Parliamentary questions
Dr Richard Simpson
2,702 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what campaigns there have been or will be to raise awareness of the new elements and eligibility of free eye testing.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government has produced a leaflet <i >Your Guide to Free NHS Eye Examinations in Scotland </i>in association with Health Rights Information Scotland for issue to vulnerable groups in the community. Supplies of the leaflet were sent to Community H…
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what training procurators fiscal receive regarding the role that epilepsy can play in apparent offences, particularly where post-ictal states or complex partial seizures may contribute to such offences.
Answer · Frank Mulholland: Procurators fiscal are trained to consider the possibility of medical conditions playing a role in the commission of offences. Training is also provided to procurators fiscal on the legal criteria for all special defences such as insanity, insanity at the tim…
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance is available to the Scottish Legal Aid Board to ensure that individuals with a diagnosis of epilepsy have access to appropriate expert medical evidence that is made available to the Procurator Fiscal, particularly in cases where post-ictal states or complex partial seizures …
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The responsibility for representing an accused individual''s interests rests with their instructed solicitor and, where appropriate, counsel.</p> <p >The Crown has an obligation to ensure that all information that is considered material to the prosecution of…
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners with a diagnosis of epilepsy have been transferred to hospital from police custody in the last 10 years.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The information requested is not held centrally. The responsibility for maintaining such records lies with individual Scottish Police Forces.</p>
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people diagnosed with epilepsy have died in police custody in the last 10 years.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The information requested is not held centrally. The responsibility for maintaining such records lies with individual Scottish Police Forces.</p> <p ><i >The Executive have supplied the following revised answer (on </i><i >16 September 2009</i><i >):</i></b…
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what training is given to police officers regarding the management of individuals with epilepsy, particularly in post-seizure states, when an offence appears to have been committed.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: At present, epilepsy awareness training is delivered and managed by individual forces. Discussions are due to take place next month between Strathclyde Police and the Chief Executive of Epilepsy Scotland to discuss the provision of training across the emerge…
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is reviewing the age parameters for cervical cancer screening in light of the latest research showing an unfavourable risk-benefit analysis for screening of women between 20 and 25 years of age.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The programme''s age range was reviewed by the National Advisory Group on Breast and Cervical Screening in 2005. The group''s advice at that time was to maintain the current age range and frequency but to review again in 2010, when any new published evidence …
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to research the characteristics of and possible reasons for people not taking up the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination.
Answer · Shona Robison: Final uptake statistics for the first year of the HPV vaccination programme will be published at the end of September and it is not possible to pre-empt what these will say. However, the provisional uptake statistics published in March showed that initial upt…
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make all convicted prisoners in Scottish prisons who are nationals of countries with which the United Kingdom has prisoner transfer agreements aware that they can apply for a face-to-face meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice before a decision is made by him on pr…
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: No, because that is not the case. Other Prisoner Transfer Agreements operate on a different basis, and the process for considering representations from relevant parties was unique to this case.</p>
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners in Scottish Prison Service prisons and HMP Kilmarnock have applied for prisoner transfer.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:</p> <p >Prisoners routinely make requests for prison transfer as a consequence the information requested could only be obtained at disproportion…
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive for how many prisoners in Scottish Prison Service prisons and HMP Kilmarnock applications for release on compassionate grounds are under consideration.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:</p> <p >There are currently no applications for release on compassionate grounds under consideration in any Scottish prisons, including Kilmarnoc…
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners in Scottish Prison Service prisons and HMP Kilmarnock are terminally ill.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:</p> <p >There are currently three prisoners in custody at this time considered to be terminally ill.</p> <p >This figure does not include prison…
1 Sep 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will in future seek at least two medical opinions in determining whether a prisoner has a prognosis of less than three months’ survival, as stated in the Scottish Prison Service guidance on compassionate release, with at least one of such opinions being from a palliative care c…
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: No. Scottish Prison Service guidance from 2005 provides that in cases where compassionate release is being considered a medical opinion stipulating as clearly as possible the current level of incapacity and likely life expectancy should be obtained. In most c…
19 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to reduce the intake of nursing and midwifery students before attrition rates begin to decline and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The annual intakes for pre-registration nursing and midwifery students are set by the Scottish Government and are informed by the Nursing and Midwifery Workforce Planning process. This annual process is embedded within arrangements for healthcare workforce pl…
