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-06150

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 6 December 2016, NHS staffing at new record high, how many of the 11,500 additional staff are whole-time equivalent.

Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) information provides a better indicator of total labour input than a simple headcount. It is useful to support workforce planning and therefore continues to be in demand.

All staffing levels quoted in the Scottish Government press release of 6 December 2016, “NHS staffing at new record high” are expressed as WTE.

Under this Government, the WTE of staff working in NHSScotland has increased from 127,061.9 WTE to 138,651.2 WTE – a record high increase of 9.1 per cent, or 11,589.3 WTE.

The full press release is available at the following link:-

http://news.gov.scot/news/nhs-staffing-at-new-record-high

Question reference: S5O-00614

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when carer’s allowance will be increased for carers in Glasgow.

Question reference: S5W-06098

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of agency nurses by NHS boards.

The Scottish Government recognises that agency nurses can provide valuable assistance within an overall strategy of service provision, but expects Boards to minimise their use. The Scottish Government and NHS National Services Scotland have recently launched a nationally coordinated programme for all temporary staffing with a view to more effectively managing spend in this area. Agency nurses represent only a small proportion of the nursing provision in NHSScotland, amounting to 0.4% of total nursing and midwifery capacity in 2015-16. Nursing agency spend in 2015-16 was £23.5 million, which is lower than it was a decade ago in 2005-06 when £26.5 million was spent.

Question reference: S5W-06149

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many non-clinical whole-time equivalent staff have been employed by each NHS board in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S5W-05728

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many "did not attends" (DNAs) there have been from the Scottish Prison Service to NHS appointments in each year since May 2011, broken down by health board.

Question reference: S5W-05944

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many consultants each NHS board has employed on a 8:2 contract in each year since 2007.

As specified in the answer to Mr Sarwar’s previous question S5W-05332 on 22 December 2016, information relating to consultants’ specific job plan ratios is not held centrally. Specific local information may be available from NHSScotland Health boards.

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: S5F-00777

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2017

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the comment by the Chair of BMA Scotland that the NHS is "stretched pretty much to breaking point".

Question reference: S5W-05507

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have accessed acute assessment units in each NHS board in each year since 2010, also broken down by hospital.

Question reference: S5W-05757

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) terms of reference and (b) parameters are of the health and social care targets review; whether the review will consider the key performance indicators of the integrated health boards; what its timeline is; who the members of the review team are; by what date the findings will be published; whether it will publish the review in full, and when it will be in a position to implement the recommendations.

The review will look at how targets and indicators support the Government's strategies for the improvement of health, the future of the NHS and social care services, and support best use of public resources to ensure that we have a clearly understood and improved national measurement framework across the whole health and social care system and a focus on the outcomes to be achieved. The review will consider the 20 Local Delivery Plan Standards for the NHS in Scotland and the core suite of indicators for Health and Social Care.

The Scottish Government has asked the chair of the national review of health and social care targets and indicators to provide initial recommendations to Ministers by the end of March 2017 and will publish the report along with its response once it has had an opportunity to consider the recommendations.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-04778 on 30 November 2016 which sets out a list of the organisations invited to nominate a representative to join the Expert Group. 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-05316

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider repealing section 242 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 on the grounds that it may deprive an adult with capacity the right to refuse treatment.

The Scottish Government is not currently considering repealing section 242 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (‘the 2003 Act’).

Section 242 sets out the circumstances and safeguards for the giving of certain treatment to a person where the giving of medical treatment is authorised by virtue of other sections of the 2003 Act or by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. The section sets out the giving of relevant treatment both to persons who are capable of consenting (including where the person consents) and those who are not capable of consenting.

Whilst not the only criterion, significant impairment of decision-making ability because of mental disorder (as defined by the 2003 Act) is taken into account when treatment is authorised by the 2003 Act. Significantly-impaired decision making ability is used rather than incapacity as it was recommended as one of the criteria in Chapter 2 of the 2001 report by the Millan Committee which forms the basis of the 2003 Act.

Alongside the requirements and safeguards in section 242 for the giving of treatment, any function carried out under the 2003 Act must be in line with the principles set out in section 1, including the present and past wishes and feelings of the patient; the importance of the patient participating as fully as possible; and the importance of providing maximum benefit to the patient.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring Scotland's mental health law continues to build on the 2003 Act. The recent Mental Health (Scotland) Act 2015 was the outcome of the McManus review and strengthened measures in the Mental Health (Care and Treatment)(Scotland) Act 2003 that promote support for decision making. The 2015 Act is currently being implemented and we are looking at ways to further promote rights-based practice under the 2003 Act in areas such as treatment, including when updating the statutory guidance in the Code of Practice.

An upcoming review which will consider whether the provisions in the 2003 Act fulfil the needs of people with learning disabilities and autism, which may include the giving of treatment under the Act to persons with learning disabilities and autism.