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: S6F-02532

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2023

To ask the First Minister whether he will provide an update on when the Scottish Government will review its ban on alcohol consumption on ScotRail train services.

Question reference: S6F-02537

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2023

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

Question reference: S6F-02528

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2023

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-02529

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2023

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-22497

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration was given to deprivation factors in deciding on the proposed location of neonatal services.

The locations of the three Neonatal Intensive Care Units was based on clinical evidence that the very smallest and sickest babies, including those born extremely premature (below 27 weeks), do best when they are cared for in larger specialist neonatal units which look after a lot of these babies, and have the right staff and services available on site to give them the very best care. The Best Start report recommended that we move to three of these units in Scotland, to meet the needs of our population.

The Options Appraisal Report , published on 25 July 2023 describes the process undertaken to determine the three final Neonatal Intensive Care Units, and the feasibility analysis and testing that followed the conclusion of that process. Annex A of the Report includes the criteria and weighting used for the Options Appraisal Process. Based on the evidence, the criteria focused on collocated clinical specialist services.

To support all parents who have babies admitted to neonatal care the Young Patients Family Fund provides funds to cover the cost of travel, subsistence and any accommodation required.

Question reference: S6W-22491

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what geographical location each proposed neonatal intensive care unit will serve, and what the population density is for each of those locations.

Question reference: S6W-22498

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what evidence it considered regarding the potential consequences of separating a mother from their newborn in connection with the proposed location of neonatal intensive care units.

The Best Start emphasises parents as key partners in caring for their baby and aims to keep mothers and babies, and families together as much as possible in the crucial early weeks, with services designed around them.

The new model of care aims to minimise the separation of families, and to support parents with babies in neonatal care. We have a number of measures already in place to support families:

Providing accommodation for parents to stay on or near neonatal units;
Roll out of the Young Patients Family Fund (formerly the Neonatal Expenses Fund) to support families with the costs of travel, accommodation and food whilst their baby is in neonatal care;
and
Repatriating babies to their local neonatal units as soon as clinically possible.

Under the new model of care mothers in suspected extreme pre-term labour are transferred before they give birth (in-utero) to maternity units in the hospitals that have neonatal intensive care units. Experience from the Early Implementer Boards indicates that this will happen in the vast majority of cases. On occasion when it is not possible to transfer mothers before they give birth, the baby will be stabilised and transferred to a NICU by the specialist neonatal transport service ScotSTAR, and the mother will be transferred to the maternity unit in the same hospital as her baby.

Question reference: S6W-22499

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the scoring methodology and underpinning detail used in identifying which neonatal services should be retained.

The Options Appraisal Report , published on 25 July 2023 describes the process undertaken to determine the three final Neonatal Intensive Care Units, and the feasibility analysis and testing that followed the conclusion of that process. Annex A of the Report includes the criteria and weighting used for the Options Appraisal Process. Annexes C and D of the report outline the data that supported the Options Appraisal process.

Further detail on the methodology and the scoring of individual units can be found as part of the following Freedom of Information request:

Information relating to Options Appraisal Report: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-22533

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many dentists there currently are per head of population in Scotland, and what information it has on how this compares with (a) England and (b) Wales.

In Scotland there are 55.3 dentists per 100,000 of the population, compared to 42.7 in England and 46.2 in Wales.

Information on the number of dentists per 100,000 of the population in Scotland can be found in the data tables of the NHS Scotland workforce statistics on NHS Education for Scotland’s website: All official statistics publications | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot) .

Information on the dental workforce in England and Wales is available online at: NHS Dental Statistics for England, 2022-23, Annual Report - NHS Digital and NHS Dental workforce by local health board, age group, gender, contract type and dentist type (gov.wales) and p opulation estimates by UK country can be found at: Population estimates - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) .

Question reference: S6W-22532

Asked by: Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 13 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it will commence its post-implementation review into short-term let licensing; what the scope, remit and nature of this work is; what the timeline is for the completion of the review, and when it plans to report to (a) ministers and (b) the Parliament on its findings.