Parliamentary questions

Rhoda Grant

2,396 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

16 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can call in for ministerial comment or veto any plan from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service regarding the siting of control rooms.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: Decisions on the allocation of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) resources, including the number and location of control rooms, are matters for the SFRS board. Scottish Ministers set out priorities and objectives for SFRS to have regard to in the c…

16 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service regarding the proposed reduction in the number of control rooms and the siting of the remaining rooms.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: The Scottish Government has regular meetings with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Decisions on the allocation of its resources, including the number and location of control rooms, is a matter for the SFRS board.

9 Dec 2013 · Topical Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to tackle alcohol misuse.

3 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how regularly it will meet (a) NHS boards and (b) managed clinical networks to discuss progress toward implementing Neonatal Care in Scotland: a Quality Framework.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Discussions with NHS boards and managed clinical networks are underway to determine what the process will be for monitoring the implementation of Neonatal Care in Scotland: A Quality Framework. Once agreed with Ministers, the governance process will form part…

3 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the implementation plans produced by NHS boards for Neonatal Care in Scotland: a Quality Framework will be made public and, if so, in what form.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The new Local Delivery Plan format, focusing on the 12 priority areas for action in the Routemap to the 2020 Vision for Health and Social Care, will give NHS boards the opportunity to set out the action they are taking to implement Neonatal Care in Scotland: …

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what professional advisory structures it employs in relation to (a) speech and language therapy and (b) allied health professions in adult health and social care policy and legislation.

Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Government employs a Chief Health Professions Officer (CHPO) who provides policy and professional advice on all allied health professions, including speech and language therapy. The CHPO works closely with a network of national leads (two of whom…

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its expectations are of the demand for speech and language therapy provision over the next five years.

Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Government’s 20:20 Workforce Vision: Everyone Matters recognises the key role the workforce will play in responding to the challenges that NHS Scotland is facing, however it is for NHS boards to assess and plan to meet the needs of their local po…

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-18283 by Alex Neil on 20 November 2013, whether it can confirm that an individual identified as having a speech or language therapy need should be provided with services appropriate to that need.

Answer · Alex Neil: Speech and language therapists work closely with individuals and their parents, families and carers where appropriate to ensure that the support, advice or intervention offered is appropriate to the needs of the individual, this can include supporting the ind…

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde becoming "paper-light" over the next 12 months in light of the IT failure of 1 October 2013 and what guidance the Scottish Government will give to clinicians on treating patients when no patient information is available.

Answer · Alex Neil: The position of Scottish Government and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde remains unchanged. The eHealth Strategy makes clear the commitment for all health boards to become ‘paper-light’ in a controlled and incremental fashion because of the considerable benefits…

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether all the information actualisation/processing caused by the IT failure at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde of 1 October 2013 has been completed.

Answer · Alex Neil: Information processing has been completed. All national returns have been provided and all patient transactions processed. No business or patient data was lost.

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many rapid alerts were caused by the IT failure at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde of 1 October 2013.

Answer · Alex Neil: Maternity and emergency services were maintained throughout the period disrupted by the IT incident.

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde patients were attended by medical staff when the clinical notes were unavailable during the IT failure of 1 October 2013.

Answer · Alex Neil: More than 10,000 patients were attended by medical staff during the IT failure of 1 October 2013. As there was variable access to both electronic and paper clinical notes throughout the incident it is not possible to quantify for how many patients clinical no…

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) planned and (b) unplanned service outages there have been on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's IT systems since 1 October 2013.

Answer · Alex Neil: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s statistics for “Outage” include incidents where systems remain fully available to users, but elements are undergoing maintenance or remedial activities. In the period 2 October to 3 December there have been 10 planned outages (…

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will publish its information security management system documentation.

Answer · Alex Neil: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde regards its IT Information Systems as critical health infrastructure. Accordingly it would not be appropriate to put detailed systems documentation (especially Information Security) into the public domain.

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether, prior to the IT failure on 1 October 2013, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had checked whether it could restore its active directory service from backups and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Answer · Alex Neil: A full Active Directory recovery was not performed due to not having an environment where this could be done safely. This is now being re-assessed. However, the backups have been used previously to perform granular recovery of Active Directory objects in the …

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has a disaster recovery site to switch to in the event of a failure of its main site and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Answer · Alex Neil: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde runs dual active data centres, separated by 14 km and the River Clyde. These are linked by multiple super-high speed data connections, making the concept of a passive disaster recovery site redundant. This design is accepted best…

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the IT failure at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde on 1 October 2013, whether active directory auditing was switched off and, if so, for what reason.

Answer · Alex Neil: Reduced auditing was in place due to the impact that such services have on systems performance. We are however reviewing this in light of the recent incident and will introduce appropriate and proportionate auditing in due course.

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the IT failure at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde on 1 October 2013, whether the built-in Windows back-up service was in use at the time of the incident.

Answer · Alex Neil: Native Windows Server Backup was not being used prior to the incident. Symantec Backup Exec was used to backup the domain controllers. It was Symantec Backup Exec which was used to recover Active Directory.

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government on what basis the report, Technical Assurance Review: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde: Critical Incident - 1 October 2013, concluded that "the design and implementation of the XGGC Microsoft Active Directory with associated services is a fit for purpose and resilient implementation" given …

Answer · Alex Neil: A system can be designed and implemented in a manner deemed fit for purpose and resilient, and yet still suffer from an unforeseen incident.

2 Dec 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the IT failure at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, whether (a) domain name system requests had been failing from 26 September 2013 and (b) new web filter software had been brought online on the day of the failure and, if so, for what reason this is not mentioned in the repo…

Answer · Alex Neil: (a) Domain Name requests had not been failing previous to the incident. (b) Web filtering software was not brought online on the day of the incident and is not relevant to the incident of 1 October 2013.

20 Nov 2013 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to provide permanent employment opportunities for people who will be on temporary contracts during the Christmas period.

18 Nov 2013 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister when the Scottish Government will bring forward plans to extend legislation to make wilful neglect of patients a criminal offence.

13 Nov 2013 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to align education and skills provision in the Highlands and Islands with the needs of local employers.