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: S5W-25414

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 4 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its commitment to publish data on its spending over £25,000 on a monthly basis, for what reason its last publication of such information, which covered August, September and October 2018, was on 10 May 2019, and what its response is to concerns that not publishing such information impacts on its transparency and accountability and the Parliament's ability to scrutinise its work.

Question reference: S5W-25416

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 4 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has not published any monthly spending data for the last four months and, in the interests of transparency and accountability and the Parliament's ability to scrutinise its work, whether, as a matter of urgency, it will now do so.

Question reference: S5W-25415

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 4 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its commitment to publish data on its spending over £25,000 on a monthly basis, and in the interests of transparency and accountability and the Parliament's ability to scrutinise its work, whether, as a matter of urgency, it will publish the data for each month since November 2018.

Question reference: S5O-03654

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides for pupils with additional support needs.

Question reference: S5W-24985

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Scottish-domiciled students applied to study medicine at Scottish universities in each academic year since 2014, also broken down by institution.

Question reference: S5W-24984

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Scottish-domiciled students were accepted at Scottish universities to study medicine in each academic year since 2014, also broken down by institution.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) does not provide the number of acceptances at this level.

However the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) provides the number of medicine students entering university each year. This is broken down by institution for Scottish domiciled students entering first degree pre-clinical medicine in the following table.

Scottish domiciled first degree pre-clinical medicine entrants to Scottish universities

	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
University of Aberdeen	105	100	115	115
University of Dundee	90	95	115	115
University of Edinburgh	90	85	85	95
University of Glasgow	140	140	140	150
University of St Andrews	55	60	60	40
Total	480	485	515	515

Source SFC / HESA

Entrants cover the first year of study only for first degree courses.

Numbers are full-person equivalent and are rounded to nearest 5.

Includes JACS code for pre-clinical medicine, A1.

The entrant figures are not analogous to acceptances, however, as some students will be accepted by more than one university.

Question reference: S5W-24986

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many places there have been at Scottish universities for (a) Scottish-domiciled and (b) fee paying students to study medicine in each year since 2014, also broken down by institution.

(a) The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) allocates funded places for eligible Scottish domiciled and EU students. I refer the member to Scottish Parliament information Centre (SPICe) Bib number 60970.

In AY 2019-20 the SFC set a minimum core intake target for eligible Scottish domiciled and EU students studying medicine.

(b) The SFC does not allocate funded places for rest of UK or international students, however these students are reflected in the overall intake targets.

Question reference: S5W-24967

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the observation by the Chief Medical Officer in annex 1 to A Summary of the Health of the Nation that "Mortality in Scotland has hardly improved in the last five years – this is almost unprecedented since the Second World War"; what analysis it has carried out of the reason for this trend, and what action it is taking to reverse it.

Life expectancy in Scotland has been increasing in recent decades, and premature mortality rates in the most deprived areas are down 11% since 2007, with the overall rate down 17% for the same period.

The fact that in 2017 improvements in life expectancy stalled for the first time since the 1980s is a concern – one which we believe is exacerbated by UK Government austerity and welfare benefits cuts, and the impact they are likely to have on the poorest and most vulnerable sections of the community.

Health Scotland is leading collaborative work to understand the underlying causes of these trends and their implications for policy.

A Mortality Special Interest Group has been established, hosted by the Scottish Public Health Network (ScotPHN), which is seeking to understand the underlying causes of these trends.

We remain focussed on improving life expectancy across Scotland by pursuing policies which tackle health inequalities and focusses on key issues such as obesity, smoking, inactivity, drug and alcohol – as well as investing in measures such as affordable housing, free prescriptions, free personal care and providing free school meals.

Question reference: S5W-24970

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the observation by the Chief Medical Officer in annex 1 to A Summary of the Health of the Nation that "Mortality inequalities in Scotland started to increase after 2011. Mortality rates have worsened in the most deprived fifth of Scottish areas, and overall inequalities by deprivation have widened"; what analysis it has carried out of the reason for these trends, and what action it is taking to reverse them.

Question reference: S5W-25114

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-24399 by Jamie Hepburn on 7 August 2019, whether there will be a formal evaluation of the Workplace Equality Fund and, if so, when.