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-26666

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met trade unions from the college sector, and what was discussed.

The Scottish Government meets with campus unions on a bi-annual basis, and representatives of the college sector in a number of forums regularly, where a range of matters important to the sector are discussed.

We expect college management and unions to work together to do everything they can to reach a pay settlement that is both fair and affordable.

However, while the Scottish Government can have no direct role in these negotiations, we will continue to engage with both management and unions as and when appropriate to do so.

Question reference: S6W-26662

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that there are no compulsory redundancies within the college sector.

Operational decisions on pay and staffing matters are the responsibility of individual colleges.

The Scottish Government expects every effort to be made, in consultation with trade unions, to protect jobs. The Scottish Government has been clear that compulsory redundancies should only be considered as a last resort, after all other options have been fully explored in collaboration with trade unions.

Question reference: S6W-26665

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that colleges across Scotland undertake pay negotiations in the spirit of the Fair Work Framework.

As set out in the Letter of Guidance issued by the Scottish Government to the Scottish Funding Council on 29 March 2024, implementation of Fair Work First must be the guiding criteria to promote fairer work practices for staff within the college sector.

The Scottish Government expects college employers and trades unions to follow Fair Work principles and work together to reach a conclusion to the pay negotiations with a settlement which is both fair and affordable, without the need for further industrial action.

Question reference: S6W-26918

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Scotland regarding how NHS boards record complaints about food provision to patients during hospital stays.

Operational guidance regarding the provision of food is provided to Boards from Health Facilities Scotland (a division of National Services Scotland). Boards carry out quality assurance activity of their catering services through several mechanisms. Patient Experience Surveys are used in all boards, through a variety of methods, and include questions on national measures of quality (which are reported annually to Health Facilities Scotland), alongside additional questions included by the board. Mealtime observations, where the ward service is observed and measured against several topic areas, are used to help to identify areas for improvement. However, some boards do not currently carry out these types of audits. All feedback should be reviewed by the service and used to measure the quality of the service from the patient’s perspective, helping to identify areas for improvement.

Patient Feedback should be considered at several forums, including at the board’s Strategic Hydration and Nutritional Care Group or Food, Fluid and Nutrition Group meetings.

Where patients have complaints, Boards are encouraged to utilise the NHS Complaints Handling Procedure. Where suitable, Boards are encouraged to resolve straightforward complaints at the earliest opportunity, however where this is not possible complaints can be escalated to an investigation stage.

Question reference: S6W-26919

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many medical records team leaders currently work in the NHS, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-26604

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what recent work the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has done in relation to consistency in prescribing across the NHS, and when they last updated the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care on any such work.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer meets regularly with both the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health, and Social Care and I on medicine policy matters, including supporting consistency in prescribing across the NHS in Scotland. This includes work on evolving individual Health Board medicine formularies to regional formularies covering prescribing in both hospitals and primary care, based on a collaborative consensus model which builds upon proven existing local governance and decision-making processes. This work has recently been endorsed by Health Board Chief Executives as a priority work programme.

Question reference: S6T-01957

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the number of private GP clinics has reportedly tripled since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6W-26928

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many secondary school physical education teachers were employed by each local authority in 2023-24.

The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) Secondary teachers with Physical Education reported as their main subject by each local authority. Head teachers and Depute head teachers are not included.

Teacher FTE numbers for individual subjects in Secondary schools are published in Table 8.9 in the annual Teacher Census Supplementary statistics available from https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/ .

Secondary school teachers (FTE) with Physical Education as main subject taught 2023 - Excludes head and depute head teachers.

	FTE
Aberdeen City	62
Aberdeenshire	96
Angus	49
Argyll and Bute	32
City of Edinburgh	155
Clackmannanshire	17
Dumfries and Galloway	53
Dundee City	43
East Ayrshire	42
East Dunbartonshire	53
East Lothian	36
East Renfrewshire	64
Falkirk	97
Fife	132
Glasgow City	207
Highland	87
Inverclyde	29
Midlothian	49
Moray	34
Na h-Eileanan Siar	10
North Ayrshire	53
North Lanarkshire	130
Orkney Islands	7
Perth and Kinross	53
Renfrewshire	70
Scottish Borders	45
Shetland Islands	9
South Ayrshire	44
South Lanarkshire	134
Stirling	45
West Dunbartonshire	32
West Lothian	89
All local authorities	2,057
Grant Aided	4
Scotland	2,061

Question reference: S6W-26924

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with allied health professional organisations, and what was discussed.

Carolyn McDonald, in her capacity as Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (CAHPO) met most recently with the Allied Health Professions Federation Scotland (AHPFS) on 3 April, 2024. Discussion included the National Care Service, Education, Government Consultations and Representation. The CAPHO and the Scottish Government will continue to engage with relevant Allied Health Professional Bodies and Organisations on a regular basis.

Question reference: S6W-26898

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of any variation in pay, terms and conditions for social workers across different local authorities.

Scottish Government conducted a survey of job vacancies advertised in myjobscotland in September 2023, as part of joint work with COSLA on social workers pay variation across Scotland. This survey indicated that at that time there was a difference of average pay of circa £7k between the lowest and highest paying employers. The lowest paying £33,500 per annum and the highest £40,673. The majority of Scotland’s employers in the public sector pay between £36,400 and £38,480.