Parliamentary questions
Jim Hume
1,310 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
4 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what safeguards are in place to ensure that funding for health and social care integration plans is not reallocated for other purposes.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (the Act) provides the legislative basis for health boards and local authorities to delegate functions and their associated budgets to integration authorities. As a result, integration authorities are req…
4 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the average distance is from home for inpatients in mental health hospitals.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: This information is not held centrally.
4 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) inpatients in mental health hospitals, (b) people in young offender institutions and (c) prisoners have learning difficulties.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: This information is not held centrally. (a) We do not hold any information centrally on the number of people with learning difficulties in psychiatric hospitals. However, the table below provides information on the number of inpatients discharged from psych…
4 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what safeguards are in place to ensure that funding for health and social care integration plans is sustainable.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 places a legal requirement on health boards and local authorities to delegate functions and the associated budgets relating to those functions to integration authorities. By bringing together health and …
3 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the bursary for student nurses has been in each year since 2010.
Answer · Shona Robison: Since August 2009, all eligible nursing and midwifery students have been guaranteed a minimum income of £6,578 per year. In addition, eligible students have had access to a range of supplementary allowances, including: An income-assessed dependant’s allowan…
3 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report by Unison that 83% of student nurses and midwives have been in debt in the last year.
Answer · Shona Robison: We are currently undertaking a review of the whole funding package available to nursing and midwifery students. As part of this review, we are working closely with key stakeholders including Unison, the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives,…
3 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported 89% increase between 2011 and 2014 in the number of teenagers admitted to hospitals across the UK for eating disorders.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Any increase in the incidence of eating disorders is a concern. We are committed to delivering change and improvement in child and adolescent mental health services where the majority of young people with an eating disorder will be seen. That is why we are w…
3 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people under 18 were admitted to hospital for eating disorders and eating disorder-related conditions in each of the last five years, broken down by age.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The number of patients discharged in each financial year from Scottish hospitals with a diagnosis of eating disorders (ICD-10 code F50) in the main diagnosis position: Table 1: The number of patients1 under 18 years old2 discharged from acute (SMR01) and psy…
3 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what provisions there are specifically to treat people with eating disorders.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The Scottish Government sets national direction of policy on mental health and provides funding to agencies, including NHS boards and local authorities, to support implementation of policy. The management of local actions in implementing national policy, and …
3 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase education and awareness among (a) under-18s and (b) the general population of the health risks of eating disorders.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: We launched a re-founded See Me programme in January 2014, with funding of £1 million, with a further £500,000 from Comic Relief. The programme will build on the previous work to end stigma and discrimination associated with mental health including eating dis…
1 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the recent data that shows that, in the 12 months to March 2015, the number of people waiting more than six weeks for an upper endoscopy test increased more than threefold.
Answer · Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-25880 on 11 June 2015. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentary…
1 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the recent data that shows that, in the last year, the number of people waiting more than six weeks for key clinical tests more than doubled.
Answer · Shona Robison: We recognise the importance of patients getting swift access to diagnostic tests and all boards have confirmed that patients with a suspicion of cancer receive their diagnostic test within two to three weeks. Whilst the numbers of patients waiting longer than…
1 Jun 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the recent data that shows that, in the 12 months to March 2015, the number of people waiting more than six weeks for a CT scan increased almost tenfold.
Answer · Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-25880 on 11 June 2015. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentary…
28 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its review of the pet vending trade including exotic animals.
Answer · Richard Lochhead: The review of the pet vending trade including exotic animals is part of a wider review of pet welfare, which is a substantial and ongoing piece of work. Some initial meetings with stakeholders have already been held and further meetings are planned later in 2…
28 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will adopt the aims of Enable Scotland's #stopthebus campaign.
Answer · Derek Mackay: Enable Scotland’s campaign aims to make it easier for the people with learning disabilities to access concessionary travel under the national concessionary bus travel scheme. The Scottish Government has no plans to extend the scheme to recipients of the lowe…
28 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on establishing a feasibility study to consider whether there is socioeconomic case for extending the Borders Railway service to (a) Hawick and (b) Carlisle.
