Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-33674

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that the voices of women who may have experienced coercion either to continue or to terminate a pregnancy are being represented in its current consultation, Early medical abortion at home.

The Scottish Government is consulting on the future arrangements for early medical abortion at home to allow abortion providers and other health professionals, the general public and in particular women who have experience of abortion services the opportunity to comment and submit evidence. Scottish Government officials have asked NHS Boards to make women receiving abortion treatment aware of the consultation where appropriate so that they can respond to it if they wish.

Question reference: S5W-33668

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the introduction of the telemedicine abortion service has had on the volume of calls to helplines from women undergoing an early medical abortion compared with the period immediately prior to its introduction.

Question reference: S5W-33671

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) meetings, virtual or otherwise, and (b) other electronic communications it has had with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service regarding abortion services in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5F-04653

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 December 2020

To ask the First Minister how many staff are employed to answer calls to book COVID-19 tests in Scotland.

Question reference: S5O-04829

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it has met its climate change targets that were set during session 3 of the Parliament.

Question reference: S5F-04620

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 December 2020

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government plans to mitigate the impact of any reduction in services due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives and mental wellbeing of disabled people.

Question reference: S5W-33397

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government by what date (a) Pension Age Disability and (b) Winter Heating Assistance payments will begin.

As set out in my statement to Parliament of 17 November 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a major impact on the Scottish Government’s delivery partners, including the Department for Work and Pensions, whose support we need to transfer the relevant social security benefits. This is an on-going and complex exercise.

Earlier this month, I discussed the delivery of all remaining devolved benefits with the UK Minister of State for Disabled People, Work and Health. Now that our respective officials have the capacity to do so, we reaffirmed our commitment to taking forward the necessary detailed planning work on the benefits, having prioritised reaching an agreement on child and adult disability payments over the past few months. I will make announcements regarding individual benefits in due course.

Question reference: S5W-33040

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will continue to fund Scotland’s participation in the National Neonatal Audit Programme from March 2021, in light of its impact on the outcomes for babies requiring neonatal care and its alignment with the aims of its Best Start programme.

Scotland will continue to participate in the National Neonatal Audit Programme until the end of this current contract, which is 31 March 2021. The Scottish Government on behalf of NHS Scotland and other stakeholders have been working to try and identify a mutually agreeable legal and financial basis for continued participation in the National Neonatal Audit Programme, after the contract expires. We are confident that a way forward will be agreed and are keen to progress this as quickly as possible, given participation in the audit helps to drive improvements in clinical care in neonatal settings, helping to realise the vision set out in The Best Start.

Question reference: S5W-32900

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that reduced charitable funding due to COVID-19 for medical research in Scotland will have on the health of people in Scotland.

From data provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the Scottish Government has established that charities invested around £101 million into medical and health research at Scottish universities in 2018-19.

We also know, from information provided by the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), that some UK medical research charities project a 41% reduction in their research expenditure over the next year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mitigation measures, both at Scottish and UK level, have been put in place, including a £75 million support package for university research from the Scottish Government.

We are therefore not expecting that a short term reduction in charity funding for medical research will have a long term impact on the health of people in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-32349

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the work of its Rehabilitation Framework and the role this has had in responding to the COVID-19, what plans it has to expand and develop the allied health professional workforce, and what funding it will allocate to (a) local authorities, (b) NHS boards and (c) third sector service providers to assist with this.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-31349 on 1 September 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

In addition to this, I can confirm that when the National Advisory Board for Rehabilitation is operational in the new year it will be considering aspects of workforce delivery and system affordability for different models of care.

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