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: S5W-00458

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time GPs there have been in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board.

The Primary Care Workforce Survey Scotland 2015, published 14 June 2016, shows that the estimated whole time equivalent number of GPs was 3,645 in 2015.

The Primary Care Workforce Survey does not collect data annually, however the table below shows GP headcount figures in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board (data are as at 30 September 2015):

Board/Year	2013	2014	2015
Ayrshire and Arran	329	335	331
Borders	118	120	117
Dumfries and Galloway	152	148	138
Fife	277	275	269
Forth Valley	270	268	265
Grampian	549	565	561
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,070	1,077	1,055
Highland	393	393	391
Lanarkshire	406	412	462
Lothian	851	852	891
Orkney	29	26	31
Shetland	26	28	31
Tayside	378	394	372
Western Isles	38	34	31
Scotland	4,881	4,921	4,938

Data source: General Practitioner Contractor Database, Information Services Division, NHS National Services Scotland, published in December 2015. http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/General-Practice/Publications/data-tables.asp

Please note that GPs may hold multiple posts simultaneously and therefore the Scotland total may not equal the sum of the different types of GP post or the sum of the headcount in the different boards.

Question reference: S5W-00460

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many notifications it has received in the last year of there being insufficient GP cover to meet demand, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-00530

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what drugs have been approved for use by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence but not by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, also broken down by their intended use.

Question reference: S5W-00457

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what drugs are under consideration for approval by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, also broken down by their intended use.

Question reference: S5O-00046

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage more young women to take up STEM subjects.

As the First Minister said last week, encouraging girls, and indeed, all young people to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects is vital for their future and vital for the future of the country. The numbers of entries by girls to the main science higher qualifications, including computing, are up by 10% since 2007. There are very encouraging signs of greater participation by women in STEM subjects at college and university.

We are supporting projects to tackle gender stereotyping in STEM education at school and supporting equality projects across Scottish colleges and universities. The new chief scientific adviser, Professor Sheila Rowan will work to inspire more young people, including young women and girls, to study STEM and progress to a STEM career.

There are many examples of excellent STEM opportunities being offered by Scotland’s colleges. This includes the City of Glasgow College’s Women into Engineering course which offers single-sex classes in the first year of the course and which is seeing encouraging early signs of success.