Parliamentary questions
Jamie Greene
1,978 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
21 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken to quantify the cost of obesity to the NHS, and whether it will publish the findings of any analysis.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The last published estimate of the cost of obesity in Scotland, by the Scottish Government , was for the Obesity Route Map in 2010. This can be found here http://www.gov.scot/resource/doc/302783/0094795.pdf . It is Appendix 2 in the document. Subsequently …
21 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many bicycle-related road traffic accidents have occurred in each year since 2012.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Reported Road Casualties Scotland provides information on injury road accidents reported to the police. The latest statistics available are up to 2016. The following table shows the number of injury accidents involving pedal cyclists by severity of the accid…
21 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken regarding the (a) costs and (b) benefits of the bike sharing scheme in (i) Glasgow and (ii) Edinburgh.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Decisions on bike sharing schemes are a matter for local authorities, and therefore also their responsibility to analyse costs and benefits for their local areas. The Scottish Government is supportive of such schemes that increase active travel and make our t…
21 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken regarding the effects of the recent severe weather on the running of trains, and what the specific reasons were for the weather preventing trains from running.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Our analysis has shown that the reduction in the number of ‘planned’ trains was a direct result of forecast severe weather. The Scottish Government and ScotRail placed an absolute priority on the safety of customers and staff. More specifically, this means: …
21 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many Smartcards are used each day on trains, and how much passengers spend using these.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However the most recent ScotRail figures we have shown that for the four weeks to 3 March 2018, 633,000 passenger journeys took place using Smart.
21 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what costs are incurred by publicly- (a) subsidised and (b) owned transportation each year as a result of damage to roads.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government does not hold this information.
21 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to make roads (a) safer and (b) more driver friendly, in light of reports that over a third of roads are in need of inspection or require work.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: It may be helpful to clarify responsibilities for the management of roads within Scotland. Transport Scotland is responsible for the management and maintenance of the strategic trunk road network including motorways, which is delivered through our operating c…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates it will spend in each of the next five years on non-emergency medical travel.
Answer · Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15440 on 10 April 2018. 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…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on hospital transportation, excluding ambulances, in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board area.
Answer · Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15440 on 10 April 2018. 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…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what cost-benefit analysis it has undertaken regarding subsidies for all travel to and from hospitals.
Answer · Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15440 on 10 April 2018. 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/…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken a cost-benefit analysis of charging patients for missed appointments.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government policy is clear that it has no intention to charge patients who miss appointments. There can be many reasons why a patient may not attend. For example if there was a family emergency. To put a system in place to charge patients for non…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the opportunity cost of missed appointments in relation to medical professionals' time being wasted.
Answer · Shona Robison: We expect Boards to continue to review the reasons why patients do not attend appointments and look for ways to improve their booking practices and clinic times such as running clinics at night or weekends as well as providing reminder services through text, …
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have missed medical appointments in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) category of health appointment.
Answer · Shona Robison: Information is collected centrally for missed appointments for a first outpatient consultations only. The following tables provide information on the number of first outpatient appointments and the number of patients who did not attend a first outpatient appo…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people made claims for refunds of transportation costs to hospitals through the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme in 2017, and what the total value was of these claims.
Answer · Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15440 on 10 April 2018. 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…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what strategies it has implemented to reduce the rate of missed medical appointments.
Answer · Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15438 on 18 April 2018. 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/…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people it estimates face transportation barriers when accessing healthcare.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government has ensured that there are a range of options available to patients requiring either clinical or financial travel assistance. This includes the Patient Transport Service provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service for those requiring c…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted a cost-benefit analysis of any expenditure on providing non-emergency medical transportation and, if so, what the results were.
Answer · Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15440 on 10 April 2018. 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/…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many medical appointments were missed in 2017.
Answer · Shona Robison: Information on missed appointments is collected centrally for first outpatient consultation only. There were 145,493 missed first outpatient appointments during the calendar year 2017 - this is from over 1.4 million new outpatient appointments undertaken duri…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people who missed a medical appointment in 2017 did so due to transportation issues.
Answer · Shona Robison: The specific information requested is not available centrally.
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of how ride-sharing apps could be used to (a) reduce CO2 emissions, (b) reduce surface deterioration on congestion roads and (c) better facilitate public services.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government has not carried out any research on the impact ride-sharing apps could have on reducing CO2 emissions, reducing surface deterioration on congested roads or better facilitation of public services.
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people use ride-sharing apps to travel to and from medical appointments.
Answer · Shona Robison: The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the cost was of patient taxis for non-emergency medical transport in 2017.
Answer · Shona Robison: The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government. Individual Boards are responsible for paying for or reimbursing the cost of patient travel, in accordance with their own patients’ travelling expenses scheme and within their overall baselin…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what funding it provides for non-emergency medical transportation for people who require it.
Answer · Shona Robison: Individual NHS Boards are responsible for paying for or reimbursing the cost of patient travel, in accordance with their own patients’ travelling expenses scheme policies and within their overall baseline budgets which are increasing by 3.7% in 2018-19 for fr…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken to evaluate the reasons for over 800,000 hospital appointments reportedly being missed in 2016.
Answer · Shona Robison: It is every patient's responsibility to keep their NHS appointment and it is important that they let the NHS know when they cannot attend. However, we also recognise that the NHS has to be flexible in helping make appointments convenient to patients. The Sco…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken regarding (a) the costs and (b) any social benefits of medical facilities partnering with ride-sharing companies to provide transportation to and from appointments.
Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government does not facilitate non emergency transport to healthcare facilities. This is a matter for individual frontline NHS Boards, in conjunction with the Scottish Ambulance Service and local authorities. There are also a number of community…
20 Mar 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to facilitate non-medical emergency transportation for people who require it.
Answer · Shona Robison: As part of its core funding from the Scottish Government, the Scottish Ambulance Service delivers the Patient Transport Service for patients who have a need for assistance from skilled clinical staff during transport to healthcare appointments. If the Scotti…
5 Mar 2018 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the resilience of the transport network to adverse winter weather.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Whilst we know severe weather will cause disruption, this Government has taken a wide range of steps to assess and improve our resilience to the challenges of winter, to mitigate its impacts and to recover our transport networks and get businesses and daily l…
27 Feb 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5T-00950 by Humza Yousaf (Official Report, c. 7), what assessment it has made of ScotRail's contingency plans and risk analysis in the event that further carriages in its rolling stock reach the end of lease contracts while the delivery of replacement …
Answer · Humza Yousaf: ScotRail is obliged to provide rolling stock to deliver its service provision and has already adjusted leases of existing rolling stock to mitigate against project slippage, it has also agreed leases for more trains during this franchise term and will continu…
27 Feb 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) Prestwick Airport and (b) Ryanair's senior management regarding recent announcements from the airline on changes to its operations at Glasgow Airport, and whether it expects changes to the airline's strategy in relation to the West of Scotland to affe…
Answer · Keith Brown: Glasgow Prestwick Airport is operated on a commercial basis and at arm’s length from the Scottish Government. Ministers do not intervene in commercial discussions between any airport and any airline. Decisions on where to base aircraft and which routes to ope…
26 Feb 2018 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to improve the passenger experience on ScotRail.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: The principle behind the Scottish Government’s record investment in Scotland’s railways, is to improve the passenger experience on our national ScotRail franchise. Over £475m is being invested in rolling stock, delivering an additional 200 carraiges to provid…