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-30445

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29221 by Jamie Hepburn on 14 January 2016, what (a) organisations and (b) stakeholders it (i) has met and (ii) plans to meet it in its development of an updated mental health strategy.

We are currently engaging with a wide range of stakeholders including people who use services, service providers and professional bodies about the next mental health strategy which will be produced in 2016, and informed by that engagement with interested parties. We will continue to do so as the strategy takes shape. This is an open process and all organisations and individuals who want to contribute can do so. This process is also being informed by stakeholder engagement events being run for the Scottish Government by the Scottish Association for Mental Health and Voices of Experience. We will publish information about this stakeholder engagement alongside development and publication of a new strategy, which will include details of a range of stakeholders that we have met as part of the process.

Question reference: S4W-30450

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-30206 by Jamie Hepburn on 8 March 2016, how much funding the Scottish Primary Care Research Network has received in each year since 2007-08.

Question reference: S4W-29605

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 01 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide a substantive answer to question S4W-28109, which received a holding answer on 19 November 2015, and what the reason is for the delay in providing such a response.

Question reference: S4W-30321

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 11 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason a reported 2,000 fewer homes received assistance from the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes Scotland in 2014-15 than in 2013-14.

The reduction in the number of measures installed through our Home Energy Efficiency Programmes Scotland (HEEPS) schemes is primarily the result of changes made by the UK Government to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). HEEPS funding is blended with ECO to help deliver more expensive measures such as solid wall insulation. Figures published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change indicate that, based on the share of ECO measures delivered, £184 million of ECO funding was spent in Scotland in 2013-14. However, due to changes to ECO introduced by the UK Government in December 2013, ECO spend in Scotland in 2014-15 fell to £110 million. To help mitigate against this reduction the Scottish Government increased its fuel poverty and domestic energy efficiency budget in 2014-15 and increased the levels of assistance available to households.

Question reference: S4W-30203

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 29 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the percentage breakdown of new doctors by specialism in each year since 2010-11.

Question reference: S4W-30508

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many mental health professionals have been employed in A&E departments in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) hospital and (b) position.

Question reference: S4W-30574

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide a substantive answer to question S4W-29604, which received a holding response on 29 February 2016, and what the reason is for the delay in providing the answer.

Question reference: S4W-30226

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of (i) nurses and midwives, (ii) senior doctors and consultants, (iii) radiologists and (iv) psychiatrists will be of retirement age in the next (A) five and (B) 10 years.

In accordance with current legislation, we can no longer presume a retiral age as this is discriminatory. As a result, information relating to numbers of NHSScotland staff retiring in the next ten years is not available.

It should be noted that not all staff that reach the average retirement age will retire as there is no legal requirement for them to do so.

Under this government, NHSScotland has the highest staffing levels ever, with record numbers of nurses and midwives and consultants.

Published information on NHSScotland staffing levels can be found on the workforce statistics website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/data-tables.asp

Question reference: S4W-30225

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of paramedics in the Scottish Ambulance Service will be of retirement age within the next (i) five and (ii) 10 years.

In accordance with current legislation, we can no longer presume a retiral age as this is discriminatory. As a result, information relating to numbers of paramedics retiring within the next (i) five and (ii) ten years is not available.

It should be noted that not all NHSScotland staff that reach the average retirement age will retire as there is no legal requirement for them to do so.

Under this Government, the number of Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) staff has increased by 423.4 WTE, or 11.1 per cent. This includes a 10.6 per cent increase in Paramedics. SAS will use increases in its funding to recruit an additional 300 ambulance staff over the next five years.

Question reference: S4W-30258

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of staff each NHS board has employed through private agencies on a (a) locum and (b) permanent basis in each year since 2010-11, and how much this has cost.

2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
£207,000	£251,000	£274,000	£373,000	£373,000	£377,000	£377,000	£381,000	£381,000