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-22533

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many dentists there currently are per head of population in Scotland, and what information it has on how this compares with (a) England and (b) Wales.

In Scotland there are 55.3 dentists per 100,000 of the population, compared to 42.7 in England and 46.2 in Wales.

Information on the number of dentists per 100,000 of the population in Scotland can be found in the data tables of the NHS Scotland workforce statistics on NHS Education for Scotland’s website: All official statistics publications | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot) .

Information on the dental workforce in England and Wales is available online at: NHS Dental Statistics for England, 2022-23, Annual Report - NHS Digital and NHS Dental workforce by local health board, age group, gender, contract type and dentist type (gov.wales) and p opulation estimates by UK country can be found at: Population estimates - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) .

Question reference: S6O-02717

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its humanitarian aid funding, whether it will provide an update on any further action it can take to help provide support to those affected by the conflict in Gaza.

Question reference: S6O-02597

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it last engaged with the Scottish General Practitioners Committee and what was discussed.

Question reference: S6W-19894

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the latest known levels of people in the 25- to 64-year-old population who have been educated to tertiary level in Scotland, and on how this compares to the levels in (a) England and (b) Wales.

Information on the share of population 25 to 64 years old with tertiary education is published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and is available here.

	2020	2021	2022
Scotland	55.7	55.2	57.9
Wales	43.4	44.3	46.3
Northern Ireland	44.1	48.8	42.3
North East England	38.1	39.7	39.3
North West England	44.0	44.0	47.0
Yorkshire and The Humber	41.4	44.4	45.0
East Midlands	43.8	42.6	43.8
West Midlands	43.1	44.2	45.1
East of England	44.6	45.2	47.1
Greater London	68.4	69.8	69.9
South East England	51.8	51.6	54.1
South West England	47.2	48.0	48.4
United Kingdom	49.4	50.1	..

Source: OECD Regional Education, July 2023

.. Not currently available

Question reference: S6W-19893

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the latest known levels of tuition fees for a first full-time degree in Scotland, and on how this compares to the levels in (a) England and (b) Wales.

Question reference: S6O-02427

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting culture and the arts in the Uddingston and Bellshill constituency.

Question reference: S6O-02401

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what impact it anticipates that its recent £1.8 million investment will have on dermatology services.

Question reference: S6O-02367

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what funding has been allocated in the Scottish Budget 2023-24 to tackle child poverty.

Question reference: S6W-18362

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many Adult Disability Payment Change of Circumstances forms have been submitted in each month since January 2023, and, of these, what the (a) longest, (b) average and (c) median processing time was for these unscheduled reviews of Adult Disability Payment.

Social Security Scotland does not currently produce information relating to Change of Circumstances but we do routinely publish information about Adult Disability Payment, including processing times of new applications.

These statistics were most recently published in March 2023, covering up to end January 2023, and are available at:

Social Security Scotland - Social Security Scotland statistics: publications

The next publication, covering up to end April 2023, will be published on 13 June.

Social Security Scotland is committed to giving clients timely decisions, while allowing sufficient time to ensure the necessary information is in place to get decisions right the first time. Clients can advise us of a change of circumstance for a number of reasons, and if the change is relevant to their entitlement, a review would be carried out. Every case is individual and processing times will vary.

Question reference: S6O-02304

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an update on any recent engagement with health and social care ministers from the other UK administrations regarding a coordinated approach to dentistry.