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: S7W-01118

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the Redress Scheme have been completed and awards made in each year since the inception of the scheme.

Question reference: S7W-01115

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports of a backlog of applications to the Redress Scheme (a) how many applications are currently waiting to be assigned to a caseworker, (b) what this figure is as a percentage of the overall number of applications, and (c) how long it anticipates it will take to process those applications.

Question reference: S7W-01113

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many caseworkers are employed to work on the Redress Scheme.

Question reference: S7W-01122

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many panel members decide awards for the Redress Scheme, and what its position is on whether this is a sufficient number to deal with the reported backlog of cases.

Question reference: S7W-00809

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when all patients will be able to use the MyCare.scot app to order repeat prescriptions and book GP appointments.

MyCare.scot was rolled out nationally across Scotland from April 2026 and will continue to develop incrementally through the Scottish Government’s Digital Front Door (DFD) programme. Future functionality will depend on wider national digital programmes, including the Digital Prescribing and Dispensing Pathways (DPDP) Programme and GP IT reprovisioning.

The DPDP Programme will replace paper prescriptions with a secure ,end-to-end digital prescribing and dispensing system. The current DPDP trajectory is for delivery by mid-2028 of the end-to-end process for prescribing and dispensing, with patient-facing benefits via MyCare.scot, including prescription ordering, following in 2029.

GP appointment booking functionality will be introduced progressively as development and integration work with GP systems is completed across NHS Scotland. Current planning assumptions are that core integration work could be completed during 2027, enabling phased rollout of digital booking functionality through MyCare.scot across NHS Boards thereafter.

Question reference: S7W-00810

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Scottish National Party 2026 manifesto commitment, when the National Booking System for the NHS will be launched.

The Scottish Government’s strategic approach is to deliver digital appointment functionality through MyCare.scot as part of the wider Digital Front Door programme. Building on existing common national digital capabilities and infrastructure, this will support a more consistent, scalable and interoperable appointments experience across health and social care services in Scotland.

MyCare.scot was initially rolled out with dermatology outpatients in Lanarkshire, enabling registered patients in that cohort to view their outpatient appointments online. The technology is now being expanded incrementally to support additional services across Scotland, starting with services supported by Trak Care.

Appointment viewing, management and booking functionality will be introduced progressively in partnership with NHS Boards, covering both primary and secondary care appointment types as development and integration work is completed. Rollout is expected to begin across NHS Boards by the end of 2026, with continued expansion aligned to the Digital Front Door roadmap.

Question reference: S7W-00819

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when a national lung screening programme will be fully rolled out across Scotland.

Question reference: S7W-00820

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to expand access to clinical trials for patients.

Within the Scottish Government policy responsibility for Health and Care Research sits with the Chief Scientist Office (CSO)

NHS Research Scotland (NRS) is a partnership between the NHS Boards and CSO. NRS works to ensure that the NHS in Scotland provides the best environment to support clinical trials. The Scottish Government provides annual NRS Infrastructure support funding. The 2025/26 figure for this funding was £46.16 million.

The VPAG Commercial Clinical Trials Investment Programme was agreed as part of the 2024 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG). It aims to strengthen the UK’s global competitiveness in life sciences and support innovation led growth. The programme is supported by approximately £400 million of funding from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry members

The clinical trials component of VPAG is intended to enhance capacity and delivery of commercial clinical research across the UK. Approximately £40 million from this element of the VPAG investment programme is expected to be invested in Scotland over the five year scheme. CSO has worked with NRS to configure this investment to maximise the opportunities for patients to participate in commercial clinical trials. This includes the setting up of 4 Commercial Research Delivery Centres (CRDC's) - based in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow - to accelerate and strengthen commercial clinical research delivery.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Health Research Register (SHARE). This allows people, aged 11 and over, to register their interest in being contacted about relevant Clinical Trials based on the coded data in their various NHS computer records. As of 10th June 2026, SHARE had recruited 312,835 participants SHARE | RegisterforSHARE

Question reference: S7W-00822

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to extend smoke-free zones around schools and playgrounds, taking similar measures to those applied to hospitals.

The Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 provides us with powers to expand existing smoke free spaces, as well as create vape free spaces and heated tobacco free spaces.

These powers support the implementation of our Tobacco and Vaping Framework Place based actions, and we are considering how we will use the powers, ensuring action is both evidence based and proportionate.

Any action will be subject to consultation and I will update Parliament with the next steps in due course.

Question reference: S7W-00815

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the current status of prostate cancer screening, in light of the UK National Screening Committee’s recent decision to not offer universal screening.

Scotland’s screening policy, as is the case in the other nations of the UK, is guided by the recommendations of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). Before making any recommendations, the UK NSC considers the best available evidence to establish whether the harms of screening outweigh the benefits.

On 28 May, the UK NSC recommended that prostate screening should be offered to men aged 45 to 61 with both a confirmed BRCA2 gene variant and a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic or prostate cancer.

The Minister for Mental Wellbeing, Public Health, Sport, Alcohol and Drugs, Maree Todd, welcomes and accepts this recommendation. As an immediate priority we are working to consider how the current system for cancer surveillance across our Health Boards can be strengthened to bring us in line with the UK NSC Recommendation. In parallel, work will explore what might be needed to formalise the existing system as a national screening programme.

The UK NSC will continue to gather evidence on the impact of screening on other groups, particularly through the TRANSFORM trial. The Scottish Government will support this evidence gathering in any way it can.