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-36363

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to respond to the correspondence of 21 February 2025 from the Equality and Human Rights Commission regarding single-sex facilities, and whether its response will be published and made publicly available.

Question reference: S6W-36752

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce cancer waiting times in NHS Grampian, in light of the NHS board reportedly recording the worst cancer waiting times in Scotland.

Cancer remains a national priority, within the Scottish Government and across NHS Scotland, and I recognise that we must do more to ensure patients with cancer are treated faster.

We have invested over £40 million across NHS Scotland over the past five years to support cancer services and improve waiting times, with a focus on urology, colorectal and breast.

In NHS Grampian specifically, over £1.5 million of cancer funding has been provided to the board in 2024-25, to support delivery of diagnostics and treatment for patients referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer to reduce waiting lists.

Each territorial Health Board across Scotland has agreed performance improvement plans in place, detailing what is being done at local level to drive improvements. The Scottish Government has a sustained focus on the delivery of these plans and meet with Cancer Management Teams in all health boards across Scotland frequently, including NHS Grampian, to identify challenges, explore solutions, and share best practice.

Question reference: S6W-36364

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the report on the review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender (the Sullivan Review), when it will update its 2021 guidance for public bodies on the collection and publication of data on sex, gender identity and trans status, in line with recommendation 23 of the report.

The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach with aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.

The Sullivan Review specifically recommends that the Scottish Government reviews its guidance in light of its recommendations. The Scottish Government has previously committed to reviewing its guidance on collecting data on sex and gender by the end of 2026 as part of the Non-Binary Equality Action plan.

Ahead of this review, the Office of the Chief Statistician is engaged with wider-UK work on this topic. The Government Statistical Service (GSS) Harmonisation Team is currently developing harmonised standards for collecting data on sex and gender identity. The Office of the Chief Statistician is contributing to this work, and will consider its outputs as part of its review of the Chief Statistician’s guidance.

Question reference: S6W-36362

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 10 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking with NHS boards to support staff networks that provide support in relation to the protected characteristic of sex.

As part of our Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), the Scottish Government encourages NHS employers to support the development of staff networks for all nine protected characteristics.
However, as individual employers, Boards are responsible for upholding their obligations under the PSED. Staff networks are just one way in which staff under the protected characteristic of sex are supported, including through the development of equality policy, training, and guidance.

Question reference: S6O-04516

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made an assessment of the potential loss of agricultural land in the North East Scotland region as the result of development.

Question reference: S6T-02422

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review public sector guidance on single-sex spaces, in light of reported concerns about the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Prison Service.

Question reference: S6T-02370

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its role in ensuring that public bodies are meeting their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010, following recent correspondence from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Question reference: S6W-34496

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31037 by Jenny Gilruth on 15 November 2024, whether it will provide an update on what progress it is making in taking forward its work to update the School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967, and by what date it plans to re-consult on the regulations.

The Scottish Government intends to refresh and modernise the School Premises Regulations (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) to ensure that they meet the needs of pupils and schools in Scotland. The Scottish Government still intends to re-consult this year on the Regulations.

Scottish Government officials are taking steps to engage with relevant stakeholders and will be reaching out to further interested parties.

Question reference: S6W-34495

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason no financial provision was made in its draft Budget 2025-26 for the new national treatment centre in Aberdeen, in light of the increase in capital funding and the Finance and Public Administration Committee's call on it to "ensure it’s in the best possible position to ‘hit the ground running’ with infrastructure projects from the start of the next financial year."

As had been made clear, there remains challenge and uncertainty in the capital funding position.

All due consideration will be given as to which projects are affordable and deliverable and can be included within our revised infrastructure investment plan pipeline, following the outcome of the UK Government’s spending review and clarity on our longer-term capital funding position.

To this end, we are working with all health boards to develop a whole-system NHS infrastructure plan which will reflect needs across Scotland and support continued safe operation of existing facilities, as well as determination of longer term investment priorities.

Question reference: S6W-34954

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking with NHS Grampian to support the improved delivery of dermatology services, in light of reports that waiting times for urgent referrals for suspected cancer are more than five months, and waiting times for routine referrals are more than two years.

Each territorial Health Board across Scotland has agreed performance improvement plans in place, detailing what is being done at local level to drive improvements. The Scottish Government has a sustained focus on the delivery of these plans and meet with Cancer Management Teams in all Health Boards across Scotland frequently, including NHS Grampian, to identify challenges, explore solutions, and share best practice.

This year we have allocated an additional £30 million funding to reduce waiting times across a range of specialities, including diagnostics and cancer. As part of this, NHS Grampian were allocated almost £200,000 for the treatment of skin cancer.

If approved by Parliament, the Scottish Government’s budget for the coming year will invest a record £21.7 billion in Scotland’s health and social care services, including £200 million to reduce waiting lists and improve capacity.

In addition, our National Digital Dermatology Programme, backed by £1.8 million funding, will help to reduce long waits for outpatient dermatology appointments across Scotland’s NHS. This allows for images of skin conditions to be captured in Primary Care and securely transferred to clinicians so diagnoses and follow-up appointments can be arranged. This leads to a better and quicker service for patients – allowing clinicians to see patients in the right place sooner - and could potentially reduce demand for outpatient dermatology appointments by up to 50 per cent.

The Digital Dermatology Programme was launched in November 2024, with patients in Dumfries and Galloway and Greater Glasgow and Clyde the first to benefit from this new pathway, and is due to be deployed to all Health Boards, including NHS Grampian, by Spring 2025.