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-39516

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 18 August 2025

Scotland level information on costs for each of the years requested is not available. However, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) commissioned Landman Economics to provide updated analysis on costs of smoking which was published in January 2025. This analysis estimates the UK wide costs of smoking on Social Care in 2024 were £16.541 billion. The Scottish Government undertook additional analysis of this data for the Public Service Reform Strategy. This estimated a public spending cost of smoking to Scotland, including wider costs to the health service, social care and responding to fire-related incidents, of £1.56bn in 2024, projected to reach £2.5 billion by 2035-36 unless further action is taken.

Question reference: S6W-39339

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 8 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how much was spent by (a) the NHS, (b) local authorities and (c) the entire Scottish public sector on Microsoft 365 licences in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Scottish Government does not hold centralised figures for Microsoft 365 license spend across the entire public sector, however, information is held on spend through the Scottish Government Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and spend on all Microsoft products through the Software Value Added Reseller Services (SVARS) framework.

iTECS can confirm that the Scottish Government spent a total of £6,514,529.39 on Microsoft 365 licences in the most recent financial year, through the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. This figure includes all licences held under the SCOTS Connect tenancy, which supports both SG Core and Non-Core customers. It is important to note that this cost includes licences for 55 SCOTS Connect customers on the network, which partially covers some of the wider public sector in Scotland. However, iTECS does not collate or hold centralised figures for Microsoft 365 licence expenditure by the NHS, local authorities, or the Scottish public sector as a whole.

Breakdown of Costs by Licence Type

Tenancy	Description	Cost (£)
SCOTSConnect	Predominantly M365 E3 licencing for SG Core and Non-Core users includes licences such as Power BI, Power Automate, Teams Phone, etc. which are recharged to business areas as a SCOTS Service	£6,284,281.43
SCOTS Connect SCE	Cloud products including SQL and Data Centre	£217,226.88
ScotsConnectTravel	M365 E3 and E5 for SCOTS Travel (Cyber)	£8,566.85
ScotsConnectTest	Minimal test licences (E1, E3, F3, E5, etc.)	£3,610.38
ScotsConnectPreProd	Minimal pre-production licences	£843.85
Total		£6,514,529.39

As of 2 April 2025, there were 24,178 users across SG Core (52.1%) and Non-Core (47.9%), with the M365 E3 licence cost split as follows:

SG Core: £3,188,685.03
Non-Core: £2,928,590.75

SVARS Microsoft Spend

The SVARS Framework provides Scottish public sector and third sector bodies with a compliant procurement route to purchase commercial off the shelf (COTS) software and associated services.

Information is held on spend on Microsoft 365 products via the SVARS frameworks, however, it should be noted that the information provided in the following table does not relate to sectoral spend out with our current framework agreements and does not include spend through other procurement routes or maverick spend as this information is not held by Scottish Government.

The SVARS data held on spend per sector for 2024-2025 FY is:

Sector	Spend (£)
NHS	£36,789,550.80
Local Authority	£6,017,028.85
Other Public Sector	£6,240,604.80
Total	£49,047,184.45

Colleagues in the Scottish Government are currently working on a programme which will capture new digital change spend information across Scottish Government core and the Executive Agencies. Future phases of this programme will implement a broader approach which will allow oversight of business-as-usual digital spend, which Microsoft licences would fall within, potentially offering greater oversight across other public sector organisations as well as Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-39373

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how much it spent on Microsoft 365 licences in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Question reference: S6W-38267

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the adequacy of current financial incentives for home dialysis and whether there has been any variation in adoption across NHS boards.

The primary driver for introducing a national policy was to achieve a level of consistency and resolve the situation where some NHS Boards were already reimbursing the electricity costs associated with home dialysis, some partially reimbursing and others making no reimbursement at all. The Scotland-wide policy allows for Boards to determine reimbursement rates for home dialysis whilst recommending the standard UK Kidney Association (UKKA) calculator as a basis.

