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: S6W-33710

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS Scotland (a) services and (b) departments still use paper-based medical records.

Question reference: S6W-33475

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many surgical procedures have been cancelled in each of the last five years due to a lack of surgical screws or other necessary equipment, broken down by NHS board.

The number of cancelled operations under ‘non-clinical/capacity reasons’ is the most granular level of detail that’s provided from PHS’s website, breakdown as follows:

	12 months to November
NHS Board	Nov-24	Nov-23	Nov-22	Nov-21	Nov-20
NHSScotland	6370	6095	6038	4397	4621
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	417	400	342	146	418
NHS Borders	271	163	226	118	84
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	361	355	348	205	166
NHS Fife	293	397	347	215	198
NHS Forth Valley	387	247	123	121	99
NHS Grampian	806	599	848	734	654
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	973	995	1231	784	782
NHS Highland	562	366	519	439	466
NHS Lanarkshire	346	367	314	175	244
NHS Lothian	1447	1562	1136	809	1014
NHS Orkney	46	0	39	107	87
NHS Shetland	61	72	21	15	2
NHS Tayside	89	160	172	189	193
NHS Western Isles	18	24	13	15	16
NHS Golden Jubilee	293	388	359	325	198

Question reference: S6W-33995

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to convene a national convention with local government representatives to collaboratively address the processes and measures required to establish a balanced budget.

As independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, individual local authorities are statutorily required to produce a balanced budget, taking account of local needs and priorities in the process.

The 2025-26 Scottish Budget will deliver record funding of over £15 billion for Local Authorities, a 4.7 per cent real terms increase, along with full discretion over Council Tax.

More frequent and meaningful engagement with COSLA and Councils, in the spirit of the Fiscal Framework with Local Government, was fundamental to the decisions that led to that record budget. It is Ministers intention to publish an update on the Fiscal Framework alongside the final Local Government Settlement and remain committed to working in partnership with Local Government but have no current plans to convene a national convention with local government.

Question reference: S6W-33768

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any audits have been conducted on the use of government-issued mobile phones, and what the outcomes of any such audits were.

Question reference: S6W-33759

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many mobile phones it has purchased for use as government-issued devices in each of the last five years, and what the total cost was.

Question reference: S6W-33769

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to upgrade or replace its current government-issued mobile phone inventory.

Question reference: S6W-33763

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to government-issued mobile phones, how much mobile data has been used by its departments in each of the last five years, and what the associated costs were.

The mobile data used in terabytes (Tb) on the Scottish Government’s account as part of our mobile voice and data contracts is shown below. This data is only available from August 2020, it is not possible to separate the associated mobile data costs by department from the overall spend.

January 2024 to December 2024 - 82.59Tb

January 2023 to December 2023 - 94.87Tb

January 2022 to December 2022 - 97.77Tb

January 2021 to December 2021 - 125.07Tb

July 2020 to December 2020 - 39.99Tb

Question reference: S6W-33543

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many mental health services are currently available in rural areas, and what percentage of these are delivered via digital platforms.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. Decisions around the provision of mental health services is a local responsibility, planned by Integrated Joint Boards and delivered through a mixture of NHS, local authority and third sector organisations. The availability of service, including via digital platforms, will vary depending the local population needs and will be guided by clinical decision making.

Question reference: S6W-33596

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects to have held the first meeting of the employment injury assistance steering group.

The Scottish Government is in the process of establishing a stakeholder group on Employment Injury Assistance which will be comprised of organisations and experts with experience of Industrial Injuries Scheme benefits.

Invitations for the Employment Injury Assistance Steering Group will be issued in the coming weeks. The first meeting will take place early this year, subject to members’ availability.

This group will take forward considerations raised in the consultation and provide valuable input for our ongoing work on Employment Injury Assistance in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-33659

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support is being provided to deal with alcohol and drug dependency in rural areas, and what funding has been allocated for recovery services in Aberdeenshire in each of the last five years.

The Alcohol and Drug Partnerships in Aberdeenshire and other rural areas were asked to submit structured assessments of how they are trying to overcome the challenges of rurality to the PHS MAT Implementation Support (MIST) team.

The assessment demonstrated the ways in which teams had maximised access and choice through technology, travel and different models of care, such as:

Offering a choice of venues to be seen at; such as GP practice, home and community hubs,
High use of self-referral and telephone, ‘tele-health’ technology such as NEAR ME;
Wide use of bus passes, taxis and third sector volunteers to take people to appointments.

In 2024-25 NHS Grampian was allocated £10,469,033 for the ADPs in the region. Distribution of these funds is a matter for the local ADPs.