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: S7W-01137

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S7O-00051 by Angela Constance on 11 June 2026, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of people waiting for gynaecology services in NHS Tayside are not treated within the Scottish Government's treatment time guarantee of 12 weeks.

There were 37 inpatient or day case admissions during April 2026 that were completed over 12 weeks for NHS Tayside under the specialty of gynaecology, which equates to 49.3% of admissions exceeding the TTG. This compares to 44.9% of all gynaecology inpatient and day case waits completed in excess of 12 weeks across NHS Scotland.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) releases statistics, as part of the monthly Stage of Treatment (SoT) publication, on inpatient and day case waits covered by the 12-week Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG). The latest statistics are published up to 30 April 2026 and can be found using the following link:

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/stage-of-treatment-waiting-times/

Please note, individual patients are counted more than once if they are waiting to attend more than one admission, so the official statistics shown here do not reflect the actual number of individuals involved.

Question reference: S7W-01135

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S7O-00051 by Angela Constance on 11 June 2026, how many people are currently on waiting lists for gynaecology services in NHS Tayside.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes statistics on stages of treatment waiting times for gynaecology by board and length of wait. The most recent report was published on 26 May 2026 and can be found at

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/stage-of-treatment-waiting-times/

This specific data file contains historic trends for ongoing waits at each quarter-end with a breakdown of waits by NHS board.

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/38855/newop_apr26-data-file-up-to-31-march-2026.xlsx

Table 1.1 refers to new outpatients and the drop-down menu can be used to filter by gynaecology. Table 2.2 refers to inpatients and day cases and again, can be filtered by specificality, including gynaecology. This data is based on waits covered by the new outpatient and inpatient and day case waiting times standards, and as such there may be some gynaecology services that do not fall under these criteria and are therefore not included in published statistics.

Question reference: S7W-01444

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the changes in the slots at London airports for flights from Dundee Airport, (a) what its response is, (b) whether it was consulted and (c) whether any revenue has been generated as a result of those changes.

Question reference: S7W-01131

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 1 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S7O-00051 by Angela Constance on 11 June 2026, what time period it references when it refers to a reduction in the number of people waiting for gynaecology services.

Question reference: S7W-01312

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost of employing special advisers was in 2025-26.

Question reference: S7W-01313

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the names of each special adviser it currently employs, broken down by (a) responsibility and (b) pay band.

Question reference: S7W-01243

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the correspondence that was referenced in the Member’s debate, Sustaining Jobs and Securing the Future of Scotland's Universities, on 18 June 2026, which was sent from the Minister for Innovation, Technology and Tertiary Education to the University of Dundee.

Question reference: S7W-00830

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 11 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what support will be made available to organisations in Dundee that have relied on Whole Family Wellbeing Funding to ensure that services can continue where existing funding has ended and replacement funding streams have not yet opened.

The Scottish Government has extended the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme (WFWF) into 2026-27, this includes providing £38.1 million for Children's Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs) to continue the transformation of holistic whole family support in local communities. To ensure funding is tailored to meet local needs, each CSPP is responsible for deciding how to spend their allocation.

Beyond this financial year, the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan: Next steps and timeline - Fairer Futures Partnership Programme: evaluation strategy - gov.scot sets out our intention to integrate the WFWF, alongside the Fairer Future Partnerships and Early Adopter areas, including Dundee, into a single Whole Family Support system change programme from April 2027.

Existing funding arrangements will continue during this transition year, during which, we are working closely with partners on the design of the newly integrated programme; to ensure it works for them and for the families who need holistic whole family support most.

Question reference: S7W-00502

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the shortage of consultant immunologists across Scotland, in light of reported concerns regarding reduced access to immunology and allergy services within NHS Tayside following the loss of the Board’s sole consultant immunologist in 2022.

The Scottish Government’s role is to provide strategic leadership for NHS Scotland to ensure a sustainable NHS workforce. Operational matters relating to staffing and the provision of specialist services, such as immunology and allergy services, are the responsibility of individual NHS Boards and will depend on service needs, taking account of national, regional and local priorities.

Boards are required to ensure that suitably qualified and competent staff are available in appropriate numbers to support safe, high-quality care and staff wellbeing, in line with the requirements of the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019.

To support them in this regard and in pursuance of our own legal duties under the Act, we keep under regular review NHS Scotland's requirement for immunologists through annual reviews of the number of specialty training places needed to meet anticipated future service demand and consultant need across all specialties.

Question reference: S7O-00051

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact of NHS Tayside’s recruitment freeze on patient care and waiting times across Dundee and the wider Tayside region.