Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-13729

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether its plans to provide free abortion services to women travelling from Northern Ireland will include (a) the ability for women to book services remotely and (b) providing funding, where necessary, for (i) travel and (ii) accommodation for (A) the patient and (B) an accompanying person.

All mainland NHS Boards are able to provide advice by phone to women living in Northern Ireland who are considering travelling to Scotland to access abortion services . Contact information can be accessed at; http://www.sexualhealthscotland.co.uk/pregnancy/abortion-services-in-scotland-for-women-who-live-in-northern-ireland.

The Scottish Government recognises that women travelling from Northern Ireland face a range of barriers in accessing abortion services in Scotland. Work is on-going to explore what the Scottish Government could do to address these barriers

Question reference: S5W-13660

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made with its review of pathology and laboratory medicine services, and when it expects the review will be completed.

The review of pathology and laboratory medicine services forms a strand of the NHS National Services Scotland Shared Service programme of work. A strategy paper outlining the future direction of laboratories in Scotland was presented to the NHS Chief Executives Group on 8 August 2017 and this was subsequently approved. Three projects have progressed as part of the Shared Services laboratories programme; IT Connectivity, Data and the design of a Distributed Service Model.

The review of IT Connectivity and Data will be complete by the end of March 2018 with recommendations to be submitted to the NHS Chief Executives Group on 10 April 2018. Work continues with nominated laboratory leads from the three regions to align the national and regional work plans to design a Distributed Service Model for laboratories in Scotland.

Laboratory medicine is critical to NHS in supporting the delivery of high quality patient care. There is an opportunity to use the significant resources available to Health Boards to deliver laboratory services in a way that is more efficient, effective, equitable, resilient and affordable.

Question reference: S5W-13708

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what work is being done to ensure that dog boarding establishment licenses are only given to premises suitable for these animals.

Local authorities are responsible, under The Animal Boarding Establishment Act 1963, for the granting of licences permitting the carrying out of the business of running an animal boarding establishment; and have powers to inspect premises that they have licensed.

That 1963 Act lists a number of statutory requirements that must be complied with for a licence to be granted. These include the need for accommodation to be safe and appropriate for the type and number of animals boarded. In addition, local authorities have discretion to withhold a licence on other grounds.

Question reference: S5W-13707

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is considering updating legalisation, in light of the Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963 and Civic Government Scotland Act 1982 not including explicit consideration of the suitability of properties for animal boarding.

The Programme for Government 2017-18 commits the Scottish Government to preparing legislation on a modern system of registration and licensing of animal sanctuaries and rehoming activities. The principles of that modern system will, in due course, be applied to the licensing of animal boarding establishments.

However, the Scottish Government considers that the Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963 offers local authorities the discretion to consider factors other than animal welfare when considering applications for an animal boarding establishment licence.

Question reference: S5W-13732

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to work with the English and Welsh governments to advise and advocate on the extension of the clinically safe, home use of abortion medication in their jurisdictions.

Question reference: S5O-01684

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 January 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on gender-neutral school uniforms.

Question reference: S5W-13479

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on the commitment in its published strategy, Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action, to increase NHS scope capacity by 2,000 scopes per annum on a sustainable basis.

Question reference: S5W-13349

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 3 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on non-UK EU nationals continuing to have the right to vote in (a) local authority and (b) Scottish parliamentary elections post-Brexit.

The Scottish Government has full responsibility for the franchise for both local government elections and also elections to the Scottish Parliament. In both elections, the franchise includes people resident in Scotland who are:

- British Citizens; or

- Qualifying Commonwealth Citizens; or

- Citizens of the European Union.

Therefore, at present, non-UK EU nationals have the right to vote in Scottish elections and the Scottish Government intends that this will continue to be the position in future.

On 19 December 2017, the Scottish Government launched a public consultation on Electoral Reform. The consultation includes discussion around a proposal to further extend the franchise in Scottish elections to include everyone legally resident in Scotland. The consultation will run for 12 weeks until 12 March 2018.

Question reference: S5W-13310

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 11 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the (a) location of each permanent and (b) area covered by each mobile speed camera in the City of Edinburgh local authority area.

Question reference: S5W-13178

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of recently-published ISD Scotland statistics, for what reason there has been a 9.5% fall in the number of dentists over the last year.

The Scottish Government is proud of its record on dental services. The number of high street dentists providing NHS dental services continues to increase year-on-year and there are now 3,004 high street dentists in Scotland, compared to 2,261 in 2007. That is an increase of 33 per cent under this Government and an increase of 1.1 per cent since 2016.

The 9.5% decrease referred to the dental workforce category known as Hospital and Community Health Services Dentistry, part of which includes hospital dentists. The decrease in NHS Education for Scotland hospital dentists was due to a local data cleansing exercise which removed medical grades recorded for these staff. ISD are working with NHS Education for Scotland to address the issues ensuring locally uploaded data is available in the national database.

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