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-14336

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13469 by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023, how many of those places were taken by (a) international and (b) domestic students.

Information on entrants and enrolments at Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is collect by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Between 2018-19 and 2019-20 HESA introduced a new subject classification system moving from JACS over to HECOS. As such, a continuous time series can not be provided and information has been put into two different tables below.

First degree entrants to pre-clinical medicine courses at Scottish HEIs, JACS subject classification

Scottish Provider	Domicile	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
University of Edinburgh	Scotland	125	120	110	120	135	100	110	90	85	85	95	80
	Rest of UK	80	85	95	95	75	85	85	95	90	90	95	105
	Overseas	30	30	35	35	25	15	20	30	25	25	25	25
	Total	230	235	235	250	235	200	215	210	205	205	210	210
University of Glasgow	Scotland	155	145	125	110	110	145	140	140	140	140	150	165
	Rest of UK	50	65	85	100	130	60	60	60	65	60	65	65
	Overseas	30	25	30	35	30	25	30	35	35	45	35	50
	Total	235	235	240	245	270	235	230	235	235	245	250	280
University of Aberdeen	Scotland	115	110	105	135	110	90	115	105	100	115	115	125
	Rest of UK	45	60	55	30	60	55	30	40	40	35	35	35
	Overseas	20	20	20	20	15	20	20	25	25	30	30	20
	Total	180	190	180	185	185	170	170	165	165	180	180	185
University of Dundee	Scotland	140	110	115	90	105	120	75	90	95	115	115	125
	Rest of UK	10	25	30	40	40	40	30	25	35	25	20	20
	Overseas	15	15	15	25	15	10	15	25	15	15	15	15
	Total	165	155	155	155	160	170	120	140	145	155	155	160
University of St Andrews	Scotland	70	75	70	65	85	65	60	55	60	60	40	85
	Rest of UK	50	40	45	40	65	35	50	65	55	60	60	80
	Overseas	30	40	45	45	70	50	45	45	55	50	45	50
	Total	150	150	160	150	220	145	155	165	165	165	145	210

Source: HESA student data

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5

EU students are included in the overseas figures

Pre-clinical medicine as defined by JCAS code 'A100'

First degree entrants to pre-clinical medicine courses at Scottish HEIs, HECOS subject classification

Scottish Provider	Domicile	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
University of Edinburgh	Scotland	105	115	130
	Rest of UK	75	95	95
	Overseas	35	25	30
	Total	215	235	255
University of Glasgow	Scotland	190	205	240
	Rest of UK	55	60	50
	Overseas	50	70	35
	Total	295	335	325
University of Aberdeen	Scotland	145	140	175
	Rest of UK	35	30	25
	Overseas	30	40	25
	Total	210	215	220
University of Dundee	Scotland	130	140	140
	Rest of UK	20	20	20
	Overseas	15	25	25
	Total	170	185	185
University of St Andrews	Scotland	75	50	95
	Rest of UK	75	65	90
	Overseas	55	60	60
	Total	205	175	250

Source: HESA student data

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5

EU students are included in the overseas figures

Pre-clinical medicine as defined by HECOS code '100276'

Question reference: S6W-14169

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many new health and care technologies have been tested in a digital testing environment, and which ones have been taken forward for further development or implementation, since 2007.

All health and care systems are tested during development, implementation and rollout, and this is a critical part of the process for all technologies in use. All health boards have test environments or suitable processes in place to do this which is supported by national test infrastructure, environments and resources from NHS NES and NHS NSS. If I can refer the member to response in S6W-14170 on 7 February 2023. It is not possible to give an exact figure on how many new health and care technologies have been tested due to the wide range of activity and the multiple organisations involved in testing since 2007.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-14270

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation in the paper, Transforming Nursing, Midwifery and Health Professions’ Roles: Review of Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles within Scotland, what work it has undertaken to support the development of a generic Level 6 clinical nurse specialist/ specialist nurse practitioner job description, and what impact any such work has had on supporting national consistency.

Question reference: S6W-14154

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is using artificial intelligence to create data-driven recommendations in health and social care.

We are working in partnership across the UK to explore the safe use of AI within health and social care. AI is currently being utilised in the NHS to support clinicians by making data driven recommendations in areas like cancer screening and other medical imaging practices.

The Scottish Government is also currently considering how the specific needs of AI can be built into our wider work on data to provide the right infrastructure and support service that enables the adoption of AI solutions within the NHS. Further details on this will be set out in the forthcoming Data Strategy for Health & Social Care, including on the ethical and transparent use of AI.

Further to this, we are working to consider how AI can be used in existing decision support tools, for example the Right Decision Support Service.

Question reference: S6W-14242

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13542 by Humza Yousaf on 20 January 2023, how many non-executive board members have completed the e-learning module on the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Equality Act.

Question reference: S6W-14269

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation in the paper, Transforming Nursing, Midwifery and Health Professions’ Roles: Review of Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles within Scotland, whether it has commissioned NHS boards to review all clinical nurse specialist roles by undertaking to establish the numbers of nurse specialists who map across to the new definition outlined in the paper.

The Scottish Government is currently working with NHS Education for Scotland to identify a workplan for the next phase of the Transforming Roles Programme. This involves agreeing priority actions and implementing outstanding recommendations from the ‘Transforming Nursing, Midwifery and Health Professions’ Roles: Review of Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles within Scotland’ publication.

At a time of significant system pressure, this priority setting is to be undertaken as part of wider considerations in collaboration with the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors Group in Spring 2023.

Question reference: S6W-14267

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13531 by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023, given that the information requested is not held centrally, how it will monitor the impact of its commitment in the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland to provide "support for those wishing to join the health and social care workforce through increased use of national schemes such as modern apprenticeships".

I refer the member to the Scottish Government’s second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan. Further to the commitment set out in the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social care, we committed to a new target of creating 500 apprenticeship opportunities across NHS Scotland in 2022-2023, to support those wishing to join the health and social care workforce. We closely monitor NHS Boards progress towards promoting the range of opportunities available and their progress towards this target, including through taking period management information, and in our planning, assurance and scrutiny engagements with health board representatives.

The Scottish Government continues to work with key partners within health and social care to promote NHS careers with a focus on widening access and providing progressive career development pathways including exploration of “earn as you learn” models such as apprenticeships for new and existing staff.

Question reference: S6W-14268

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation in the paper, Transforming Nursing, Midwifery and Health Professions’ Roles: Review of Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles within Scotland, whether advanced clinical nurse specialists have been included within the Advanced Practice Academies.

Question reference: S6W-14271

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation in the paper, Transforming Nursing, Midwifery and Health Professions’ Roles: Review of Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles within Scotland, what work it has undertaken to support the development of a Level 7 advanced clinical nurse specialist job description, and what impact any such work has had on supporting national consistency.

Question reference: S6W-14272

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation in the paper, Transforming Nursing, Midwifery and Health Professions’ Roles: Review of Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles within Scotland, what work it has undertaken to explore how to position education for both the nurse practitioner/ advanced nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist/ advanced clinical nurse specialist within the education and career pathway.