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-08710

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether the role of smoking cessation practitioners is integral to the treatment plans of patients with smoking-related cancers.

Funding for the provision of smoking cessation services is allocated to NHS health boards. Individual boards are then responsible for design and delivery of high quality services, in line with current evidence and guidance, in order to deliver the agreed targets and outcomes.

Individual treatment plans for all patients, including cancer patients should be formulated to take into account current specific guidance and recommendations in order to ensure greater access to cessation support in acute settings. Training on smoking cessation for frontline workers in the secondary care setting has been developed and is promoted in current guidance.

This approach has recently been set out in the Chief Executive Letter 1 (2012) on the Health Promoting Health Service¹ which was issued on 16 January 2012. This includes a specific action for NHS boards to ensure dedicated specialist smoking cessation support is available within the hospital/acute setting which is integrated with community-based cessation services.

A number of boards run pre-operative assessment clinics during which patients are encouraged to quit smoking prior to any operation. The benefits of stopping smoking are explained and how the NHS can help smokers quit. If patients choose to quit they are referred immediately to specialist NHS smoking cessation services.

Note: CEL 1 (2012) Heath Promoting Health Service: Action in Hospital Settings http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2012_01.pdf.

Question reference: S4W-08709

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in smoking cessation services in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board.

Funding levels for smoking cessation from the tobacco control budget have remained the same for each of the last three years. Funds have been issued to boards as follows, including this current year:

Board

Smoking Cessation (£)

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

NHS Ayrshire and Arran	542,000	542,000	542,000	542,000
NHS Borders	170,000	170,000	170,000	170,000
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	231,000	231,000	231,000	231,000
NHS Fife	462,000	462,000	462,000	462,000
NHS Forth Valley	373,000	373,000	373,000	373,000
NHS Grampian	597,000	597,000	597,000	597,000
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	2,569,000	2,569,000	2,569,000	2,569,000
NHS Highland	455,000	455,000	455,000	455,000
NHS Lanarkshire	1,147,000	1,147,000	1,147,000	1,147,000
NHS Lothian	1,311,000	1,311,000	1,311,000	1,311,000
NHS Orkney	53,000	53,000	53,000	53,000
NHS Shetland	59,000	59,000	59,000	59,000
NHS Tayside	949,000	949,000	949,000	949,000
NHS Western Isles	82,000	82,000	82,000	82,000
Total	9,000,000	9,000,000	9,000,000	9,000,000

Note: In addition to the funding outlined above, some £2 million per annum for smoking cessation is contained within NHS board baseline allocations.

Finally, in addition to NHS boards, community pharmacies also deliver a smoking cessation service. Community pharmacies are remunerated for this service, which is controlled during the year within the global sum set by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S4W-08711

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how the role of smoking cessation practitioners contributes to NHS boards meeting relevant targets.

Question reference: S4W-08716

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many 16 to 18-year-olds have been unemployed for over a year and not in full-time education, broken down by geographical area.

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is the preferred source of detailed data on young unemployed people.

The latest APS data available is for April 2011 to March 2012. This data shows that there were 4,500 people aged 16 to 18 who were not in full-time education and had been unemployed for over year. It is not possible to provide data broken down by local authority area due to the underlying sample sizes.

Question reference: S4W-08725

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how (a) it and (b) its agencies plan to increase the number of young people in its/their workforce.

Question reference: S4W-08720

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government who will be invited to the youth unemployment action forum in (a) Oban and (b) Dumfries.

Question reference: S4W-08764

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much of his budget the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment will direct toward tackling youth unemployment in 2012-13.

Question reference: S4W-08763

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much of his budget the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment will direct toward tackling youth unemployment in 2012-13.

Question reference: S4W-08778

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what youth organisations and other stakeholders will be invited to the national youth employment event referred to in its youth employment strategy.

Question reference: S4W-08726

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how it will support the development of work-focused skills among young people.

Through our reform of post-16 education we will ensure that the whole system is focussed on improving the life chances of learners and on meeting the needs of employers and Scotland’s economy. Through the delivery of modern apprenticeships, work experience opportunities and student placements in both public and private sectors, we will offer young people the opportunity to learn a variety of important work-focussed skills.

More specifically, we will work with sector bodies such as the Digital Participation Action Group to support the development of work-focussed digital skills among our young people.