Parliamentary questions
Dr Richard Simpson
2,702 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
8 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-39117 by Kenny MacAskill on 7 February 2011, whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) the (a) agendas, (b) training materials, (c) names, organisations and positions of attendees, (d) subsequent notes and (e) attend…
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Resilience Development Service training materials and notes would be of considerable commercial advantage to private sector training providers. It would therefore not be appropriate to publish such material. In addition, the names, organisations …
8 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-39180 by Kenny MacAskill on 7 February 2011, what steps are being taken to ensure that all non-smoking prisoners and staff are protected from passive smoking.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:</b></p> <p >Smoking by staff and prisoners is not permitted in any enclosed space on SPS property with the exception that prisoners are abl…
8 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what its approach is to ensuring that cascade screening for familial hyercholesterolaemia is being fully implemented in the NHS once a family member is diagnosed with this condition.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Our Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan (June 2009) sets out actions designed to ensure that people with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) are identified as soon as possible and receive the treatment they need, in order to minimise the risk of …
8 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the report in volume 305 of The Journal of the American Medical Association, whether there will be a review of the prescription status of Bevacizamub prescribing in the NHS.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The safety of bevacizumab (Avastin) is closely monitored by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in conjunction with other European member states and the European Medicines Agency. The recent publication in the Journal of the American Medic…
8 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patient safety incidents were reported in the NHS between 2007 and 2010 involving loading dose errors.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: This information is not held centrally.</p>
8 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S3W-38040, S3W-38041 and S3W-38607 by Keith Brown on 15 and 16 December 2010 and 2 February 2011 respectively, at what point the iterative process for defining the timeline of the transport plan for the 2014 Ryder Cup will be concluded.
Answer · Keith Brown: The development of the plan will continue up to the start of the event. A review of the plan in operation will be carried out during the practice days to determine whether any final refinements are required.</p>
3 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under 16 years old were admitted to adult psychiatric wards and how many of these admissions were deemed inappropriate, in each of the last three years.
Answer · Shona Robison: The number of children under 16 admitted to an adult psychiatric ward are: </p> <p >2007-08: 28</p> <p >2008-09: 34</p> <p >2009-10: 35</p> <p >The latest figures from the Mental Welfare Commission show that the number of young people under the age of 16 …
3 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the European average is, per 1 million of population, of beds for mental health admissions for children up to 16 years old.
Answer · Shona Robison: This information is not available. The World Health Organization has a European Health for All Database with various indicators, however beds per 1 million of population for mental health admissions for children up to 16 years old are not one of the indicator…
3 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Royal College of Psychiatry or child and adolescent mental health services staff have made a recommendation on the appropriate number of inpatient beds for child and adolescent patients.
Answer · Shona Robison: We have been working closely with NHS boards to determine the number of beds that would best meet the needs and demand of the children and adolescent population in Scotland. We have also been working on encouraging the development of new models of service del…
3 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has an agreement with child and adolescent mental health services on the target number of inpatient beds for children and adolescents.
Answer · Shona Robison: We are working closely with NHS boards to ensure that the number of specialist beds matches the need and demand of children and adolescents. We are also encouraging NHS boards to develop their community based intensive outreach services in order to enable chi…
1 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what targets it has agreed with the Food Standards Agency regarding the reduction of the intake of salt.
Answer · Shona Robison: There are two sets of salt targets, population targets and industry targets. The agreed </b>population target is to reduce sodium intake of the Scottish population to 100mmol per day or 6g salt/day.</p> <p >The Scottish Dietary Targets were first set out in …
1 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the reduction in salt consumption has been as a result of voluntary agreements with the food industry in the last five years.
Answer · Shona Robison: A survey of sodium intake was conducted in Scotland in 2006 to measure progress towards the Scottish Dietary Targets. The mean estimated salt intake was found to be 9.1g per day (10.6 and 7.6 g per day for men and women respectively).</p> <p >A UK survey in…
1 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to improve the understanding by teenage girls of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine.
Answer · Shona Robison: To support the HPV vaccination programme a major awareness raising campaign was funded by the Scottish Government. This campaign has run since the launch of the vaccination programme in 2008. A range of information materials have been produced and made availa…
1 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Scotland's Healthy Working Lives on the possible adverse health effects of shift working.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Executive has regular communications with the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives in relation to general health and wellbeing in the workplace. The Centre makes information available to employers and employees on shift working through its w…
1 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has of the possible increased risk of breast cancer resulting from shift working.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Data on the number of people having an increased risk of breast cancer resulting from shift working is not held centrally. We are aware of a number of published studies suggesting links between shift working and breast cancer, many of which are captured in th…
1 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it has given to GPs to increase the uptake of breast screening in deprived areas.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Breast Screening Service works closely with GP practices and local NHS boards in advance of screening in their area. All NHS boards undertake local awareness raising in the areas where mobile vans are timetabled to visit. This often includes meet…
1 Feb 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it has put in place to increase the uptake of breast screening by women from ethnic minority groups.
