- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 October 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what the current financial position is in relation to each of the integration joint boards and whether there are any budget overspends.
Answer
The Scottish Government reports to the Health and Sport
Committee on the financial position for all Integration
Authorities on a quarterly basis and the reports are publicly
available on the Scottish Parliament’s website:
The first two quarterly reports are available at:
The Scottish Government expects all Integration Authorities
to continue to develop their plans and work towards delivering
a balanced financial position and for the consolidated overspend
to reduce throughout the year as savings plans continue to be
developed, expenditure patterns become clearer and use of
reserves and additional financial support from partners is
confirmed. Additional funding from Health Boards to address
the overspend is factored in to the overall Health and Sport
Portfolio budget, which remains on track to deliver a balanced
outturn position.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 October 2018
To ask the Scottish Government when ministers first received notice of the communication sent by Dr Munwar Hussain to the NHS Tayside board around 27 June 2018 outlining whistleblowing concerns, and what action was taken as a result.
Answer
On 3 September 2018 I received an email from Munwar Hussain in which he wrote that, on 27 June 2018, he received an email from a former junior doctor about bullying allegations. He stated that he then informed NHS Tayside’s Chair. NHS Tayside confirmed that the bulling allegations relate to Adult Mental Health Services which are presently under General Medical Council Enhanced Monitoring measures, of which Scottish Government officials were already aware.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 October 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many breastfeeding services have been removed or closed since 2007, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
Information on local breastfeeding services is not held centrally. It is for each NHS Board to plan services to meet the needs of its population including how best to utilise funding, facilities and staff to deliver these services.
Maternity and Community services across NHSScotland are now fully accredited by Unicef UK as Baby Friendly. All Midwives, Health Visitors, Family Nurses and support staff have been trained and are competent to provide high quality feeding and relationship building care for mothers and babies in all their infant feeding decisions.
In Scotland. the proportion of babies being fed any breast milk at their first visit has increased slightly over the last 10 years.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 October 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many nurses working in the NHS in Scotland are resident in other parts of the UK.
Answer
The National Census data, which is held centrally by ISD Scotland, are for staff employed directly by NHSScotland and includes the postcode of residence.
Staff working as and when required, such as bank and agency staff, are excluded from this data capture.
At 30 th June 2018 census, this information was complete for 97.8% of census records for nursing and midwifery staff in post. Of the 68,111 staff (headcount) involved, 69 (0.1%) staff had a non-Scottish postcode of residence.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 October 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time to see a physiotherapist was in each NHS board in each year since 2007.
Answer
This information is not centrally held.
Musculoskeletal (MSK) waiting time data is collected to allow measurement of the allied health professional MSK target. Physiotherapy is one of the 4 MSK professions (physiotherapy, podiatry, occupational therapy and orhtotics) included and measured for this target. MSK physiotherapy data has been collected from July 2015 but only as NHS Boards were able to provide data of sufficient quality for publication. The MSK data is considered to be developmental.
Further information on waiting times can be found on the ISD website -
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 October 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish monthly updates on the financial position of integration joint boards.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-18974 on 2 October 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
The timing of financial reporting by individual Integration Authorities is aligned to the local release of information in to the public domain and associated with Board Meetings which generally take place every few months. For practical reasons there is currently no intention to increase the frequency of reporting from quarterly to monthly.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 1 October 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote the use of local natural stone in its buildings.
Answer
The Scottish Government estate comprises 73 buildings of which 18 are Crown owned. Of these 18 there are 2 that make use of local natural stone, these are Saint Andrew's House and Governor's House - both of which are Grade A listed properties in Edinburgh. There is a 'stone graveyard' situated in the grounds of Saint Andrew's House which allow replacement stones to weather over time. Both properties are surveyed annually in line with our Conservation Plan and should there be a need to replace any stone this is undertaken as part of Planned Maintenance for the properties.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 October 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that, where possible, public bodies use local natural stone in buildings.
Answer
As the lead public body for our historic environment Historic Environment Scotland (HES) promotes the use of traditional building materials (which can be locally sourced) in relation to the care and maintenance of historic building stock, where appropriate, including in relation to historic properties in the care of public bodies. HES works closely with the Scottish Stone Group and wider stone industry sector to support the production and use of natural Scottish stone. HES has an ongoing Collaborative Partnership Agreement with the British Geological Survey in order to promote the use and production of natural stone in Scotland. As part of this Agreement, HES launched a publicly accessible Building Stone Database for Scotland in June 2018 to provide information on historic and current sources of traditionally used building stone across Scotland.
As part of the organisation's Action Framework for traditional building materials, due to be finalised later this year, HES is committing to producing guidance on the specification and procurement of traditional Scottish materials, including stone, for public bodies. HES has also produced a ‘Managing Change in the Historic Environment guidance note on External Walls’ which acknowledges local materials and traditions as an important element in defining the character of the building in question. The guidance note also promotes maintenance and appropriate repair as the best means of safeguarding the character of historic buildings.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 September 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with local authorities to promote the use of locally sourced stone in buildings and in streetscapes.
Answer
Scotland’s built environment has a rich legacy of the innovative use of stone and we are keen to capitalise on and promote the use of our national assets wherever possible. The then-Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy met with the three founders of the Scottish Stone Group in November 2017, which was established to raise awareness of locally sourced stone.
Although it is for local authorities to determine where to source materials the Scottish Government’s architecture and planning policies encourage new development that responds appropriately to its context and which reinforces local identity and character. The use of appropriate materials is recognised as a key consideration in this.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 September 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many clinicians have used the Peer Approved Clinical System (PACS) Tier Two system to apply for the breast cancer drug, Perjeta, and how many applications have been approved.
Answer
Data collection processes connected to the introduction of PACS Tier Two are currently in progress. Initial PACS Tier Two application statistics will be made available as part of the previously announced reviews of the process after six and twelve months.
The first set of quarterly statistics are expected by mid-October.