Parliamentary questions
Miles Briggs
4,209 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
23 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the amount of outstanding council tax arears in each local authority in the Lothian parliamentary region.
Answer · Derek Mackay: Council Tax is a local tax and therefore it is for individual Councils to take all practical steps and use their powers to collect the unpaid tax due to them, especially in cases where households are wilfully avoiding payment as this is unfair on the overwhel…
17 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to reduce so-called holiday hunger among children, and what support it provides to sport, youth and voluntary organisations to help address the issue.
Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to the answers to questions S5W-07878 and S5W-07879 on 15 March 2017 and 21 March 2017 respectively. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: ht…
17 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages football and rugby clubs to allow their facilities to be used by sport-based youth schemes and programmes.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The Scottish Government, through the national agency for sport, sportscotland, work with the sporting governing bodies to encourage their clubs, including football and rugby, to open their facilities for community based sporting groups. We are also working w…
17 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to reduce workplace discrimination against people with mental health conditions. and whether it plans to introduce changes to its equalities legislation with regard to this.
Answer · Maureen Watt: The Scottish Government provides funding to NHS Health Scotland to work with employers to provide appropriate training opportunities to support workplace mental health and wellbeing: this offers opportunities for employers to support and implement policies on…
8 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-08529 by Aileen Campbell on 2 May 2017, whether there has been a change to the practice of NHS boards providing information regarding the number of people who are treated separately from those attending chronic pain clinics and, if (a) so, for what …
Answer · Aileen Campbell: There has been no change to the practice of NHS boards providing information regarding the number of people who are treated separately from those attending pain clinics. The number of patients seen, as published by ISD quarterly, are the number of patients wh…
3 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government which hospitals have (a) temporarily and (b) fully closed in each year since 2007.
Answer · Shona Robison: The following table lists NHS facilities which have fully closed in each year since 2007, information on NHS facilities which have closed temporarily is not centrally available. The services provided from these hospitals, will have been re-provided in an alt…
2 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how parents of children with cleft lip and palate who consider that their views are not represented by the Cleft Lip and Palate Association or Changing Faces are being consulted about the centralisation of cleft lip and palate surgical services during the transition period.
Answer · Shona Robison: It is understood that NHS Lothian and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have already written to all patients and parents known to cleft surgery services, to update them on the transition to a single site cleft surgery service. National Services Division have al…
2 May 2017 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on plans to increase the capacity of the Edinburgh city bypass.
26 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Missing Millions campaign by the charity, MEAction, which represents people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The Scottish Government appreciates the role played by third sector organisations, and associated campaigns, which aim to provide support and information to people living with conditions such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Scottish Government has a good relat…
26 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and what plans it has to review the effectiveness of this.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: It is the role of the Scottish Government to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards so they can deliver services that meet the needs of their local populations. The provision of healthcare services is the responsibility of local Boards, taki…
26 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support healthcare professionals in developing their understanding of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The Scottish Government has recently provided funding to Action for M.E. to enable them to take forward a 12 month project. The Inform ME Scotland project will reach out to health and social care professionals and engage them in discussions about how to impro…
26 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to fund biomedical research into myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).
Answer · Aileen Campbell: Researchers can apply to the Chief Scientist Office for funding. The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committees each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of t…
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to women under 25 who have been referred for a smear test, and how many referrals there have been in each year since 1999.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Cancer/Publications/2016-09-06/2016-09-06-Cervical-Screening-Report.pdf? Data for the number symptomatic referrals is not held centrally.
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many mentors have been allocated to GPs who have been suspended in each year since 1999.
Answer · Shona Robison: This information is not held centrally. Specific local information will be available from individual NHSScotland Health Boards, including details of local governance arrangements.
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many attacks on NHS staff there have been in each year since 1999.
Answer · Shona Robison: The requested information is not held centrally. Any violence or aggression against NHSScotland staff is unacceptable and we have policies in place to provide and continuously improve a safe working environment. Details can be found at the following link:-ht…
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) intensive-care and (b) non-intensive care beds there have been in each hospital in each year since 1999.
Answer · Shona Robison: Information on the number of intensive-care and non-intensive care beds is provided for each hospital between 2003 and 2016. The tables are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 58740).
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many GPs (a) use and (b) do not use Vision Online Services.
Answer · Shona Robison: 198 GP practices use Vision Online Services. 775 GP practices are not currently using Vision Online Services.
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many civil servants have been involved with its plans for a second independence referendum, and how much it has cost to deploy them.
Answer · Derek Mackay: The work that has been undertaken to date has been carried out by existing members of staff as part of their normal duties. In line with usual practice, no record has been taken of the number staff who have been involved in this work or the number of hours sp…
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many beds there have been in each maternity unit in each year since 1999.
Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: A table has been supplied to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre which provides the information you have requested (Bib number 59907). The Best Start: A Five-Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland? was published in 2017 and aims…
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many GPs have been suspended in each year since 1999, and how many reports regarding these suspensions it has received.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government does not hold official statistics on the number of, or reason for, suspensions within NHSScotland. Specific local information will be available from individual NHSScotland Health Boards.
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children under one have had teeth extracted in each year since 1999.
Answer · Shona Robison: The following table shows the number of children under 1 year of age who have had teeth extracted: Year Number 2000-01 40 2001-02 33 2002-03 25 2003-04 19 2004-05 33 2005-06 22 2006-07 24 2007-08 28 2008-09 20 2009-10 16 2010-11 15 20…
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many unplanned pregnancies have presented at (a) A&E and (b) maternity units in each year since 1999.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: This information is not held centrally.
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many on-call NHS services have been put out to private tender.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many on-call NHS services have been put out to private tender. The Scottish Government funds NHS 24, a special health board, to provide the 111 service in Scotland. There is a private tender process fo…
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many beds have been used in other acute settings because of a shortage of maternity beds in each year since 1999, also broken down by the unit that reported the shortage.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: This information is not held centrally.
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the average time for a drug to be assessed by the Scottish Medicines Consurtium has been in each year since 1999.
Answer · Shona Robison: Since the Scottish Medicine Consortium’s establishment in 2002 the usual assessment time between receipt of the pharmaceutical company’s submission and the release of advice to NHS Scotland for the majority of medicines has been 14 weeks. Where a pharmaceut…
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many women identified as being "high risk" have been sent home from maternity units in each year since 1999.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: This information is not held centrally.
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-28016 by Fiona Hyslop on 30 October 2015, whether it will provide the information that was requested for the period since the response was issued.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: This is a matter for Creative Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally. I have asked the Chief Executive, Janet Archer, to respond directly to the member.
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on conducting a cost-benefit analysis of the introduction of antibiotic tests in the primary care sector, and whether it has assessed the effectiveness of such testing in other countries.
Answer · Shona Robison: Prescribing of systemic antibacterials in primary care has reduced for the third year running and we continue to take forward plans to limit the threat of immunity to antibiotics and drug resistance in Scotland. Scotland’s work on Antimicrobial Resistance (A…
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-08627 by John Swinney on 24 April 2017, whether it will provide the information broken down by (a) primary, (b) secondary and (c) special school.
Answer · John Swinney: Data detailing spending on additional support for learning is collected from local authorities via the Local Financial Returns (LFR). There are four years of data available on spending for additional support for learning, from 2012-13 to 2015-16. As highligh…
25 Apr 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Lothian regarding expanding the capacity of A&E services at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
Answer · Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-08980 on 10 May 2017. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/288…