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-32150

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the £2.2 billion funding that was announced for primary care services in its draft Budget 2025-26.

Further detail on the Scottish Government’s proposed £2.2 billion funding for primary care can be found in the 2025-26 Level 4 tables published along the Budget itself - Supporting documents - Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026 - gov.scot.

In addition to the direct funding increase of over £160 million (7.8%) for primary care, we plan to further invest in primary and community care services from the commitment to provide £100 million “Reform and Improvement measures funding” to alleviate waiting time and hospital occupancy pressures.

Question reference: S6W-32152

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the additional 600 beds for the Hospital at Home programme will be delivered, broken down by the number for each NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-32149

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the £80.888 million funding that has been allocated in its draft Budget 2025-26 under the Alcohol and Drugs Policy budget line.

The funding for Drugs and Alcohol in the 2025-26 draft budget is £80.9m. This includes £60m as part of our commitment to provide £250m in additional funding over 5 years to reduce drug deaths and improve the lives of people who use drugs and alcohol.

£19.1m has moved to baselined funding which Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) have highlighted as important for sustainability and recruitment and a record total of £112 million funding for ADPs has been maintained for a third year.

We are also continuing to fund grassroots organisations through £13 million a year to the Corra Foundation and we’ll continue to invest in residential rehabilitation - with more than £10 million committed to increasing capacity and funded placements.

The National Mission annual report finance sections aim to provide greater transparency of National Mission funding, and provide a breakdown of funding. The reports for financial years 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 are available at:

National Mission on Drugs: annual report 2023-2024 - gov.scot (section 8.4)

National Mission on Drugs: annual report 2022-2023 - gov.scot (section 8.4)

National Mission on Drugs: annual report 2021-2022 - gov.scot (section 8.4)

Question reference: S6W-32151

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many Hospital at Home beds are currently provided.

Data published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) showed that in September 2024, Older Adult’s Hospital at Home services provided the equivalent of 510 beds, similar to the size of Royal Alexandra Hospital and larger than University Hospital Wishaw.

Between July and September this year, Hospital at Home services for Older People grew by almost 14% compared to the same period in the previous year with over 4,000 patients managed by the service.

Hospital at Home capacity is in place across a range of other pathways such as Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy, Respiratory and Heart Failure. Published data is not currently available.

Question reference: S6W-32146

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the £100 million of funding that has been allocated in its draft Budget 2025-26 under the budget line Reform and Improvement Measures.

To address delayed discharge and reduce waiting lists, £200 million has been allocated in the 2025-26 Budget. Funding will be targeted at specialties with long waits to ensure that by March 2026, no patient will wait longer than 12 months for a new outpatient appointment or inpatient / day case treatment.

The ‘Improving Outcomes and Reform’ funding includes the following budgets: Access Support, Waiting Times Improvement Plan, Board Recovery (including NTC) National Treatment Centres, Modernising Patient Pathways (CfSD),Winter Funding, Urgent Care, Unscheduled Care, Detect Cancer Early (including new Manifesto commitment), Cancer Policy, Cancer Recovery Plan, Trauma Networks and Waiting Times.

Question reference: S6O-04141

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether Dumbarton Castle is an important cultural asset.

Question reference: S6W-31483

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30461 by Neil Gray on 22 October 2024, whether it will provide a breakdown of how the £4,474,000 allocated to the National Elective Coordination Unit will be spent.

Funding allocated to the Centre for Sustainable Delivery’s National Elective Co-ordination Unit from the additional £30m for planned care has been used to support collaborative working with Boards to maximise capacity and provide centralised, coordinated, and innovative approaches to waiting times recovery. Specifically, funding has been directed towards the following:

National Dermatology campaign. This includes patient digitally supported validation; high volume image capture; patient imaging and triage activity.
National Endoscopy campaign, including validation and activity.
Minor Operations: management of campaign, waiting lists, booking and clinics in urology and orthopaedics for most challenged health boards.
Breast see and treat activity for NHS Grampian.

Question reference: S6F-03591

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2024

To ask the First Minister for what reason at least 69,000 patients reportedly waited more than an hour to be triaged in A&E departments in the first half of this year.

Question reference: S6W-30881

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) services are appropriately resourced and staffed to meet the needs of the reported over 50,000 people in Scotland with Crohn’s disease and colitis.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people in Scotland living with Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn's disease and colitis, are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

Scottish Government workforce planning guidance requires Boards to take a demand-led approach by determining future staffing requirements in line with healthcare needs within their locality.

Speciality training numbers are reviewed and considered annually by the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group (SSoTTG), with subsequent recommendations made to Scottish Ministers around the need to increase training establishments. The most recent uplift in Gastroenterology (as the specialty which treats IBD) took place in 2022 when 10 additional posts were created. This saw the overall number of speciality training places on Scottish Gastroenterology training programmes increase to 47.

Question reference: S6W-30698

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-26075 by Jenni Minto on 18 March 2024, what the Scottish Expert Advisory Group (SEAG) has identified as specific challenges and opportunities for a Scottish programme, and whether SEAG is exploring examples of the Lung Health Check programmes in places such as Hull, where the Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is reportedly collaborating with Chiesi Ltd to enable early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) diagnosis and timely initiation of evidence-based pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions to improve outcomes for participants of the Hull Lung Health Check programme.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recommendation that the four UK Nations should move towards implementing a programme of targeted lung screening for those between 55-74 with a history of smoking, was based on evidence from the lung health check pilots which continue to inform the Scottish Expert Advisory Group (SEAG) work.

The UK NSC established an expert Lung Task Group to oversee modelling work and explore the issues around implementation, which is attended by all four UK nations. In addition, representatives from the SEAG attend both the NHS England Lung Screening Implementation Group and the Welsh equivalent. Representatives from these groups have in turn attended the SEAG, to share learning and develop evidence-based feasibility advice.

Officials continue to invest in the University of Edinburgh who have been conducting a research study, LungScot, into targeted lung health checks across four health boards. This important work will help to inform the considerations of the SEAG as work progresses towards a business case which will highlight the challenges and opportunities for a Scottish Programme.

Lung cancer remains a national priority, with Scotland's first optimal cancer diagnostic pathway for lung published 12 December 2022. This pathway sets optimal timeframes for each step to enable diagnosis by day twenty one and treatment for most by day forty two. Work continues to develop and share best practice to ensure patients receive faster access to treatment.