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-43647

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost is of a (a) Hospital Specialty and (b) General Practice Specialty Training Programme place.

Based on 2025-26 pay scales, the estimated average annual cost is £117,922 for a Hospital Specialty training place and £115,792 for a General Practice Specialty training place. These estimates assume banding supplements of 50% for hospital placements and between 40-45% for General Practice placements and use average staff support costs . These estimates include salary, employer contributions and infrastructure costs, and vary depending on the specific grade and year of training.

Question reference: S6W-43649

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00312 by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021, how many entrants there have been to accredited pre-registration radiography specialty courses in each of the last five years.

Radiography education is not commissioned or controlled by the Scottish Government. The following table sets out the number of entrants to accredited radiography courses at Scottish Universities each academic year. Figures for the 2024-25 academic year are not yet available.

Entrants to accredited pre-registration radiography courses (rounded to nearest 5)

Year	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Therapeutic Radiography	40	40	45	25	45
Diagnostic Radiography	140	145	150	140	130
Total	180	185	195	165	175

Source: HESA Student Population

Question reference: S6W-43651

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many advanced level nurses in primary care have been trained in each year since 2021.

Question reference: S6W-43843

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it is continuing the Investing in Communities Fund beyond March 2026.

Question reference: S6W-43844

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is available for foodshare projects.

Question reference: S6W-43587

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-43013 by Neil Gray on 27 January 2026, regarding the additional £135.5 million allocated to planned care in 2025-26, whether it plans to baseline this funding into 2026-27.

In 2025-26, we allocated £135.5 million to Health Boards, directing this funding towards specialties experiencing the longest waits. The most recent data demonstrates that this targeted investment is delivering improved outcomes for patients across Scotland. This funding has not been baselined for 2026-27.

Looking ahead to 2026-27, we will build on the progress already achieved. Up to £100 million will be available to support further reductions in waiting times and to enhance patient flow across the Health System, ensuring continued improvement in access to care.

Question reference: S6W-43588

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-32146 and S6W-43022 by Neil Gray on 19 December 2024 and 27 January 2026 respectively, and in light of it being able to provide a breakdown in its answer to question S6W-32146, whether it will provide the information requested in question S6W-43022, regarding a detailed breakdown of the £100 million allocated to reform and improvement measures.

In 2026-27, we will build on the progress already achieved, with £100 million available to support further reductions in waiting times and to enhance patient flow across the Health System. This will ensure continued improvements in timely access to care for patients.

The 2026-27 budget has not yet been passed by Parliament and is at draft stage. Spending plans are still being developed by policy leads, therefore there we are not in a position at this point to provide a detailed breakdown of what the budget will deliver.

Question reference: S6W-43500

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many MRI scanners each NHS board has.

Question reference: S6W-43505

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the process is for Healthcare Infection Incident Assessment reports, and under what circumstances ministers are notified of these.

The process for Healthcare Infection Incident Assessment reports is detailed in Appendix 14 of the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual (NIPCM).

The Infection Prevention and Control Team (IPCT) or Health Protection Team (HPT) for community incidents, will assess the impact of a healthcare associated infection (HCAI) incident/outbreak using the Healthcare Associated Infection Incident Assessment Tool (HIIAT). The HIIAT has 2 main functions, to assess the impact of infection and supporting a single channel of communication and reporting. This communication is both internally within an NHS Board and externally to Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland as well as the Scottish Government.

The impact assessment is based on 4 categories; severity of illness, impact on service(s), risk of transmission and public anxiety. For each category, the IPCT or HPT will score the incident either minor, moderate or major. Based on this, each incident will be given an overall impact calculation of either green, amber or red. An individual member of the IPCT or HPT will usually undertake the initial risk assessment as part of a problem assessment group (PAG).

The current process for HIIAT reports ensures that ARHAI Scotland routinely notify Scottish Government officials of incidents assessed as amber or red, whilst green incidents may be shared if there is a particular need, for example because of a prior interest or a rare pathogen.

Officials and a professional IPC nursing advisor review each incident to determine whether these should be brought to the attention of Ministers. A range of factors are considered when this assessment is being made including: the nature and sensitivity of the incident, the type of pathogen, the extent of how patients, their families/ visitors, healthcare staff and/ or services are affected, any risk of further transmission and other contextual factors we may be aware of in the particular Health Board.

Question reference: S6W-43502

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many Healthcare Infection Incident Assessment reports were received from (a) NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, (b) NHS Lothian and (c) other NHS boards, broken down by hospital, between 2015 and March 2018, also broken down by how many were red alerts and notified to ministers, and what action was taken in each case.