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: S6T-01740

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the closure of Ardrossan Harbour’s Irish Berth for safety reasons after corrosion was reportedly uncovered during an inspection by divers.

Question reference: S6W-24239

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much the NHS has spent on providing over-the-counter medicines via prescription in the last year for which figures are available.

Data is not currently reported in a format which shows primary care medicines spend by licenced indication, (Prescription only Medicines (POM), Pharmacy medicines (P) and General Sale List (GSL)). A P pack medicine may be prescribed and supplied for a condition not listed under the P licence on the prescription, particularly if that is the right drug for the patient's condition.

For the financial year 2022-23, the primary care drug spend was £1.22 billion. The NHS in Scotland has a policy to prescribe generically where generic drug is available. Generic prescribing accounts for 85% of primary care drug volumes but only accounts for 30% of the cost.

Question reference: S6W-24238

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government which over-the-counter medicines are available on prescription.

Question reference: S6W-22200

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22009 by Michael Matheson on 11 October 2023, in light of its intention to "empower and support NHS leadership in the use of these new technologies, to help build and share a wider knowledge base, rather than appointing a single AI champion", how it plans to overcome any differing governance protocols across NHS boards in this context, and what its position is on whether not having a single artificial intelligence (AI) champion for all NHS boards will (a) inhibit innovation and (b) lead to the (i) delayed adoption and (ii) increased cost of new AI technologies.

At its heart, AI is the leveraging of advanced digital technology using large data sets, and we are treating AI with the same rigour as any other new technology or innovation. As such, its use comes under existing digital and data governance mechanisms. At a national level, the Scottish Government, with its partners COSLA, have established a new Strategic Leadership Board for Digital and Data Transformation.

This Leadership Board is supported by a number of sub-boards, including a dedicated Data Board for Health & Social Care. Through this new national governance, we will continue to work towards embedding greater use of digital and data driven innovations across health and social care (including ensuring necessary support is in place for skills and training), consider what capabilities, processes and procedures are required at a local level to support adoption and therefore assess what additional mechanisms may be required nationally.

Question reference: S6W-23232

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to encourage high-value medicines manufacturing in Scotland.

Last year, Scottish Enterprise (SE), working with Innovate UK, invested £15m to establish the state-of-the-art Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre. The facility works with a range of partners in the pharmaceutical industry to conduct research and development, creating leading edge solutions for the manufacture of medicines.

In addition, just a few weeks ago, SE committed around £10m to support the creation of a new oligonucleotides manufacturing innovation centre, that will help pharmaceutical companies to undertake critical phase I and phase II trials to manufacture these highly effective new medicines.

In combination, these centres establish Scotland as a key player in the rapidly growing advanced manufacturing sector and we expect that they will act as a powerful magnet for inward investment and the creation of highly skilled jobs. This is already producing results e.g. Valneva will manufacture its world-first vaccine for the mosquito-bourne Chickungunya virus, in its new manufacturing facility in Livingston.

Question reference: S6W-23983

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 21 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many warranted fishery officers are based in the (a) Oban, (b) Campbeltown and (c) Ayr fishery office, and how many additional warranted fishery officers were seconded to the Clyde marine region in each year from 2013-14 to 2023-24 inclusive.

Question reference: S6W-23984

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 21 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many rapid response fisheries compliance vessels are available at any one time to attend to issues in the Clyde marine region.

The Marine Directorate is responsible for the operation of the Scottish Government's Marine Protection Vessels. It operates 3 larger vessels and 2 inshore fast patrol vessels. No marine assets are dedicated to a particular area, instead, tasking is determined using a risk based procedure which, considers intelligence, likelihood, and impact of an activity on the marine environment and fishery resources.

Question reference: S6W-23893

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 14 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on negotiations with COSLA to agree a new Fiscal Framework with local government.

The Scottish Government and COSLA have today published a progress report on the development of a Fiscal Framework between the Scottish Government and Local Government. The document can be accessed on the Scottish Government website at the following link : https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781835217856

The report shows that while negotiations continue, we have jointly made good progress on a number of aspects of the framework and have already put these into practice, including improved pre-budget engagement and meaningful discussion about new fiscal levers.

Question reference: S6W-23564

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people (a) had to be hospitalised and (b) died as a result of paracetamol overdose in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

In response to (a):

Table 1 shows the number of people admitted to hospital as an inpatient or day case as a result of paracetamol poisoning, which includes overdose. Note that these figures include overdoses that were coded as accidental, intentional and of undetermined intent.

Table 1: Number of people admitted to hospital for paracetamol poisoning

Financial year	Number of admissions
2018-19	5,905
2019-20	6,307
2020-21	5,996
2021-22	6,060
2022-23	5,189

Source: Public Health Scotland

In response to (b):

National Records of Scotland publish an annual National Statistics report on Drug-related Deaths in Scotland, which was released on 22 August 2023. The publication can be found at: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland/2022/additional-data

Within Table SUB2 of the additional tables published alongside the main report, there is a breakdown of drug poisoning deaths by year and substance, including specifically those drugs which were implicated in or potentially contributed to the cause of death. Table 2 provides an extract from this table, showing the number of drug poisoning deaths where paracetamol was reported to have been implicated in or potentially contributed to the cause of death for the most recent five years of published data.

Table 2. The number of drug poisoning deaths where paracetamol was reported to have been implicated in or potentially contributed to the cause of death

Year	Drug-poisoning deaths registered (paracetamol)
2018	49
2019	40
2020	28
2021	41
2022	47

Please note that more than one drug may be listed on the death certificate as being implicated in or potentially contributing to the cause of death so the figures above will include those where paracetamol was listed either as the sole substance or alongside other substances on the death certificate. Where paracetamol is listed alongside other substances implicated in the cause of death, it is not possible to determine whether paracetamol was the main substance resulting in the death. For the purpose of these statistics, drug poisoning deaths include all those where the underlying cause was listed as ‘Mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use’ or ‘Poisoning by drugs, whether accidental, intentional, of unknown intent or as a result of assault’.

Question reference: S6W-23233

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 12 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the location of manufacturing of advanced medicines or medicinal products is taken into account in the NHS Scotland procurement process.