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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2702 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S3W-39718

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 3 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what role community pharmacists have in managing the medication of patients with a long-term mental health condition as part of the new long-term conditions prescribing system.

All eligible patients who have a long-term condition can register for the Chronic Medication Service (CMS). The service aims to support patients to manage their medicines and a pharmaceutical care plan is undertaken with patients where appropriate. GPs will be able to generate serial prescriptions for patients registered for CMS. In all cases, whether a patient''s condition is suitable for a serial prescription will be a matter of clinical judgement by the GP prescriber.

Question reference: S3W-39863

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 3 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many clinical nurse specialists for lupus there are, broken down by NHS board.

Haematology Clinical Nurse Specialists (HCNS) care for patients with Lupus and their numbers are as detailed in the following table:

NHS Board

NHS

Lothian

NHS

Tayside

NHS Greater

Glasgow and Clyde

NHS

Lanarkshire

HCNS

It is of course for NHS boards to determine their workforce requirements, including specialist nurses, based on the clinical needs of the population and service developments in their area.

Question reference: S3W-39776

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many family contact development officers or equivalent there are in each prison.

Question reference: S3W-39724

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 3 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what priority it is giving to the electronic recording and transfer of information between drug services and social work services regarding children in families where there is illicit drug use or where a family member is on treatment for drug misuse, as part of ensuring that Getting it Right for Every Child is implemented.

The Scottish Government''s key priority is to promote best practice for information sharing where appropriate and which electronic systems should support. The national practice model under Getting it Right promotes the culture, practice and system changes needed to secure such best practice.

The newly revised child protection guidance also includes best practice guidance around improved information sharing and practices within and across agencies that is based on the Getting it Right approach where children are at particular risk.

The eCare framework also supports multi-agency sharing of child protection messages where appropriate. We continue to work with partner agencies to develop an application to support national electronic information sharing, not a national database, in respect of all children about whom there are concerns and to do so in a way which respects privacy and confidentiality.

Question reference: S3W-39448

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-39180 by Kenny MacAskill on 7 February 2011, what steps are being taken to ensure that all non-smoking prisoners and staff are protected from passive smoking.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

Smoking by staff and prisoners is not permitted in any enclosed space on SPS property with the exception that prisoners are able to smoke in their cells.

The Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules, Rule 31, states that no prisoner shall smoke in a prison except:

In a cell or room in which that prisoner is accommodated by him or herself or;

In a cell or room in which that prisoner is accommodated and which the Governor designates as a smoking area in accordance with a direction given by Scottish ministers or;

In the open air; in any place as Scottish ministers may specify in a direction.

Prisoners admitted to SPS establishments are subject to a cell sharing risk assessment as part of the reception process during which the prisoner can request a non-smoking cell. Where a non-smoking prisoner''s preference cannot be met immediately steps are taken to accommodate the request as soon as possible and for the position to be reviewed within 7 days.

Blair House at HMYOI Polmont, opened in November 2009 for young offenders aged under 18. Prisoners in this age group are not permitted to purchase tobacco products and therefore Blair House is a totally smoke free environment.

Question reference: S3W-39446

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 1 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the report in volume 305 of The Journal of the American Medical Association, whether there will be a review of the prescription status of Bevacizamub prescribing in the NHS.

The safety of bevacizumab (Avastin) is closely monitored by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in conjunction with other European member states and the European Medicines Agency. The recent publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association which suggested that bevacizumab was associated with an increased risk of fatal adverse effects is being assessed at European level in the context of other information relating to the balance of risk and benefits of Avastin in the treatment of cancer.

Question reference: S3W-39758

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has issued to alcohol and drug partnerships regarding meeting the new HEAT targets for drugs and alcohol.

There are two HEAT targets for alcohol and drugs:

HEAT A11: to ensure that by March 2013, 90% of clients wait no longer than three weeks from referral received to appropriate drug or alcohol treatment that supports their recovery.

HEAT H4: to deliver 149,449 alcohol brief interventions (ABIs) in primary care, accident and emergency and antenatal care by March 2011 with an extension to deliver an additional 61,080 ABIs by March 2012.

With regard to HEAT A11 we have developed guidance on referral pathways (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/law/DrugsStrategy/recovery/HEAT/referral-pathways) in addition to a national resource, A Wait off Our Shoulders (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/06/02115503/0), which aims to share learning of good practice to improve access to treatment and reduce waiting times through service redesign.

Further guidance on Drug and Alcohol Treatment Types (www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/wtpilot/DATWT_TreatmentTypes_rev.pdf) was published in 2010, which provides alcohol and drug partnerships (ADPs) and specialist services with advice on data entry to the new Scottish Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database.

Guidance for delivery of the HEAT H4 target on alcohol brief interventions for 2011-12, will be issued to health boards and ADPs by the end of February 2011. This will subsequently be published on the NHS Health Scotland website.

Question reference: S3W-39719

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made on implementing the recommendations in the report, A Fuller Life: Report of the Expert Group on Alcohol Related Brain Damage.

The majority of recommendations contained within the A Fuller Life report, published in 2004, were targeted towards local partnerships and service providers. The main recommendations for the Scottish Government were to raise awareness of alcohol-related brain damage and to support improved local service provision.

In order to help achieve this, we committed to translating the principles and recommendations of A Fuller Life and the Mind the Gaps reports into practical advice to support joined-up local delivery to improve the awareness, support and service provision for people who have both mental health and substance misuse problems. This was published in Closing the Gaps “ Making a Difference in December 2007.

Question reference: S3W-39722

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many specialist multidisciplinary teams there are to support pregnant women with a drug or alcohol problem, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-39769

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 1 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what definition of homeless is used in determining the per-patient fee as part of the national enhanced service for care for homeless people.

As defined in the national enhanced services guidance for GP practices, homelessness is described as a wide range of circumstances where people have no secure home and is defined in legislation for the purpose of determining entitlement to assistance and support from public service providers.

Groups defined as homeless for Healthcare provision include: rough sleepers, hostel/night shelter residents; residents in bed and breakfast premises, squatters; people staying temporararily with friends and family; all those with physical/mental health problems and all vulnerable people who have experienced domestic or racial abuse.