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-22201

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people being considered for proton beam therapy (PBT) have been referred by the Scottish Panel (Scottish Non Standard Radiotherapy Advisers) for recommendation to forward application to UK Panel in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S5W-22202

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases referred for proton beam therapy in each of the last three years have been (a) approved and (b) refused.

Question reference: S5W-22203

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on refereeing people for proton beam therapy in (a) the rest of the UK and (b) overseas in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S5W-22096

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it considers an individual should take if he or she is profoundly dissatisfied with the treatment of a loved one by the NHS.

The new NHS Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP) was introduced across Scotland from 1 April 2017. The revised procedure is intended to support a more consistently person-centred approach to complaints handling across NHS Scotland. It brings a much sharper focus to the early, local resolution of complaints, wherever that’s appropriate, and brought the NHS into line with other public service sectors by introducing a distinct, five working day stage for early, local resolution, ahead of the 20 working day stage for complaint investigations. When that is not possible the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is the second and final stage in the complaints process.

When a person has concerns about NHS treatment or care this should be addressed at a local level through the NHS Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP). The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 and supporting legislation, provides a specific right for people to make complaints, raise concerns, make comments and give feedback to NHS Boards. The Act also places a duty on NHS Boards to thoroughly investigate and respond to any concerns raised, to take improvement actions where appropriate and to share learning from the views they receive. Where an individual remains dissatisfied with the outcome of the CHP investigation, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is the second and final stage in the complaints process.

Question reference: S5W-22095

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scttish Government whether it plans to obtain information in relation to trials in England regarding the efficacy of the Open Dialogue approach to the treatment of mental illness.

Question reference: S5W-22094

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects that the process of reforming Scottish mental health legislation to ensure its compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to begin.

I refer the member to my statement in Parliament on 19 March 2019, which announced that the Scottish Government will undertake a review of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003. Along with ongoing work on incapacity and adult support and protection legislation, this overarching review will examine the full legislative framework that supports and protects people with a mental disorder: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=12006&i=108613

Question reference: S5W-21991

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Scottish-domiciled students have gained a place at a Scottish medical school in each year since 1999.

The number of Scottish domiciled entrants to study medicine at a Scottish HEI in each year since 1999 is shown in the following table.

Scottish domiciled entrants to medicine:

1999- 00	2000- 01	2001- 02	2002- 03	2003- 04	2004- 05	2005- 06	2006- 07	2007- 08	2008- 09
620	740	720	740	835	890	820	915	895	895

(cont)

2009- 10	2010- 11	2011- 12	2012- 13	2013- 14	2014- 15	2015- 16	2016- 17	2017- 18
850	860	870	900	885	855	835	860	865

Source: HESA student data

Entrants cover the first year of study only for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Numbers are full-person equivalent and are rounded to nearest 5.

Medicine includes JACS codes pre-clinical (A1) and clinical medicine (A3).

Question reference: S5W-21996

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13573 by John Swinney on 9 January 2018, whether it will provide updated figures for 2017-18.

(a)Additional Support Needs (ASN) Teachers - Full Time Equivalents

The following table sets out the full time equivalent of additional support for learning teachers in each authority in 2018.

This includes teachers with their main subject recorded as: Learning Support Secondary; Learning Support, Primary; Special Educational Needs (SEN) (primary) non-recorded pupils; SEN (recorded pupils); SEN (Secondary) non-recorded pupils; SEN Behavioural Support; SEN Learning Difficulties; SEN Physical Disabilities; Hearing Impairment; Visual Impairment; or English as an Additional Language (EAL). Teachers from all sectors, primary, secondary, special schools and centrally employed, are included. Teachers in grant-aided schools are not included.

FTE	2018
Aberdeen City	131
Aberdeenshire	247
Angus	78
Argyll & Bute	49
Clackmannanshire	29
Dumfries & Galloway	96
Dundee City	106
East Ayrshire	117
East Dunbartonshire	104
East Lothian	38
East Renfrewshire	36
Edinburgh City	133
Falkirk	96
Fife	175
Glasgow City	171
Highland	175
Inverclyde	35
Midlothian	53
Moray	91
Na h-Eileanan Siar	24
North Ayrshire	108
North Lanarkshire	160
Orkney Islands	31
Perth & Kinross	88
Renfrewshire	51
Scottish Borders	69
Shetland Islands	37
South Ayrshire	90
South Lanarkshire	111
Stirling	37
West Dunbartonshire	44
West Lothian	55

All local authorities	2,862

Statistics reported in S5W-13573 answered on 9 January 2018 and S5W-15654 answered on 16 April 2018 also include special schools with their main subject recorded as primary teaching. In 2018 there were 575 FTE teachers in special schools with their main subject recorded as primary teaching (these teachers are not included in the above table).

(b) Classroom Assistants, Additional Support Needs Auxiliaries and Care Assistants - Full Time Equivalents

The following table sets out the full time equivalent of Classroom Assistants, Additional Support Needs Auxiliaries and Care Assistants support staff in each authority in 2018. Support staff in grant-aided schools are not included.

FTE	2018
Aberdeen City	508
Aberdeenshire	736
Angus	266
Argyll & Bute	393
Clackmannanshire	149
Dumfries & Galloway	285
Dundee City	290
East Ayrshire	322
East Dunbartonshire	304
East Lothian	219
East Renfrewshire	204
Edinburgh City	864
Na h-Eileanan Siar	84
Falkirk	402
Fife	848
Glasgow City	1,584
Highland	966
Inverclyde	322
Midlothian	249
Moray	268
North Ayrshire	345
North Lanarkshire	893
Orkney Islands	46
Perth & Kinross	324
Renfrewshire	318
Scottish Borders	272
Shetland Islands	112
South Ayrshire	276
South Lanarkshire	701
Stirling	189
West Dunbartonshire	273
West Lothian	609

All local authorities	13,620

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-21995

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how the planned £2 million investment per annum in the new diagnostics fund to support swift access to diagnostics for people with suspected cancer has been spent, and whether there has been any review of the impact of this spending.

Since 2016 a total of £6 million funding has been released directly to NHS Boards from this diagnostics fund. NHS boards have directed this funding to support additional scope and imaging capacity based on local need and demand. In 2018-19 alone, this £2m fund will have supported provision of an additional 560 endoscopy sessions, 950 additional one stop breast appointments and 2,000 additional scans across NHSScotland for suspected cancer patients and progress is monitored through regular Scottish Government performance meetings.

Question reference: S5W-21987

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £850 million of funding for improving waiting times has been spent in the private sector, broken down by NHS board area.

To date no funding has been directly invested in the private sector. However, we have provided almost £26.7 million to territorial NHS Boards and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital during 2018-19 to support a range of actions and to put in place additional capacity aimed at reducing waiting lists. NHS Boards will utilise some of this funding to secure capacity through the private sector while we build sustainable solutions over the next two years.

Over the next 12 months we will pursue use of the independent sector in a structured and prioritised manner developing a National Contract, based on clinical priorities and as set out in the Waiting Times Improvement Plan I published in October 2018. Further investment will be allocated in 2019-20 to support the national contract.