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-26912

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the registration record of all NHS staff, irrespective of job title, is checked on an ongoing basis in regard to (a) Health and Care Professionals Council, (b) Social Work England, (c) Social Care Wales, (d) Northern Ireland Social Care Council, (e) General Teaching Council for Scotland, (f) General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland, (g) Education Workforce Council, (h) General Chiropractic Council, (i) General Dental Council, (j) General Medical Council, (k) General Optical Council, (l) General Osteopathic Council, (m) Nursing and Midwifery Council, (n) General Pharmaceutical Council and (o) Scottish Social Services Council.

Question reference: S6W-26909

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to ensure that all healthcare assistants employed by public bodies who deliver care within a home setting are required to be registered with the Scottish Social Services Council.

Question reference: S6W-26911

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the registration record of all NHS staff, irrespective of job title, is checked at employment in regard to (a) Health and Care Professionals Council, (b) Social Work England, (c) Social Care Wales, (d) Northern Ireland Social Care Council, (e) General Teaching Council for Scotland, (f) General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland, (g) Education Workforce Council, (h) General Chiropractic Council, (i) General Dental Council, (j) General Medical Council, (k) General Optical Council, (l) General Osteopathic Council, (m) Nursing and Midwifery Council, (n) General Pharmaceutical Council and (o) Scottish Social Services Council.

Question reference: S6W-26913

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to ensure that all healthcare assistants employed by the NHS are required to be registered with the Scottish Social Services Council.

Question reference: S6W-26910

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to prevent healthcare workers with either disciplinary proceedings outstanding with the Scottish Social Services Council or who have been found unfit to practise by the Scottish Social Services Council from being employed by the NHS.

Question reference: S6W-26153

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to encourage people who have been diagnosed with HIV but who are no longer considered as attending specialist care to re-engage with these services, in light of reports that there are an estimated 961 such people in Scotland.

he importance of retaining individuals living with HIV in treatment and care is recognised in the UNAIDS/WHO targets and the Scottish HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal as one of the five pillars of interventions (entry into and retention in specialist HIV care). Specialist HIV services and HIV third sector organisations will work together to optimise the updating of information with regards to the movement or transfer of individuals to facilitate engagement with services.

This work will be supported by Public Health Scotland through the provision of NHS board level data on people diagnosed with HIV but not attending specialist treatment and care services for whom, through linkage of data to migration, death, hospitalisation, prescription and vaccination datasets, there is evidence that they remain resident in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-26149

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is on track to achieve its aim of ending new cases of HIV by 2030.

As outlined in the Scottish HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal, published on 1 December 2022, our aim is to achieve ‘zero people contracting HIV within Scotland by 2030’. To do so, one of the key interim targets is to achieve 100 or fewer first ever diagnoses per year by the end of 2025.

The most recently published HIV data for Scotland (to 31 December 2022), released by Public Health Scotland on 26 September 2023, indicate that, since 2017, the annual number of first ever diagnoses recorded in Scotland has more than halved, decreasing from 226 in 2017 to 108 in 2022. Of note, 55 of 108 (51%) first ever diagnoses recorded in 2022 were thought likely to have been acquired within Scotland.

In addition, the data indicate a small proportion (11%) of first ever HIV diagnoses were recently acquired (i.e. within the previous three to four months). This is the lowest number and proportion for over five years and is, in part, the result of the Scottish Government’s world-leading approach to making HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis available on the NHS in 2017.

Question reference: S6W-26151

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to extend blood borne virus testing to other A&E departments across Scotland.

There are no imminent plans to expand emergency department opt-out blood borne virus testing to other areas. It is important that decisions about any further expansion are based on the best available evidence. The Scottish Government will use evaluation data from the current pilot projects, combined with other evidence, to determine whether further roll out would be acceptable, deliverable and cost-effective in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-26154

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people with undiagnosed HIV it estimates there are in Scotland, and what action it plans to take to encourage people to access HIV testing.

Public Health Scotland estimates that approximately 500 individuals, equivalent to 7% of the cohort living with HIV in Scotland, are undiagnosed.

A range of testing initiatives are being implemented to encourage people to access HIV testing. The Scottish Government’s Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan, published in November 2023, has a focus on improving access to sexually transmitted infection and blood borne virus testing across Scotland. To support this, we have funded a range of projects to expand access and promote uptake of testing, including the development of a national online postal self-sampling service, HIV self-testing and community-based services delivered by the Terrence Higgins Trust, and piloting emergency department opt-out testing in NHS Grampian, NHS Lothian and NHS Highland.

Our HIV Transmission Elimination Delivery Plan sets out further actions to encourage people to access testing and to identify optimal approaches to finding people living with undiagnosed HIV.

Question reference: S6W-26150

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to monitor the blood borne virus testing pilot that is currently taking place at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary's A&E department.