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-07162

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have hepatitis C, and how many of them have been reviewed for treatment.

The latest Health Protection Scotland estimate from 2015 is that there were 35,900 people in Scotland living with chronic hepatitis C.

Approximately 8,600 people have been initiated on Hepatitis C Virus therapy since the launch of Scotland’s Hepatitis C Action Plan Phase II in 2008. This has contributed to a significant fall in the total number of infected people in Scotland, a reduction from a peak of 39,000 in 2009.

Question reference: S5W-07161

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made in delivering a treatment pathway for people with hepatitis C.

Through substantial financial investment and the implementation of successive strategies to improve diagnosis and treatment pathways, Scotland has achieved one of the most effective whole-system approaches to Hepatitis C in the world.

The success of our approach is demonstrated by the decline in Hepatitis C Virus-related liver failure in Scotland from 156 cases in 2014 to 121 in 2015, a 22% reduction. If this trend continues, the Scottish Government is on track to achieve its strategic goal to reduce such disease presentation by 75% by 2020.

Question reference: S5O-00736

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that schools have adequate numbers of support staff.

Question reference: S5W-06880

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Edinburgh's Inverleith Medical Practice will close this summer; what discussions it has had with NHS Lothian regarding this, and how it will support NHS Lothian to ensure that alternative GP services are provided for people registered with the practice.

The Scottish Government expects Health Boards to work with practices as constructively and as flexibly as is appropriate to ensure that all patients have access to GP services. Edinburgh’s Health and Social Care Partnership, NHS Lothian and the team at the practice are working together to ensure that Inverleith Medical Practice patients continue to receive safe, effective and timely care.

NHS Lothian has made the Scottish Government aware of concerns around particular recruitment issues in Lothian which will be taken into account as the 2017 GMS contract negotiations. Additionally as part of the Primary Care Fund we have invested over £2 million to test a range of GP recruitment and retention initiatives, including within Lothian taking forward an early career GP fellowship.

In 2017-18 the Scottish Government has committed £72 million of investment for improvements to primary care and GP services, going towards an additional £500 million being invested in this area each year by the end of this Parliament. This commitment will mean that by 2021-22, for the first time, more than half of the NHS frontline spending will be in our Community Health Service.

Question reference: S5W-06952

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been involving cases of people shining (a) laser pens and (b) other laser devices at transport operators in each year since 1999, broken down by transport type.

The information requested cannot be identified from the Criminal Proceedings database. Offences involving cases of people shining (a) laser pens and (b) other laser devices at transport operators would be prosecuted under either the common law offence of culpable and reckless conduct or, with regards to aircraft, as a contravention of a statutory Air Navigation Order. In addition, legislation does not separately identify lasers from other lights and our database does not contain further detail with regards to the common law offence.

The Scottish Government holds information on the number of convictions under the air navigation order 2009 (Article 222). The following table contains data on convictions for offences relating to endangering aircraft and lights which dazzle or distract.

	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2014-15	2015-16
THE AIR NAVIGATION ORDER 2009 ARTICLE 222	1	1	2	1	1

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Question reference: S5W-06783

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many multiple burials have taken place in Scotland in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

It is the responsibility of individual burial authorities to maintain accurate burial records and registers. The information requested is, therefore, not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The figures in the table have been provided for local authority burial authorities. No information is held for private burial authorities. The figures show where more than one burial has taken place in the same lair at the same time. These figures do not include the interment of ashes or shared burial for early pregnancy loss.

Local Authority

Aberdeenshire

Do not hold the information for these years

Argyll and Bute													1
Dumfries & Galloway	1	1	1	1	2		1	1			2	3	1	2		1
East Dunbartonshire		3														1
East Lothian	1	1			1	1				2			2
Inverclyde				1				1					1			1	1	2
North Lanarkshire	2		1	1	2							1	3	1	4	1	1	1
Perth & Kinross									3					2
Scottish Borders		1													1			1
Shetland Islands						2			2
Stirling																	2	1
Western Isles							1											1

No multiple burials took place in Angus, Edinburgh, Glasgow, highland, Moray and Orkney Islands in the time scale.

The information is not recorded by Aberdeen City, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, Fife, South Lanarkshire, and South Dunbartonshire. The information could only be obtained by carrying out a physical search of all the paper based burial registers in North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and West Lothian.

No response was received from Falkirk, Midlothian and Renfrewshire councils.

Question reference: S5W-06700

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many prescription items were uncollected after (a) one week, (b) two weeks, (c) three weeks and (d) four weeks or more in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board; how much this has cost the NHS; what action it is taking to reduce this, and what guidance it issues on reusing uncollected items.

Information on the number of prescription items uncollected within the time periods requested and the associated costs of those medicines is not readily available.

Each community pharmacy contractor will have a standard operating procedure for dispensing medicine which will include how to deal with uncollected items. However, it is common practice for any medicines not collected and which have not left the premises to be returned to stock for re-use, and no reimbursement payment is made for the medicine in this case. Prescription forms for uncollected medicines are then passed by community pharmacies to National Services Scotland Practitioner and Counter Fraud Services for processing, endorsed by the pharmacy as “item not collected”.

The reasons why a prescription item may be uncollected are multifaceted. However, a new medicine intervention support tool was introduced allowing community pharmacists to provide structured and tailored support to patients. This should increase adherence to new medicines, in turn reducing the number of uncollected items due to poor adherence.

The Scottish Government has not issued any specific guidance on the reuse of uncollected prescriptions. Practitioner and Counter Fraud Services and Community Pharmacy Scotland publish Endorsing Guidance which provides guidance on how to endorse prescriptions for any items not collected.

Question reference: S5W-06699

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing fixed recoverable costs in lower-value clinical negligence claims and whether it plans to launch a consultation on this.

The Scottish Government does not have plans to launch a consultation on introducing fixed recoverable costs in lower value clinical negligence claims. However, under current plans, from September 2017, as part of the new Simple Procedure in Scotland, there will be limits to the awards of expenses in all cases with a monetary value of under £3000.

The Expenses and Funding of Civil Litigation (Scotland) Bill, which will be introduced in May, will implement Sheriff Principal Taylor’s 2013 Review of the Cost and Funding of Civil Litigation in Scotland and is an important part of the Scottish Government's commitment to making the civil justice system more accessible, affordable and equitable. It will introduce measures to make the costs of civil action more predictable, to extend the funding options for pursuers, and to bring more equality to the funding relationship between claimants and defenders in personal injury actions.

Question reference: S5W-06705

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to people with agoraphobia and whether it plans to review this.

The Scottish Government promotes evidence based practice for psychological therapies and has funded NHS Education for Scotland to publish the Matrix, which provides a summary of the information on the current evidence base for various therapeutic approaches and guidance and advice on psychological therapies services. The latest version of the Matrix was published in 2015 and includes a section on the range of treatments available, including for panic disorder with agoraphobia.

http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/education-and-training/by-discipline/psychology/the-matrix-(2015)-a-guide-to-delivering-evidence-based-psychological-therapies-in-scotland/the-matrix-(2015)-a-guide-to-delivering-evidence-based-psychological-therapies-in-scotland.aspx

Question reference: S5W-06785

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many health checks have been carried out in each year since 1999, also broken down by how many 40-year-olds were given a check.