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: S5W-08532

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many anaesthetists have been employed in NHS (a) hospitals and (b) board areas in each of the last five years.

In the last five years, the number of consultants with a specialty of anaesthetics working in NHSScotland have increased by 90.3 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE), or 14.1% (from 640.6 WTE as at December 2012 to 730.9 WTE as at December 2016).

Information on how many consultants with a specialty of anaesthetics have been employed in (a) NHS hospitals in each of the last five years is not centrally held. Specific local information may be available from NHS boards.

Information on how many consultants with a specialty of anaesthetics have been employed in (b) NHS board areas in each of the last five years is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following link:- https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2017-03-07/Consultant_Staff_In_Post_D2016.xls

Question reference: S5W-08538

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many operations were cancelled in NHS hospitals due to a lack of anaesthetists in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-08534

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, of the operations that were cancelled in NHS hospitals due to a lack of anaesthetists, how many were outwith their target waiting period in each of the last five years.

The specific information requested is not held centrally by ISD Scotland. Information has been published monthly on the number of operations cancelled each month since May 2015. Latest published figures for February 2017 indicated that NHSScotland scheduled 27,475 operations in the month of which 586 were cancelled due to capacity or non-clinical reasons this gave a rate of 2.1%.

The Scottish Government continues to work to support health boards to manage their capacity planning to keep cancelled operations to a minimum. Decisions to cancel a patient's operation is never taken lightly, any postponed operations will be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity. The Scottish Government has also already announced a £200 million investment to create six new elective treatment centres which will carry out procedures like hip, knee and cataracts operations. These centres will allow people to be treated more quickly for planned surgery to help the NHS meet increasing demand from a growing elderly population and reduce the number of operations cancelled.

Question reference: S5W-08536

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many vacancies there have been for anaesthetists in NHS (a) hospitals and (b) board areas in each of the last five years.

Information on the number of vacancies for consultants with a specialty of anaesthetics in (a) NHS hospitals is not centrally held. Specific local information may be available from individual NHS boards.

Information on the number of vacancies for consultants with a specialty of anaesthetics in (b) NHS boards is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following link:- https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2017-03-07/Consultant_Vacancies_D2016.xls

Question reference: S5W-08148

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 28 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the number of employees who are being made redundant at Kwik-fit Insurance Services in Tannochside, and how many of these have (a) found new employment, (b) chosen to undertake further training or study and (c) not yet confirmed a future role or path and will be continuing with PACE support.

As soon as we became aware of developments at Kwik Fit Insurance Services in Tannochside, we set up a working group comprising Ageas, Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland and North Lanarkshire Council to provide support to the company and its employees. Through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative, we have worked very closely with Ageas and their outplacement agency Penna to provide a full programme of support for the 521 employees facing redundancy

The programme of support included 13 Presentations from PACE and Penna; 50 workshops on CV preparation, career management and interview skills; and one to one career planning interviews with a PACE Adviser which 206 employees attended.

Ageas also arranged four jobs fairs on site where over 2,000 vacancies in the immediate area were available from the 44 organisations in attendance.

Information available to date is contained in the following table.

Total employees	Maternity/sick	Employees in scope	Exit data	Alternative role	Time out/retiring	Seeking new role
521	44	477	400	268	46	86
%			84	67	12	21

Source: Ageas

Should any individual still require support once their employment with Ageas comes to an end, full details of how they can access this support, for example through local SDS Centres and JCP Offices or by telephoning the helpline or accessing information online, have been included in the final letter being issued to employees from Ageas.

Question reference: S5W-07674

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 16 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what procedures it has in place to reduce cannabis use.

The Scottish Government continues to tackle problem drug use through our strategy 'The Road for Recovery'. This strategy seeks to tackle problem drug use through a combination of prevention and education work. The Scottish Government has invested over £630 million to tackle problem alcohol and drug use since 2008.

The most recently published findings from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey show that there has been a statistically significant decrease in the reported use of cannabis (down from 6.2% in 2008-09 to 5% in 2014-15).

Question reference: S5W-07676

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 16 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to NHS Lanarkshire to deal with the number of people hospitalised because of cannabis use.

The Scottish Government continues to support drug and alcohol treatment services in Scotland and has invested over £630 million in them since 2008.

The provision of specific drug and treatment services is for each local area to consider, taking account of local needs, circumstances and resources. It is for individual NHS boards, local authorities and Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) to ensure that appropriate health care services are provided to meet the needs of their resident populations.

Question reference: S5W-07675

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it will support Maxim Business Park in filling its vacant office space in light of the imminent completion of M74/M73/M8 roadworks.

The Scottish Government and our agencies are working to deliver sustainable and inclusive economic growth across Scotland, including in North Lanarkshire, by promoting Scotland as an attractive place for business and innovation while investing in infrastructure such as the £500 million M8 M73 M74 Motorway Improvement Project, which is nearing completion.

Our main economic development agency in central Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, works with Scottish Development International, the investment and trade promotion agency of the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, to promote Scotland as an inward investment location. Scottish Enterprise has worked closely with the owners of Maxim and will continue to liaise with them on the promotion of Maxim, and the wider Eurocentral development of which it forms part, to both inward investing and indigenous companies to secure investment, development and jobs.

A specific example of our support for Maxim can be shown by the move in 2014 of 400 Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) staff to Maxim, which has allowed SEPA to consolidate its operations in a central location, reduce the size of its overall estate and establish a new state of the art laboratory.

Question reference: S5O-00671

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives from the Scottish Roads Partnership.

Question reference: S5W-06749

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comments by Michael Matheson on 22 March 2016 (Official Report, c. 86), in light of the commitment given by the cabinet secretary, what work has been carried out to raise awareness of Lord Glennie’s judgment regarding the use of medical records in court.

Further to my announcement to Parliament in March 2016 that the Scottish Government would not be appealing Lord Glennie’s judgment, information was placed on the Scottish Government's Equally Safe blog page highlighting the impact of the judgment, and SG officials discussed with key stakeholders, including Rape Crisis Scotland, the judgment's effects to help ensure awareness was raised.

In response to concerns raised by third sector organisations about the sharing of sensitive or medical records by record holders (GP surgeries, hospitals etc.), a letter has been sent from the Chief Medical Officer and Scottish Government Director of Justice to NHS Medical Board Directors, NHS Boards, Special Boards and Special Board Chief Executives. This letter clearly sets out the implications of the judgment for the NHS.

In his judgment, Lord Glennie considered that the courts were able to implement the rights he found existed within their existing powers, but he also suggested that rules could be developed to formalise this implementation. Any rules would be a matter for the courts themselves; but the Scottish Government is liaising with justice partners to be kept up to date about the operation of these rights including how they are publicised.