Parliamentary questions
Anas Sarwar
601 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
13 Jul 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many acute ischaemic stroke patients it estimates will receive mechanical thrombectomy treatment in 2017-18, broken down by the centre performing the procedure.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: Thrombectomy is a highly specialised procedure. We anticipate that the number of thrombectomies for 2017-18 will be similar to provision in 2016-17. The Department of Clinical Neurosciences currently based at Western General Hospital in Edinburgh performed 12…
10 Jul 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the indirect costs associated with poor diabetes management.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The Scottish Government does not hold estimates of the indirect costs associated with poor diabetes management in Scotland. For the UK, indirect costs were estimated by the York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) at £13.9bn in 2010-11 (£0.9bn for Type 1 and £…
10 Jul 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how progress against the 2014 Diabetes Improvement Plan is being measured, and at what intervals data on progress will be published.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: Progress against the Scottish Diabetes Improvement Plan 2014 is being measured through the work plan actions of the Scottish Diabetes Group (SDG). An overall summary of completed actions will be published in the Autumn and updated each year going forward. Pu…
10 Jul 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the number of isotopes (a) used and (b) stored by the NHS between 2010 and 2016.
Answer · Shona Robison: This information is not held centrally.
28 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason its response to the Report of Independent Advisory Group on Hate Crime, Prejudice and Community Cohesion makes no reference to Islamophobia or anti-Muslim acts.
Answer · Angela Constance: We are clear that there is absolutely no place for prejudice in Scotland, and that includes anti-Muslim prejudice and Islamophobia. Any form of hate crime is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The Scottish Government is committed to building strong, re…
28 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of all NHS-related strategy documents that have been published since 2010.
Answer · Shona Robison: The information requested is accessible in the public domain at www.gov.scot/publications. This link provides a search facility for all Scottish Government publications and can be filtered by subject area and publication year.
23 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to implement the recommendations in The Best Start: A Five-Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland.
Answer · Shona Robison: Following publication of ‘The Best Start: A Five Year Forward plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland’ on 20 January 2017, Jane Grant, Chief Executive, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was appointed on 21 February 2017 to lead the implementation of the …
23 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it will resource the next stage of the Scottish Maternity and Neonatal Services Review, including funding the implementation of the review’s recommendations.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Best Start – a Five Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Services report of the review was published on 20 January 2017. The report outlines that it is anticipated that the majority of the recommendations will either be cost neutral or have minor …
22 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the removal of information on pain psychology services from the Information Services Division's Waiting Times Summary and how this complies with its policies on (a) openness and transparancy regarding mental health services and (b) respect for the NHS workforce.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The content of publication summaries can and does change between each release following review of what the key messages are. NHS ISD is always happy to receive feedback on the content of the information released. The full information continues to be publis…
22 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason pain psychology services were downgraded in the Information Services Division's Waiting Times Summary of 13 June 2017, which has removed most of the information, until the last year, regarding the mental health work of pain psychology clinics, and whether it will rectify …
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The full data on pain psychology services continues to be published by NHS ISD in excel tables on their website: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/index.asp. The content of publication summaries can and does change between …
22 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what communication it has had with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde regarding the maintenance of Lightburn Hospital; when and how any communication took place, and what additional resources were provided for any work that was required.
Answer · Shona Robison: Both Ministers and Scottish Government officials have communicated with representatives of NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde before and since the decision was taken to refuse the previous proposals to close Lightburn Hospital in 2011. In terms of the provision of r…
19 Jun 2017 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's decision to close Lightburn Hospital, when it will make a decision on the hospital's future.
Answer · Shona Robison: I expect to receive the Board’s formal submission shortly and will take the time necessary to properly consider it alongside other information and representations.
15 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it holds information on the (a) faith group, (b) gender, (c) race and (d) country of origin of the perpetrators of (i) racist and (ii) religious hate crime and, if not, what its position is on collecting such information when implementing the recommendations of the Independent Ad…
Answer · Annabelle Ewing: The Scottish Government report “Religiously Aggravated Offending in Scotland 2016-2017” includes information on the gender of the accused for religious aggravation charges reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal (COPFS). This information is derived…
15 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07442 by Annabelle Ewing on 13 March 2017, whether it is possible to gather information on racist hate crime from the recorded crime database.
Answer · Annabelle Ewing: It is not possible to gather information on all racist offending from the recorded crime database. Information is available on the offences of racially aggravated harassment and racially aggravated conduct, however this does not include cases where racism was…
15 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07442 by Annabelle Ewing on 13 March 2017, for what reason (a) it and (b) the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service does not hold information on the faith group, gender, race, or country of origin of victims of racist or religious hate crime, a…
Answer · Annabelle Ewing: The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and Scottish Government’s statistics on court proceedings are derived from IT systems designed to facilitate operational needs of reporting crime and prosecuting individuals. These systems were not primar…
14 Jun 2017 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde were not treated within the legally guaranteed treatment waiting time in 2016.