19 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to tackle the attrition rates of nursing and midwifery students.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answers to questions S3W-26574 and S3W-26575 on 10 September 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at: </p> <p ><a href="http://ww…
19 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what activities it has undertaken to tackle the attrition rates of nursing and midwifery students.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-26574 on 10 September 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at <u><a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk…
19 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its press release of 14 December 2007 announcing annual funding of £5 million to support nursing and midwifery students from September 2008 onwards, whether the funding has been made available, how the funding has been spent so far and whether the funding will continue in futu…
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The £5 million funding package, available since 2008-09, is being invested in work to improve the support for nursing and midwifery students throughout their education and training experience. The funding is being spread over several financial years as some i…
19 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether every loss of data by the NHS is reported to the Scottish Information Commissioner’s Office.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Information Commissioner encourages organisations to bring serious data breaches to the attention of his office. There is, however no legal obligation on data controllers such as NHS organisations to report breaches of security which result in loss, relea…
19 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of data loss from the NHS have occurred in each NHS board area in the last two 12-month periods; in how many such instances the data were unencrypted, and whether all such incidents were reported to the Scottish Information Commissioner’s Office.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government does not centrally collect details on the number of data losses which may have occurred within the NHS boards. It is the responsibility of individual health boards to report and investigate in line with their own local policies and pro…
12 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what money or debt advice services are provided in prisons, broken down by (a) service and (b) prison.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:</p> <p >The following table details the individual agencies and the services they provide in each prison.</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cel…
12 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what agencies provide advice or support in prisons on issues of employment, broken down by prison.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:</p> <p >The table following details the individual agencies that are working in each prison.</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 wi…
12 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to address in prisons the issue of post-custody homelessness.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:</p> <p >A Core Screen assessment is undertaken within 72 hours of admission to prison. This assesses prisoner''s needs including the issue …
12 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to address the health needs of offenders aged over 50 in prison.
Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:</p> <p >All prisoners have health care screening on admission into custody and have access to doctors, nurses and the wider health care tea…
12 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will amend the protocol or guidance for test purchasing of tobacco to allow the testing young person to give a false age, if asked, to ensure that the seller requests identification.
Answer · Shona Robison: Scottish prosecution policy was revised in 2005 to allow test purchasing to be used to enforce tobacco sales law for the first time in Scotland. Suggested procedures for local authorities to adopt for undertaking test purchasing in light of this decision are …
12 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review and amend the protocol or guidance on test purchasing of tobacco to allow for increased levels of testing and, in particular, to reduce the need to involve four adults.
Answer · Shona Robison: The development of the set of suggested procedures for local authorities to adopt for the test purchasing of tobacco (and other age-restricted goods) set out in <i>A Practical Guide To Test Purchasing in Scotland</i>,<i> </i>which was published in October 200…
5 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of recent judgements in Holland, whether it is reviewing requirements for doctors practising complementary medicine to refer patients with life-threatening illnesses to mainstream care.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The General Medical Council (GMC) is the independent regulator for doctors in the United Kingdom and its role is to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public.</p> <p >All doctors are expected to practise in accordance with GMC publi…
5 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many dosage errors for children occurred in each NHS board area in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008.
Answer · Shona Robison: This information is not collected centrally.</p>
5 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the false positive and false negative rates are for toxin testing for Clostridium difficile.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Rates of false-positive and false negative toxin tests are not routinely held or collected in diagnostic laboratories. The calculation of such rates for any type of laboratory test implies comparison with some form of gold-standard test which is often not sui…
5 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has given any consideration to the recent statement by Professor Terence Stephenson, new President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, in which he called for the United Kingdom to follow New Brunswick, California, South Australia and Cyprus in extending the ba…
Answer · Shona Robison: The successful implementation of the Scottish smoke-free legislation has undoubtedly reduced<sup> </sup>exposure to second-hand smoke among children in Scotland, partly as a result of the greater awareness among their parents and those close to them about the…
5 Aug 2009 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether every loss of data by the NHS is reported to the Scottish Information Commissioner.