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: S3W-40164

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will provide inpatient services for children over 13 from the Highlands and Islands with chronic pain in the next four years until the new children's hospital opens at the Southern General Hospital.

Question reference: S3W-40162

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to investigate the shortage of specialist facilities for children with chronic pain.

We are aware that service provision is not uniform across Scotland. Following the recruitment of the new National Lead Clinician for Chronic Pain, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) will undertake a scoping exercise with NHS boards to assess the service levels in each board and how the levels relate to the agreed service model for chronic pain.

The Chronic Pain Steering Group is considering a range of issues as part of its work programme which includes the needs of children and young people with chronic pain.

Question reference: S3W-40144

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what companies supply pre-cooked or fresh food to the NHS and what the value is of each contract, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-40145

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is improving nutritional standards in the NHS.

A comprehensive programme for improving nutritional care in hospitals, including the quality of meals, was established in 2008 backed by £1.5 million to support the implementation of the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland Clinical Standards for Food, Fluid and Nutrition in Hospitals. The programme includes:

The publication of Food in Hospitals “ A National Catering and Nutrition Specification for Food and Fluid in Scottish Hospitals.

Development of a monitoring tool to be used by NHS boards to ensure

compliance with the Specification, incorporating the patient experience.

Publication of a Practice Development Programme and Toolkit.

Development of an Educational Framework, a web-based resource.

Funding of Nutrition Champions in each NHS board

Software which provides a database of standard recipes which have been nutritionally analysed

In recognition of the importance of nutrition for in particular, vulnerable patients, senior charge nurses play a key role in ensuring these patients, who may need assistance with eating and drinking, are given care and support to improve and maintain their nutrition where appropriate. Protected meal times ensure that patients are not interrupted unnecessarily and also allow nursing staff more time to spend with patients who need assistance to eat and drink. This work links directly with the development of Clinical Quality Indicators one of which is for food, fluid and nutrition, currently being implemented across NHS Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-40163

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers it appropriate for children over 13 with chronic pain requiring inpatient services at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children to be referred to adult pain services until such time as the new children’s hospital opens at the Southern General Hospital in 2015.

Question reference: S3W-40166

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, in view of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde promising to treat children with chronic pain up to ages 16 or 18 from 2015, whether it will be in breach of (a) patients’, (b) children’s or (c) human rights if it limits inpatient services to new chronic pain patients over 13.

Question reference: S3W-40143

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each NHS board spends on hospital food per patient per day.

This information is not held centrally, however Scottish Health Service Costs publishes information on catering costs per patient consumer week:

NHS Board	Catering Expenditure	Number of Patient Consumer weeks	Cost per patient consumer week
NHS Board	£000s		£
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	6,399	73,212	87.4
NHS Borders	1,719	23,455	73.3
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	2,420	28,142	86.0
NHS Fife	4,629	62,961	73.5
NHS Forth Valley	3,843	50,261	76.5
NHS Grampian	8,057	104,143	77.4
NHS Greater Glasgow	21,222	299,152	70.9
NHS Highland	5,172	55,664	92.9
NHS Lanarkshire	6,664	98,713	67.5
NHS Lothian	13,280	165,990	80.0
NHS Orkney	360	2,485	145.0
NHS Shetland	495	3,016	164.1
NHS Tayside	7,549	98,258	76.8
NHS Western Isles	812	6,630	122.5
Total	82,619	1,072,082	77.1

Question reference: S3W-39688

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has a role in (a) monitoring or (b) regulating the use of internet sites that provide advice to people with mental health problems.

The regulation of the internet is reserved to the UK Government under the Scotland Act 1998.

The Scottish Government does monitor the use of specific internet sites that provide advice to people with mental health problems which are supported by its partner organisations. For example, on Breathing Space (hosted by NHS 24) and on Well Scotland (hosted by NHS Health Scotland), information such as number of hits, source of hits, and frequency of hits is collected to inform policy.

Additionally, the Scottish Government actively promotes support to help all people stay safe online, through various national and local initiatives, some of which are listed:

Get Safe Online is a joint initiative between the UK Government, law enforcement, leading businesses and the public sector. Their website www.getsafeonline.org contains advice to help people stay safe online and to avoid some of the risks and threats which exist.

The Scottish Government participates in the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, which is committed to improving the safeguards for young people, and published an Action Plan on Child Internet Safety in February 2010, available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/02/09154928/0. A second action plan is due to be published in March 2011.

Skills Development Scotland provides information through the National Learning Opportunities Database on a wide range of IT courses, including courses that help individuals learn about the responsible use of the computers and the internet. ILA Scotland provides funding for people on lower incomes to access a wide range of IT courses.

Question reference: S3W-39672

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the social care budget has been spent on (a) children’s, (b) older people’s and (c) disability services in each year since 2007-08, also broken down by local authority

Question reference: S3W-39673

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring arrangements are in place in respect of the £70 million Change Fund.