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-33955

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the fixed fees system on the number of solicitors taking on legal aid cases.

The fixed fee system was introduced over 25 years ago, in 1999. The initial move to fixed fees in 1999 was designed to reverse the substantial growth in costs seen throughout the 1990s and which led to significant reforms both in Scotland and England and Wales.

Fixed payments and block fees reduce the administrative burden on providers and streamlines the accounts process. That system was designed upon a basis that solicitors should be paid fixed sums for specified work recognising that different cases will require different amounts of work, and that different cases will have different degrees of profitability, but over the total population of summary criminal cases that a solicitor undertakes in a year, the sums that will be paid from the legal aid fund will provide reasonable remuneration. Solicitors can “opt out” of the respective fixed/block fee regime and charge on a ‘time and line’ basis in certain circumstances.

One of our short-term priorities for Legal Aid Reform, which arose from the Legal Aid Payment Panel is to progress fee review planning and collaborate with stakeholders on reform of legal aid fees in 2025. I intend to publish the Legal Aid Reform Discussion paper shortly.

Question reference: S6W-33976

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress has been made with its scheme, Percentage for the Arts.

Question reference: S6T-02335

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the banking sector regarding how to ensure that communities do not lose access to banking services, in light of reports that Lloyds Banking Group plans to close 14 Bank of Scotland branches over the next two years.

Question reference: S6O-04286

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working to increase investment in Scotland’s artificial intelligence sector.

Question reference: S6W-33602

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to ensure that cancer patients are able to receive patient-centred care that is tailored to their individual needs.

The Scottish Government published our Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 along with an initial three year Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 in June 2023. The strategy and plan take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care with an ambition to provide person centred care for all.

The actions contained in the plan will enable health and care professionals to work in partnership with the people they care for to ensure shared decision making with realistic medicine approaches in mind.

Scottish Government launched Single Point of Contact pilots in 2020, which ensure people recently diagnosed with cancer have person-centred support and can discuss their specific circumstances. This helps ease anxieties related to their care and treatment plans and to relay the support available to them and their families. Scottish Government is considering how best to scale up this approach.

We are also working in partnership with Macmillan to improve the service we offer patients with cancer through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme. This partnership is worth £27 million and is the first of its kind in the UK. The programme ensures that every patient with cancer in Scotland has access to a specialist key support worker, who can provide emotional, financial, and practical support to those who need it most.

Question reference: S6W-33600

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to use public deliberation methods, such as citizens' juries, to improve cancer services.

The Scottish Government continues to use a range of methods to ensure meaningful public input to our work, including focus groups and formal public consultation.

The Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey (SCPES) asks people about their experience of cancer care. The survey is jointly funded by the Scottish Government and Macmillan Cancer Support. The most recent findings of the survey were published in September 2024.

Care Opinion is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that gives people a platform to tell their own story about their experience of health and care services. We regularly look to this resource to understand experience of cancer services by all people affected by cancer accessing services across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-33601

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what recent steps it has taken to (a) increase the number of GPs nationwide and (b) improve access to face-to-face GP appointments.

(a) The Scottish Government remains fully committed to increasing the number of GPs by 800 by 2027.

In November 2024 we published a General Practitioner Recruitment and Retention Action Plan, available online at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/general-practitioner-recruitment-retention-action-plan-2024-2026/documents/

A key action in this plan is to retain newly qualified GPs in Scotland by expanding the current fellowship offer to support early career GPs on completion of their GP training. We have also commissioned NHS Education for Scotland to work with the profession to redesign the current GP Retainer Scheme to make it more flexible to support GPs at times in their career when it is needed. We have created 70 additional GP Speciality Training posts since 2022, with a further 30 to be added in 2025.

(b) The Scottish Government discusses access to general practice with the representatives of the profession. It is important that patients see the right person at the right place at the right time to treat their condition, this may not always need to be a GP. However, where clinically necessary, the option to have a face to face consultation should always be available.

Question reference: S6W-33603

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is being provided to ensure that every cancer patient is able to access specialist psychological support throughout their treatment.

Scottish Government’s Psychological Therapies and Support Framework for People Affected by Cancer supports Health Boards in considering the services which should be available to those affected by cancer, including psychological support, at any point of throughout the cancer pathway.

In 2024-25 Scottish Government provided £123 million to Health Boards to deliver improvements to mental health services for people in Scotland, including the delivery of psychological therapies for those with cancer. It is the responsibility of Health Boards to deliver this and to locally commission as required.

Question reference: S6O-04279

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working to improve access to support for pupils with additional support needs, including access to speech and language therapists.

Question reference: S6W-33599

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve NHS Scotland’s data and information-sharing infrastructure.

COSLA and the Scottish Government published Scotland’s first Data Strategy for Health and Social Care in February 2023. The Strategy outlines a number of key developments for improving technology and infrastructure to improve the care and wellbeing of people in Scotland by making best use of data in the design and delivery of services

The specific actions being taken can be read in the Strategy: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/strategy-plan/2023/02/data-strategy-health-social-care-2/documents/greater-access-better-insight-improved-outcomes-strategy-data-driven-care-digital-age/greater-access-better-insight-improved-outcomes-strategy-data-driven-care-digital-age/govscot%3Adocument/greater-access-better-insight-improved-outcomes-strategy-data-driven-care-digital-age.pdf.

You may also be interested to read about our progress in the 2024 update on our progress and priorities: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/progress-report/2024/04/data-strategy-health-social-care-2024-update-progress-priorities/documents/data-strategy-health-social-care-2024-update-progress-priorities/data-strategy-health-social-care-2024-update-progress-priorities/govscot%3Adocument/data-strategy-health-social-care-2024-update-progress-priorities.pdf