A review of implementation of the national policy found that all Boards had reimbursement policies for eligible patients. The policy requests that Boards proactively identify patients eligible for reimbursement but does not mandate how Boards may manage the reimbursement process; this is a local decision for each Board.

Question reference: S6W-38268

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to invest in infrastructure to support a greater uptake of home dialysis as part of the forthcoming long-term conditions framework.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with long term conditions including Chronic Kidney Disease 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.

We are running our public consultation on the Long Term Conditions Framework from 23 April to 20 July 2025. This is available at Health: Long Term Conditions Framework - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space.

We will take the results of the consultation into account when developing the framework which will include identifying areas where targeted condition-specific action will still be needed. In the development of the framework we will identify what funding is available for implementation.

Question reference: S6W-38266

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reviewed the impact of the national guidance on reimbursement for home dialysis costs to include utility costs, including water and electricity, following its introduction in March 2024.

In January 2024, we implemented a Scotland-wide policy reimbursing home dialysis patients for their extra electricity costs incurred in their treatment. At the time of implementation, there was a commitment to undertake a review 6-12 months later to ensure that the Policy had been fully applied across all NHS Boards. This Review has been completed and concluded that all Boards had reimbursement policies for eligible patients. This removes the financial disincentive to making a choice for home dialysis over in-centre treatments, allowing personal choice in where and how to receive treatment.

Question reference: S6W-38730

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the commitment to the Finance and Public Administration Committee on the publication of reports on longer-term insights.

Today, we are publishing the findings from the Scottish Government’s Horizon Scanning project. The Future Trends for Scotland report and the accompanying Trend pack describe the 60 trends likely to be important to Scotland over the next 10 to 20 years. This publication does not cover potential policy or strategy implications and is not a statement of government policy or intention, rather it is about providing open analysis to spark reflection and guide decisions in a complex interconnected world.

Publishing the findings from the project fulfils the commitment made to the Finance and Public Administration Committee, will contribute to a wider debate about trends affecting Scotland in the future and will support other organisations and our partners in their own work in planning for the opportunities and plausible future risks.

Question reference: S6W-37969

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether NHS boards should provide blood sample collection through (a) phlebotomy hubs and (b) community treatment and care services.

NHS Boards are responsible for ensuring the provision of a safe, sustainable and high quality healthcare service that best meets the needs of their patients. The whole general practice team is being strengthened significantly and we are committed to increasing investment in primary care and GP services over the course of this Parliament. We remain committed to the GP contract and the delivery of extended multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) making it easier for patients to see the right person, at the right time, in GP practices and the community.

Question reference: S6W-37968

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what requirements exist for GPs under the General Medical Services contract to provide phlebotomy services and collect blood samples to support secondary care management of chronic conditions.

Under the General Medical Services contract GP practices are responsible for providing the services required for the management of their registered patients and temporary residents who are, or believe themselves to be ill, with conditions from which recovery is generally expected, terminally ill, or suffering from chronic disease. This can include taking bloods as necessary.

GP practices’ contracts must include terms which require the Health Board to provide the contractor with support by providing community treatment and care services which include phlebotomy.

GP practices may also contract with their Health Boards to collect blood samples to support the secondary care management of chronic conditions. These would be considered enhanced services which are additional to the GP contract and cannot be required.

Question reference: S6W-37970

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is provided to clinicians who are considering prescribing a medicine off-label when unlicensed for a particular condition, when there is a Scottish Medicines Consortium approved medicine available, which is licensed for that indication.

Guidance to clinicians to support prescribing medicines off-label is provided by the General Medical Council (GMC) . The guidance states that doctors should usually prescribe licensed medicines in accordance with the terms of their licence but they may prescribe medicines off-label where, on the basis of an assessment of the individual patient, they conclude, for medical reasons, that it is necessary to do so to meet the specific needs of the patient. In addition, extant guidance states that, unless there is a specific clinical reason, clinicians should prescribe a licensed medicine which has been accepted for routine use in the NHS in Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) as opposed to prescribing off-label or unlicensed medicines.