- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 14 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of prisons currently have full-time access to dedicated mental health professionals, in line with Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. This is a matter for individual health boards who are responsible for providing healthcare in prisons and police custody suites.
The Action 15 commitment was intended to provide additional mental health recruitment to support A&E, police station custody suites, GP practices and prisons. Decisions on where posts were located were for Health Boards, based on their local priorities.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 14 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of police custody suites currently have full-time access to dedicated mental health professionals, in line with Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22760 on 14 November 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 14 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government which prisons do not currently have full-time access to dedicated mental health professionals.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22759 on 14 November 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 14 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many dedicated mental health staff have been recruited to work in (a) prisons and (b) custody suites in each quarter of 2023 to date.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. This is a matter for individual health boards who are responsible for providing healthcare in prisons and police custody suites.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 14 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many (a) public sector buildings, (b) privately-owned homes and (c) housing association homes have double glazing that was installed before 2002.
Answer
The Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) provides a snapshot of the Scottish housing stock in each survey year including the construction age and built form of Scottish domestic buildings. The SHCS records double glazing for occupied dwellings, however this is recorded as installed pre or post 2003, when higher requirements for double glazing were introduced. The SHCS does not record data on all public sector buildings, just Local Authority owned homes, therefore complete information requested is not available in this form.
The most recent estimates of households with double glazing installed pre 2003 broken down by privately owned, local authority and housing association is presented in the table below.
Table 1: Number of households with pre 2003 double glazing in 2019
Tenure | Total number with pre 2003 double glazing | Percent of all dwellings in tenure with pre 2003 double glazing | Total dwellings in tenure |
Privately owned | 551,000 | 36% | 1,550,000 |
Housing Association | 83,000 | 31% | 266,000 |
Local Authority owned | 157,000 | 43% | 367,000 |
Notes
1. Source Scottish House Condition Survey 2019.
2. The SHCS is a sample survey and therefore all figures are estimates which lie at the midpoint of a confidence interval which depends primarily on sample size. A statistical tool for calculating 95% confidence intervals around these estimates can be found at Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .
We will shortly consult on proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill. This will include proposals to set a minimum energy efficiency standard for homes in Scotland - ensuring they are better insulated and driving down emissions to meet our targets.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the shortages of ADHD medication, including what is causing these shortages, and what action it is taking, in conjunction with NHS boards, to mitigate the shortages.
Answer
The Scottish Government is aware that there are ongoing global supply issues affecting the availability of various products which are licensed for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is anticipated that the shortages will be resolved by end of December.
The shortages are caused by a combination of manufacturing issues and an increase in global demand. The pricing and the supply of medicines is currently a reserved matter for the UK Government. We continue to engage with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and we will continue to monitor the situation.
The Scottish Government recognises the impact of these global shortages on people living with ADHD and their families. NHS Scotland has robust systems in place to manage medicine shortages when they arise and anyone affected by this issue should speak to their usual clinical team.
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it considers the definition of invasive non-native species to be, and whether this aligns with the definition given by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
Answer
The Scottish Government considers the definition of invasive non-native species to be that provided in the GB Invasive Non-Native Species Strategy and that this does indeed align with the definition given by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The Strategy defines an invasive non-native species as any non-native species that has been intentionally or unintentionally introduced outside its native range by human actions and which has the ability to spread causing damage to the environment, the economy, our health, or the way we live.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to adding blood cancer to the list of cancer types included in Public Health Scotland's data publications, to help facilitate comparison between blood cancers and solid tumours.
Answer
Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes incidence and mortality data on leukaemias, Hodgkin lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma annually.
PHS previously published survival data on these same cancers. However in the 2023 release, a different approach was taken to assess the short-term impact of COVID-19 on cancer survival for a select few cancers. It utilised a much smaller cohort than the usual methodology which meant an estimate of survival for rarer cancers could not be calculated. Some estimates for blood cancers are available for the 2016-2020 cohort upon request to PHS.
In future cancer survival publications, these same blood cancers will be included again, as survival publications will revert back to previous methodology.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Scotland and other partners regarding introducing CAR T-cell therapy for children and young people.
Answer
The Scottish Medicines Consortium accepted tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah ® ) for routine use in NHS Scotland in February 2019 for the treatment of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is a very rare type of cancer of the white blood cells.
It is used to treat children and adults under 25 years-old, where the cancer has not responded to treatment (refractory); has come back after a transplant (relapsed); or has come back after treatment for the second time. National Services Division does not currently commission a paediatric CAR-T service in Scotland, but all eligible children and young people under 16 years of age have access via referral to a specialist unit in England.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on the medium-term action to "Implement and raise awareness of current national guidelines on endometriosis and develop and implement further pathways for care where these don’t currently exist", as set out in its Women's Health Plan 2021-2024.
Answer
The Endometriosis Referral Care Pathway for Scotland was published by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery in January 2023 and distributed to NHS Scotland Boards.
We will continue to work with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery to support implementation of the pathway through the National Gynaecology Specialty Delivery Group.