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: S5W-34715

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the number of qualified teachers of students with visual impairments.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the capacity and expertise of school staff to support pupils with visual impairments. We fund the Scottish Sensory Centre to provide specialist training to school staff to support pupils with a sensory impairment.

Education authorities are responsible for ensuring that teachers employed to teach pupils who are visually impaired hold an appropriate qualification. We will continue to work in partnership with them to ensure that the right support is in place to enable all children and young people to reach their full potential.

Question reference: S5W-34716

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many qualified teachers of students with visual impairments have been employed in each local authority area in each year since 2011, and what the year-on-year percentage change has been.

Question reference: S5W-34717

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers have become qualified teachers of students with visual impairments. in each year since 2011, and what the year-on-year percentage change has been.

Question reference: S5O-04985

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2021
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made in involving individuals with experience of Disability Living Allowance in the design and delivery plans for the Child Disability Payment.

Question reference: S5T-02300

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Independent
Date lodged: Monday, 10 August 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what conditions it expects to be met to enable the easing of local restrictions in Aberdeen.

Question reference: S5W-27396

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many Gateway to Medicine (G2M) places have been awarded in universities in each of the last five years, and how many places will be awarded in the next academic year.

The Gateway to Medicine (G2M) programme is a pre-medical entry programme at Aberdeen University. There is also a pre-medical programme at Glasgow University (the Glasgow Access Programme).

In 2017-18 and 2018-19 – 40 places were awarded with 20 places going to both Aberdeen and Glasgow; in 2019-20 this was increased to 50 places and will remain at 50 places for 2020-21. These places will continue to be funded until 2022-23 when the success of the programmes will be evaluated.

Question reference: S5W-27395

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 11 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of students enrolled in Medicine courses at universities were required to repeat their first year of study in each of the last five years.

The following table shows the percentage of students who were on full-time first degree pre-clinical medicine courses at Scottish Universities and reported as being in the first year of programme of study* and the second year of study* in the HESA statistics.

Proportion of full-time first degree pre-clinical students in their first year of programme and second year of study

2014-15	2015-16	2016-14	2017-18	2018-19
2.4%	3.4%	5.0%	5.2%	5.5%

Source: HESA student data, SG analysis

* St Andrews has a different course structure than other Scottish HEIs and as such, a modification has been made to include these students in a similar way.

Question reference: S5W-27397

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 10 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of students enrolled in Medicine courses at universities dropped out in each of the last five years, also broken down by the year of study they dropped out.

Information on the total number of students withdrawing from medicine is not held centrally.

However, the following tables show the percentage of full-time and dormant first degree pre-clinical and clinical medical students who are recorded by HESA as withdrawing from their course during the academic year, by year of programme.

Proportion of those recorded as having withdrawn from full-time first degree pre-clinical and clinical medicine during the year, by year of programme

Year of Programme	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
1	0.5%	1.0%	1.6%	0.9%	1.3%
2	1.2%	0.9%	0.6%	0.3%	0.6%
3	0.6%	0.4%	1.2%	0.3%	1.0%
4	1.0%	0.6%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%
5	0.3%	0.4%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%
All students	4,760	4,715	4,690	4,680	4,860
All withdrawals	35	30	50	25	30
% withdrawals	0.7%	0.7%	1.0%	0.5%	0.7%

Source: HESA student data using the standard population, SG analysis.

Figures rounded to nearest 5 and proportions based on unrounded figures.

Based on variable enddate, i.e. the date when the student instance ended.

Note 1: Students who qualify from their course with a sub-degree classification (i.e. certificate or normal degree) are not included in the table as withdrawing.

Number of dormant records withdrawn from pre-clinical and clinical medicine during the year

Dormant Students	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
All students	110	120	110	130	110
All withdrawals	20	10	20	35	15

Source: HESA student data using the non-standard population, SG analysis

Figures rounded to nearest 5, proportions not included due to small numbers.

Note 2: HESA defines dormant records as students that are not actively studying at any time during the reporting period. Although some dormant records are students participating in an intercalated year.

Question reference: S5W-26630

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 18 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the Scottish Research Forum for Palliative and End of Life Care (a) last met and (b) will next meet.

The Forum last met in its entirety in May 2018 to recognise the work of the outgoing Chair. Following the appointment of a new Chair, a meeting of the full Forum was initially scheduled for Autumn 2019, however this has been postponed until early 2020 to allow key stakeholders to attend.

Members of the Forum continue to meet regularly to take forward improvement work and support public facing research events.

Question reference: S5W-26478

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional support needs tribunals have been held in each local authority area under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 in each of the last five years, broken down by what percentage of appeals were upheld.

The Health and Education Chamber, the first-tier Tribunal for Scotland is an independent judicial body, consequently, the Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Annex D of the Annual Report of Scottish Tribunals sets out the information about Tribunal hearings for the period 2018-19 and is available from http://www.scotland-judiciary.org.uk/Upload/Documents/ScottishTribunalsAnnualReport201819.pdf .

Earlier information is available from the annual reports of The Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland which are available from https://www.healthandeducationchamber.scot/additional-support-needs/publications/19 .