12 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on making it compulsory for people who administer dermal fillers to be registered.
Answer · Shona Robison: In April 2015, the Scottish Cosmetic Interventions Expert Group (SCEIG) published a report on regulation of independent healthcare and its recommendations were accepted by Ministers. Since implementation of Phase 1 of regulation on 1 April 2016, independent c…
12 Jun 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps Health Improvement Scotland is taking to ensure that only registered clinicians administer treatments such as botox and dermal fillers.
Answer · Shona Robison: Botulinum toxin is a prescription medicine and can therefore only be administered by an appropriate practitioner or by anyone acting in accordance with the directions of an appropriate practitioner. The same does not apply to dermal fillers. However, indepen…
7 Jun 2017 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many nursing vacancies there are in the NHS, and how this compares with 2007.
22 May 2017 · First Minister's Question
To ask the First Minister, in light of her expressing the view that the NHS pay cap is "unsustainable", whether the Scottish Government will provide details of the submission it made to the pay review body.
15 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on 16 May 2017 (Official Report, c. 4), when it acted on the alert issued by Microsoft in March 2017; whether it will publish any warnings that it subsequently issued to departments and agencies for which it has resp…
Answer · Derek Mackay: The Scottish Government installs Microsoft updates across its core infrastructure as a minimum on a monthly basis. All Microsoft-based devices connected to the Scottish Government’s ICT network (SCOTS) before May’s Wannacrypt attack had this update applied. …
15 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on 16 May 2017 (Official Report, c. 4), what instructions the cabinet secretary issued prior to the recent cyber-attacks to (a) civil servants and (b) organisations and agencies for which she has responsibility, to i…
Answer · Shona Robison: Health boards all comply with the Scottish Government IT Security Framework and the Standards For Organisational Resilience. NHSScotland Chief Operating Officer issued a letter to Chief Executives of NHS boards on the 21 February 2017 asking that they confirm…
15 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on 16 May 2017 (Official Report, c. 4), whether it is responsible for NHS Scotland not taking sufficient action to prevent the recent cyber-attacks.
Answer · Shona Robison: NHS Scotland have a rolling programme of system replacement (hardware and software) along with robust policies and procedures which include local patching regimes at each board. The Scottish Government provides £100 million per annum to Health boards for IT i…
15 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on 16 May 2017 (Official Report, c. 4), for what reason it did not take pre-emptive action, similar to that taken in Wales, which might have prevented the recent cyber-attack affecting the NHS in Scotland.
Answer · Shona Robison: Many Boards were unaffected or had small numbers of devices affected. In February 2017 letter was issued asking Boards to confirm their approach to back-up procedures for an attack such as we experienced.
15 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on 16 May 2017 (Official Report, c. 4), whether it will publish details of any action it has taken in response to warnings issued by the National Cyber Security Centre regarding the need to protect services from hack…
Answer · Derek Mackay: The Scottish Government’s Cyber Security Operations Centre (C-SOC) monitors guidance and threat reports issued by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and takes appropriate action on relevant warnings. These actions include: taking relevant additional pr…
15 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on 16 May 2017 (Official Report, c. 4), whether it will list the departments and agencies for which it has responsibility that continue to use unsupported software systems.
Answer · Derek Mackay: Information related to support for Agency and NDPB systems not supported by the Scottish Government’s Information and Technology Services (iTECS) division is not held centrally.
15 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on 16 May 2017 (Official Report, c. 4), for what reason the NHS in Scotland was affected by the recent cyber-attacks when the NHS in Wales was not.
Answer · Shona Robison: Boards are currently carrying out their own internal reviews of why they were affected by this attack and to understand further lessons that can be learnt to increase their security.
15 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on 16 May 2017 (Official Report, c. 4), what contractual arrangements it put in place with Microsoft to provide customised support for Windows XP after Microsoft stopped issuing updates.
Answer · Derek Mackay: The Scottish Government’s ICT network (SCOTS) was migrated to Windows 7 in advance of Microsoft ending support for Windows XP, therefore no contractual arrangements were required for continued Windows XP support. Information on arrangements put in place by p…
15 May 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on 16 May 2017 (Official Report, c. 4), for what reason the NHS in Scotland still uses Windows XP.
Answer · Shona Robison: There will be some devices across the NHS estate that require operating systems such as Windows XP. A managed risk approach within each board will be taken around the continuing use of old software such as Windows XP. A rolling programme of system (hardware a…
9 May 2017 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government by what date the next phase of its benefit uptake campaign will begin; how long the phase will run, and who the target audience will be.