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-26490

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25624 by Angela Constance on 18 March 2024, whether it will provide an update on its discussions with the UK Government regarding a possible UK-wide Bill, and when it expects to bring forward any Scottish legislation if such an approach is required.

On 18 April 2024 I wrote to Kevin Hollinrake MP, with a list of 15 straightforward draft amendments to the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill which would have the effect of extending the scope of that Bill to cover Scotland. In doing so I urged him to table these amendments and bring certainty and clarity for those who have suffered wrongful convictions in Scotland.

Minister Hollinrake responded on 22 April 2024 to note that the UK Government was not seeking to extend the territorial extent of the Bill to Scotland, whilst at the same time noting that the UK Government would however be tabling amendments to the Bill to include convictions in Northern Ireland with the Bill's scope.

The UK Bill is due to next be debated on 29 April 2024, and draft amendments to extend the Bill to Scotland have been tabled. Should they not be accepted into the UK Bill then Scottish Government will bring forward Scottish legislation to ensure that sub-postmasters in Scotland receive justice.

Question reference: S6W-26674

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many cancer nurses have been employed by each NHS board in each year since 2011-12.

As set out in answer S6W-26209 on 19 April 2024, the information requested on how many cancer nurses have been employed in each year since 2011-12, broken down by NHS board area is not centrally available. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-26461

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many 3G rubber pitches there are in Scotland.

Question reference: S6F-03043

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 April 2024

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6W-26730

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its reported decision to suspend the GP Premises Sustainability Fund, how many applications for such loans to GPs have been processed since the scheme was introduced in 2018, and how many applications remain outstanding.

Question reference: S6W-26729

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much money would have been allocated to GPs through the GP Premises Sustainability Fund over the current financial year that will now not be allocated.

The Scottish Government did not allocate money to GP practices through the GP Premises Sustainability fund.

GP practices could apply for GP Sustainability Loans to their Health Boards. These were funded by the Scottish Government as and when loans were completed.

The GP Sustainability Loans scheme is currently paused while the Scottish Government reimburses Health Boards for loans that were completed in 2023-24. This is due to a greater than anticipated number of loans having completed last year.

Question reference: S6W-26209

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many cancer nurses have been employed in each year since 2011-12, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S6O-03296

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land since it launched on 1 April 2022.

Question reference: S6W-26210

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on cancer research in each year since 2011-12 in (a) cash terms and (b) real terms, broken down by spending through (i) NHS Research Scotland and (ii) other routes.

Within the Scottish Government, funding for Health and Care Research comes under the policy remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO)

(A) The following table provides the amount in cash terms of CSO cancer research funding per year from 2011-12

Column 1 - NHS Research Scotland (NRS) - includes funding for the NRS Cancer Research Network; the CSO component of funding for the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow (co-funded 50:50 with Cancer Research UK); NRS Career Research Fellowships in cancer

Column 2 - Direct Funding - includes cancer projects funded through the CSO grant funding committees; Academic Fellowships in cancer funded through the CSO capacity building programmes; the CSO component of collaborative research project and fellowship funding with cancer research charities

Column 3 - total CSO cancer research funding by year

To note - for multi-year projects and fellowships, the funding figure is allocated to the year corresponding to the start date (in the case of cancer charity collaborations the funding is allocated to the year of the collaboration agreement)

Year	NRS Funding	Direct Funding	Total
2011-12	£732,970	£995,032	£1,728,002
2012-13	£763,000	£1,563,914	£2,326,914
2013-14	£763,000	£1,088,269	£1,851,269
2014-15	£788,000	£1,611,355	£2,399,355
2015-16	£950,630	£2,141,606	£3,092,236
2016-17	£929,012	£1,511,937	£2,440,949
2017-18	£927,723	£2,287,604	£3,215,327
2018-19	£958,199	£1,405,126	£2,363,325
2019-20	£911,529	£1,806,406	£2,717,935
2020-21	£1,092,364	£479,459	£1,571,823
2021-22	£825,000	£1,354,584	£2,179,584
2022-23	£860,000	£2,332,504	£3,192,504
2023-24	£1,112,434	£1,233,269	£2,345,703

From 1 April 2006 a recurring investment of £500,000 was incorporated into the NHS Boards unified budgets to support the NHS Cancer Research Network which would be subject to the annual uplift applied to Boards’ baseline budgets - this has not been included in the above table

(B) The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Question reference: S6W-26675

Current Status: Withdrawn