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: S4W-20102

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce a national service delivery model for anticoagulation international normalised ratio (INR) testing in line with the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh consensus statement, Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guideline 129 and the Scottish patient safety programme on improving warfarin safety and optimising warfarin management.

Question reference: S4W-20127

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-17494 and S4W-17495 by Alex Neil on 11 October 2013, whether and, if so, what new factor has led to the delay in publishing the inquiry report given that the warning letter process was noted at that time.

Question reference: S4W-20104

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to undertake a review and analysis of the uptake of patient international normalised ratio (INR) self-testing/self-management in comparison with rates in England and other European countries and identify any barriers to Scottish patients managing their own condition.

Question reference: S4W-20103

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to increase the number of patients self-testing/self-managing international normalised ratio (INR) testing as part of a stroke prevention programme.

<>There are no current plans to increase the number of patients self testing/self managing as part of a stroke prevention programme. Individual clinicians working with people on anticoagulants will decide on a case by case basis on the most appropriate approach in line with current evidence which can be found at: http://www.sign.ac.uk/guidelines/fulltext/129/index.html

and: http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/our_work/technologies_and_medicines/shtg_-_evidence_notes/evidence_note_50.aspx

Question reference: S4O-03071

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported underspend of discretionary housing payments by some local authorities.

Question reference: S4W-19883

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the first supplementary to question S4O-02918 by Margaret Burgess on 20 February 2014 (Official Report, c. 27950), what the anticipated underspend is in the Scottish Welfare Fund.

Question reference: S4W-19889

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many people receiving grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund are repeat applicants.

Between 1 April 2013 and 30 September 2013, a total of 35,590 households received funds from the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF). These 35,590 households made a total of 51,662 applications to the SWF. Of the 35,590 households, 10,514 households (30%) made repeat applications.

Of the 10,514 households making repeat applications, 5,010 (48%) had no applications rejected and 4,389 (42%) had only a single application rejected.

Statistics on the SWF are available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf

Question reference: S4W-19887

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of people receiving grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund was referred to other agencies for assistance.

Question reference: S4W-19886

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the Scottish Welfare Fund has been paid out (a) in cash and (b) as goods and what the value was of the goods.

Between 1 April 2013 and 30 September 2013, the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) spent or committed £9.2 million. Of this £9.2 million, a total of £8.6 million had been paid out to households and this was 94% of the spent or committed value. There is a lag between the amount spent or committed and the amount paid out to households, for example, due to households waiting for goods to be delivered.

Of the £8.6 million, around £1.3 million was paid out in cash and around £4.4 million were paid out in goods. Overall, cash payments accounted for 15% of the overall SWF spend by value, and goods accounted for 51% of the overall SWF spend by value. The remaining £2.9 million (34%) was paid out via other methods.

Details of all payments can be found in table 25a of SWF statistics, available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf/AprilSept2013.

Question reference: S4W-19885

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will carry out an evaluation of the Scottish Welfare Fund and, if so, whether it will be published.