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: S6O-00289

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration the rural affairs secretary has given to ensure that fish farms have the support they need to meet environment standards, in light of reports that SEPA has rated one in ten as "unsatisfactory".

Question reference: S6W-03190

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 1 December 2017, 800 more GPs for Scotland, whether it will confirm how many additional GPs (a) have subsequently been recruited each year and (b) it expects to recruit in each of the next six years.

We remain on track to increase the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800 by 2027. We have taken a number of actions, including increasing the number of medical places at universities, and taking steps to encourage medical graduates to choose general practice. To that end, between 2015-16 and 2021-22 the Scottish Government will have increased the annual intake of medical places in Scottish universities from 848 to 1117 (269 places, a 32% increase). The majority of these new places are focused on general practice.

By increasing the amount of undergraduate curriculum that is delivered in general practice to 25%. We are confident increased exposure to general practice will encourage more students to train as GPs. With an increase of 89 GPs in 2019/20 we are now confident we are starting to see the positive impact of these actions.

Number of GPs working in Scotland since 2017

	2017	2018	2019	2020
All GPs	4,918	4,987	5,045	5,134

Question reference: S6W-03208

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many nursing training course places have been available in each year since 2007, broken down by institution, and how many were taken up.

Question reference: S6W-03310

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 7 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02504 by Kevin Stewart on 23 September 2021, for what reason the data on specialist dementia beds is not held centrally, and what effect this has on its ability to (a) workforce plan and (b) target resources.

We commissioned and published in 2018 a first national independent expert report on specialist NHS dementia beds provision Transforming Specialist Dementia Hospital Care with recommendations for sector modernisation as part of wider whole-system reform in localities.

The report noted the most recent official figures at that time on numbers of NHS Old Age Psychiatry beds and Geriatric Medicine beds. These figures include people with an organic illness (dementia) and those with a functional illness (mental ill health conditions such as depression, bi-polar and schizophrenia) and the report noted that it was difficult to provide a precise number of patients with dementia in these settings, given the frequency of co-morbid conditions and under-diagnosis of dementia.

We continue to work with the author of the report as part of wider work since 2018 to support implementation of the report and to support local service modernisation, workforce planning and resourcing.

Question reference: S6W-03251

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 5 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02502 by Kevin Stewart on 21 September 2021, for what reason this data on dementia diagnosis is not held centrally, and what effect this has on its ability to workforce plan and target resources effectively.

Strategic national action on dementia to support local service design and delivery is informed by extensive national data, both actual and estimated. We commissioned and published in 2016 the first national report on estimated annual diagnosed dementia incidence, designed to show the estimated annual flow of new diagnoses into the health and social care system, specifically to help local workforce planning and resourcing around dementia post-diagnostic support, and to enable local and national measurement against the national dementia post-diagnostic commitment. This report will be re-commissioned this year.

Local systems collect and hold diagnosis data when individuals with a dementia diagnosis are referred for post-diagnostic support.

Question reference: S6W-03252

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 5 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02503 by Kevin Stewart on 21 September 2021, for what reason this data on what the average time has been to see a dementia specialist is not held centrally, and what effect this has on its ability to workforce plan and target resources effectively.

Public Health Scotland hold and publish data at consultant or speciality level, which means, for dementia clinical assessments and clinical treatments, old age psychiatry. Those consultations are not broken down by condition or illness.

The Scottish Government draws on extensive actual and estimated data to support local dementia service, workforce and resource planning, including data on estimated dementia prevalence and annual estimated diagnosed incidence, as well as estimated annual spend on dementia by Integration Joint Boards

Question reference: S6W-03056

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when guidance to schools will be updated to enable parents to watch their children taking part in sport on school premises.

The guidance on reducing risks in schools was updated on 30 September. The amendments reflected changes to advice from the Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children’s Issues around school visitors, specifically with regard to enabling greater flexibility around parental visits, parent councils and parent-teacher associations, community-based interventions, and spectators at outdoor sports events. It should be noted that visitors to schools should be agreed in advance, and any such arrangements should be appropriately risk-assessed.

The guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-reducing-the-risks-in-schools/

Question reference: S6W-02426

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in (a) East Lothian, (b) Midlothian and (c) the Scottish Borders have been given COVID-19 vaccination appointments for their (i) first and (ii) second dose outwith their local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-03250

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02448 by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021, for what reason this data on the newborn hearing test and newborn infant physical examination is not held centrally, and what effect this has on its ability to workforce plan and target resources effectively.

The current data gathering arrangements for the physical examination of the newborn and the newborn hearing test reflect that the services are locally commissioned by Health Boards. As such, Health Boards take primary responsibility for identifying and addressing workforce planning and resourcing issues at a local level.

Governance is provided to the Pregnancy and Newborn Screening Programme, of which the hearing test is a part, through the Programme Board and National Screening Oversight, which reports to the Scottish Screening Committee. Boards therefore have a clear route to flag any issues that may require national action.

Question reference: S6W-03274

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether an evaluation of the plan, Mental Health – Scotland’s Transition and Recovery, has been produced; if not, whether one will be, and how many of the actions from the plan have been achieved.

Delivery of the actions set out in our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan is ongoing. Since publication we have undertaken a wide range of activity to help people deal with the mental health effects of the pandemic. That includes, for example, working with local authorities to establish new community mental health and wellbeing services for children, continuing to support the roll-out of computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and providing ongoing support for the Clear Your Head campaign.

A £120 million Recovery and Renewal Fund was announced in February to support the Plan. So far over £50 million has been allocated from the Fund. This includes allocations of £40 million to improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. We are currently allocating the remainder of the fund and will make further announcements in the coming weeks.

I will update Parliament on progress against the Transition and Recovery Plan in the months ahead.