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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2586 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-21768

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the findings of The Queen's Nursing Institute of Scotland's project, Three Bridges-Promoting Blood Borne Virus (BBV) wellness within Police Custody Suites, what its position is on (a) including BBV-testing as part of a package of care and (b) implementing an opt-out testing model to help to reduce some of the stigma and inequalities surrounding hepatitis C care and treatment.

The Scottish Government is committed to eliminating hepatitis C as a public health concern, and is supporting work to improve opt-out testing in prisons as we recognise that this population is at particular risk. We are providing funding of over £2m between 2018 and 2021 to organisations tackling poor sexual health and blood borne viruses, including to Hepatitis Scotland and Waverley Care for their work to support people living with or at risk of hepatitis C and HIV.

The Scottish Government supports the integration of blood borne virus (BBV) testing into treatment as part of the care available to those in police custody. As part of nationwide efforts to increase testing for BBV, a number of NHS Boards have elected to develop BBV testing in police custody for those populations most at risk. Lessons learned from these service developments are being shared with services across Scotland to support our commitment to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health concern.

Question reference: S5W-21830

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the components in the home screening kit for bowel cancer kit are recyclable.

The bowel cancer screening kit comprises of an outer envelope, a letter with instructions, an information booklet, a return postage-paid envelope and a test kit.

The outer envelope, the letter with instructions, and the information booklet are all paper and can be recycled. Until 11th February 2019, the programme used a foil return envelope which was not recyclable, however the programme now uses a different type of envelope which is recyclable.

After being analysed at the lab the used test kits are disposed of in clinical waste bags (i.e. treated in the same way as blood tubes), and are not recycled.

Question reference: S5W-21831

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 6 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to (a) minimise waste and (b) maximise recycling in healthcare.

NHS Boards are required to develop and implement plans to reduce waste and increase recycling to meet the targets set out in the NHSScotland Waste Management Action Plan 2016–2020.

The key waste regulatory requirements are outlined in the following table:

Year	Requirement	Source
2017	Reduce waste arisings by 7% against a 2011 baseline	Making Things Last strategy
2020	Landfill ban on biodegradable municipal waste	Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012
2025	Maximum 5% of waste to landfill	Making Things Last strategy
2025	Reduce waste arisings by 15% against a 2011 baseline	Making Things Last strategy
2025	70% recycling rate	Making Things Last strategy
2025	Reduce food waste arisings by 33% against a 2011 baseline	Making Things Last strategy

Each Board, in partnership with NHS National Procurement, must develop a single overarching plan covering the prevention and re-use of waste that details the specific opportunities that will be taken forward in order to achieve the waste prevention targets.

In addition, each NHS Board is required to work with their domestic waste management contractor to develop a single overarching plan covering the recycling and recovery of domestic waste in order to achieve recycling targets.

Question reference: S5W-21630

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 28 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what enforcement powers exist to ensure that family contact judgements are upheld.

Currently, if someone believes an order under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act) has been breached the person can go back to court and seek a further order (such as a variation of the order or a switch in residence), and/or ask the court to hold the person breaching the contact order in contempt of court. The Scottish Government’s understanding is that the penalties for contempt of court are laid down in section 15 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981. They include a prison sentence or a fine.

We have recently consulted on the review of Part 1 of the 1995 Act. The consultation sought views on how contact orders should be enforced. We are now considering next steps. The Programme for Government for 2018-19 announced that there will be a Family Law Bill.

Question reference: S5W-21367

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 28 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of hospitals produce their food (a) in-house and (b) through private contractors, broken down by NHS board.

Of 168 healthcare sites across Scotland that receive a catering service, 33 receive their catering provision from an outsourced provider. The remaining sites receive catering provision from an outsourced provider.

NHS Board	Sites with Outsourced Provision
Ayrshire and Arran	1 (out of 10)
Forth Valley	7 (out of 7)
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	1 (out of 16)
Highland	4 (out of 23)
Lanarkshire	13 (out of 14)
Lothian	5 (out of 19)
Tayside	1 (out of 18)
Western Isles	1 (out of 1)

Question reference: S5O-02957

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what preparations it is making for business continuity with wholesale food providers in the event of a no deal Brexit.

Question reference: S5W-21631

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to help reduce the volume of microplastics in the environment and the sea.

The Scottish Government's focus is to both reduce and prevent this source of microplastics pollution. We have many policies under the frameworks of our Marine and National Litter Strategies, as well as commitments in our Programme for Government to reduce all plastic litter which degrades into microplastics. In addition we have taken action directly with two sources of microplastics; In June 2018 we introduced legislation to ban the use of plastic microbeads in rinse-off personal care products and we have also established a working group with the plastics sector to build on the industry's Operation Clean Sweep guidelines to further reduce nurdle loss across the full supply chain.

We are showing leadership in our approach to tackling plastics, as the first UK administration to commit to establishing a deposit return scheme, and to introducing legislation to ban plastic-stemmed cotton buds.

Question reference: S5W-21097

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 25 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in each NHS board area have died in each year since 2009 while waiting for a kidney transplant.

The following table provides number of residents of Scotland recorded as having died between 2009-2018 whilst on the waiting list for a kidney-only transplant. Please note we have not provided data by individual NHS Board as that would risk potential identification of the individuals concerned.

Year of death

Total

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Total

265

Data supplied by NHS Blood and Transplant as at 11-02-2019

Question reference: S5W-21096

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 25 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in each NHS board area are on the kidney transplant waiting list.

The following table lists the number of people in Scotland currently listed as active on the waiting list for a kidney-only transplant by NHS Board.

NHS Board
AYRSHIRE & ARRAN	23
BORDERS	11
DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY	16
FIFE	26
FORTH VALLEY	31
GRAMPIAN	40
GREATER GLASGOW & CLYDE	112
HIGHLAND	26
LANARKSHIRE	56
LOTHIAN	57
TAYSIDE	24
ORKNEY, SHETLAND, WESTERN ISLES	10*
Total	432

Data supplied by NHS Blood and Transplant as at 11-02-2019.

* Please note that data for the Island NHS Boards has been merged and rounded to the nearest 10 in order to avoid risk of disclosing personal data of individuals and the total figure has been adjusted accordingly.

Question reference: S5W-21094

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 21 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on altruistic kidney donation, and what action it can take to encourage people to consider becoming living kidney donors.

The Scottish Government is supportive of altruistic kidney donation, although it is of course entirely for individuals to decide if they wish to donate a kidney, whether to a stranger or to a loved one. The role of the Scottish Government is to help raise public awareness of the potential of living kidney donation and to that end a range of information about living kidney donation is available on the Organ Donation Scotland website. The Scottish Government will continue to ensure that real-life stories of living kidney donors, recipients of living kidneys and how these people have benefited from this type of donation are published on a regular basis.