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 2436 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-27297

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been treated for eating disorders in each year since 2013, broken down by NHS board.

Information is not centrally held on numbers treated by the NHS for an eating disorder. However, Information Services Division (ISD) holds information on inpatients admitted with an eating disorders diagnosis.

Table 1. Number of inpatients admitted with eating disorder diagnosis 1 by health board of treatment, 2013 - 2018.

Health Board	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	Grand Total
Ayrshire & Arran	23	17	15	26	16	23	120
Borders	12	8	6	12	10	21	69
Dumfries & Galloway	12	22	17	19	19	20	109
Fife	18	16	16	18	26	20	114
Forth Valley	13	*	*	10	20	19	74
Grampian	54	80	60	48	64	65	371
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	94	108	103	113	115	108	641
Highland	29	39	40	27	39	41	215
Island Boards 2	9	*	*	7	5	11	40
Lanarkshire	28	23	24	41	31	52	199
Lothian	101	110	105	103	92	108	619
Other 3	9	32	50	54	45	36	226
Tayside	32	32	31	32	28	32	187
Scotland Total	434	498	476	510	510	556	2984

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01, SMR04
‎ Ref: IR 2020-00238

* - Denotes values which have been suppressed to protect patient confidentiality.

1 - An eating disorder diagnosis is based on current classifications in Chapter V of the ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders.

2 - Due to small numbers, the Orkney, Shetland, and Western Isles health boards have been grouped under Island Boards to protect patient confidentiality.

3 - Due to small numbers, the National Facility, Non-NHS Provider/Location, and State Hospital health boards have been grouped under Other to protect patient confidentiality.

Question reference: S5W-27304

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of training regarding eating disorders is offered by each medical school.

Question reference: S5W-27299

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many eating disorder specialists there are, broken down by NHS board.

The following table shows the numbers of eating disorder specialists in Scotland broken down by Health Board. These figures have been taken from the NHS Staff Census which was conducted on the 30 September 2019.

In Scotland, a range of eating disorder services and treatment is provided in line with clinical good practice across community, primary care and specialist services for children and young people. The vast majority of people with eating disorders will be treated in the community, with support provided by primary care or community mental health teams and with support links to specialist hospital or voluntary sector care where appropriate.

Headcount of staff with Whole Time Equivalent recorded under area of work " Eating Disorders" in NHS Boards as at 30 September 2019 census
Health Boards	Headcount
NHS Borders	1
NHS Fife	2
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	4
NHS Lanarkshire	5
NHS Grampian	1
NHS Lothian	13
NHS Tayside	2
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1
NHS Scotland	29

Question reference: S5W-27309

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in developing the eating disorder support service, SPIRE, and whether it will provide a breakdown of what information and data this service collects.

Question reference: S5W-27302

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to (a) collect and (b) publish data regarding waiting times for access to eating disorder support.

The Scottish Government is working with Information Services Division (ISD) on a number of actions to improve the data that is collected regarding referrals to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and to adult services.

A new core dataset has been developed, which includes diagnosis, diagnosis date and the start date of treatment or intervention. ISD is now working with all Boards to put in place a robust collection mechanism that will provide this core dataset at an individual patient level. As this dataset will be able to be broken down by diagnosis, we would expect a significant improvement in the data that is available regarding eating disorders.

Question reference: S5W-27307

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to conduct a review of the peer coaching project, ECHO, for people with an eating disorder, and whether it will publish the findings.

Question reference: S5W-27301

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many specialist eating disorder inpatient beds there are, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-27600

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a recent Cancer Research UK forecast, which suggests that Scotland might miss its 2034 target of being tobacco-free by at least 16 years and, in light of this finding, what plans it has to prioritise the implementation of the actions and interventions proposed in its Tobacco Control Action Plan to help the country meet the target.

The Cancer Research UK endorses many of our current plans, such as evaluating our tobacco control action plan and providing ongoing smoking cessation support across all healthcare settings.

Smoking prevalence in Scotland continues to fall and we are confident that we will meet our deadline of creating a tobacco-free generation by 2034.

Attitudes to smoking are clearly changing, but we will leave no stone unturned in cessation and prevention. We look forward to discussing the recommendations with Cancer Research UK.

Question reference: S5W-27557

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve the rollout of flu vaccinations for winter 2020-21 to primary school children in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S5W-27558

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to use more than one supplier of the flu vaccination for primary school children in Edinburgh during winter 2020-21.