Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6O-01794

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address fuel poverty in North Ayrshire.

Question reference: S6O-01786

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comments by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce regarding the Budget 2023-24 that it represents “a clear disadvantage for Scotland’s businesses and workers”.

Question reference: S6O-01774

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of a new report by the Resolution Foundation stating that the average household will be £2,100 worse off by the end of next financial year, how ministers across government are working to prioritise support for low-income households, as set out in its Covid Recovery Strategy.

Question reference: S6O-01783

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any investment arising from the Tay Cities Deal.

Question reference: S6W-13057

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02569 by Kevin Stewart on 9 September 2021, how many short-term mobility aids have been issued by each health and social care partnership since March 2022.

The Scottish Government does not currently hold this information.

Following the publication of Guidance on the provision of wheelchairs on short term loan in March 2021 ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/guidance-provision-wheelchairs-short-term-loan/ ) Scottish Government officials engaged with individual Health and Social Care Partnerships to initially gauge what progress had been made in implementing the guidance. However, due to the pressures of the pandemic, a full review was not carried out as planned.

That engagement established that there were nine services who were providing a short term wheelchair loan service in house. These were Fife, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde – Acute division.

Following a public consultation we plan to issue revised guidance on the provision of equipment and adaptations. Alongside short term wheelchair provision, this guidance includes extensive advice on the effective and timely provision of community equipment and housing adaptations. Accompanying the guidance is a range of good practice guides and self evaluation tools, which we will support services to utilise and evaluate how they are performing against the Key Actions contained in the guidance.

Question reference: S6W-13476

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on its Enhanced Psychological Practice (EPP) programme.

The majority of spend relating to the Enhanced Psychological Practice programme relates to salaried posts in NHS Health Boards, creating additional capacity within the workforce and enabling delivery of evidence based psychological interventions at enhanced level. The allocated spend to date is as follows (please note numbers of learners/practitioners are cumulative and there are ongoing discussions with partners about the programme for future years):

2021-22 - £377,446

£224,538 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for 20 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
£152,908 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, eLearning development, teaching support and consultancy, learning resources

2022-23 - £2,193,767*

£1,925,908 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for up to 81 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
£267,859 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, teaching support and consultancy, eLearning development, SQA fees and learning resources

*salary costs included in this figure are based on 2021-22 Agenda for Change rates and will need to be amended on confirmation of the Pay Award for 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-13369

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns by the General Secretary of School Leaders Scotland that budget reductions will lead to (a) a reduction in the range of school subjects available and (b) an increase in class sizes.

This Government has delivered the highest school spending, and has more teachers per pupil, than any other UK nation. Our pupil teacher ratio is just 13.2 – its lowest level since 2009 - compared to 18 in England and 18.5 in Wales.

In our Budget we have sought to protect Councils by providing over £13.2 billion in the Local Government Settlement for 2023-24. This funding package represents a real terms increase compared with 2022-23 and enables the continued delivery of high quality education for our children. As part of this, we will continue to provide local authorities with specific funding of £145.5 million per year to support the school workforce.

Question reference: S6W-13384

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made since 2018 under each of the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The Scottish Government is committed to advancing gender equality in Scotland, and since 2018 has introduced a range of legislative and other measures to implement the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Scotland.

This includes introduction of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 to ensure access to free period products, introduction of the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Act 2021 to provide for consistent access to healthcare and forensic medical examinations without first making a report to police, publication of the Women’s Health Plan in 2021 to improve women’s health outcomes, and the expansion of free early learning and childcare provision. In addition, the Scottish government is committed to introducing a new Human Rights Bill which will incorporate CEDAW into Scots Law, as far as possible within devolved competence, andwill consult formally on proposals this year. Through incorporation of CEDAW the Scottish Government will enhance our efforts to eliminate the discrimination, traditional gender roles and stereotypes faced by women and girls. It will ensure a focus on fulfilling their human rights and development.

The UK’s 9th periodic report on the implementation of CEDAW is due to be submitted to the UN CEDAW Committee by the end of March 2023. In addition to contributing to the periodic report, the Scottish Government will publish a standalone Scottish Position Statement in 2023, reporting on progress made since 2018 under each of the articles of CEDAW.

Question reference: S6W-13053

Asked by: Dr Alasdair Allan, MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to facilitating postal deliveries of prescriptions for people in rural areas who are housebound and have no access to a community pharmacy.

Question reference: S6W-13301

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when all six rural hospitals in Scotland each will have three general surgery consultants.

While the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare, it is for each NHS Board to decide best how to utilise funding, facilities and staff while taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.

We will develop a Remote and Rural workforce recruitment strategy by the end of 2024. This will support employers to ensure that the Health and Social Care needs of people who live in remote and rural communities are met.

As part of the Scottish Government’s work to develop a sustainable healthcare workforce, we continue to look for opportunities to increase levels of recruitment and retention of healthcare staff in rural areas.

The number of doctors in training is also up 24.3% under the SNP - or 1,295.6 WTE (from 5,336.1 WTE as at September 2006 to 6,631.7 WTE as at Sept 2022). And we have now created the biggest ever expansion of medical training posts – 152 places at £37m over the next four years to help future-proof our NHS. This equates to 2.5% increase in WTE workforce of 6,100 trainees – who make up 42% of doctors in hospitals. This brings the total number of additional places created by Scottish ministers to 725, since 2014.

In all areas of NHS Scotland, a great deal of effort is going into ensuring that services have sufficient capacity to deal with COVID-19, manage other risks and resume planned services as safely and effectively as possible. This includes ensuring that there are sufficient levels of consultant, including general surgeons.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

Chamber and committees

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