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-28838

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 22 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are used to determine (a) satisfactory dental practice and (b) high quality oral health for dental patients.

The Scottish Government has in place a number of measures to determine (a) satisfactory dental practice and (b) high quality oral health for dental patients.

All dental practices offering NHS general dental services (GDS) are inspected on a three-year rolling cycle.

Activity within GDS is monitored, and independent examinations/reports are carried out of both planned and completed treatments, with the quality of treatment reported back to the dentist and the NHS board.

Question reference: S4W-28836

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 22 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how (a) NHS boards and (b) patients are informed of the findings of inspections of dental practices.

Question reference: S4W-28837

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 21 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action NHS boards must take in response to complaints from dental patients.

In accordance with the Patient Rights (Feedback, Comments, Concerns and Complaints) (Scotland) Directions 2012, NHS boards must ensure that their service providers, including general dental practitioners, submit quarterly reports on complaints. These reports must summarise the key themes of the complaints received and the action that has been taken or will be taken to improve services as a consequence. NHS boards must review these reports with a view to identifying any area of concern and whether any further action is required in order to improve the exercise of their own or their service providers’ functions.

At the end of each year, NHS boards must publish a report which summarises the quarterly complaints reports they have prepared and required their service providers to prepare. Boards are also required to submit information on complaints to the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland to allow the collation and publication of national complaints statistics.

Reviewing complaints locally enables appropriate improvements to be made for the benefit the patients of each NHS board. However, when complaints of a particularly serious nature arise through this process, it is open to boards to raise such concerns with the General Dental Council (GDC) for investigation in the interests of wider patient safety. The GDC is the independent UK regulator of the dental team, which sets minimum standards for education, training and professional practice, and has statutory powers to take action when these standards are not met, up to and including removing the right to practise in the UK.

Question reference: S4W-28834

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 17 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what responsibility NHS boards have with regard to the quality of dentistry services.

Question reference: S4W-28835

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 17 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how often dental practices are inspected, and what aspects of their work are reviewed.

Question reference: S4W-28839

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 17 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what responsibility NHS boards have in (a) monitoring and (b) maintaining the performance of independently-contracted dental practitioners that they provide financial support for.

NHS boards are responsible for monitoring grant-aided dental practices throughout the grant period, including visiting the practice annually to ensure that the grant conditions are being complied with, preparing an annual report, confirming the number of patient registrations against target numbers and ensuring that an accountant’s certificate verifying the percentage of the practice’s gross income derived from NHS general dental services is received annually.

Question reference: S4O-05231

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has overspent on its estimated ICT budget in the last five years.

Question reference: S4W-28410

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the report by DF Concerts that was due on completion of the project for T in the Park, in accordance with paragraph 4.2 of the letter offering the grant of £150,000 in July 2015.

Question reference: S4W-28247

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 19 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason 768 Scottish Fire and Rescue Service jobs were lost between 2010 and 2014 and what risk assessment was done to underpin this loss.

Staffing levels and resource allocation within the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are operational matters for the Board of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Prior to April 2013, it was the responsibility of the eight legacy fire and rescue services to determine their staffing needs against their priorities.

With the introduction of the SFRS, one of the priorities of the national service has been to reduce unnecessary duplication. From April 2013 any changes in SFRS staffing have been managed within a workforce plan and target operating model which has been designed to meet the needs of the national service, and is based on the risks that exist within the communities of Scotland.

As confirmed by Audit Scotland earlier in 2015, the creation of the SFRS was managed effectively, the merger had no impact on the public and SFRS’s performance is improving. As the SFRS continues to evolve, and works to consider how best to contribute to supporting community safety, the number of fire-fighters and support staff will continue to reflect the needs of communities and services priorities.

Having said all of the above, the Scottish Government has faced severe funding constraints since 2010, due to the austerity programme of the UK Government, which has created significant real terms reductions in both the Scottish Government’s resource and capital budgets. This funding pressure, alongside a desire to improve operational improvements, was a key driver for the creation of a single Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the challenging financial position has constrained the ability of the Scottish Government to increase funding for SFRS.

This challenging financial climate has been exacerbated by the VAT treatment of SFRS by HM Treasury since the creation of SFRS, despite repeated challenges to Treasury policy by Scottish ministers.

The VAT position, where SFRS is the only rescue service in the UK that is charged VAT, results in some £10.3 million per annum, currently, in resources being taken as a windfall by HM Treasury, despite the Treasury providing for VAT exemptions for London Legacy and Highways England, in similar circumstances, since the passage of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2011.

Restoration of a VAT exemption could relieve a significant amount of resource funding pressure on SFRS and could provide greater scope for recruitment of firefighters to fill vacancies that emerge and/or allow greater scope for capital investment. Scottish ministers continue to make the case for such a VAT exemption to be restored, given it would appear the decision not to do so, to date, is a political decision on the part of UK ministers, rather than a legal one.

Question reference: S4W-28305

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 19 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when Scottish Natural Heritage completed its review of freshwater pearl mussel protection measures and of potential new areas to designate protected status, and when it will publish its response to the findings.