Parliamentary questions
Jim Hume
1,310 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
3 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many foodbanks it has funded in each year since 2007-08, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Margaret Burgess: The Scottish Government has provided £1 million of funding over 2014-16 to help combat food poverty in Scotland. This funding supports 26 emergency food aid projects in 17 local authority areas to respond to the immediate demands for emergency food aid and he…
3 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason a reported 2,000 fewer homes received assistance from the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes Scotland in 2014-15 than in 2013-14.
Answer · Margaret Burgess: The reduction in the number of measures installed through our Home Energy Efficiency Programmes Scotland (HEEPS) schemes is primarily the result of changes made by the UK Government to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). HEEPS funding is blended with ECO to …
3 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of houses have passed the healthy, safe and secure section of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard in each year since 2010-11.
Answer · Margaret Burgess: The number and proportion of dwellings in the social sector which failed the healthy, safe and secure section of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard since 2010 according to the Scottish House Condition Survey are as follows: Year Number Percentage 2010 …
3 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to address the reported reduction in the percentage of houses that passed the healthy, safe and secure section of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard in 2014.
Answer · Margaret Burgess: The Scottish House Condition Survey does not record any reduction in the proportion of social sector dwelling that passed the healthy, safe and secure section of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) in 2014. The proportion of dwellings in the social s…
3 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what timeframe it has set to deliver the commitments in its response to the Commission on Housing and Wellbeing report, A blueprint for Scotland's future.
Answer · Margaret Burgess: The report contains a range of recommendations for the short, medium and long term and we will take forward our response to the recommendations accordingly.
2 Mar 2016 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will set overall objectives for the energy efficiency priority in the refreshed Infrastructure Investment Plan.
Answer · Keith Brown: Our vision is set out in the Infrastructure Investment Plan. We are working with stakeholders to develop Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme which as a 15-20 year programme will be the cornerstone of the infrastructure priority. We will undertake analysis …
2 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many members of staff each NHS board has employed through private agencies on a (a) locum and (b) permanent basis in each year since 2010-11, and how much this has cost.
Answer · Shona Robison: This information is not held centrally. Specific local information may be available from individual NHS health boards.
2 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many service-level agreements each NHS board has reached with private suppliers in each year since 2007-08, broken down by the value of each agreement.
Answer · Shona Robison: This information is not held centrally.
2 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has paid for (a) laboratory services, (b) supplies, (c) equipment and (d) other services that were not part of a service-level agreement in each year since 2007-08.
Answer · Shona Robison: The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.
2 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has paid private hospitals and clinics for services that were not part of a service-level agreement in each year since 2007-08.
Answer · Shona Robison: The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.
1 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of (i) nurses and midwives, (ii) senior doctors and consultants, (iii) radiologists and (iv) psychiatrists will be of retirement age in the next (A) five and (B) 10 years.
Answer · Shona Robison: In accordance with current legislation, we can no longer presume a retiral age as this is discriminatory. As a result, information relating to numbers of NHSScotland staff retiring in the next ten years is not available. It should be noted that not all sta…
1 Mar 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of paramedics in the Scottish Ambulance Service will be of retirement age within the next (i) five and (ii) 10 years.
Answer · Shona Robison: In accordance with current legislation, we can no longer presume a retiral age as this is discriminatory. As a result, information relating to numbers of paramedics retiring within the next (i) five and (ii) ten years is not available. It should be noted t…
29 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what tools it has developed to measure multimorbidity in GP practices.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Practice Team Information (PTI) dataset of GP practices captured READ diagnostics codes for individual patients that provide an insight into multimorbidities. The PTI dataset was a survey of around 70 practices that ran until 2012-13. The Scottish Govern…
29 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how it promotes and (b) what incentives it provides for GPs to carry out further clinical academic research.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The Scottish Government is promoting clinical academic research by general practitioners through annual funding (£381k in 2015-16) via the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) for the Scottish Primary Care Research Network that supports high quality primary care rese…
29 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many GPs with a higher research degree there have been in each year since 2010-11.
Answer · Shona Robison: This information is not held centrally however this information may be available from The Royal College of General Practitioners.
