Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-07019

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what psychological support services are available to young people with inflammatory bowel disease who are moving from paediatric to adult care.

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to respond to the physical and mental health needs of their population. To assist in providing effective, evidence-based treatments, the Scottish Government provides funding to NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to host the ‘The Matrix: A Guide to Delivering Evidence-based Psychological Therapies in Scotland’, an evidence-based guide for NHS boards on effective psychological treatments for a range of mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, which people with effects from inflammatory bowel disease may experience.

Crohn’s and Colitis UK’s report ‘Scotland Leading The Way: a National Blueprint for Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Scotland’, launched with the support of the Scottish Government in June 2016, also contains best practice recommendations related to improving psychological support for IBD patients.

Question reference: S5W-07014

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce geographic variation in transition services from paediatric to adult care for young people with long-term conditions.

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to have well-structured transition arrangements in place, which meet the needs of their local population, regardless of where in Scotland the young person lives, as outlined in Better Health, Better Care: Hospital Services for Young People in Scotland published on 5 May 2009.

Additionally, The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 contains duties and provisions in relation to developing and delivering statutory Child’s Plans. Guidance will be developed to support transition throughout the life course within and between services for children that require a Childs Plan. It is good practice for the Child’s Plan to proactively plan for transition and the management of transition. Health boards and partners will be required to develop policies, procedures and practice to meet the duties and provisions prior to them coming into force.

The National Clinical Strategy sets out why the NHS in Scotland needs to adapt in the face of increasing and changing demand, along with significant constraints in terms of workforce and finances. The strategy sits alongside the Health and Social Care Integration and GIRFEC to ensure that there is a comprehensive approach to both improving the health of the population, and the healthcare available.

Its foundation is to provide care as locally as possible through a whole-team, community-based approach which is vital to the future of the NHS, allowing people to continue to be treated close to home, or in their home, in the majority of cases.

Question reference: S5W-07162

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have hepatitis C, and how many of them have been reviewed for treatment.

The latest Health Protection Scotland estimate from 2015 is that there were 35,900 people in Scotland living with chronic hepatitis C.

Approximately 8,600 people have been initiated on Hepatitis C Virus therapy since the launch of Scotland’s Hepatitis C Action Plan Phase II in 2008. This has contributed to a significant fall in the total number of infected people in Scotland, a reduction from a peak of 39,000 in 2009.

Question reference: S5W-06987

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations set out in the report, The Best Start: A Five-Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland, what investment it is providing to support transport services for neonatal care.

Work is underway to plan for implementation of the recommendations in The Best Start. We will take this planning work forward in partnership with boards, including the Scottish Ambulance Service to develop a comprehensive understanding of the resource implications of the recommendations.

The Scottish Ambulance Service, through funding from the Scottish Government and NHS boards, deliver the ScotSTAR (Scottish Specialist Transport and Retrieval) Service. The service undertakes all neonatal transfers providing a safe and dedicated transport service for a group who, because of their clinical condition, may require an augmented clinical team during transport.

Question reference: S5W-06958

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02629 by Aileen Campbell on 27 September 2016, what the timescale is for the work with NHS Borders, its spread across Scotland and the public facing campaign.

Question reference: S5W-06784

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 500 new health visitors that it announced in June 2014 will be in post by 2017-18.

Question reference: S5W-06762

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported increase in housebreaking across Edinburgh.

Day to day decisions on policing matters are a matter for Police Scotland, with the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority. Police Scotland continue to tackle housebreaking through the City’s dedicated housebreaking team and a range of tactics and measures to best serve Edinburgh’s communities. Police Scotland are also delivering local home security conferences and working with partners across the city to tackle the issue of break-ins and pursue offenders.

Question reference: S5O-00736

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that schools have adequate numbers of support staff.

Question reference: S5W-06783

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many multiple burials have taken place in Scotland in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

It is the responsibility of individual burial authorities to maintain accurate burial records and registers. The information requested is, therefore, not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The figures in the table have been provided for local authority burial authorities. No information is held for private burial authorities. The figures show where more than one burial has taken place in the same lair at the same time. These figures do not include the interment of ashes or shared burial for early pregnancy loss.

Local Authority

99

00

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Aberdeenshire

Do not hold the information for these years

1

2

Argyll and Bute													1
Dumfries & Galloway	1	1	1	1	2		1	1			2	3	1	2		1
East Dunbartonshire		3														1
East Lothian	1	1			1	1				2			2
Inverclyde				1				1					1			1	1	2
North Lanarkshire	2		1	1	2							1	3	1	4	1	1	1
Perth & Kinross									3					2
Scottish Borders		1													1			1
Shetland Islands						2			2
Stirling																	2	1
Western Isles							1											1

No multiple burials took place in Angus, Edinburgh, Glasgow, highland, Moray and Orkney Islands in the time scale.

The information is not recorded by Aberdeen City, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, Fife, South Lanarkshire, and South Dunbartonshire. The information could only be obtained by carrying out a physical search of all the paper based burial registers in North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and West Lothian.

No response was received from Falkirk, Midlothian and Renfrewshire councils.

Question reference: S5W-06952

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been involving cases of people shining (a) laser pens and (b) other laser devices at transport operators in each year since 1999, broken down by transport type.

The information requested cannot be identified from the Criminal Proceedings database. Offences involving cases of people shining (a) laser pens and (b) other laser devices at transport operators would be prosecuted under either the common law offence of culpable and reckless conduct or, with regards to aircraft, as a contravention of a statutory Air Navigation Order. In addition, legislation does not separately identify lasers from other lights and our database does not contain further detail with regards to the common law offence.

The Scottish Government holds information on the number of convictions under the air navigation order 2009 (Article 222). The following table contains data on convictions for offences relating to endangering aircraft and lights which dazzle or distract.

	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2014-15	2015-16
THE AIR NAVIGATION ORDER 2009 ARTICLE 222	1	1	2	1	1

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

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