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: S6W-17533

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress of the roll-out of Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) in each NHS board, and when it expects that each NHS board will have HEPMA capability.

Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) has been rolled out in in seven Health boards including NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian and The State Hospital.

The six North of Scotland Boards have worked collaboratively together to develop a regional HEPMA and have implemented capability for the region. NHS Grampian, NHS Highland, NHS Tayside and NHS Orkney have gone live and are now planning for a wider roll out across each of their estate. Both NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles are finalising preparations for go live in the coming weeks.

Work is underway to rollout HEPMA systems in the remaining Health Boards of NHS Borders, NHS Fife and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital. We expect these implementations to begin in 2024.

Question reference: S6W-17560

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing issues in schools and colleges.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government and we continue to prioritise support for mental health and wellbeing in schools.

We support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services to support delivery of the commitment. We also published a Whole School Approach Framework and a professional learning resource to assist school staff in supporting children and young people’s mental health in schools.

To help raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing, we currently support NUS Think Positive which sign-posts help for students, where colleges and universities can share good practice and where, through Student Mental Health Agreements, students’ associations and institutions collaborate on institutional mental health practices.

We will also be producing a Student Mental Health Plan which, by linking to our Suicide Prevention Strategy and the forthcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which will assist in bringing all aspects of mental health to the fore.

Question reference: S6W-17545

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15907 by Lorna Slater on 24 March 2023, in light of the delay to the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme, whether it will provide an update on what impact this will have on the proposed Circular Economy Bill.

Question reference: S6W-17557

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress it has made towards delivering the Bute House Agreement commitment to develop a long-term mental health workforce plan.

A programme of stakeholder engagement has taken place to develop our strategic approach to workforce planning for mental health and wellbeing. Our strategic approach, which will align with the Health and Social Care: National Workforce Strategy published March 2022, will be included within the forthcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

We continue to work closely with stakeholders to develop the Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan which will accompany the Strategy's delivery plan, with the intention of publishing in Autumn 2023.

Question reference: S6W-17503

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time is for women to receive a first appointment at the Complex Mesh Surgical Service in Glasgow as of 31 March 2023.

Question reference: S6W-17505

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time is for mesh surgery organised by the Complex Mesh Surgical Service in Glasgow.

Question reference: S6W-17019

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many prescriptions of morphine have been issued in each year since 1999.

The requested information is shown in the following table:

Table 1: Total number of paid items for morphine from calendar year 1999 to 2022.

Calendar Year	Number of Paid Items
1999	106,130
2000	111,796
2001	118,210
2002	125,369
2003	130,563
2004	138,484
2005	155,096
2006	173,380
2007	196,443
2008	220,980
2009	244,691
2010	271,626
2011	306,229
2012	352,633
2013	391,407
2014	430,913
2015	465,241
2016	493,017
2017	513,624
2018	523,638
2019	539,061
2020	557,589
2021	555,208
2022	562,415

Source: Public Health Scotland

Data Notes:

1. Data taken from the Prescribing Information System (PIS), which holds information on all prescriptions prescribed in Scotland and dispensed in the community.

2. A paid item is a prescription that has been dispensed and reimbursed.

3. Excludes items dispensed in Scotland but prescribed in England/Wales/Northern Ireland.

Question reference: S6W-17537

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is planning to add Parkinson’s medication to the High Risk Medicines Framework.

The High Risk Medicines Framework specifies some medicines and medicines groups and at the current time this does not include Parkinson’s medication. There is also a High Risk Medicines Discussion template that is not medicine specific and can be adapted and used by local teams to meet their needs. Parkinson’s medication can be reviewed and discussed within this framework to support local teams to discuss and prioritise improvement activities. All resources are reviewed regularly and the Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) welcomes further suggestions to add to or develop resources.

Question reference: S6W-17538

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to update the High Risk Medicines Framework.

Question reference: S6W-16059

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been allocated to its Health Inequalities Unit from 2020 to 2023, broken down by financial year.

The following table shows Scottish Government staffing costs for Health Inequalities (HI) policy functions from 2020 to 2023, and the total over this period.

	April 2020-March 2021	April 2021-March 2022	April 2022-March 2023	Total (April 2020-March 2023)
Total	£418,000	£866,000	£900,000	£2,184,000

Health Inequalities policy functions include specific work in relation to socioeconomic determinants of health and inequalities experienced by particular groups. However, all of the work of the Population Health Directorate seeks to reduce health inequalities, as does wider work taken forward within other Health Directorates, e.g. Primary Care and Mental Health, and the wider Scottish Government, e.g. Tackling Child Poverty and Social Justice.