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: S4W-28631

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to review the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and its guidance.

Question reference: S4W-28589

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 30 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the NHS is experiencing a nationwide GP recruitment crisis.

The number of GPs working in Scotland has risen to a record high under this government – but we will go on working with family doctors and their representatives to help meet the challenges the profession faces over workload and recruitment. Scotland continues to have the most GPs per head of population in the UK, and spending on primary care per head has risen since this government came to office.

But the Scottish Government knows that more must be done – both in the short and long term. That is why as a starting point we announced an additional £60 million to be invested in primary care over the next three years. This funding was carefully allocated after close work with the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners – who welcomed the focus of the extra investment. But this was always just a starting point for a more fundamental consideration of the future of primary care in Scotland. We are working with the Scottish GP Committee to redesign the GP contract for implementation from 2017. In the meantime we’ve given practices contractual and financial stability until 2017, the first time anywhere in the UK this has happened, and we have already substantially reduced bureaucracy to allow GPs to spend more time with patients.

Question reference: S4W-28590

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 30 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4O-04802 by Shona Robison on 18 November 2015 (Official Report, c. 9), what action it is taking to help GP practices in Lothian that are experiencing problems in recruiting staff.

Over the next three years, the Scottish Government will invest £60 million, as part of the Primary Care Fund, to address immediate workload and recruitment issues in primary care and put in place long-term, sustainable change to support GPs and improve access to services for patients.

As part of this, £2.5 million will be invested in work to explore with key stakeholders the issues surrounding GP recruitment and retention. This investment is beginning the process of finding new ways of working, helping to address the problems of recruitment and retention that are common to primary care services across the UK. All health boards in Scotland, including NHS Lothian, will be able to benefit from this funding.

NHS Lothian is also developing a new process for supporting practices to ensure sustainable models of delivery that do not add pressure to secondary care or social work services.

Question reference: S4W-28465

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether any of its construction contracts have been affected by UK Visas and Immigration raids in 2015 and, if so, (a) which contracts, (b) what the purpose of the activity was and (c) how many people were detained.