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-26546

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many nurses work in prison healthcare, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5O-03902

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support Scotland’s historic buildings and monuments.

Question reference: S5W-26179

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports of disruption to the childhood flu immunisation programme due to a shortage of supply in some batches of the nasal spray flu vaccine, what action it is taking to support NHS boards.

As I said in the chamber on the 21 st November, NHS Boards have experienced delays in the delivery to the over 65’s flu vaccine (aTIV) and the childhood flu vaccine (Fluenz Tetra).

The delay in the supply of a proportion of the children’s flu vaccine is due to issues with routine quality assurance testing of the vaccine by the manufacturer, Astrazeneca, which are not related to the safety or efficacy of the vaccines.

I would like to reassure parents and families that we are doing everything possible to minimise any disruption caused by the delay in supply of the Fluenz Tetra.

To aide planning by NHS Boards, a Chief Medical Officer letter was issued on 1st November 2019 to prioritise children with eligible health conditions and two to five year olds, similar to other parts of the UK. The Chief Medical Officer also made NHS boards aware that Scotland is anticipated to receive its full allocation of Fluenz over the course of the season and would therefore expect any missed sessions in primary schools to be re-scheduled for a later date or alternative arrangements made.

The delay to the over 65s flu vaccine was due to process issues within Movianto, the supplier that has been contracted to store and distribute the flu vaccine. The majority of these delays have now been resolved and we are assured that the remaining delays will be resolved by the end of this week.

Question reference: S5O-03866

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish guidance on the provision of bus services by local authorities.

Question reference: S5F-03756

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2019

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to reassure patients and families of the safety of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Royal Hospital for Children.

Question reference: S5W-26269

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what target it has set for all (a) GP practices and (b) hospitals in each NHS board area to provide access to Wi-Fi to patients, and what progress is being made with this.

Scottish Government is committed to providing the necessary digital tools to people when interacting with NHS services. Wi-Fi is available in many NHS facilities in Scotland but no target has been set to ensure access.

The Scottish Government has specifically made £1.085 million available in 2019-20 to assist with the installation of secure practice Wi-Fi and public Wi-Fi in GP practices and other locations used by primary care multi-disciplinary teams. This is an important element of the underlying digital infrastructure required to support services.

Question reference: S5W-26265

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish details of the progress that has been made in achieving the deliverable actions set out in its eHealth Strategy 2014-2017, including encouraging "all GP practices...to provide online repeat prescribing and online appointment booking as online services, with a view to at least 90% of practices offering this service by 2017”.

Scotland’s Digital Health & Care Strategy supersedes the eHealth Strategy 2014-17. The strategy has been developed jointly by the Scottish Government, COSLA and NHSScotland following extensive engagement and independent advice from a panel of UK and international experts and provides a response to the Health and Sports committee inquiry on Technology and Innovation in Health and Social care. The strategy sets out the actions that we will focus on with our delivery partners in order to ensure that the right building blocks are in place for our vision to be realised.

Question reference: S5W-26264

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure there is public participation and a service design-approach to national digital health and social care services.

Service design principles that ensure the people of Scotland are supported and empowered to actively participate in the definition, design and delivery of their public services are absolutely key to how we take forward health and social care services - nationally and locally.

An example of the action we are taking in this area is through the Scottish Government’s Technology Enabled Care Programme, which has taken the Scottish Approach to Service Design for the work that focuses on transforming local systems across East Ayrshire, Midlothian, Highland and Aberdeen City. This means including people right from the very start of the process, building, designing and learning as we go to ensure that we find the right model that can support people in the most appropriate way. It’s initial focus is on looking at how technology can support the patient/care pathway for respiratory, frailty, place-based care and people who have been affected by abuse, as set out in our Programme for Government.

In our implementation of the Attend Anywhere Video Consultation service, we have taken the same approach. It has not been about the technology, it’s about putting in place a service that fits in seamlessly with the service users day to day lives regardless of if they are an employee or receiving care.

All aspects of the strategy will have service design at their core and that is why the strategy was developed with public feedback and consultation throughout the process. This includes the development of the National Digital Platform and the public will play a key role, particularly when looking at patient authentication and patient access to services.

Question reference: S5W-26399

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many inspections of (a) care homes for adults and (b) other care service providers by the Care Inspectorate since August 2018 have found staffing levels to be unsatisfactory.

The Care Inspectorate grades services on ‘Quality of staffing’/’How good is our staff team?’ which includes taking into account if staffing levels are appropriate to meet people’s needs.

Between 30 June 2018 and 30 June 2019, the number of inspections where the Care Inspectorate graded the service ‘1 – unsatisfactory’ for ‘Quality of staffing/How good is our staff team?’ was (a) 7 care homes for adults, including care homes for older people; (b) 25 other care services.

Question reference: S5W-26040

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21577 by Clare Haughey on 6 March 2019, what plans it has to introduce a policy that will allow the recording of information regarding the number of school pupils who have completed suicide.