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: S6T-01462

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work is being done to support local communities that have recently been affected by water shortages.

Question reference: S6T-01459

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any implications for its Deposit Return Scheme, when it and its agencies were informed of Circularity Scotland's financial position, including the company's reported need to send staff home.

Question reference: S6F-02272

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2023

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government is responding to the ongoing industrial disputes in further and higher education.

Question reference: S6F-02273

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2023

To ask the First Minister whether he will provide an update on whether the Scottish Government is fully committed to improving the safety and condition of all of Scotland's major roads.

Question reference: S6F-02257

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2023

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-02259

Asked by: Clare Adamson, MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2023

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to improve access to sexual health advice.

Question reference: S6F-02266

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2023

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government will recommit to the leadership needed to tackle the climate emergency.

Question reference: S6F-02256

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2023

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-18968

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 19 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Scottish Public Health Observatory update, Estimated numbers of people prescribed opioid substitution therapy in Scotland, published on 30 May 2023, what measures are being taken to address any issues associated with Community Health Index (CHI) capture for opioid substitute therapy, in order to ensure more accurate figures for the number of people prescribed these medications.

Following initial discussions, a small number of NHS boards have approached the Pharmacy Service Improvement Team in Practitioner Services Directorate within Public Health Scotland over the past 2 years to obtain data from the Prescribing Information Store (PIS) of the Corporate Data Warehouse, in conjunction with prescriptions images held, and asked for assistance/analysis to support them to increase their levels of CHI capture for OST prescriptions.

Based on various discussions, analysis and findings, the following conclusions were made on the scenarios and conditions that lead to poor CHI capture:-

EMIS Prescribing System – it was noted that the CHI number prints correctly on GP10(SS) stationery, however, on Nurse prescriptions, GP10N(SS) stationery, the CHI number is printed with spaces, e.g. 0 2 0 2 2 0 x x x x and, therefore, the CHI number is not in the correct format to be captured successfully.
Prescribing locations:-
In primary care, there are a number of GP10(SS) printed prescriptions from GP Practices with no electronic support/barcode and the CHI number may not be captured via ICR as a result of the other scenarios detailed below.
In specialist addiction clinics, there is a wide variation across NHS Boards on how these services have been set up locally and the prescription stationery they use to prescribe, e.g. some specialist clinics operate out of primary care and use GP10(SS)/GP10N(SS) stationery and others use hospital locations and use Hospital Based Addict Prescription pads (HBPA) or printed stationery (HBPA(SS)). It was noted that a significant number of printed HBPA prescriptions also had the CHI number in the incorrect format with spaces and the CHI number was not being captured. However, this has recently been addressed in NHS Ayrshire & Arran.

There are other scenarios that result in poor to no CHI capture when prescriptions are scanned via intelligent character recognition (ICR) for remuneration to community pharmacies and these include:

The quality of printed output, e.g., low toner/ink and the CHI number is not captured.
Misaligned or obscured CHI number - if this is not printed in the correct position of the prescription form or is obscured by handwriting.
The Pharmacy Practice stamp in the CHI area is obscuring part of the CHI number.
Handwritten CHI numbers – there is a very poor ICR capture rate of handwritten CHI numbers.
No CHI number printed or incomplete CHI number, where only a DOB has been provided.

Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland are actively considering options to resolve the issues outlined, which focus on updating current systems to improve the consistent formatting of prescriptions, consequently improving the automated capture of information.

Question reference: S6W-18967

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 19 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the capital budget has been for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in each year since its creation.

The capital budget allocations to SFRS for each year since its establishment are as follows (in £ millions):

	13-14	14-15	15-16	16-17	17-18	18-19	19-20	20-21	21-22	22-23	23-24
Capital	15.3	22.3	25.3	10.8*	32.5	32.5	32.5	36.85**	32.5	32.5	32.5

*Capital Receipts in 2016*17 brought the equivalent capital expenditure up to £25.3m

** As part of an economic stimulus package for Covid, SFRS was allocated £4.35 for additional maintenance of fire stations in rural areas.