NHS Scotland at the end of each financial year since 2015-16 can be found in the following table:

NHSScotland Allied Health Professionals with a specialty of Therapeutic Radiography (Bands 5-9), Staff in post (Whole Time Equivalent) For the period March 2016 to March 2021.

Staff In Post	Mar-16	Mar-17	Mar-18	Mar-19	Mar-20	Mar-21
Therapeutic Radiography	250.7	260.5	272.4	264.4	272.2	283.1

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS)

Question reference: S6W-00454

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 17 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on the minor ailments scheme in each of the last five years, and how many people have received support from the service.

Table 1 shows the Number of Items dispensed, Gross Ingredient Cost (GIC) of dispensed items, remuneration cost for provision of the service, and patient registration numbers for the Minor Ailment Service (MAS) in each of the last five financial years.

MAS data for April to June 2020, is due for publication by Public Health Scotland in the Dispenser Payments and Prescription Cost Analysis report, due for release on 21st September 2021. From 29 July 2020, MAS was replaced by NHS Pharmacy First Scotland.

Table 1. Minor Ailment Service, Items, GIC, Remuneration, and Registration Numbers by Financial Year

Year

Number of items

Gross Ingredient Cost (£)

Remuneration (Service Cost) (£)

Registration Numbers

2015-16

2,157,603

5,133,874

15,114,295

946,804

2016-17

2,036,677

4,882,579

15,077,548

879,628

2017-18

1,940,276

4,657,780

14,449,870

814,501

2018-19

1,877,902

4,600,135

14,218,011

795,965

2019-20

1,831,041

4,500,504

14,056,579

771,283

Source: Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6W-00310

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date its fast-track cancer diagnostic centres will be open in (a) NHS Fife (b) NHS Ayrshire and Arran, and (c) all other health boards.

Question reference: S6W-00270

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce a Test and Release programme, similar to that introduced by the UK Government, for people with a COVID-19 vaccination certificate.

No, in summer 2021 our current vaccination status letters will be replaced by fully digital Covid Status Certificates to be used for outbound international travel. There are no plans at this stage to also use these certificates to introduce Test and Release for inbound international travellers from amber list countries. We are working across the 4 nations to consider the role of Covid Status Certificates for inbound travel .