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-00498

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what risk assessments are carried out at child contact centres prior to children seeing their parents.

In all Relationships Scotland contact centres full risk assessments are carried out in all cases prior to any contact taking place, and continual monitoring of risk is carried out at all times in each case. This is in line with Relationships Scotland’s national policies and procedures.

The risk assessment process involves the following steps:

Risks are identified during the referral or intake process;

The head of service appoints a risk assessor for each case, who makes an assessment when a potential risk is identified;

When potential risks are identified and forwarded to the risk assessor, the risk assessor will meet the head of the service and any relevant staff to: discuss the risk and its potential impact, consider actions (including gathering information); prepare a statement of the risk in terms of the nature, seriousness, likelihood of it occurring, possible outcomes and manageability; make a final decision on the most appropriate course of action; and develop manageability procedures if a decision is made to accept the referral or continue the contact; and if a decision is made to accept the referral or continue the contact, the staff member who has direct responsibility for organising and monitoring the contact is told of the nature, seriousness and likelihood of the risk; and the specific actions to be taken before, during and after the contact, and by whom.

Question reference: S5W-00486

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action NHS boards have taken previously to deal with surplus to requirement obturator mesh devices, and whether there are plans for the current surplus devices to be (a) destroyed or (b) sent (i) to hospitals in the rest of the UK and (i) overseas, broken down by country.

Question reference: S5W-00497

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what minimum training is expected for people who work in child contact centres.

Question reference: S5W-00495

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when the last time a cabinet secretary or minister visited a child contact centre.

Question reference: S5W-00491

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many times the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has issued a medical device alert to healthcare professionals regarding polypropylene mesh devices.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has confirmed that it has not issued a medical device alert regarding polypropylene mesh implants. MHRA has stated that it continues to monitor and evaluate the safety and performance of these devices; they have not identified a robust body of evidence indicating any polypropylene mesh implants are unsafe requiring them to initiate any enforcement action against manufacturers in the UK under the European medical device regulations, and to the best of their knowledge neither has any other EU country or worldwide regulator.

Question reference: S5W-00492

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many times it has met the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency since October 2015.

Question reference: S5W-00493

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 14 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether any companies that have competed for public contracts since the procurement rule SPPN 4/2013, Exclusion from public contracts of companies which engage in blacklisting, came into force have acknowledged an involved with blacklisting.

Question reference: S5F-00090

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2016

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the future of paediatric services across Lothian.

Question reference: S5W-00110

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 May 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the report in the Edinburgh Evening News on 16 May 2016 that NHS Lothian is to end its commitment to meeting treatment times guarantees.

The Scottish Government has made clear to all NHS boards, including Lothian that we expect them to deliver waiting time standards and the legal treatment time guarantee for the people of Scotland. All boards have consistently had above inflation increases in front line spending and boards need to use the increase in resources to deliver waiting times. NHS Lothian has received a 6.3% increase in their budget this year taking the total budget to £1.3 billion. We will continue to work closely with NHS Lothian to support the delivery of waiting times.

To meet the future need of hospital care over the next 10 to 15 years and ensure sustainable delivery of waiting times, the Scottish Government will invest £200 million in expanding the Golden Jubilee National Hospital and establish a network of five new elective and diagnostic treatment centres in Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee, Livingston and Edinburgh.

Question reference: S5W-00112

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 May 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that NHS Lothian does not end waiting times guarantees.