- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of cases handled by the Aberdeen office of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in the last year involved alleged offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Answer
The following table shows percentage of cases reported to the Aberdeen Procurator Fiscal’s Office containing one or more charge under - Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Criminal cases reported to COPFS Aberdeen Procurator Fiscal office during the financial year 2023-24 |
| | | |
| | 2023-24 | |
Percentage of cases reported which contained one or more charge under - Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 | 7% | |
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many children were hospitalised due to illicit drugs being found in their systems in each calendar year since 2020.
Answer
Public Health Scotland publish information on drug related hospital admissions. Data from 1996-97 to 2022-23 is available at https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/drug-related-hospital-statistics/drug-related-hospital-statistics-scotland-2022-to-2023/. The release of data covering 2023-24 is expected in the spring. The accompanying Data Explorer Dashboard provides a more comprehensive breakdown of the statistics, including by age.
- 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 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how SEPA is engaging with stakeholders, including local authorities and emergency services, to communicate operational changes to its 24-hour support system.
Answer
SEPA has robust resilience and emergency management processes in place with partners.
There is no change for stakeholders as they continue to use the unchanged Priority Partner number (emergency services). Previously callers would have used a specific number and spoke to a person in the Customer Hub and that process has not changed.
- 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 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what key performance indicators will be used to assess the (a) functionality and (b) reliability of SEPA’s automated customer hub.
Answer
As SEPA are directly responsible for its day-to-day operations, I have asked Nicole Paterson, Chief Executive of SEPA to respond. Her response is as follows:
SEPA plan the work it will deliver each year and regularly monitor, review and report on performance in a variety of formats.
The automated customer hub enables greater data insights for regular and accurate performance reporting. KPIs include first call resolution, average handling time, call abandoned, time spent customer facing as percentage of rota, forecast and adherence time and customer satisfaction.
- 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 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether SEPA’s customer hub will include specific provisions for handling regulatory compliance queries outside of standard working hours.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32136 on 18 December 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found athttps://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported figures stating that more than £4 million has been spent dealing with infestations of rats, mice, maggots and cockroaches in hospitals and medical facilities, including more than £2 million by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Answer
Spending money on pest control is a necessary part of maintaining any estate, especially one as large as the NHS which is almost the size of the city of Stirling at 1,572 hectares in size.
It would also be useful to note that the figure quoted, £4 million, relates to spend over a six year period.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many medical negligence claims have been settled by the NHS in the last five years, and how many cases are still to be concluded.
Answer
The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.
The Annual Reports for the NHS Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS) provide details of the scheme along with the number and value of claims made during each financial year and historical values.
The Annual Reports, which also cover information available in terms of categorisation of claims, are published online at Access annual reports for the scheme | National Services Scotland.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider including off-site based escapes in its monitoring framework for salmon farms, including escapes from transport crafts.
Answer
It is not currently a legal requirement under the Aquatic Animal Health Regulations (Scotland) 2009 as amended for farmed fish transporters to report farmed fish escapes, however we are considering the issue of reporting and transparency further.
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reported statistics from Cancer Research UK showing that only one in two people in Scotland know that alcohol causes cancer, whether it plans to raise public awareness of the link between alcohol consumption and cancer.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the importance of highlighting the link between alcohol and non-communicable disease. Evidence is clear that alcohol consumption increases the risk of developing non-communicable diseases, including some cancers.
A refreshed cross-government and cross-sectoral approach to population health - focused on prevention - is being progressed. Increasing healthy life expectancy and reducing health inequalities across Scotland remains a clear ambition for this Government. It is clear the reform of health and care services alone will not be enough to stem the current tide of population health decline in Scotland.
The Population Health Framework is being developed jointly by the Scottish Government & COSLA and in collaboration with Public Health Scotland, Directors of Public Health and key local, regional and national partners. The Scottish Government will set out key actions to reduce alcohol harm following the Population Health Framework, including the role of public health messaging and awareness.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many mobile community pharmacies there are in the NHS (a) Highland, (b) Grampian, (c) Orkney, (d) Shetland and (e) Western Isles area.
Answer
There are no mobile community pharmacies providing NHS Pharmaceutical Services in any part of Scotland. There are 1248 community pharmacies with fixed locations across the country.