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-03514

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met NHS Lanarkshire.

Question reference: S4W-22040

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 31 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) NHS boards, (b) external groups and (c) NHS England on the introduction of robot-assisted surgery by NHS Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-22038

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 31 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it established a group to develop a research proposal and review the clinical and cost-effectiveness of Da Vinci robot-assisted surgery for NHS Scotland, what its membership is and when it will report on its conclusions.

Last year, the National Planning Forum (NPF) asked the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) to carry out a review of current evidence for this type of surgery. The review found that the clinical and cost effectiveness evidence for robotic surgery for prostate cancer is uncertain. That is why we are undertaking further work in this area.

Since January 2014, a subgroup of the NPF has been working to develop a research proposal that is expected to add to the evidence base for robot-assisted surgery for prostate cancer, and other conditions that may benefit.

The subgroup has been chaired by a Scottish Government Senior Medical Officer and its membership includes directors of planning from NHS boards, prostate cancer surgeons and representatives from the urological cancer charities Prostate Scotland and UCAN.

There has been good progress with developing the proposal, which is currently going through the peer review process, in advance of consideration by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO). If the proposal is successful, it will attract a CSO grant of £225,000, which would be expected to begin around October 2014 and would take around two years to complete and report.

I have advised NPF that I am keen to see robotic surgery introduced to Scotland as soon as possible and asked what needs to be done to facilitate this.

Question reference: S4W-22081

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of delays in the registration of powers of attorney (a) generally and (b) with regard to the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000.

Registration of powers of attorney under the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 is a matter for the Office of the Public Guardian, part of the Scottish Court Service. There is no requirement to register a general power of attorney with the Office of the Public Guardian. The Scottish Government is aware that there are delays in registering manually submitted powers of attorney under the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000. The Office of the Public Guardian is taking action to address this and details are available from their website:

http://www.publicguardian-scotland.gov.uk/news/index.asp. Submissions made on the electronic registration system can be dealt with promptly.

Question reference: S4W-22080

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of mental health officer reports under the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 are provided within the required timescale.

Question reference: S4W-22039

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 25 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase awareness and treatment of prostate cancer.

The Scottish Government is undertaking a range of actions that aim to increase awareness and treatment of prostate cancer.

The Scottish Government’s Detect Cancer Early initiative, which was launched in February 2012 with £30 million of investment, focuses on raising public awareness and encouraging people with early symptoms of cancer to see their GP. It is an ambitious programme of work and aims to increase the number of people who are diagnosed at an earlier stage. Although this campaign initially focuses on the three most prevalent cancers in Scotland - breast, bowel and lung - it is expected to raise awareness of all cancers and increase the number of people diagnosed at an early stage.

The revised Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer were published in October 2013 and updated May 2014. This version updates referral guidelines for prostate cancer, and takes account of new research evidence and the findings of audits undertaken since the last revision. The aim of these updated guidelines is to facilitate appropriate referral between primary and secondary care for patients whom a GP suspects may have cancer. The guidelines should help GPs, the wider primary care team, other clinicians and patients and carers to identify those patients who are most likely to have cancer and who therefore require urgent assessment by a specialist. Work is also being undertaken to support the effective dissemination and implementation of the revised guidelines when they are published by August 2014.

The Quality Performance Indicators programme also aims to drive up the standard of cancer services available in NHS Scotland. This programme contains specific indicators for prostate cancer. These indicators will be used to monitor and drive quality improvement in prostate cancer care across the NHS in Scotland and ensure that people have access to timely, safe and effective services.

The Scottish Government also recognises the importance of research. Earlier this year, the Scottish Government, Prostate Cancer UK, and The Movember Foundation granted researchers at Dundee University £500,000 to investigate unanswered questions surrounding prostate cancer (£275,000 from Prostate Cancer UK and Movember, £225,000 from the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientists Office). The money will be used to fund clinical research that is being carried out in patients for the first time. The researchers will be investigating ways to improve the diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer and reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies, one of Prostate Cancer UK’s priority areas for research funding.

Question reference: S4W-20757

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when the non-profit distributing (NPD) model was developed and introduced as an alternative to the private finance initiative and what the first NPD-funded capital project was.

The current NPD model with a simplified and standardised contract and recycling of returns to the public sector, was developed by the Scottish Futures Trust. The first NPD project in the current pipeline of investments to reach financial close was Inverness College on 29 April 2013.

The current model built on and enhanced an earlier NPD-type funded model, initially developed with support from the Scottish Government and the former Partnerships UK organisation. This earlier model was piloted by Argyll and Bute Council with a project for the construction of ten schools which reached financial close on
9 September 2005.

Question reference: S4O-03188

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many naval vessels it considers would be required to enforce a ban on EU fishing fleets in Scottish waters if proposals for an independent Scotland's membership of the EU were not accepted.

Question reference: S4O-03137

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4O-03110

Asked by: Michael McMahon, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Transport Scotland regarding the development of rail freight.