Chamber and committees

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise (SE) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). I have asked the Chief Executives of both SE and HIE to contact you with the information you have requested and my understanding is that this will be with you soon.

The Scottish Government proposes an increase in the number of people working for Scottish Development International in Europe from 20 to 40 over the next two years.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise (SE). I have asked the Chief Executive of SE to contact you with the information you have requested and my understanding is that this will be with you soon.

The latest published figures for 2014 estimate that Scottish exports to the rest of the UK are worth £48.5 billion. Scottish international exports are estimated to be worth £27.5 billion with an estimated £11.6 billion of these exports destined for the EU and £15.2 billion destined for non-EU countries. The USA is estimated to be Scotland’s largest international export market with an estimated £4.0 billion worth of exports.

The Scottish Government is currently exploring all options to protect Scotland’s interests and relationship with Europe.

Where the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) accepts a medicine for routine use in the NHS in Scotland, there is a clear expectation that NHS Boards will consider it and will make it (or its equivalent) available.

There are a number of medicines which have been accepted by the SMC for routine use within the NHS in Scotland for the treatment of kidney cancer.

Our ‘Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action’ strategy and the accompanying £100 million investment over five years, serves as a blueprint for the future of cancer services in Scotland, improving the prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and aftercare of people affected by all cancers. This work links with our tobacco control strategy and the Prevention of Obesity Route Map as evidence shows that smoking and obesity are two of the biggest risk factors for renal cancer.

The Information and Statistics Division (ISD) annual report “Prescribing in Mental Health” provides summary information on antidepressant use in Scottish Health Boards. This report is published online and is available at: http://www.isdscotland.org/Publications/. Included within the data tables as part of this publication is a summary of the number of patients and a frequency count of the items by patient at NHS Scotland level – this data is published from 2009-10 onwards.

The figures for antidepressants for 2015-16 in the latest publication by ISD are for high level national figures for number of items and Gross Ingredient Cost(GIC)only, following the identification of a data processing issue. More detailed analysis and a supplementary data excel file in line with the analysis presented for other classes of medicines for mental health in this publication will be published in due course.

Any prescribing is a clinical decision for a patient’s doctor and there is good evidence that GPs assess and treat depression appropriately. Decisions to use them should always involve the patient so that they understand both the potential benefits and risks in making a decision to take them.

For people coming off antidepressants help is available from a range of sources, GPs in primary care can often provide sufficient medical support in the community. For more specialised help general psychiatric services commonly manage people with a wide variety of mental health problems, including addictions. The multidisciplinary teams in specialist mental health consist of a range of professions – medical doctors, psychologists, nurses, allied health professionals that all can have a part to play in providing medical, psychological and social supports. Specialist addiction services are available for the most complex either through advice or direct service involvement and primary care, mental health and addiction specialist services are all sensitive to the stigma associated with mental health problems including addictions and do all they can to reduce this.

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) develops evidence based clinical practice guidelines for the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland. SIGN guidelines are produced in collaboration with patients, carers and members of the public. SIGN guidelines 114 on Non-pharmaceutical management of depression in adults provides an assessment of non-pharmaceutical therapies, encompassing psychological therapies, structured exercise and lifestyle interventions, and a range of alternative and complementary treatments. These guidelines are published online and are available at http://sign.ac.uk/guidelines/fulltext/114/index.html.

In addition the Scottish Government also supports provided by Breathing Space and NHS Living Life to people experiencing depression and anxiety is a key element of wider work across Scotland to intervene early and prevent problems from becoming worse. This will be making a big difference to people and aligns well with our policy on improving prevention and intervening early, which is one area of focus for the next Mental Health Strategy.

Statistics on Probable Suicides (Deaths which are the Result of Intentional Self-harm or Events of Undetermined Intent) are published annually on the National Records of Scotland website. The following workbook contains trends by gender (worksheet 1), age-group (worksheet 3) and local authority (worksheet 5). http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/probable-suicides/suicides-2015-all-tables.xlsx

New coding rules were introduced by NRS in 2011, and the workbook contains figures from 2011 onwards based on both old and new coding. Any comparisons with suicides before 2011 should be based on old coding rules. Further information about the classification of suicide deaths is available on the following webpage: http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths/suicides/the-definition-of-the-statistics

The gender pay gap for self-employed people in Scotland is not published in official sources. However total earnings by gender for self-employed individuals in Scotland is published in ‘Table 3.11 Income and tax by gender, region and country’ of the HMRC publication Personal Incomes Statistics 2013-14 table 3.1-3.11 which can be located at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/503472/SPI_National_Statistics_T3_1_to_T3_11.pdf

Although the Scottish Government does not, itself, hold the information requested as this is instead gathered by HMRC through its HMRC Survey of Personal Incomes, from which the above data is derived; we recognise that enterprises started and led by women often demonstrate different support requirements and display different growth trajectories to other businesses. As noted in answer to S5W-03525 on 27 October 2016, we are working with partners across all sectors, including Women’s Enterprise Scotland, to deliver a co-developed policy framework and action plan for women in enterprise.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx