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-20529

Asked by: Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken to ensure that the distribution of GPs across Scotland fully reflects levels of deprivation, as highlighted by Audit Scotland in its December 2012 report, Health inequalities in Scotland.

GP contractual arrangements now place much more emphasis on patient care being provided by the whole clinical team (GPs, nurses and other health professionals) and therefore the concept of average numbers of patients per GP is now less meaningful than may have been the case historically. Importantly too, practice demographics such as patient age, sex, deprivation and remoteness and rurality vary considerably across the country as does the clinical care needed to respond to these variations.

Scottish Government priority will be not so much to dictate where practices should be located, but to ensure that in reviewing the Scottish allocation formula and other contractual measures we give sufficient priority to resources for areas of deprivation. As part of the 2014-15 GP contract agreement a review of the current Scottish allocation formula/variability of funding will be taken forward over the next few years, including agreeing changes to the Scottish allocation formula to take better account of deprivation, towards the creation of a stable funding environment with a focus on: moving towards the 2020 vision and strengthening primary health care teams in and around GP practices; addressing issues relating to caring for elderly/ deprived/rural populations.

Question reference: S4W-20526

Asked by: Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has, along with NHS boards, "reviewed the distribution of primary care services to ensure that needs associated with higher deprivation are adequately resourced" as recommended by Audit Scotland in its December 2012 report, Health inequalities in Scotland.

The agreement the Scottish Government has reached with the Scottish General Practitioner’s Committee for 2014-15, embeds into the contract support from each GP practice for health and social care integration, enabling every practice to make a contribution to local integration processes, locality planning and decision-making.

In addition for the first time this year, health boards were also required to complete a ‘strategic assessment of primary care’ as part of the annual local delivery plan process. This is an important step forward and gives real opportunity to place much needed focus and emphasis on primary care. Within health boards these assessments will inform the measurable resource shift necessary to innovate and strengthen primary care. The assessments will also assist the development of approaches to enable the Scottish Government to provide support to health boards in expanding the role of primary care, recognising that across Scotland health boards have different priorities, reflecting their geographic situation, current infrastructure and health needs and enable the development of collaborative ways of working to achieve an expanded role for primary care.

Question reference: S4W-20530

Asked by: Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it regularly collects information on the number of whole time equivalent GPs and practice nurses across the different levels of deprivation and, if so, whether it will publish this information.

Most general practices in Scotland are independent contractors and they are not obliged to report whether their individual GP(s) work(s) full time or part time.

The Primary Care Workforce Survey 2013, a survey of Scottish general practices and GP out of hours services, published on 24 September 2013, provides a ‘snapshot’ of GPs, their designation, gender, age group, total weekly sessional commitment and an indication of whether they combined their ‘in hours’ responsibilities with any work during the out of hours period.

The survey is not based on all GPs in general practice, only those working in practices that responded to the survey (approximately 63% of practices responded in 2013). We are reliant on practices assisting us by completing the survey in order to help us collect comprehensive information. The “full time” or “part time” status is only in respect of the GPs’ commitments during the in-hours period and as at 31 January 2013, just over half (50.6%) of GPs in post had full time commitments during the in-hours period (where ‘full time’ was defined as a commitment of eight or more sessions per week). Any additional commitments during the out of hours period is not captured in these figures. Further information is available in the Official Statistics report and accompanying Excel tables published by the Information Services Division (ISD) of National Services Scotland at:

www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/General-Practice/Workforce-and-Practice-Populations/Workforce/primary-care-workforce-survey-2013.asp.

This includes a breakdown of sessional commitments amongst GP partners as compared with other GP designations. The Workforce Survey Advisory Group (WSAG) report on the survey:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/10/9584 included a recommendation to repeat the survey every two years, with the next one proposed for late summer/early autumn 2015. The official response to the WSAG report can be accessed at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/11/8695

Question reference: S4W-20525

Asked by: Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 24 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has introduced "national indicators to specifically monitor progress in reducing health inequalities" as recommended by Audit Scotland in its December 2012 report, Health inequalities in Scotland.

Health inequalities are complex, long-term and influenced by a wide range of societal and individual factors. The Scottish Government already uses a breadth of indicators to monitor progress in reducing health inequalities. Rather than introducing new indicators, we are further developing the existing range so they can be used more effectively and give the fullest perspective possible on the levels of health inequality experienced in Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-03171

Asked by: Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many tickets for the 2014 Commonwealth Games sportscotland will allocate to people involved in sports clubs across the country.

Question reference: S4O-03139

Asked by: Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing last met the chief executive of Healthcare Improvement Scotland and what was discussed.

Question reference: S4W-19595

Asked by: Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 March 2014

Figures showing the number of young people who have taken advantage of opportunities presented by CashBack funding and been involved in activities and events since 2008 can be found at

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00430163.xlsx

CashBack partners can work with many of the same young people year after year so the total of the yearly figures does not represent the number of individual young people who have been involved with CashBack.

Question reference: S4W-19596

Asked by: Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people who participated in activities provided through the CashBack for Communities programme in 2008-09 also participated in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-19595 on 4 March 2014.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

CashBack partners can work with many of the same young people year after year so the total of the yearly activity figures does not represent the number of individual young people who have been involved with CashBack.

Question reference: S4O-02982

Asked by: Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing last met the Chief Executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and what was discussed.

Question reference: S4O-02950

Current Status: Withdrawn