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-03893

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the current level of uptake is of the flu vaccination in 2021, and what the uptake was in each of the two previous years.

Public Health Scotland's weekly respiratory report indicates that up to week 42 (week ending 24th October 2021) a total of 944,989 individuals, among different eligible cohorts, have received influenza vaccine. This season a combination of data recording systems has been used to generate the influenza vaccine uptake data as part of the Vaccine Transformation Programme (VTP) and the adoption of new systems for the scheduling, booking and recording of influenza vaccination. Thus, the data presented for season 2021-22 are not directly comparable to influenza vaccine uptake in previous seasons.

Although it is not possible to directly compare with previous seasons, the data indicated that the overall influenza vaccine uptake for Scotland in 2020-21 was higher than 2019-20 season in most eligible cohorts; notably for those aged 65 years and over with an overall uptake of 79.7 % compared to 74 % in the 2019-20.

Question reference: S6W-03894

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what public information action it has in place to encourage the uptake of the COVID-19 booster vaccine.

On the week commencing 25 October we launched booster campaign activity to support those aged between 60 and 69 and those 16+ with an ongoing health condition who have started to receive their COVID-19 Vaccine Booster appointments.

The main element of the media campaign which includes TV, Radio, Press, Digital and PR activity started 1 November with a generic call to action.

From 15 November, all media activity will direct target audiences to the appointment booking portal. This campaign is covering 91% of the adult population with an average opportunity to see/hear of 21.

The campaign was supported by a wide range of other communications and engagement activity to raise awareness and encourage uptake in the general population as well as specific groups.

Question reference: S6W-03895

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost is of training a medical student.

The cost of funding a Scottish domiciled student from entry to university through to graduation is set out in the first table. The cost of funding a student from the Rest of the UK (RUK) from entry to university through to graduation is set out in the second table.

ScotsDom	SFC	ACT*	SAAS	Total
Year 1	£6,936	£19,500	£1,820	£28,256
Year 2	£6,936	£19,500	£1,820	£28,256
Year 3	£15,592	£19,500	£1,820	£36,912
Year 4	£15,592	£19,500	£1,820	£36,912
Year 5	£15,592	£19,500	£1,820	£36,912
Total	£60,648	£97,500	£9,100	£167,248

RUK	SFC	ACT*	Total
Year 1	0	£19,500	£19,500
Year 2	0	£19,500	£19,500
Year 3	£8,162	£19,500	£27,662
Year 4	£8,162	£19,500	£27,662
Year 5	£8,162	£19,500	£27,662
Total	£24,486	£97,500	£121,986

*ACT – Additional Costs of Teaching (distributed to NHS Scotland Health Boards)

Question reference: S6W-03897

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional medical students it believes will be needed to resolve the reported staffing issues, and how much it believes it will cost to fill these places.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to ensuring a sustainable medical supply pipeline into the NHS. In response to overall UK undersupply of medical graduates, the Scottish Government has been expanding university medical school places since 2016 and has created 269 additional medical undergraduate places (a 32% increase over 2016 levels).

The recent Programme for Government also sets out a further commitment to increase medical school places by 100 per annum over the course of the Parliamentary term and to double the number of widening access places.

Question reference: S6W-03892

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has done of the cost of administering the COVID-19 booster vaccine by GP practices compared with health boards, and what the estimated costs were of both approaches.

Question reference: S6W-03787

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on building new nuclear fusion plants.

Question reference: S6W-03083

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether people living in Scotland and travelling abroad are experiencing difficulty accessing French QR codes to prove COVID-19 vaccination status and, if so, what action it is taking to resolve any reported issues.

The Scottish Government have been working with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and the Border Force to ensure countries that require QR codes would accept ours. Scottish Government officials became aware on 8 September 2021 that French authorities were seeking additional verification to our QR codes only for their domestic certification purposes, and that information was issued the same day. The issue was therefore resolved on 9 September 2021.

French authorities have not experienced any further issues in accessing the QR codes of people living in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-03105

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many consultants have taken early retirement in NHS (a) Highland, (b) Western Isles, (c) Orkney, (d) Shetland and (e) Grampian in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6O-00421

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what consideration has been given to providing parliamentary services outwith usual hours.

Question reference: S6O-00409

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether members' annual reports can be delivered after 4 February 2022 and, if not, what the reasons are for its position on the matter.