Answer · Keith Brown: Together with key partners the Scottish Government continues to play an active part in taking forward the Borders Railway Blueprint for the Future. Transport Scotland officials have already met with partners and offered initial advice on a scoping document wh…
27 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is planning to take follow-up actions if HEAT targets are not met and, if so, what actions.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government is already supporting NHS boards, local authorities and the new Integration Joint boards delivery through a range of supportive measures. Specific actions including investing £100 million over three years to deliver improvements on del…
27 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reasons the performance of NHS boards against HEAT targets is down in the first quarter of 2015 compared with 2014 for the (a) 12-week to treatment and (b) 2-week maximum wait time for discharge.
Answer · Shona Robison: We are aware that three boards, Lothian, Grampian and Highland have experienced significant capacity issues. To address this we provided Lothian with £3 million and Highland with nearly £6 million from our performance fund to address capacity by recruiting mo…
27 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to reconsider HEAT targets.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to supporting our NHS to deliver world-leading care. Targets and standards for the NHS have been reviewed on an annual basis since Local Delivery Plans (LDP) were introduced in 2005. Following last year’s review…
27 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what proactive steps it is taking to support NHS boards to ensure that they are able to meet the HEAT targets for the (a) 12-week to treatment and (b) 2-week maximum wait time for discharge.
Answer · Shona Robison: Over 750,000 patients have benefitted from the 12 week treatment time guarantee since it was introduced in October 2012. Earlier in the year we announced £10 million from the performance fund to help boards increase capacity, employ additional consultants and…
27 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to NHS boards missing the HEAT target of 12-week maximum wait for treatment.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government has made clear to all NHS boards that we expect this guarantee to be met for all patients during 2015. Scottish Government officials are actively working to support boards in improving their capacity planning and patient flows across S…
26 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent in each year since 2011 on (a) non-statutory organisations that work with children, (b) the PlayTalkRead campaign and (c) the provision of early learning and childcare for three and four-year-olds.
Answer · Fiona McLeod: (a) The Scottish Government does not gather data centrally on spend for non-statutory organisations that work with children. (b) The PlayTalkRead campaign has received £3.9 million in funding since 2011. (c) The Scottish Government provides local government…
25 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how much and (b) what percentage of the funding for mental health services has been spent on children and adolescent mental health services in each year since 2007.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Information from NHS boards on the expenditure and percentage of expenditure for mental health services that have been spent on children and adolescent mental health services in the hospital and community sectors in each year since 2007 is shown in Table 1. …
25 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many under-18-year olds have been admitted to adult psychological units in each month since 2011.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Data is not available on monthly admissions.
25 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the staff costs have been in relation to (a) child psychiatry and (b) all psychiatry services in each of the last five years and whether this represents a real-terms increase or decrease.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: This information is not held centrally.
25 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how much and (b) what percentage of the NHS budget has been spent on child and adolescent mental health services in each of the last five years, broken down by (i) NHS board and (ii) local authority area.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: (i) Information on the expenditure and percentage of expenditure that have been spent on children and adolescent mental health services of the overall NHS expenditure for the five financial years 2010 to 2014 by NHS board is shown in Table 1. (ii)This inform…
21 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards have implemented the national standards for monitoring the physical health of people being treated with clozapine.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: We expect all NHS boards across Scotland to adopt the published national standards for monitoring the physical health of people being treated with clozapine and regularly review implementation as a matter of routine.
20 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on tenant farmers not being able to claim common agriculture policy (CAP) support because of the owners of their (a) short-term and (b) grass let land making a claim for CAP funds.
Answer · Richard Lochhead: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-25650 on 2 June 2015. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybu…
20 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried out of the impact of tenant farmers not being able to claim common agriculture policy (CAP) support because of the owners of their (a) short-term and (b) grass let land making a claim for CAP funds.
Answer · Richard Lochhead: It is a European requirement that CAP support is now based on land area, rather than on historic payments, and it is the person who declares and has control of the land on 15 May 2015 that is eligible to claim the direct payments on that land. The Scottish G…
20 May 2015 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce a statutory code of practice and adjudicator for pub companies.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: At the Members Debate on Tied Pubs (Motion S4M-12348) I indicated that that the Scottish Government will commission a study to look at the various pub models operating in Scotland to see whether the tied ‘wet’ sector are being treated more unfairly than other…