Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-19996

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the recommendations in the report by the charity, Bliss, It’s not a game: the very real costs of having a premature or sick baby.

The Bliss report contains a number of recommendations on reserved issues such as extending maternity leave and advice for employers which are, therefore, a matter for the UK Government. Neonatal Care in Scotland: A Quality Framework, published on 5 March 2013, sets out the requirements for the provision of high quality dedicated family friendly facilities appropriate for parents and families of babies in neonatal care.

We expect boards to determine how to meet those requirements as they work towards full implementation of the framework over a five to 10 year timescale.

Question reference: S4W-19507

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what submission it has made to the independent review of standardised packaging for tobacco, which is being carried out by Sir Cyril Chantler.

Question reference: S4W-19506

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made on whether its proposed introduction of standardised tobacco packaging could impact on the UK's world trade obligations.

Question reference: S4W-19505

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it has sought on whether standardised tobacco packaging could result in it paying compensation to manufacturers because of an impact on intellectual property rights.

The tobacco industry has a history of challenging public health measures as it did, unsuccessfully, with the tobacco display ban. The Scottish Government is committed to achieving our vision of a tobacco-free Scotland by 2034. Scottish Ministers are clear that standardised packaging has a role in achieving this and on 28 January 2014 the Scottish Parliament agreed a Legislative Consent Motion allowing the Scottish Government to work with the UK Government to legislate on tobacco packaging.

Question reference: S4W-19452

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 24 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when the report of the independent review on how continuing healthcare is being applied will be published and when it will respond.

Question reference: S4W-19492

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-19228 by Michael Matheson on 29 January 2014, whether it plans to retrospectively reclaim payments for duplicate dental registrations from NHS general dentists who have retired since 2006 or are otherwise no longer in business and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Practitioner Services, which has the responsibility for making recoveries for duplicate registration payments, will not be seeking to make recoveries from retired and deceased dentists.

Practitioner Services have applied to Scottish Ministers to exempt retired and deceased dentists from the recovery process. This exemption has been granted. On the advice of Practitioner Services the cost and effort of recovering these overpayments, in comparison to other groupings of dentists, does not warrant the recovery of overpayments from retired and deceased dentists.

Question reference: S4W-19361

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 31 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what training the NHS provides on the diagnosis of the condition, progressive supranuclear palsy.

While policies, frameworks and resources are provided by the Scottish Government, individual NHS boards are responsible for planning and funding services in their area and for securing the staff to deliver them. It is for NHS boards to determine their workforce requirements, including training, based on the clinical needs and service developments in their area.

In determining workforce requirements, NHS boards must take into account their role in providing an appropriate training environment in which postgraduate medical trainees can gain the skills, knowledge and experience they require in order to fulfil the requirements of postgraduate training programmes. Such standards and requirements of such programmes are developed by relevant Medical Royal Colleges, and approved and monitored by the General Medical Council. This includes neurological conditions such as Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP).

Question reference: S4W-19231

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding the NHS has received arising from Barnett consequentials and what the increase in NHS spending over and above this has been, in each year since 2007.

Since 2011-12, the Scottish Government has passed on in full the Barnett consequentials to the Health Budget in Scotland which by 2015-16 will exceed £1.3 billion in total. These have arisen from the Department of Health’s funding settlement from both the 2010 UK Comprehensive Spending Review and the 2013 UK Spending Round and are detailed in the following table:

	Resource £billion
2011-12	0.280
2012-13	0.249
2013-14	0.293
2014-15	0.284
2015-16	0.202
Total	1.308

Prior to 2011-12, Barnett consequentials accrued to the Scottish block as a whole and therefore the benefit to the health budget cannot be individually identified. However the following table details health’s resource budget from 2007-08 and clearly demonstrates the significant additional investment which has been made since 2007-08:

	Resource Budget	Increase
	£b	£b
2007-08	9.716	-
2008-09	10.122	0.406
2009-10	10.442	0.320
2010-11	10.501	0.059
2011-12	10.781	0.280
2012-13	11.030	0.249
2013-14	11.322	0.292
2014-15	11.606	0.285
2015-16	11.808	0.202
Total		2.092

Note: care should be taken when making year-on-year comparisons as figures are subject to change through policy and accounting treatments adjustments e.g. in 2010-11 HM Treasury withdrew £125 million from the Scottish health budget (the associated expenditure was also removed to ensure a neutral effect) due to accounting treatment changes in relation to the cost of capital.

Question reference: S4W-19229

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 29 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when Practitioner Services plans to start collecting repayments from NHS general dentists for duplicate dental registrations from 2010.

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