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-41919

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the data on the uptake of vaccinations provided by NHS Highland teams and not GPs, whether GPs will be provided with immediate access to said data at the time of administering a vaccine, and, if not, by what means they will be able to know whether their patients have been vaccinated.

Question reference: S6W-41917

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate has been made of the extra costs of the continuance of a hybrid arrangement in NHS Highland for the delivery of vaccination services, with some provided by GPs and some by NHS Highland vaccination teams.

Question reference: S6W-42205

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government who prepares the influenza vaccination uptake statistics for NHS Highland, and whether it will publish all correspondence with the authors thereof.

Question reference: S6W-42203

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the level of uptake of the influenza vaccination has been in the NHS Highland area in (a) the current year to date, and (b) each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-42206

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask NHS Highland to commit to provide to the public all data regarding the levels of uptake of influenza vaccination and to do so immediately upon that data becoming available.

Question reference: S6W-42204

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the most recent statistics on the level of uptake of the influenza vaccination, when NHS Highland received them; whether there has been a delay in making them public, and, if so, for what reason.

Question reference: S6W-41912

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 26 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the overspend by NHS Highland was in the financial year 2024-25, and whether it will provide a breakdown of this overspend.

Question reference: S6W-41914

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on (a) the levels of uptake of the winter flu vaccine and (b) whether there is a significant risk of death as a result of a lack of vaccination.

Levels of uptake of the winter flu vaccine

As of the 16 November, 941,833 adult flu vaccinations have been administered. Around the same point last year (17 November 2024) 861,472 adult flu vaccines had been administered. Therefore, this year 80,361 more adult flu vaccines have been administered at this point.

For week ending 16 November, Boards administered 117,026 adult flu vaccines, an increase from the previous week, where they administered 113,936. Clinics and appointments are continuing and we will continue to monitor uptake. The flu programme will run until Sunday 29 March 2026.

Whether there is a significant risk of death as a result of a lack of vaccination

Vaccination is offered to those at the highest risk of complication from flu on the basis of JCVI recommendations. Public Health Scotland (PHS) advises that it is currently too early in the flu season to understand how circulating strains will affect risk of death among unvaccinated (and vaccinated) populations in Scotland.

To note, it is difficult to estimate the impact of vaccination - or lack thereof - on risk of death in the UK (or in Scotland), even at the end of the season, as there are insufficient events to produce precise estimates of differential risk over one year. Instead, PHS produces Scotland-specific and UK-wide estimates of vaccine effectiveness against severe disease, as measured by hospital admissions due to flu. These vaccine effectiveness estimates are typically published on an interim basis in February and finalised for the following June; however, given the early start to this season, PHS is working on a four-nations basis to provide more timely estimates.

Question reference: S6W-41920

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Highland has run a Hospital at Home programme, and, if so, what the cost has been to date, and how many patients have taken part in it.

NHS Highland operates a Hospital at Home service as part of the Scottish Government’s wider programme to provide acute hospital-level care in people’s own homes. NHS Highland currently have a service running in Argyll & Bute and a new service being developed in Inverness.

The board has been allocated up to £3,513,797 for 2025-26 to support further development of these services.

The Argyll & Bute service managed a median of nearly 20 patients per month in 2024-25. Board level data for the Older Adults pathway is a matter for Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) who collate and manage this data. HIS provide an annual publication on services with information on patients managed here - https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.scot/publications/hospital-at-home-services-annual-report-july-2025/.

Question reference: S6W-41913

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Public Health Scotland Board (a) currently receives and (b) formerly received regular updates regarding the uptake rates of the winter flu vaccine, and, if it no longer receives these updates, who decided to discontinue this practice, and for what reason.