Parliamentary questions

Jackie Baillie

9,379 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards its commitment in the Respiratory Care Action Plan to work in partnership with key stakeholders including the third sector and the Digital Health and Care Institute (DHI) to ensure that people with respiratory conditions have access to tools, resources a…

Answer · Jenni Minto: We continue to support a digital first, but not digital only approach across many of our respiratory programmes. Recommendations within the pulmonary rehab work have suggested widening access to online self-management tools and this is something we are active…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards its commitment in the Respiratory Care Action Plan to ensure that people with respiratory conditions have access to tools, resources and information that support them to manage their own condition.

Answer · Jenni Minto: We have recently published the Quality Prescribing Guide for Improvement that aims to keep people at the centre of their treatment, and promote safe, evidenced based, sustainable prescribing.The guide was developed by a wide range of stakeholders including ex…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards its commitment in the Respiratory Care Action Plan to improve and simplify access to appropriate diagnostic tests for respiratory conditions and explore the use of high quality, consistent spirometry testing and chest and lung CT scans.

Answer · Jenni Minto: Improved access to diagnostic tests remains a wider commitment for the Scottish Government and we are working closely with Primary Care colleagues to determine ways to improve spirometry.The Scottish Government has established a Scottish Expert Advisory Group…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been diagnosed with a lung condition since the publication of the Respiratory Care Action Plan.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards its commitment in the Respiratory Care Action Plan to work with people living with respiratory conditions to better understand the barriers to accessing appropriate mental health support.

Answer · Jenni Minto: We understand that the provision of tailored mental health support remains challenging in some areas of respiratory care. We continue to work closely with health psychologists and other key stakeholders to determine how better support can be provided to peopl…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it measures success of the implementation of the Respiratory Care Action Plan, and what impact has been achieved by the plan.

Answer · Jenni Minto: We recognise the importance of having access to meaningful data in relation to respiratory services and assessing the impact of the Respiratory Care Action Plan.We work with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that the current programmes for improving resp…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards its commitment in the Respiratory Care Action Plan to support the ongoing work in the Scottish Access Collaborative’ disease-specific pathway projects and ensure developments are embedded in wider respiratory policy.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) based at the Golden Jubilee Hospital is developing national pathways for respiratory conditions including severe asthma, COPD and sleep apnoea. This work to improve patient journeys aligns closely with the Respirator…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards its commitment in the Respiratory Care Action Plan to ensure everyone with respiratory conditions who would benefit from specialist, general and community rehabilitation is able to access appropriate services and support, as part of the rehabilitation fr…

Answer · Jenni Minto: In 2022 the Scottish Government published the Rehabilitation and Recovery: A Once for Scotland Person-Centred Approach to Rehabilitation in a Post-COVID Era. Which sets out a framework for delivering innovative and inclusive rehabilitation for all.It supports…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place for a new Respiratory Care Action Plan when the current plan comes to an end in 2026.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Respiratory Care Action Plan has another year left in its current lifespan. We will continue to implement the commitments in the Plan over the coming year, alongside our work to explore a new long term conditions strategy to ensure equitable and sustainab…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards its commitment in the Respiratory Care Action Plan to support wider workforce planning activity to develop innovative, sustainable workforce models in respiratory services.

Answer · Jenni Minto: A significant aspect of our pulmonary rehabilitation improvement work was to support the specialist respiratory workforce. This work is now being taken forward by a small group within the Respiratory Speciality Delivery Group. We also continue to work with ma…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it will report on the impact of the Respiratory Care Action Plan at the end of the strategy’s life span.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Respiratory Care Action Plan has another year left in its current lifespan. We will consider how best to report on its impact as it continues into 2026.

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards its commitment in the Respiratory Care Action Plan to work towards a core respiratory data set.

Answer · Jenni Minto: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34909 on 4 March 2025. We recognise the importance of having access to meaningful data in relation to respiratory services, in 2023 we provided Public Health Scotland with £60,000 to undertake a scoping e…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action has been taken to implement the Respiratory Care Action Plan.

Answer · Jenni Minto: We are working with various delivery partners to implement the commitments in the Respiratory Care Action Plan (RCAP), which runs into 2026.We established the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee to provide expert support to the implementation of the RCAP.…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates NHS Scotland has spent each year on respiratory medicine, including diagnosis, treatment and care, since the publication of the Respiratory Care Action Plan.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The information requested is complex and not held centrally.All information on prescribed and dispensed items are published and categorised by the British National Formulary chapter, in both monthly open data files and as part of the annual Dispenser Payments…

11 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards its commitment in the Respiratory Care Action Plan to work with all relevant policy areas to ensure preventative measures are embedded in all aspects of respiratory care.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Respiratory Care Action Plan contains broad commitments from a wide range of areas including increasing uptake of vaccines, ensuring people live in warm homes and improvement of air quality. We have made progress across a number of areas under these commi…

3 Feb 2025 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to address the reported shortage in clinical radiologists, which is projected to rise to 263 fewer posts than needed by 2028.

