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-17093

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 9 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the average amount of student loan debt was for a Scotland-domiciled undergraduate student upon completing their course at a Scottish university, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-17104

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, for each devolved benefit administered by Social Security Scotland, what the total amount paid to recipients was in each year since its introduction.

Information on benefits administered by Social Security Scotland is routinely published as part of official statistics releases. Excel tables released as part of these publications include information on the value of payments issued for each benefit since launch, and provide financial year breakdowns of payments.

The latest statistics publication for each benefit can be found at: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications .

Question reference: S6W-17279

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Emma Roddick on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many people and (b) what percentage of the population it estimates will be in the over 65 age category in each year from 2023 to 2050.

The latest population projections data for Scotland is available on the Office for National Statistics website . This includes various breakdowns, including by age group and single year of age. For ease, see the following table for the data requested on the projected population aged 65 and over up to mid-2050:

Year	All ages	Population aged 65 and over	Percentage of population aged 65 and over
Mid-2023	5,489,769	1,107,470	20.2%
Mid-2024	5,496,877	1,127,637	20.5%
Mid-2025	5,503,484	1,147,579	20.9%
Mid-2026	5,509,360	1,169,102	21.2%
Mid-2027	5,514,526	1,191,700	21.6%
Mid-2028	5,518,937	1,215,309	22.0%
Mid-2029	5,522,526	1,238,261	22.4%
Mid-2030	5,525,221	1,261,192	22.8%
Mid-2031	5,527,133	1,280,837	23.2%
Mid-2032	5,528,207	1,300,159	23.5%
Mid-2033	5,528,447	1,318,279	23.8%
Mid-2034	5,527,868	1,334,311	24.1%
Mid-2035	5,526,606	1,346,860	24.4%
Mid-2036	5,524,773	1,359,699	24.6%
Mid-2037	5,522,508	1,369,348	24.8%
Mid-2038	5,519,943	1,374,596	24.9%
Mid-2039	5,517,081	1,375,690	24.9%
Mid-2040	5,513,969	1,375,327	24.9%
Mid-2041	5,510,584	1,374,342	24.9%
Mid-2042	5,506,932	1,370,115	24.9%
Mid-2043	5,503,019	1,366,775	24.8%
Mid-2044	5,498,874	1,367,703	24.9%
Mid-2045	5,494,411	1,371,034	25.0%
Mid-2046	5,489,501	1,375,623	25.1%
Mid-2047	5,484,097	1,380,687	25.2%
Mid-2048	5,478,126	1,384,825	25.3%
Mid-2049	5,471,545	1,388,349	25.4%
Mid-2050	5,464,337	1,393,950	25.5%

Question reference: S6W-17295

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the social care staff vacancy rate is in each local authority area across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-17296

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the social care staff vacancy rate is in the (a) public, (b) private and (c) third sector.

Question reference: S6O-02211

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure the long-term sustainability of general practice.

Question reference: S6W-17285

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the social care staff vacancy rate is across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-17280

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people living in Scotland were receiving social care services in each year since 2007, also broken down by age.

Information on the number of people receiving social care support has been collected by Public Health Scotland (PHS) and published as part of their Insights In Social Care publication since 2018. Prior to this, data was collected by Scottish Government through the Social Care Survey from 2013 – 2017.

Therefore, the change between 2016/17 and 2017/18 should be interpreted with caution due to the differences between data sources. However, PHS do produce an adjusted figure based on the same definitions used in the Social Care Survey that allows a longer term trend to be produced which has been used in the table below.

Data is available from 2014 onwards, as the same age breakdown is not available for 2013. Prior to 2013, there were separate surveys for Home Care and Direct Payments but no collection covering all social care services. Figures may not sum to all ages exactly due to rounding.

Table 1: The estimated number of people in Scotland receiving social care support by age, 2013-14 – 2021-22

Year	Age 0-17 years	Age 18-64 years	Age 65+ years	All Ages
2013/14	2,740	27,690	117,910	148,340
2014/15	3,450	47,660	154,310	205,430
2015/16	3,420	47,630	156,870	207,950
2016/17	3,660	48,540	160,020	212,220
2017/18	2,700	40,420	145,915	189,025
2018/19	3,070	47,865	169,800	220,730
2019/20	2,470	44,845	158,365	205,680
2020/21	2,755	43,425	152,660	198,930
2021/22	3,615	49,105	151,980	205,490

Question reference: S6W-17283

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many social care staff are currently employed in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-17281

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people over 65 were in receipt of care (a) home and (b) at home services in each year since 2007.

a) Information on care home residents is reported on through the Care Home Census, published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). Information is published on a rolling 10-year basis; therefore, the figures below have been sourced from multiple Care Home Census publications. This includes historic extracts of publications from NHS Information Services Division, prior to the creation of Public Health Scotland. The Care Home Census was not run in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Table 1: The estimated number of care home residents aged 65+ years, 2007 – 2022

Year	Estimated Number of Care Home Residents aged 65+ years
2007	31,522
2008	30,954
2009	31,378
2010	31,384
2011	31,653
2012	31,295
2013	30,985
2014	31,354
2015	30,768
2016	31,197
2017	30,570
2018	29,654
2019	30,419
2020	n/a
2021	28,602
2022	28,647

b) Information on the number of people aged 65+ years who receive care at home services has been collected by Public Health Scotland and published as part of their Insights In Social Care publication since 2018. Prior to this, data was collected by Scottish Government through the Social Care Survey from 2013 – 2017 and the Home Care Census prior to 2013. Therefore, changes between years should be interpreted with caution due to the differences between data sources, particularly between 2016/17 and 2017/18.

Table 2: The estimated number of people aged 65+ years receiving care at home services, 2006/07 – 2021/22

Year	Estimated number of people aged 65+ years receiving care at home services
2006/07	56,700
2007/08	55,340
2008/09	54,720
2009/10	53,660
2010/11	51,730
2011/12	51,120
2012/13	50,370
2013/14	50,440
2014/15	50,160
2015/16	48,920
2016/17	48,800
2017/18	46,610
2018/19	48,590
2019/20	47,065
2020/21	47,465
2021/22	44,640