Answer · Shona Robison: Information leaflets about the Scottish Breast Screening Service are available in various languages from NHS Health Scotland.</p> <p >These leaflets are available to download from the NHS Health Scotland website at:</p> <p >http://www.healthscotland.com/top…
31 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-35505 by Shona Robison on 24 August 2010, whether the Minister for Public Health and Sport will update the Parliament on current statistics from local authorities on the Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement Programme.
Answer · Shona Robison: A report compiled by the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland which provides details of local authorities'' engagement with the Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement Programme has now been published. Copies of the report will be made availa…
31 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-35505 by Shona Robison on 24 August 2010, what the reason is for the delay to the report on progress made under the Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement, which was due to be published in 2010.
Answer · Shona Robison: The reason for the delay was the extended absence and subsequent resignation of the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS) National Co-ordinator who is responsible for compiling the report. The appointment of an interim co-ordinat…
31 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-35505 by Shona Robison on 24 August 2010, when the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland is expected to publish a report on the progress made under the Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement Programme.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland expect to publish the report by the end of February 2011.</p>
31 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made in establishing the efficacy of a social norms approach to drug and alcohol education and preventive work in schools and colleges.
Answer · Michael Russell: The Scottish Government is not establishing the efficacy of a social norms approach to drug and alcohol education and preventative work in schools and colleges. The Scottish Government is aware of ongoing research and debate, such as the work of Scotland''s F…
31 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive which NHS boards have issued their governance arrangements to permit non-medical staff qualified to prescribe to do so in the field of drug and alcohol treatment.
Answer · Shona Robison: This information is not available centrally.</p>
31 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many non-medical prescribers (a) have completed the appropriate course to allow them to become independent prescribers, (b) are registered to prescribe and (c) are prescribing in the field of drug and alcohol treatments as either supplementary or independent prescribers.
Answer · Shona Robison: NHS Education for Scotland (NES) supports non-medical independent prescribing programmes for relevant NHS staff. The courses run to different timescales therefore the data available reflect this.</p> <p >NHS NES has advised that, as at February 2010, 2,196 n…
31 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what its response is to the circle of care proposal in Melting the Iceberg of Scotland’s Drug and Alcohol Problem: Report of the Independent Enquiry.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: The Scottish Government welcomes this independent report and its key messages that recovery from drug and alcohol misuse is absolutely possible and that every person in Scotland has a part to play in reviewing their attitudes and behaviours and by contributin…
31 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made in establishing the (a) incidence and (b) prevalence of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
Answer · Shona Robison: An expert clinician, Dr Maggie Watts, Public Health Consultant with Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board has been appointed to help develop a policy on addressing foetal alcohol spectrum disorders. This will be developed in partnership with policy colleagues from acr…
28 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-31400 by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 February 2010, what the response rate was to the patient access questions in the GP patient access survey for 2009-10, broken down by (a) mean, (b) median and (c) standard deviation.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The overall response rate to the 2009-10 GP patient experience survey was 38%. As expected this was lower than the response rate in 2008-09 because the survey was designed to sample more patients from practices that had lower response rates in 2008-09. This i…
28 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive in how many GP practices in each NHS board area the Quality and Outcomes Framework funding has (a) increased, (b) remained the same and (c) decreased as a result of the GP patient access survey for 2009-10.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Table 1 shows the number of practices for which total Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) payments for 2009-10 (a) increased by 1% or more, (b) changed by less than 1% and (c) decreased by 1% or more relative to 2008-09. No practice received exactly the same…
28 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many wards have been closed due to (a) norovirus outbreak, (b) hospital-acquired infections and (c) other reasons in each winter since 2007.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Health Protection Scotland monitors and publishes ward closures due to norovirus outbreaks via point prevalence Management Information. Norovirus point prevalence reporting commenced on 7 January 2008.</b></p> <p >This weekly point prevalence data relates t…
28 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-31976 by Adam Ingram on 5 March 2010, what percentage of schools has extended the free fruit scheme beyond primary one and two pupils, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Adam Ingram: This information can be found in the School Meals Survey published in June 2010 and can be accessed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/07/06095048/0.</p>
28 Jan 2011 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-31997 by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 February 2010, what the (a) maximum, (b) average and (c) median waiting time is for assessment of people referred to the Scottish Driving Assessment Centre.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The waiting times for people referred to the Scottish Driving Assessment Service are as follows:</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <tr > <td width=193 valign=top > <p align=left >(a) Maximum waiting time</p> </td> <td width=104 va…