- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17148 by
Michael Matheson on 2 May 2023, whether it has since become aware of any
shortages of radionuclide for bone scans in NHS boards, including NHS Tayside,
which have reportedly affected prostate cancer patients who require such scans
to check whether their cancer has spread to their bones, and, if so, how it is
addressing any such shortages.
Answer
The Scottish Government can confirm there are no known shortages of radionuclides involved in bone scans.
Medicines shortages can arise for various reasons such as difficulties with manufacturing or with the supply of raw materials. The production of medicines is complex and highly regulated, and materials and processes must meet rigorous safety and quality standards. While disruptions in medicine supply can occur, they are often short in nature.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with the Royal College of General Practitioners, and what was discussed.
Answer
The Scottish Government last met the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) on 18 May 2023.
The meeting covered:
- The Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy;
- General Practice Protected Learning Time;
- The General Practice Access Group;
- The NHS National Conversation; and
- The RCGP Conference 2023
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 1 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to commission a report on how to encourage responsible private investment into the restoration and expansion of Scotland's rainforest in order to support the Rainforest Restoration Fund model proposed by environmental NGOs, similar to the report that it published recently on encouraging responsible private investment in peatland restoration, Mobilising private investment in natural capital.
Answer
Rainforest expansion and restoration is a key Scottish Government priority. Scottish Forestry manages the Woodland Carbon Code which offers opportunities to expand and restore Scotland’s rainforests in line the Scottish Government’s Interim Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital, which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/interim-principles-for-responsible-investment-in-natural-capital/ .
Whilst there are no imminent plans to commission a report similar to the one for peatland, Scottish Forestry have also just appointed a new Rainforest Action Co-ordinator and one of the tasks is to develop a framework of potential funding sources. Part of that work will be to further encourage private investment where possible, working closely with partners and stakeholders such as the Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest, and commission work as required.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it can detail when the short-life working group, established by the Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer (MSN CYPC) to carry out a robust workforce review and mapping exercise of posts across the network, (a) last met and (b) will next meet.
Answer
The workforce short life working group set up through the Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer (MSN CYPC) last met on 5 April 2023 and will next meet on week commencing 19 June 2023.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 1 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Target Ovarian Cancer’s new report, Pathfinder Scotland: Faster, further, and fairer, which found that 44% of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer were never asked about the impact of their treatment on their mental health, what action is currently being taken to ensure that services are in place to support the mental health and wellbeing needs of everyone with an ovarian cancer diagnosis.
Answer
The Scottish Government aims to ensure that the mental, social and physical needs of all those diagnosed with cancer are considered equal.
In 2022 the Cancer Prehabilitation Implementation Steering Group oversaw the publication of the Psychological Therapies and Support Framework for People Affected by Cancer .
The Framework not only sets out general principles for high quality holistic care, but also incorporates a number of tools that will aid implementation across Scotland. The Framework highlights the four levels of psychological care and support which are supported through expert evidence, and presents two models for implementation that are applicable across sectors, including health, care and the third-sector.
I also refer the member to the question S6W-17800 answered on 18 May 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 1 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Barnett consequential funding that it received as a result of the £63 million swimming pool support package announced by the UK Government in the Spring Budget 2023, and how much of this additional funding has been passed on to local authorities.
Answer
The Scottish Government places great importance on swimming pools. They are crucial to the wellbeing of all our country and most importantly, for our children and young people to be healthy and active.
The financial package announced by the UK Government to support swimming pools in England has resulted in consequentials being added to the overall Scottish block.
We will continue to work with sportscotland, Scottish Swimming and local government partners to consider what additional support can be provided to swimming pools and the wider sport and leisure sector in Scotland.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 1 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15987 by Patrick Harvie on 23 March 2023, whether it will provide an update on when it will publish the data, in light of reports that it is already being used for policy formulation and implementation.
Answer
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 1 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been provided through Scotland’s Heat Network Fund to support combined heat and power initiatives at incineration plants, broken down by facility.
Answer
Scotland’s Heat Network Fund (SHNF) provides funding for primary and secondary heat network infrastructure. This includes projects that utilise waste heat from existing incineration plants to provide low carbon, affordable heat to local consumers. Under the scheme, £5.6 million was committed in August 2022 to the extension of the Torry Heat Network which uses waste heat from an energy from waste plant. The Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) awarded £5.78m for Phase 1 in November 2020.
LCITP awarded £7.3m in January 2020 to Midlothian Council to build a heat network using waste heat from the Millerhill incineration plant.
SHNF is focused on the construction of heat networks and doesn’t cover the installation of electricity generation equipment.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 1 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many green jobs currently exist in Scotland, broken down by the region in which they are located, and what the definition is that it uses for such jobs.
Answer
Approaches to measuring green jobs are still under development and as a result estimates on how many green jobs exist differ.
A definition of green jobs was published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in March in 2023 “Green jobs” update, current and upcoming work - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) . ONS will now develop a detailed framework to underpin this definition, including the identification of appropriate activities (what the definition does and does not cover) and grouping them into useful sub-categories.
In the meantime our focus is on extracting the greatest number of job opportunities linked to the net zero transition, including via grants from the Green Jobs Fund to create new green jobs throughout Scotland and the Just Transition Fund to support people’s jobs and livelihoods in the North East.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 1 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) local authority and (b) private care homes have closed in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer
This information is not held centrally and is a matter for the Care Inspectorate (CI).
The CI does not hold data in relation to care homes that have closed, however information on cancelled services is publicly available on the CI website: https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/publications-statistics/93-public/datastore
These are services who have had their registration cancelled and this does not necessarily mean closure. Some services will have cancelled their registration but a new legal entity may have continued the provision of the service.