29 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to develop a recording system for unmet need in GP services.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government captures unmet need in two main ways: 1) Unmet need in treatment The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that anyone contacting their GP surgery has guaranteed access to a GP, nurse or other healthcare professional within 48…
29 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the percentage breakdown of new doctors by specialism in each year since 2010-11.
Answer · Shona Robison: The number of doctors in training in NHSScotland has increased by 526.9 whole time equivalent, or 10.0 per cent, since September 2010. Further detail on doctors in training is available on the Information Services Division Scotland website – http://www.isds…
29 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people aged over 65 have been diagnosed with diabetes in each year since 2010-11, broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Maureen Watt: The information requested is not held centrally. However, data on the number of people aged 65 and over who are living with diabetes, broken down by NHS board, and the total number of people aged 60 and over diagnosed with diabetes in each year since 2010 is…
29 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is considering developing measuring tools other than consultation rates for GP services.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government, working collaboratively with NHS National Services Scotland, is developing the Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE). This will enable the extraction of data from GP practices where those practices agree to participate. S…
25 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what training and support is provided to Scottish Ambulance Service paramedics for responding to calls involving people who have mental health problems.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government expect all NHS boards, including the Scottish Ambulance Service, to provide staff with the relevant training and support to allow them to help and assist patients with mental health problems. Mental health is one of the modules cover…
25 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time for a breast cancer radiography test is in each NHS board.
Answer · Shona Robison: There is no centrally held information on average waiting times for breast cancer radiography. The Scottish Government has set two standards for patients diagnosed with cancer. The first is that patients who have been urgently referred with a suspicion of ca…
25 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have had to wait for more than (a) two, (b) four and (c) six weeks for a radiology breast screening in each year since 2010-11.
Answer · Shona Robison: The information requested is not collected centrally. Mammography scans would be covered through the delivery of our overarching waiting time standard that 90% of patients are seen and treated within 18 weeks from initial referral to start of treatment, as …
25 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many and what percentage of consultant radiologist vacancies there have been in each NHS board in each year since 2010-11.
Answer · Shona Robison: We are working closely with NHS Scotland health boards, the Royal College of Radiologists and National Representatives of Radiology to ensure we have the right number of radiologists in place now and in the future to deliver a safe service. The number of c…
25 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many consultant radiologists there have been in each NHS board in each year since 2010-11.
Answer · Shona Robison: We are working closely with the Royal College of Radiologists, national representatives of radiology and NHSScotland health boards to ensure we have the right number of radiologists in place now and in the future to deliver a safe service. The number of cons…
25 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many radiology breast screening tests have taken place in each NHS board in each year since 2010-11.
Answer · Maureen Watt: This information is provided by Information Services Division. The following table shows the number of screening tests1 in each NHS board for 2010-11 to 2013-14. Breast screening information for 2014-15 is due to be published in April 2016. NHS Board of Res…
23 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many deaths from meningitis B there have been in each year since 2010-11, broken down by age group.
Answer · Maureen Watt: This data is published by Health Protection Scotland and is available at: http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/documents/ewr/pdf2015/1535.pdf.
23 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to extend meningitis B vaccinations to children.
Answer · Maureen Watt: The Scottish Government is committed to protecting youngsters against meningitis B (Men B) which is why we launched a national Men B vaccination programme last year to tackle its effects. All children who are now aged up to nine months should have been offere…
23 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been vaccinated against meningitis B in each year since 2010-11, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) private hospital/clinic.
Answer · Maureen Watt: Meningococcal B (Men B) vaccination was introduced from 1 September 2015 for infants due to receive their primary immunisations starting at two months of age on or after 1 September 2015 (i.e. those babies born on or after 1 July 2015). The vaccine is offered…
23 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of meningitis B in children there have been in each NHS board in each year since 2010-11.
Answer · Maureen Watt: The meningococcal disease enhanced surveillance system at Health Protection Scotland (HPS) captures information on all meningococcal cases reported in Scotland. Due to the small numbers involved in some NHS boards, HPS only provides national data on meningoco…
9 Feb 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people aged 18 and over have attended A&E for (a) self-harm and (b) other psychiatric conditions in each NHS board in each of the last five years.
Answer · Shona Robison: The national source of A&E information is the Information Services Division (ISD) A&E data mart. Within the A&E data mart the facility exists to record attendances at A&E due to self harm and other psychiatric conditions. However, the fields which can be used…