- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether the review commissioned by Public Health Scotland into the potential regulation of alcohol advertising and marketing will involve (a) calls for evidence and (b) stakeholder evidence sessions.
Answer
The evidence review undertaken by Public Health Scotland (PHS) will focus solely on existing literature, studies and research in order to set out potential areas of action on alcohol marketing and advertising. The commission is not seeking to develop or deliver new studies or research.
PHS will have independence in developing its review structure, resources and methods upon identifying its requirements for delivering this strand of work, ensuring that quality, integrity and transparency are achieved.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with (a) NHS National Services Scotland and (b) Community Pharmacy Scotland regarding the availability of the drug, naloxegol.
Answer
The Scottish Government is aware that, since April 2024, there has been ongoing supply issues with the availability of naloxegol (Moventig®) tablets. On 25 April 2024, the Scottish Government issued a Medicines Supply Alert Notice to NHS Scotland on the availability of naloxegol (Moventig®) tablets. Medicines Supply Alert Notices are circulated to Medical Directors and Directors of Pharmacy across all Health Boards including national Health Boards (such as NHS National Services Scotland) for onward dissemination to healthcare professionals. Community Pharmacy Scotland also receive a copy of the Medicines Supply Alert Notices for onward dissemination across their network.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place to ensure that the recent reports of "medical misogyny" within gynaecological health care will not affect people in the future.
Answer
The Women’s Health Plan set out actions which aim to address women’s health inequalities by raising awareness around women’s health, improving access to health care for women across their lives, and reducing inequalities in health outcomes for women and girls.
We have taken specific action through the Plan to support practitioners providing care to women accessing their service including commissioning NHS Education for Scotland to create bespoke training packages on menstrual health and menopause for general practice and others working in Primary Care.
In addition, our ‘Women's experiences of discrimination and the impact on health’ report was published on 27 June 2023. The report examines the current evidence base on women's health inequalities and reports on a two-phase research project. The findings in this project contribute to the evidence base on women's health inequalities, discrimination and young women through in-depth exploration of women in Scotland's intersectional experiences. The findings from this report will inform the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.
Our ambition is that ‘women and girls enjoy the best possible health, throughout their lives’. This remains the ambition of the Scottish Government, and will continue to be our guiding principle as we consider the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.
Our Women’s Health Plan 2021 - 2024 Final Report on progress provides further details of our work to date.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21099 by Jenni Minto on 19 September 2023, how many of its pharmacist pre-registration training places were (a) available and (b) filled on 31 December (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2022, (v) 2023 and (vi) 2024.
Answer
The following table shows the number of pre-registration training places available and filled on each of the requested dates.
| Date | Posts Available | Posts Filled |
| 31 December 2019 | 200 | 200 |
| 31 December 2020 | 215 | 215 |
| 31 December 2021 | 235 | 214 |
| 31 December 2022 | 235 | 223 |
| 31 December 2023 | 235 | 216 |
| 31 December 2024 | 220 | 213 |
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to reduce any inequality within women’s cardiac health, in light of research from the British Heart Foundation, which shows that women are 50% more likely than men to receive the wrong initial diagnosis for a heart attack.
Answer
We made clear commitments to tackling the inequalities faced by women with heart disease in our Women’s Health Plan, published in August 2021. Actions taken and progress are outlined in the Women's health plan 2021 to 2024: final report - gov.scot.
Our ambition is that women and girls enjoy the best possible health, throughout their lives. This remains the ambition of the Scottish Government, and will continue to be our guiding principle as we develop the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.
Any future priorities will be determined in partnership with our stakeholders.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to data from the British Heart Foundation showing that, in Scotland, women are less likely to undergo angiography, receive revascularisation therapies and receive potentially lifesaving medications when they leave hospital.
Answer
We thank researchers at the University of Aberdeen and the Keele Cardiovascular Research Group for their important contribution to understanding sex disparities in care and outcomes across Scotland amongst men and women admitted for heart attacks.
We will continue to engage with women and girls, clinicians, academics and the third sector to explore the drivers and solutions to disparities in care for women with heart disease as we develop the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has commenced and/or commissioned a full multi-agency prevalence study as set out in recommendation 2 in the Policy Report: Sexual exploitation of children involved in the Children's Hearings System by Barnardo's Scotland and the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) in 2020.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32827 on 16 January 2025. 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: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many community pharmacies there were in NHS (a) Highland, (b) Grampian, (c) Orkney, (d) Shetland and (e) Western Isles areas on 31 December (i) 2021, (ii) 2022, (iii) 2023 and (iv) 2024.
Answer
The number of community pharmacies in each Health Board requested are shown in the following table.
NHS Board | (i) 2021 | (ii) 2022 | (Iii) 2023 | (iv) 2024 |
(a) Highland | 132 | 132 | 131 | 130 |
(b) Grampian | 83 | 85 | 83 | 81 |
(c) Orkney | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
(d) Shetland | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
(e) Western Isles | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has in place to ensure that government-owned vehicles comply with emissions regulations.
Answer
All Scottish Government fleet vehicles are maintained in line with manufacturers guidelines to ensure emission regulation compliance.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what communication strategies are being developed to ensure that the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 are explained to (a) the public and (b) stakeholders.
Answer
To support ongoing public and stakeholder engagement SEPA has published consultations relating to the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025, and linked to the Scottish Government consultation. SEPA will use its webpages and social media to ensure authorisation holders and applicants understand how any changes impact them and any action they need to take.