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: S4O-02622

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to provide permanent employment opportunities for people who will be on temporary contracts during the Christmas period.

Question reference: S4W-18282

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 20 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government for what conditions people are routinely offered speech therapy.

The purpose of a speech and language therapy service is to provide evidence-based services that anticipate and respond to the needs of individuals who may experience speech, language, communication or swallowing difficulties. The reasons for these difficulties will vary significantly and referral to speech and language therapy services will be when there is a clinical need identified and is not solely based on a specific diagnosis.

Conditions for which people are routinely offered speech and language therapy include, but are not restricted to, the following:

Acquired Motor Speech Disorders

Asphasia

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Brain Injury

Cerebral Palsy

Cleft Palate and Velopharyngeal Disorders

Dysfluency

Dyslexia

Dysphagia

Progressive Neurological Conditions

Primary Speech/Language Disorder

Speech/Language Delay.

Question reference: S4W-18283

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 20 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government to how many sessions of speech therapy stroke patients are entitled in each NHS board area and for how long.

Question reference: S4W-17984

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 19 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many Scotland-based health researchers or methodologists the Chief Scientist Office has funded under the same or a similar scheme to the funding of 18 research professorships by the National Institute for Health Research.

Scotland has a Senior Clinical Fellowships scheme open to doctors and dentists. It is funded by the Scottish Funding Council and the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The level of individuals awarded these fellowships would be broadly equivalent to those funded through the National Institute for Health Research scheme.

In total 18 fellowships have been awarded since 2009 and the chief scientist office provides a start-up grant to successful Fellows to the value of £75,000 to each fellow.

Question reference: S4W-18083

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned on the cost effectiveness of the shingles vaccine, Zostavax.

The Scottish Government has not commissioned research on the cost effectiveness of the shingles vaccine Zostavax.

The Scottish Government and all other UK Health Departments take advice on immunisation issues from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). Prior to the introduction of the shingles vaccination programme, the JCVI reviewed medical, epidemiological and economic evidence as well as vaccine safety and efficacy data relevant to a shingles vaccination programme. This included the following studies specifically relating to cost effectiveness of the vaccination programme:

Gauthier A, Breuer J, Carrington D et al. (2009) Epidemiology and cost of herpes zoster and post-herpetic neuralgia in the United Kingdom. Epidemiol Infect 137(1): 38-47. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/18466661

van Hoek AJ, Gay N, Melegaro A et al. (2009) Estimating the cost-effectiveness of vaccination against herpes zoster in England and Wales. Vaccine 27( 9): 1454-67. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/19135492.

Question reference: S4F-01705

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2013

To ask the First Minister when the Scottish Government will bring forward plans to extend legislation to make wilful neglect of patients a criminal offence.

Question reference: S4O-02605

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to align education and skills provision in the Highlands and Islands with the needs of local employers.

Question reference: S4W-17989

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements have been established at UK level for joint ministerial discussions on the Crown Estate since the publication of the Scottish Affairs Committee report, The Crown Estate in Scotland; whether any meetings have been held, and, if so, what was discussed and what the outcomes were.

The UK Government’s response to the Scottish Affairs Committee’s report on The Crown Estate in Scotland announced a Scottish Inter-Ministerial Strategic Group to meet annually to consider the activities of the Crown Estate. The strategic group was due to have its initial meeting in June and then November this year, but on both occasions was cancelled by the UK Government.

I have written to the new Secretary of State for Scotland to reinforce the Scottish Government’s desire for the full devolution of the Crown Estate and I intend to raise this with him when we meet shortly.

Question reference: S4O-02568

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Highland Council about the infrastructure and capital investment required to meet the needs of communities in the Highlands and Islands.

Question reference: S4W-18074

Current Status: Withdrawn