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-23066

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many homeless people have been transferred to other local authority areas for emergency accommodation in each of the last 12 months.

Question reference: S6W-23081

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its Sperm and Egg Donation Campaign, what impact assessment it carried out in advance to assess the potential risks to vulnerable women.

Question reference: S6W-23101

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the minutes of any meetings of the Ministerial Oversight Group on Homelessness.

Question reference: S6W-23105

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what share of the £19.6 million funding for the increased provision of diabetes technologies was received by each NHS board.

The £19.6 million of additional funding for diabetes technology consisted of £5.1 million in 2020-21 and £14.5 million in 2021-22. It was allocated based on the percentage of patients with Type 1 diabetes within each given NHS Board area relative to the Scottish population. This data was taken from the Scottish Diabetes Survey 2020, which can be found here: https://www.diabetesinscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Diabetes-Scottish-Diabetes-Survey-2020.pdf .

The £5.1 million of additional funding in 2020-21 was allocated as per the breakdown below:

Health Board	Total funding
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	£308,700
NHS Borders	£91,325
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	£123,625
NHS Fife	£293,550
NHS Forth Valley	£252,725
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	£872,025
NHS Grampian	£461,050
NHS Highland	£279,975
NHS Lanarkshire	£581,100
NHS Lothian	£663,275
NHS Orkney	£17,150
NHS Shetland	£19,675
NHS Tayside	£298,600
NHS Western Isles	£24,725
Total excl VAT	£4,287,500
Total incl VAT	£5,145,000

The £14.5 million of additional funding in 2021-22 was allocated as per breakdown below:

Health Board	Total funding
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	£824,253
NHS Borders	£269,404
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	£371,118
NHS Fife	£832,513
NHS Forth Valley	£719,165
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	£2,478,769
NHS Grampian	£1,327,914
NHS Highland	£808,477
NHS Lanarkshire	£1,669,927
NHS Lothian	£1,886,890
NHS Orkney	£46,940
NHS Shetland	£49,008
NHS Tayside	£849,048
NHS Western Isles	£66,577
Total excl VAT	£12,200,000
Total incl. VAT	£14,640,000

Question reference: S6W-23131

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to prioritise the needs of patients living with a stoma or awaiting stoma surgery.

The Scottish Government has recently concluded an information gathering exercise on the provision of stoma care and stoma specialist nurse coverage across Scotland's 14 territorial health boards. The results of this exercise will be presented to the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors (SEND) to identify any shortfalls and inconsistencies in the level of care provided across the country and the actions that may be needed to address them.

Question reference: S6W-23036

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to source the anti-diabetic medication, liraglutide, which is used to treat type 2 diabetes, in light of reports that there are severe shortages of the medication across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is aware that there are global supply issues with glucagon-like peptide-1 Receptor Agonists (GLP-1 RAs) products, which are licensed for treating patients with type 2 diabetes, including Victoza (liraglutide). It is anticipated that supplies of all GLP-1 RAs products will be limited and intermittent until at least mid-2024.

The global shortage of GLP-1 RAs has been largely driven by increased demand, including for off-label and private online prescribing of these medicines for weight-loss; this has led to shortages for patients with Type 2 diabetes.

The supply of medicines is currently a reserved matter for the UK Government. We continue to engage with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and we will continue to press for a lasting solution to the current shortages.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact of these global shortages on people living with type 2 diabetes and their families. NHS Scotland has robust systems in place to manage medicine shortages when they arise and anyone affected by this issue should speak to their usual clinical team.

Question reference: S6W-23129

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what work is being done to address long waiting lists, in light of reports that hip operation waits have tripled in six NHS boards.

Question reference: S6W-23113

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it defines "high-quality food" in relation to the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S6W-22995

Asked by: Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many children in the East Kilbride constituency it expects will receive support from the Child Winter Heating Payment in the current financial year.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission publish estimates and forecasts of the number of people receiving payments for Child Winter Heating Assistance. The Scottish Fiscal Commission do not publish estimates and forecasts for the number of people receiving payments by area within Scotland. In their May 2023 publication it was forecast that a total of 29,000 people will receive payments in the financial year 2023-24.

Social Security Scotland publish statistics for the number of historic payments for Child Winter Heating Assistance by Local Authority but not at constituency level. Statistics for 2023-24 are not yet available. In the South Lanarkshire Local Authority, 1,955 payments for Child Winter Heating Assistance were made in the Winter of 2022-23.

Internal Scottish Government analysis using the Social Security Scotland statistics, in combination with published population data, suggests an estimate of 500 payments were made in East Kilbride in the Winter of 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-23032

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 November 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it financially supports small and medium-sized developers and housebuilders to design and progress planning applications for rural affordable housing plans at an early stage.

Direct funding is not provided to private developers to finance their engagement in the planning application process. The Minister for Housing and I jointly hosted a roundtable on planning for housing on 16 November 2023. Support for small and medium-sized developers and housebuilders to progress through the planning processes in all areas was highlighted, as were matters relating to rural and affordable housing. We are now collating and prioritising suggested actions that can be taken collaboratively to accelerate delivery of more quality homes to create quality places.