29 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement of interim placement care home beds in January 2023, how many placement care home beds were purchased, and what the cost was per bed.  

Answer · Maree Todd: 216 people were discharged to an interim care home bed placement through the 2023 interim care beds funding. The scheme was open between 10 January and 31 March 2023. The average cost per placement was £1108.22. This varied by placement in practice depe…

24 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to consult with charities and healthcare providers (a) as part of any evaluation of the current cancer strategy for children and young people and (b) on the development of any future dedicated cancer strategy for children and young people.

Answer · Neil Gray: The implementation and evaluation of the Collaborative and Compassionate Cancer Care The Cancer Strategy for Children and Young People in Scotland 2021–2026 is managed by the Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer (MSN CYPC).T…

24 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what data it collects on the distances that children and young people under 25 with cancer have to travel for their treatment, including on the number of individuals treated outside of Scotland for any part of their care.

Answer · Neil Gray: Scottish Government does not collect this data.

24 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline a timetable for the cancer strategy for children and young people beyond the current strategy’s designated period, which ends in 2026.

Answer · Neil Gray: The implementation of the Collaborative and Compassionate Cancer Care The Cancer Strategy for Children and Young People in Scotland 2021–2026 is managed by the Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer (MSN CYPC) into 2026. Scott…

22 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what risk assessments were undertaken before the transfer of patients from hospitals to care homes, without testing, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Answer · Maree Todd: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Scottish Government clinical guidance was clear that a thorough risk assessment should always be undertaken prior to discharge to ensure that the care home would be able to provide the care required. Individual risk assessments p…

22 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people had received their flu vaccination by the end of November 2024, and how this compares with November (a) 2023 and (b) 2022, broken down by the categories of (i) over-65s, (ii) at risk 18- to 64-year-olds, (c) healthcare workers and (d) care home residents.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The following data has been provided by Public Health Scotland (PHS). It compares how many people had their vaccine by the end of November in winter 2024, 2023 and 2022, broken down by the following groups: the over-65s; the at risk 18 to 64 group; Healthcare…

22 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients were on waiting lists for an echocardiogram (a) in total and (b) for over a year, in each of the last five years.

Answer · Neil Gray: The information requested is not held centrally by Scottish Government the member may wish to contact health boards directly for further information on waiting times for echocardiograms locally.

22 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the delivery of the COVID-19 and flu vaccination programme for 2024-25 has been later than the programmes in the previous two years.

Answer · Jenni Minto: It is important to make sure that the start date of the annual flu programme reflects the expected peak of flu circulating to ensure maximum vaccine efficacy.The 2024 Winter Flu and Covid programme (FVCV) launched on 9 September with the child flu programme. …

22 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients were on waiting lists for cardiology (a) in total and (b) for over a year, in each of the last five years.

Answer · Neil Gray: Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes statistics on the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case in the Stage of Treatment (SoT) publication. The latest publication release contains dat…

22 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether there will be an evaluation of its Heart Disease Action Plan.

Answer · Jenni Minto: Implementation of the Heart Disease Action Plan is overseen by the National Heart Disease Task Force, which reviews annual progress reports.Consideration will be given to an evaluation of the delivery of this plan as it continues into 2026.

22 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the revised policy on the use of WhatsApp for government business applies to ministers who may communicate with each other on non-corporate devices.

Answer · Kate Forbes: In accordance with the Scottish Ministerial Code paragraph 6.42, Ministers should use Government systems for all Government business. Any communication on Government business engages Ministers’ obligations to ensure accurate public records are kept.The …

22 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has agreed with NHS Highland in relation to GPs taking over vaccination programmes in their area.

Answer · Neil Gray: The Scottish Government has agreed with NHS Highland that due to exceptional circumstances there, a mixed model of vaccine delivery can be put in place. This will be a hybrid model for vaccine delivery in which NHS Highland will also continue to provide some …

22 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to develop a new Heart Disease Action Plan.

Answer · Jenni Minto: We are exploring a new long term conditions strategy to better recognise the fact that many people living with long term conditions need the same types of support and care, regardless of their condition. The strategy will focus on ensuring equitable and susta…

22 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether mobile or other IT devices used by its ministers, that are not corporate devices, are covered by the revised policy on retention of information.