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: S5W-03982

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to tackle childhood obesity levels and for maintaining healthy child weight in each of the last five years, also broken down by NHS Board.

The Scottish Government has provided the following funding to NHS Boards for tackling childhood obesity and child healthy weight since 2012-13.

NHS Board	2012-13 allocation £	2013-14 allocation £	2014-15 allocation £	2015-16 allocation £
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	147,281	147,000	142,750	139,790
NHS Borders	59,273	59,000	58,127	57,591
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	74,705	74,000	72,257	71,084
NHS Fife	138,684	138,000	131,603	129,477
NHS Forth Valley	115,581	115,000	110,565	109,247
NHS Grampian	181,460	181,000	178,389	176,815
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	427,116	427,000	381,390	370,003
NHS Highland	129,259	129,00	126,893	125,092
NHS Lanarkshire	206,325	206,000	219,837	217,119
NHS Lothian	266,113	266,000	250,458	248,158
NHS Orkney	32,005	32,000	32,963	32,542
NHS Shetland	32,396	32,000	32,563	32,5471
NHS Tayside	154,369	154,000	146,361	143,988
NHS Western Isles	35,434	35,000	35,990	35,623
Total	2,000,001	1,995,000	1,919,849	1,889,000

The 2016-17 Budget introduced an Outcomes Framework, a single source of funding to NHS Boards for a number of strategic priorities such as prevention and reducing inequalities. It amalgamates a number of individual funding allocations into a single allocation with a value of £161.2 million across all NHS Boards. Funding for child healthy weigh is included in the Outcomes Framework. NHS Boards have the flexibility to meet agreed outcomes within the overall framework value with individual programmes losing their financial identity.

Question reference: S5O-00310

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the Director of ScotRail and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-03713

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many radiotherapy specialists there are, broken down by NHS board.

The number of consultant clinical radiologists in NHS Scotland has increased by 43.1 per cent under this Government, to 320.0 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE). The number of therapeutic radiographers has also increased, by 22.1 per cent to 274.2 WTE.

It is not possible to accurately identify all staff defined as ‘radiotherapy specialists’ – either wholly or as part of their role – from centrally held data due to the multi-disciplinary roles involved in the delivery of radiotherapy services.

However, we are continuing to work closely with NHS Boards to support their efforts in recruitment within cancer services to meet the needs of patients, and to deliver a safe and sustainable service.

Question reference: S5W-03712

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many new training places have been created to meet its pledge to recruit an extra 100 radiotherapy specialists.

Additional specialist posts for radiotherapy healthcare professionals will be created over time to meet projected demand. Planning for these including training capacity will be a matter for NHS Boards based on the advice of the recently established radiotherapy subgroup. This group is responsible for identifying and agreeing a national direction of travel for access to modern radiotherapy treatments and agreeing a collaborative approach to delivering these treatments across all five Scottish Cancer Centres.

Question reference: S5W-03591

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government who it consulted regarding kidney cancer when preparing its cancer strategy, and for what reasons the strategy did not include specific actions on improving outcomes for people with kidney cancer.

A range of health care professionals, third sector and advocacy groups were involved during the drafting of the strategy.

Our ‘Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action’ strategy and the accompanying
£100 million investment over 5 years, serves as a blueprint for the future of cancer services in Scotland, improving the prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and aftercare of people affected by all cancers. This work links with our tobacco control strategy and the Prevention of Obesity Route Map as evidence shows that smoking and obesity are two of the biggest risk factors for renal cancer.

Question reference: S5W-03763

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what communication it has had with (a) NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (b) the Scottish Health Council regarding (i) Lightburn and (ii) the Vale of Leven Hospital since May 2015.

Ministers and Government officials regularly communicate with representatives of all health boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde; to discuss matters of importance to local people. As part of this, any discussions about potential service change take place within the context of the well-established and long-standing process, set out in the national guidance 'Informing, Engaging and Consulting People in Developing Health and Community Care Services' (2010) available at:

Question reference: S5W-03766

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the capital investment in Lightburn Hospital since May 2007, including the work that was carried out and the total cost.

Question reference: S5W-03592

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it will improve treatment waiting times for people with kidney cancer to ensure that the renal Quality Performance Indicator target for 70% of patients with advanced or metastatic kidney cancer to receive systemic therapy within 12 months of their diagnosis is met.

Question reference: S5W-03394

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what saving targets the NHS has identified for each of the next five years, also broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-03402

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how often the NHS procurement process is audited and by whom, also broken down by the outcome of last audit for each NHS board.

NHS National Procurement are the appointed Centre of Expertise for auditing procurement processes at each Health Board as part of the annual capability review. In addition to this, all Health Boards have Internal Auditors, who will include procurement in their routine programme of work.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information regarding the latest audit for each Health Board – this information is retained locally.