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-03561

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-03252 by Kevin Stewart on 5 October 2021, what the estimated spend on dementia by each Integration Joint Board has been in each year since 2016.

Estimated spend on dementia by each Integration Joint Board in each year since 2016 is as follows:-

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
	Estimated Expenditure	Estimated Expenditure	Estimated Expenditure	Estimated Expenditure	Estimated Expenditure
	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m
Aberdeen City	81.4	82.4	82.6	84.4	83.6
Aberdeenshire	94.6	96.8	99.3	102.2	104.7
Angus	52.3	53.4	54.3	55.4	56.7
Argyll and Bute	45.7	46.4	46.8	47.8	48.7
City of Edinburgh	182.1	185.0	186.8	189.9	192.6
Clacks & Stirling	50.6	52.2	53.1	54.6	55.8
Dumfries and Galloway	75.4	76.9	77.6	79.5	80.4
Dundee City	60.2	60.4	60.3	61.2	60.8
East Ayrshire	51.0	51.8	52.5	53.9	54.1
East Dunbartonshire	49.1	50.4	51.5	53.0	54.8
East Lothian	41.6	42.6	43.2	44.9	44.9
East Renfrewshire	39.7	40.8	41.1	42.1	43.2
Falkirk	60.1	61.1	62.2	64.0	65.0
Fife	149.6	152.3	154.7	159.0	161.6
Glasgow City	200.0	200.7	201.2	203.5	201.3
Highland	109.5	112.0	114.6	117.9	121.0
Inverclyde	36.9	37.3	37.6	38.3	38.0
Midlothian	27.7	28.3	28.9	29.7	30.4
Moray	35.7	36.6	37.9	38.6	40.1
Na H-Eileanan Siar	6.5	6.7	6.8	7.0	7.2
North Ayrshire	63.2	64.7	65.7	67.2	68.4
North Lanarkshire	90.1	91.9	93.2	96.1	96.2
Orkney Islands	2.8	2.8	2.9	3,0	3.2
Perth and Kinross	70.2	72.3	73.5	75.6	77.5
Renfrewshire	76.9	78.2	79.4	82.0	82.0
Scottish Borders	47.6	48.6	49.2	50.4	51.2
Shetland Islands	7.1	7.2	7.4	7.7	7.7
South Ayrshire	66.8	68.6	69.9	71.8	72.8
South Lanarkshire	110.1	112.2	114.5	117.1	118.2
West Dunbartonshire	34.1	34.2	34.2	34.9	34.6
West Lothian	46.7	48.5	49.9	51.9	53.4
Scotland (b)	2,065.4	2,103.4	2,132.9	2,184.7	2,209.9

Question reference: S6W-02501

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to dementia research in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board area.

Scottish Government funding for dementia research is not allocated to NHS Boards.

The following table shows Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funding for dementia research from 2007/8 through academic project/fellowship funding and the annual funding provided to the Dementia and Neuroprogressive Disease research network. CSO’s research project funding panels were paused during 2020 due to COVID-19 related pressures but have since reopened.

Breakdown:

Year	Project / fellowship funding	NRS Network	Total
2020-21	£62,461	£506,000	£568,461
2019-20	£123,394	£506,000	£629,394
2018-19	£543,351	£506,000	£1,049,351
2017-18	£595,219	£496,000	£1,091,219
2016-17	£25,876	£491,000	£516,876
2015-16	£59,834	£486,000	£545,834
2014-15	£136,950	£486,000	£622,950
2013-14	£443,424	£481,000	£924,424
2012-13	£224,536	£481,000	£705,536
2011-12	£183,011	£475,754	£658,765
2010-11	£48,085	£395,661	£443,746
2009-10	£44,134	£340,330	£384,464
2008-9	0	£170,455	£170,455
2007-8	£156,248	N-A	£156,248

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.