- Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients died while waiting to access specialist palliative care services in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time has been for access to palliative care services in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
Referral to specialist palliative care services for people living with serious health conditions and/or those who require specialist palliative care when they are dying is based on individualised needs assessments. As a wide range of specialist and generalist staff in hospitals, care homes, primary care, social care, hospices and the third sector are involved in providing palliative care to individuals and their families, and could all be considered as delivering palliative care, it would be challenging to efficiently and effectively gather this data centrally.
- Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce waiting times for access to palliative and end-of-life care services across Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access high-quality palliative care that is right for their circumstances.
The Scottish Government published a draft palliative care strategy ‘Palliative care matters for all’ on 02 October 2024 for consultation. The consultation closed on 10 January 2025. The responses have now been analysed, and the final version of the strategy and analysis report are due to be published in the summer. The strategy will be published alongside a delivery plan, which will set out our approach to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access timely palliative care and care around dying. This work has been closely developed on a partnership basis with key partners, including those with lived experience of receiving palliative care and their families.
- Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether any NHS boards have reported difficulty in recruiting specialist palliative care professionals in the last five years, and what actions it has taken in response.
Answer
Health boards are autonomous institutions responsible for their own planning, recruitment, employment and deployment of staff. The Scottish Government supports Health Boards in these matters through the setting of strategic policies and frameworks at a national level.
- Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients waited longer than the recommended time for palliative care services to begin in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
Referral to specialist palliative care services for people living with serious health conditions and/or those who require specialist palliative care when they are dying is based on individualised needs assessments. As a wide range of specialist and generalist staff in hospitals, care homes, primary care, social care, hospices and the third sector are involved in providing palliative care to individuals and their families, and could all be considered as delivering palliative care, it would be challenging to efficiently and effectively gather this data centrally.
- Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the number of hours of palliative care that have not been delivered due to staff shortages in the last five years, broken down by (a) year and (b) NHS board.
Answer
Referral to specialist palliative care services for people living with serious health conditions and/or those who require specialist palliative care when they are dying is based on individualised needs assessments. As a wide range of specialist and generalist staff in hospitals, care homes, primary care, social care, hospices and the third sector are involved in providing palliative care to individuals and their families, and could all be considered as delivering palliative care, it would be challenging to efficiently and effectively gather this data centrally.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 30 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34497 by Alasdair Allan on 19 February 2025, by what date it will publish the Nature Conservation Order to protect the Parallel Roads of Lochaber Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) at Achnabobane.
Answer
Further to the answer to question S6W-34497 on 19 February 2025, drafting of the proposed Nature Conservation Order and associated Land Register of Scotland and General Register of Sasines searches have continued to progress. I expect to receive advice and a recommendation on the proposed NCO imminently.
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
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 30 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether legislation will be required to deliver an integrated social care and health record, as referenced in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2024-25.
Answer
The Scottish Government are committed to delivering a digital health and care record and can confirm that legislation is not required to create such a record. However, Part 2 of the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, if passed, will create the enabling conditions for success of a digital health and care record by improving information sharing and usage between individuals and organisations within the health and social care system. The Scottish Government is listening to the views of MSPs presented at Stage 2 of the parliamentary process and considering what amendments may be useful in delivering a record that improves outcomes for people in Scotland.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 30 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many public sector body board members currently hold appointments with more than one public sector body and, for each such board member, what the total amount is that they receive annually as a combined remuneration.
Answer
The list of public appointments by public body, which was published on 25 March 2025, is an exhaustive list of Ministerial regulated public appointments only. Ministerial regulated public appointments are those governed by the Ethical Standards Commissioner and the Code of Practice for Public Appointments (2022). The Code requires publication.
The list is intended to be published to always reflect recently made appointments. It was last published in October 2024, January 2025 and February 2025. It was corrected on 25 March 2025 following the identification of errors.
Officials commenced a process of methodically checking the full list for accuracy on 25 March 2025. Once complete, the list will be re-published.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has paid the social research agency, The Lines Between, in each year since 2021-22, broken down by project.
Answer
The spend on contracts awarded to ‘The Lines Between’ by the Scottish Government is set out in the following table. We do not hold information on spend related to specific projects.
Fiscal Year | Spend |
2021-22 | £121,086.90 |
2022-23 | £399,965.36 |
2023-24 | £477,423.47 |
2024-25 | £549,284.31 |