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 1003 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-07086

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 15 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions have been brought by each police force since 2009 against owners of tanning salons for failure to enforce the ban on under-18s using sunbeds.

Question reference: S4W-07018

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the monthly cost has been (a) per patient and (b) to the NHS of the 10 most expensive pharmacological (i) treatments and (ii) treatments for cancer provided via individual patient treatment requests in each year since 1999 and what the associated indications are.

Information on the monthly cost per patient and to the NHS of the 10 most expensive pharmacological treatments and treatments of cancer available for routine use is not available centrally. Treatment, specifically for cancer, can be complex and often involves the use of a combination of medicines which would make it difficult to identify cost per treatment.

NHS Board Individual Patient Treatment Request (IPTR) arrangements allow for the clinical consideration of “not recommended” medicines for individual patients in certain circumstances. Guidance on the IPTR arrangements was published on 17 May 2010 and took full effect from 1 April 2011. The Scottish Government is committed to monitoring NHS board progress in implementing the guidance.

Question reference: S4W-07021

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the name and cost are of each pharmacological treatment that (a) has and (b) has not been made available for routine use in the NHS for (i) prostate, (ii) lung, (iii) bowel and (iv) breast cancer in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S4W-07020

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the NHS budget would have been spent on abiraterone had it been approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium for routine use on the NHS.

Abiraterone was not recommended for routine use in the NHS in Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC). Details of potential costs had it been approved are not available centrally. The SMC do, however, publish limited budget impact information and this can be obtained from their website at:

http://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk.

NHS Boards have “Individual Patient Treatment Request” arrangements in place which allow for the clinical consideration of “not recommended” medicines for individual patients in certain circumstances.

Question reference: S4W-07016

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the monthly cost is (a) per patient and (b) to the NHS of the 10 most expensive pharmacological (i) treatments and (ii) treatments for cancer available for routine use on the NHS, and what the associated indications are.

Question reference: S4W-07022

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent (a) in total and (b) per patient on treating (i) lung, (ii) breast, (iii) bowel and (iv) prostate cancer in each year since 1999.

<>This information is not routinely collected in this way. However a recent Scottish Government publication Programme Budgeting – Testing The Approach in Scotland, does provide some estimates of the spend on cancer services in 2007-08. This publication is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/04/8235/0.

It is estimated that around 6% of the total spend identified was on cancer services, around £475 million. Of that around £61 million was spent on lower gastro intestinal cancers (bowel cancers), £48 million on lung cancer and £39 million urological cancers, which include prostate cancer. A separate estimate for prostate cancer or per capita figures are not available.

Question reference: S4W-06889

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many women have been sent to Cornton Vale prison since (a) 27 January 2010 and (b) 14 June 2011.

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

(a) From 27 January 2010 until 26 April 2012 there have been a total of 2,549 individual women admitted to Cornton Vale which equates to 5,470 separate admissions.

(b) From 14 June 2011 until 26 April 2012 there have been a total of 1,287 individual women admitted to Cornton Vale which equates to 2,146 separate admissions.

Question reference: S4O-00996

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the impact that proposed amendments to the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) Scotland Regulations 2011 will have on farmers in the north east of Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-06565

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much patients failing to attend hospital appointments costs the NHS and what steps it is taking to reduce the number of patients doing this.

<>I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-06186 on 28 March 2012. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

In times when resources are tight, it is vital that patients take responsibility to keep their appointments and help the NHS in Scotland be as efficient as possible. Also to address this boards now send patients text and phone reminders and are also providing patients more choice over the time of their appointments.

Question reference: S4W-06764

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-06504 by Michael Matheson on 17 April 2012, what the average waiting time was for prisoners with non-routine dental health issues to access a dentist in the five year period to 1 November 2011.