Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for ��˿�� to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6O-00900

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will remove the provisions on the extension of emergency powers from the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S6W-07066

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many disabled people have achieved (a) full-time and (b) part-time employment as a result of its A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People - Employment Action Plan.

Our aim is to at least halve the disability employment gap (DEG) by 2038. The number of disabled people (16-64 years) in full-time employment in Scotland is estimated to have increased from 180,000 in Jan-Dec 2016 to 217,600 in Jan-Dec 2020; with the number of disabled people in part-time employment increasing from 96,500 in Jan-Dec 2016 to 117,600 in Jan-Dec 2020.

A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan outlined the initial actions we would take to help meet the ambition to at least halve the DEG. The action plan includes commitments that relate to direct delivery of employability support and where data is currently available regarding the number of disabled people supported to achieve employment, this is provided below:

• Fair Start Scotland (FSS) latest statistics (published 23 Feb 22) show that 44% (18,352) of participants reported having a disability and 63% (26,316) reported having a long-term health condition. 31% of disabled people on FSS has so far started a job (4,065);

• No one Left Behind, including the Parental Employment Support fund (PESF) has supported 2,160 parents. 13% of parents reported having a disability (280) (experimental statistics).

The plan also includes a range of other cross cutting measures tackling the structural barriers that prevent many disabled people from entering and/or sustaining fair work, such as:

• supporting young disabled people and transitions delivered through the Young Person’s Guarantee;

• improving and increasing accessibility of public transport delivered through the Accessible Travel Framework;

• supporting employers to improve their recruitment and retention practices for example through the Public Social Partnership Apt; and

• seeking to maximise opportunities to support disabled people’s employment through available regulatory tools and mechanisms, such as the sustainable procurement duty.

When considering the population level disability employment gap clear progress has been made since we set out our ambition. The narrative updates are provided of the impact of these actions in our Year one and two progress reports .

Question reference: S6W-07065

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how its A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People - Employment Action Plan helps encourage disabled people into the labour market.

A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People - Employment Action Plan' is focused on tackling the structural barriers that prevent, or make it more difficult, for disabled people to enter the labour market and sustain fair work. Our actions to tackle these barriers are agreed with our stakeholders including disabled people’s organisations, and include:

We have invested £640,000 to date into Apt, our Public Social Partnership to work with employers to improve recruitment and retention, offering direct support to employers to enhance practice and the support provided to disabled employees. This includes 174 training sessions to employers across the length and breadth of Scotland, reaching 230 unique organisations, to enable them to attract, recruit or retain disabled employees.

Through the Parental Employment Support Fund (PESF) - as part of No one Left Behind - across all 32 local authorities we have invested £18.1m up to 2021-22, to support parents in households impacted by child poverty, including disabled parents, to access or progress in work. £6.1m of this funding has specifically focused on supporting unemployed disabled parents. PESF will be supported by a further £8.79m in 2022-23. Experimental Statistics show that 2,160 parents have been supported. 13% of parents reported having a disability (280).

Disabled people are a priority eligibility group for Fair Start Scotland (FSS) . The latest statistics (published 23 Feb 22) show that 44% (18,352) of participants reported having a disability and 63% (26,316) reported having a long-term health condition. 31% of disabled people on FSS has so far started a job (4,065)

The Workplace Equality Fund (WEF) opened for new applications on 17 Jan 2022, and is focused on providing financial support for employers to address longstanding barriers in the labour market that particular priority groups, including disabled people, experience. The fund supports collaborative projects which seek to improve equality-related outcomes for priority groups and create a more inclusive working environment. An evaluation of the WEF found that 96% of businesses found WEF well received.

For those requiring more intensive support to enter and sustain employment (including people with mental health issues and/or learning disabilities) Individual Placement and Support and Supported Employment are available through Fair Start Scotland and No One Left Behind.

Question reference: S6W-06759

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S6W-01709 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021, how many people have been diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in (a) the Dumbarton constituency and (b) Scotland, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-06758

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01709 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021, what proportion of metastatic breast cancer patients are first diagnosed through GP referral.

Question reference: S6W-06761

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S6W-01709 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021, what proportion of metastatic breast cancer patients are first diagnosed through emergency presentation.

Question reference: S6W-06760

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S6W-01709 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021, how many people have been diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in each of the last 10 years, and of those, how many people were diagnosed (a) less than and (b) more than five years after a diagnosis of primary breast cancer.

Question reference: S6W-07012

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what resources are being made available to NHS boards to help patients on their orthopaedic surgery waiting lists to remain healthy enough to be operated on, while they are waiting.

A procurement process is underway for a web-based PROMS system to track the condition of long-waiting patients. Information and resources are being updated on NHS inform, and some joint work is ongoing with Versus Arthritis.

Earlier this year, the Scottish Government announced an extra £240,000 through the Chronic Pain Winter Support Fund to help 13 Scottish Government-funded projects across Health Boards, third-sector and other partners to enhance the support available for people with chronic pain. The money will go towards a range of services for people experiencing painful conditions, including those with knee pain, and also provide support to help people remain physically active.

Question reference: S6W-07002

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to advising NHS boards to follow NICE guideline 158 on the diagnosis, management and secondary prevention of venous thromboembolism in adults, published in 2020, until SIGN guideline 122 is updated.

Clinical guideline implementation is the responsibility of NHS Boards. The ultimate decision about a particular clinical procedure or treatment will always depend on each individual patient’s condition, circumstances and wishes, and the clinical judgement of the healthcare team.

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines have primacy in Scotland however NHS Boards and Integration Authorities may also choose to consider National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines in the planning and delivering services. Where there is not a current SIGN guideline in place Boards are expected to use other guidelines, such as NICE.

The decision to create, update and/or replace any SIGN guideline is not made by Scottish Government, it is made independently by the Evidence Directorate Work Programme Committee in Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). Proposed guidelines under consideration can be found on the SIGN website: .

Question reference: S6W-07013

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are currently waiting for hip or knee replacement surgery in each NHS board.

Table 1 presents the number of patients covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) waiting for a hip or knee replacement procedure within an inpatient or day-case setting by NHS Board at 31 st December 2021.

Table 1: Number of patients waiting for a hip or knee replacement procedure 1,2 as an inpatient or day case at 31 st December 2021, by NHS Board.

NHS Board	Waiting for hip replacement	Waiting for knee replacement	Total waiting
NHS Scotland	7,899	9,228	17,127
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	680	789	1,469
NHS Borders	236	242	478
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	208	190	398
NHS Fife	410	422	832
NHS Forth Valley	219	239	458
NHS Grampian	990	1,138	2,128
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	2,292	2,923	5,215
NHS Highland*	..	..	..
NHS Lanarkshire	653	825	1,478
NHS Lothian	1,346	1,546	2,892
NHS Orkney	50	38	88
NHS Shetland	0	36	36
NHS Tayside	776	786	1,562
NHS Western Isles	39	54	93

Source: PHS Waiting Times Datamart

1 NHS Highland do not submit procedure level detail (OPCS4 codes) to the Waiting Times Datamart. Some other Boards have less than 100% completeness for this field. Therefore, figures for NHS Scotland are a potential underestimate.

2 See background notes for specific OPCS4 codes used in this analysis