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-01154

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs have been created by the small business bonus scheme and how this evidence was collected.

Question reference: S4W-06616

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much NHS Lanarkshire spent on colorectal services in 2010-11 compared with 2005-06.

Question reference: S4W-06617

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the change in cancer-specific survival times was in the NHS Lanarkshire area in 2010-11 compared with 2005-06.

Question reference: S4O-00938

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made on delivering the Curriculum for Excellence.

Question reference: S4W-06620

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many colonoscopies were carried out on patients aged between 75 and 80 in the NHS Lanarkshire area in 2010-11 compared with 2005-06.

The following table shows information on the number of diagnostic colonoscopies which have been performed on an inpatient or day case basis in NHS Lanarkshire hospitals on patients aged between 75 and 80 in 2010-11 compared with 2005-06.

Number of diagnostic colonoscopies¹ which have been performed on an inpatient or day case basis in NHS Lanarkshire hospitals on patients aged between 75 and 80 in 2010-11 compared with 2005-06

Year	Total number of Colonoscopy procedures	Number of Colonoscopies recorded as main procedure
2005-06	225		191
2010-11	680		583

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01.

Note: 1. The OPCS-4 procedure code used to identify a colonoscopy was H22 - Diagnostic endoscopic examination of colon.

Question reference: S4W-06619

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many colonoscopies were carried out in the NHS Lanarkshire area on patients aged 80 and under in 2010-11 compared with 2005-06.

Number of diagnostic colonoscopies¹ which have been performed on an inpatient or day case basis in NHS Lanarkshire hospitals on patients aged 80 and under in 2010-11 compared with 2005-06:

Year	Total number of Colonoscopy procedures	Number of Colonoscopies recorded as main procedure
2005-06	2,491	2,180
2010-11	6,158	5,481

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01.

Note: 1. The OPCS-4 procedure code used to identify a colonoscopy was H22 - Diagnostic endoscopic examination of colon.

Question reference: S4W-06623

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of patients with cancer detected by the bowel cancer screening programme in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2010-11 died within (i) six months and (ii) one year of diagnosis.

The bowel screening programme was rolled out in December 2009. Data for 2005-06 are not available. Table 1 shows the proportion of deaths subsequent to detection of bowel cancer by the screening programme for the financial year 2009-10, the most recent year for which data are available:

Table 1: Percentage of deaths following detection of bowel cancer by the screening programme, 2009-10:

	Within Six Months of Diagnosis	Within 12 Months of Diagnosis
2009-10	2%	4%

Question reference: S4W-06624

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) six and (b) 12 month mortality rates were for patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy for bowel cancer in (i) 2005-06 and (ii) 2010-11.

Table 1 shows the percentage of patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy who died with six and 12 months. Adjuvant chemotherapy is defined here as any chemotherapy received subsequent to surgery associated with a colorectal cancer. Data for 2011 are not yet available; data for financial year 2009-10 are provided as the most recent available. Year is based on year of treatment (surgery followed by chemotherapy) provision, not of cancer diagnosis; in most cases, these will be the same.

Table 1: Percentage of patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy who died within six and 12 months: 2005-06 and 2009-10

	Percentage of Deaths within six Months	Percentage of Deaths within 12 Months
2005-06	4%	11%
2009-10	2%	8%

Source: Scottish Cancer Registry.

Question reference: S4W-06621

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the mean improvement in the number of days has been from referral to first treatment for people undergoing curative cancer surgery since bowel cancer screening was introduced.

Question reference: S4W-06613

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive by how many days the (a) median and (b) mean patient waiting time for a colonoscopy in NHS Lanarkshire improved between 2005-06 and 2010-11.

<>Information is published on the number of patients waiting for key diagnostic tests, including colonoscopy. This includes the total number waiting for the key diagnostic tests, number waiting over nine weeks, number waiting over six weeks and number waiting over four weeks. This information is a snapshot of patients waiting as at month end and is available from December 2008. Information for number waiting over four weeks is available from March 2010. This information is available at http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Diagnostics/.

For NHS Lanarkshire, the published information shows that there have been no patients waiting over six weeks for a colonoscopy since December 2008 and no patients waiting over four weeks for a colonoscopy since March 2010.