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-15261

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS staff who have already signed confidentiality agreements are still bound by the terms of these agreements.

This is an issue between individual NHS Boards and their employees.

NHSScotland does not have any policies which would prevent, or condone the prevention of staff from raising valid concerns about patient safety and quality. Quite the opposite, each Health Board has a robust “Implementing and Reviewing Whistleblowing Arrangements in NHS Scotland” PIN policy in place.

These policies encourage staff to raise concerns and any clause which sought to prevent an individual from raising a protected whistleblowing disclosure would be illegal and therefore unenforceable.

Question reference: S4F-01460

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2013

To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government is taking to improve detection of cervical cancer.

Question reference: S4W-15259

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether any NHS boards are not implementing a policy of refraining from using confidentiality clauses and non-derogatory statement clauses in respect of compromise agreements and, if so, which.

Question reference: S4W-15258

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS staff sought protection from the so-called whistleblowers charter in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Question reference: S4W-15257

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many protected disclosures were made by NHS staff in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Question reference: S4W-15260

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when the revised draft of the confidentiality clause in relation to NHS compromise agreements that confirms that an individual's right to make “protected disclosures” was finalised, and whether it will place a copy of the wording in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

Question reference: S4W-15256

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the instruction to refrain from use of confidentiality clauses and non-derogatory statement clauses in relation to NHS compromise agreements was implemented.

Question reference: S4W-15287

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information has been given to GPs regarding the impact of faulty transvaginal mesh implants.

Question reference: S4W-15289

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many applicants for foundation medical training placements there have been in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board.

Information is not available in the format requested. Applications to Foundation training programmes are co-ordinated on a UK-wide basis through the UK Foundation Programme Office. Applicants are required to rank all 21 UK Foundation Schools in order of preference and, following an assessment and scoring process, applicants are matched to a Foundation School taking into consideration their preference. At this point, the Scotland Foundation School is then allocated the right number of applicants for the number of programmes available in any year. There then follows a further process that enables applicants to rank their preferences for a cluster of Foundation programmes which, ultimately, leads to applicants being matched to their individual programmes.

The following table indicates the number of Foundation programme places available in Scotland from 2007. All programme places were filled.

	Number of Foundation Programmes available in Scotland
2007	804
2008	804
2009	804
2010	804
2011	804
2012	804

Question reference: S4W-15284

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that the hours worked by junior doctors per week are compliant with the European working time directive.