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-41875

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients registered with GPs in (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire received secondary or tertiary care delivered by NHS (i) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (ii) Lothian, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-41881

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it issues to NHS boards regarding (a) arranging and (b) funding patient travel and accommodation for elective and planned care delivered in a different board area, and what datasets it collects from boards on such transfers of care.

Scottish Government guidance on the Patient Travelling Expenses Schemes can be found here: 1996-70.pdf. As set out, financial support for travel is available to eligible patients attending hospital appointments, and authorised escorts, and this can include travel where treatment is not available within their own health board area.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold data on travel arranged – this is an operational matter for Boards. Boards are expected to support patients in identifying and accessing available support.

Question reference: S6W-41885

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on any changes to eligibility rules or reimbursement rates for patient travel and accommodation in the last five years, and what impact these have had on the projected budget for 2025-26.

The Scottish Government provides the overarching guidance to NHS Boards for patient travel expenses reimbursement and there has been no change to that guidance in the last 5 years. The Scottish Government has committed to a review of this overarching patient travel expenses reimbursement guidance. However, a start date for the review is not confirmed at this time; it is important that the review is considered within the context of wider reform on access to health care which is already in progress.

Question reference: S6W-41876

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what the (a) total cost was for all patients and (b) average cost was per patient registered with GPs in (i) Aberdeen City and (ii) Aberdeenshire who received secondary or tertiary care delivered by NHS (A) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (B) Lothian in each of the last five years, broken down by (1) travel, (2) accommodation and (3) subsistence costs, also broken down by how many made multiple trips, broken down by the (aa) mean and (bb) median number of trips.

Question reference: S6W-42101

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the percentage of ScotRail Inter7City trains that have operated their Inter7City cafe during their journey in each year since the introduction of the service in 2018.

Question reference: S6W-41877

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what the primary reason for travel was for patients registered with GPs in (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire who received care delivered by NHS (i) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (ii) Lothian in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-41879

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the number of funded patient escorts, such as spouses, other family members and support workers, who accompanied patients registered with GPs in (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire who received care delivered by NHS (i) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (ii) Lothian in each of the last five years, broken down by (A) travel, (B) accommodation and (C) subsistence costs.

The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government.

While the Scottish Government provides the overall guidance to NHS Boards for the patient travel expenses reimbursement schemes, individual Boards are responsible for developing and applying their own policies and for determining patient and escort eligibility. The cost of travel funded/refunded under the schemes is met from Boards’ budgets.

Question reference: S6W-41893

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to use the discussions and outcomes from the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, to inform the finalisation and implementation of its draft Climate Change Plan, including any changes that it anticipates making to the actions and timescales set out in the draft plan up to 2040.

Question reference: S6W-41891

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its objectives are for engagement at the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, with (a) activists, (b) civil society partners from the Global South and (c) partners in its Climate Justice Fund programmes, and how it will evaluate the outcomes of this engagement.

Question reference: S6W-41892

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its priorities are for using its platform at the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, to contribute to international discussions on (a) climate finance, (b) climate justice and (c) the global debt crisis, and what specific outcomes it is seeking to achieve in each of these areas.