- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2025
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Current Status:
Initiated by the Scottish Government.
Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the commitment to the Finance and Public Administration Committee on the publication of reports on longer-term insights.
Answer
Today, we are publishing the findings from the Scottish Government’s Horizon Scanning project. The Future Trends for Scotland report and the accompanying Trend pack describe the 60 trends likely to be important to Scotland over the next 10 to 20 years. This publication does not cover potential policy or strategy implications and is not a statement of government policy or intention, rather it is about providing open analysis to spark reflection and guide decisions in a complex interconnected world.
Publishing the findings from the project fulfils the commitment made to the Finance and Public Administration Committee, will contribute to a wider debate about trends affecting Scotland in the future and will support other organisations and our partners in their own work in planning for the opportunities and plausible future risks.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reviewed the impact of the national guidance on reimbursement for home dialysis costs to include utility costs, including water and electricity, following its introduction in March 2024.
Answer
In January 2024, we implemented a Scotland-wide policy reimbursing home dialysis patients for their extra electricity costs incurred in their treatment. At the time of implementation, there was a commitment to undertake a review 6-12 months later to ensure that the Policy had been fully applied across all NHS Boards. This Review has been completed and concluded that all Boards had reimbursement policies for eligible patients. This removes the financial disincentive to making a choice for home dialysis over in-centre treatments, allowing personal choice in where and how to receive treatment.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to invest in infrastructure to support a greater uptake of home dialysis as part of the forthcoming long-term conditions framework.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with long term conditions including Chronic Kidney Disease are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.
We are running our public consultation on the Long Term Conditions Framework from 23 April to 20 July 2025. This is available at Health: Long Term Conditions Framework - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space.
We will take the results of the consultation into account when developing the framework which will include identifying areas where targeted condition-specific action will still be needed. In the development of the framework we will identify what funding is available for implementation.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the adequacy of current financial incentives for home dialysis and whether there has been any variation in adoption across NHS boards.
Answer
The primary driver for introducing a national policy was to achieve a level of consistency and resolve the situation where some NHS Boards were already reimbursing the electricity costs associated with home dialysis, some partially reimbursing and others making no reimbursement at all. The Scotland-wide policy allows for Boards to determine reimbursement rates for home dialysis whilst recommending the standard UK Kidney Association (UKKA) calculator as a basis.
A review of implementation of the national policy found that all Boards had reimbursement policies for eligible patients. The policy requests that Boards proactively identify patients eligible for reimbursement but does not mandate how Boards may manage the reimbursement process; this is a local decision for each Board.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 12 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what requirements exist for GPs under the General Medical Services contract to provide phlebotomy services and collect blood samples to support secondary care management of chronic conditions.
Answer
Under the General Medical Services contract GP practices are responsible for providing the services required for the management of their registered patients and temporary residents who are, or believe themselves to be ill, with conditions from which recovery is generally expected, terminally ill, or suffering from chronic disease. This can include taking bloods as necessary.
GP practices’ contracts must include terms which require the Health Board to provide the contractor with support by providing community treatment and care services which include phlebotomy.
GP practices may also contract with their Health Boards to collect blood samples to support the secondary care management of chronic conditions. These would be considered enhanced services which are additional to the GP contract and cannot be required.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 12 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether NHS boards should provide blood sample collection through (a) phlebotomy hubs and (b) community treatment and care services.
Answer
NHS Boards are responsible for ensuring the provision of a safe, sustainable and high quality healthcare service that best meets the needs of their patients. The whole general practice team is being strengthened significantly and we are committed to increasing investment in primary care and GP services over the course of this Parliament. We remain committed to the GP contract and the delivery of extended multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) making it easier for patients to see the right person, at the right time, in GP practices and the community.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) data gathering and (b) reporting requirements are in place (i) centrally and (ii) at NHS board level to capture the number of medicines prescribed off-label.
Answer
There are no data gathering or reporting requirements in relation to the number of medicines prescribed off-label, centrally. Health Boards are expected to collect this data as part of their local medicine governance processes.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is provided to clinicians who are considering prescribing a medicine off-label when unlicensed for a particular condition, when there is a Scottish Medicines Consortium approved medicine available, which is licensed for that indication.
Answer
Guidance to clinicians to support prescribing medicines off-label is provided by the General Medical Council (GMC) . The guidance states that doctors should usually prescribe licensed medicines in accordance with the terms of their licence but they may prescribe medicines off-label where, on the basis of an assessment of the individual patient, they conclude, for medical reasons, that it is necessary to do so to meet the specific needs of the patient. In addition, extant guidance states that, unless there is a specific clinical reason, clinicians should prescribe a licensed medicine which has been accepted for routine use in the NHS in Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) as opposed to prescribing off-label or unlicensed medicines.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 June 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 12 June 2025
To ask the First Minister what the impact on Scotland will be of the Chancellor’s Spending Review 2025.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 12 June 2025
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether fisheries management measures for the remaining inshore Marine Protected Areas and a programme of protection for Priority Marine Features outside inshore Marine Protected Areas will be fully consulted on and adopted in statute before the end of the current parliamentary session.
Answer
Scottish Ministers are legally required to consult, develop and implement fisheries management measures for inshore Marine Protected Areas and Priority Marine Features.
Developing the evidence-base for effective fisheries management measures, and undertaking statutory requirements, for more than 160 sites and areas within the inshore region is a complicated and challenging process. We are continuing to work at pace to complete the necessary statutory social, economic and environmental assessments ahead of launching a public consultation.
Fisheries management measure will be implemented as soon as possible following analysis of the consultation responses and a final decision on the measures has been taken.
