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-00487

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 much surplus to requirement obturator mesh devices has cost the NHS.

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-00488

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 progress has been made in implementing all of the recommendations in The Scottish Independent Review of the Use, Safety and Efficacy of Transvaginal Mesh Implants in the Treatment of Stress Urinary Incontinence and Pelvic Organ Prolapse in Women: Interim Report.

All recommendations contained in the independent review's interim report have been considered, with focus on the following actions:

A revised patient information and consent leaflet for stress urinary incontinence.

A governance framework for multi-disciplinary teams treating women with these conditions.

A pathway of care for women seeking treatment for stress urinary incontinence; and a pathway of care for women experiencing serious complications.

The expert group is awaiting the independent review’s final report and until that has been published it does not consider it appropriate to take forward recommendations where important research findings are still awaited.

Question reference: S5W-00484

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, further to the answer to question S4W-22692 by Alex Neil on 29 October 2014, whether it will provide an update on how many pending litigations there are in Scotland in relation to defective mesh implants and against whom.

Question reference: S5W-00494

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 assessment or reviews of the running of child contact centres it has (a) carried out and (b) plans.

The then Scottish Executive published three research publications focused on child contact centres on 24 March 2004. The publications were:

Scottish Child Contact Centres: Characteristics of Centre Users and Centre Staff. This report described the characteristics of families using Scottish child contact centres and the role of staff working in the centre.

Building Bridges? Expectations and Experiences of Child Contact Centres in Scotland. This report examined users’ and workers’ expectations and experiences of child contact centres.

Child Contact Centres in Scotland – Research Findings. This report drew together the key findings from the two studies described above.

The reports can be found here:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Justice/law/17867/familylawresearch

In 2010 the Scottish Government published research on Understanding Child Contact Cases in Scottish Sheriff Courts. This research included child contact centres and noted that “all the sheriffs we spoke to had found contact centres to be an important resource, particularly where they had had concerns about the non-resident parent’s ability to care for the child.” The relevant section of the research can be found here:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2010/12/08145916/8 (paragraphs 5.19 to 5.22).

Since then, the Scottish Government has worked closely with Relationships Scotland in relation to child contact centres. The Relationships Scotland Network is the largest provider of child contact centres in the country, supporting the running of 46 child contact centres across Scotland, helping around 2,000 children each year to remain in contact with their non-resident parent.

Relationships Scotland and its 22 member services receive financial support from the Scottish Government which is broadly equivalent to around 40% of total annual running costs. Relationships Scotland therefore reports to the Scottish Government on how this investment has been spent, including full details of finance, statistics, outcomes, training, continuing professional development, national standards, policies and procedures and the role that the network plays in responding to issues such as domestic abuse and child protection.

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-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-00078

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 May 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what lessons it has learned from the outcome of the Hillsborough inquests.

Question reference: S5W-00074

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 May 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has had a response from the Home Secretary regarding its request for the Pitchford Inquiry into undercover policing to be extended to cover Scotland.