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: S7W-00972

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Allied Health Professions workforce review.

Question reference: S7W-00975

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has been spent on temporary staff engaged through staff banks in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S7W-00977

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the average NHS expenditure per head of population over the last 10 years, broken down by NHS board area.

The Scottish Government allocates funding to territorial NHS Boards based on the NRAC formula, rather than on a population basis. The NRAC formula takes into account factors including relative deprivation and need for healthcare in different NHS Board areas, as well as population.

NHS Board’s baseline revenue allocations are published annually in the Scottish Budget. In addition, resource and capital spending limits are reported in each Board’s annual report and accounts.

Between 2016-17 and 2026-27, NHS Boards’ overall resource budget increased by 24.5% in real terms and 71.6% in cash terms.

Question reference: S7W-00974

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS apprenticeships have been delivered in each NHS board area in each of the last 10 years.

Data held by the Scottish Government on the number of NHS apprenticeships has been provided in the following tables. While this Management Information provides an indication of apprenticeship activity within NHS Scotland, the figures across years should be treated with caution because of the changes in collection method, coverage and definitions. The data records the number of individuals who have been recruited or started on an apprenticeship programme in the reporting year, rather than the total number of apprenticeships delivered.

Data for the total number of apprenticeships recruited is not held by the Scottish Government for 2016-2017 and there is no data for 2019-2020 to 2021-2022, as no annual Staff Governance Monitoring return was undertaken during COVID. Apprenticeship data is not yet available for 2024-25 or 2025-26 but will be collected via NHS Anchors Metrics.

NHS Board	Apprenticeships Recruited 2017-18*	Apprenticeships Recruited 2018-19*	Apprenticeships Recruited 2022-23**	Apprenticeship Starts 2023-24***
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	15	31	46	39
NHS Borders	0	0	11	-
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	-	-
NHS Education for Scotland	1	12	-	4
NHS Fife	2	5	11	149
NHS Forth Valley	3	7	3	10
NHS Golden Jubilee	0	1	-	9
NHS Grampian	23	25	38	24
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	65	6	90	69
NHS Health Scotland	0	4	-	-
Healthcare Improvement Scotland	1	1	-	-
NHS Highland	1	6	10	-
NHS Lanarkshire	60	20	24	76
NHS Lothian	28	59	72	70
NHS National Services Scotland	17	1	7	2
NHS Orkney	8	12	5	5
Public Health Scotland	-	-	-	20
NHS Scottish Ambulance Service	1	1	0	-
NHS Shetland	1	1	-	7
NHS State Hospital	0	1	1	1
NHS Tayside	15	8	37	20
NHS Western Isles	15	28	0	1
NHS 24	4	16	0	1
NHS Scotland total	260	245	355	507

* For 2017-18 and 2018-19, local NHS apprenticeship data was collected through Staff Governance Monitoring. Health Boards noted that variation in apprenticeship contracts could affect consistency.

** For 2022-23, following a pause in data collection via Staff Governance Monitoring due to COVID, data collection was resumed via a direct data request.

***The latest NHS apprenticeship data held by the Scottish Government is from the NHS Anchors Metrics for 2023-2024. For this year, the data was collected on a different basis, recording apprenticeship starts rather than headcount recruited on apprenticeships. The number of apprenticeships recruited cannot be compared directly with apprenticeship starts, as starts may include existing staff who were not newly hired.

Question reference: S7W-00971

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the specialist nurse strategy workforce review.

The Scottish Government published a review of clinical nurse specialist and nurse practitioner roles in Scotland in August 2021. Public Services Delivery Scotland is currently working on updating this report, focusing on education and professional development within clinical nurse specialist roles.

One of the recommendations from the report was achieved in May 2026, when Public Services Delivery Scotland published the first Clinical Nurse Specialist workforce statistical report since 2018.

Question reference: S7W-00973

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for the digitisation of patient records, and what projects in this field have been completed, broken down by NHS board.

The digitisation of records is managed operationally by individual Health Boards and GP practices, information on implementation of digitisation projects within each Health Board is not held centrally.

For information on our plans at a national level, the refreshed Digital Health and Care Strategy, published in 2021 outlines our ambitions and plans for improving digital infrastructure within the NHS. The strategy can be found here:https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/strategy-plan/2021/10/scotlands-digital-health-care-strategy/documents/enabling-connecting-empowering-care-digital-age/enabling-connecting-empowering-care-digital-age/govscot%3Adocument/enabling-connecting-empowering-care-digital-age.pdf.

Our most recent update on how the Scottish Government are progressing with these plans, can be found in our Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2025-2026 which is available at:https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/strategy-plan/2025/08/care-digital-age-delivery-plan-2025-2026/documents/care-digital-age-delivery-plan-2025-26/care-digital-age-delivery-plan-2025-26/govscot%3Adocument/care-digital-age-delivery-plan-2025-26.pdf

Question reference: S7W-00976

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 19 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many GP link workers have been employed in each of the last 10 years.

As part of an annual update on Primary Care Improvement Plans (PCIP), the Scottish Government (SG) publishes information on workforce numbers for the General Practice Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), which support delivery of the 2018 GP contract. Community Link Workers (CLWs) are a key part of the MDT and detailed information on their workforce numbers can be accessed at: Primary care improvement plans: implementation progress reports - gov.scot. Please see the below table for a breakdown of WTE CLWs in post from 2017 to 2026.

Year	CLWs WTE
2026	354.8
2025	369.3*
2024	325.5
2023	308.2
2022	290.4
2021	189.3
2020	165.6
2019	98.6
2018	51.4
2017	53

*Please be advised that the 2025 figure has been recently revised due to data quality improvements. The initial 2025 progress report showed 342.3 CLWs in post; however, the 2026 progress report, revises this figure to 369.3 CLWs for 2025.

Question reference: S7W-00804

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Hannah Mary Goodlad on 17 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to extending permitted development rights for small-scale geothermal and heat networks.

The Scottish Government last year consulted on potential new permitted development rights for the installation (and subsequent repair and maintenance) of underground pipework and associated apparatus for the purposes of connecting individual buildings to a heat network. The Scottish Government decided not to make changes to permitted development rights at that time. We have recently committed to further explore improving permitted development rights, including for small-scale renewable energy production.

Question reference: S7W-01088

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 14 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding so-called corridor care, where patients receive care outwith appropriate clinical settings, what (a) data it collects and (b) advice it (i) provides to and (ii) work it carries out with NHS boards to support them in eradicating the issue.

Question reference: S7W-00802

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the recently announced cabinet secretary and ministerial titles no longer include explicit reference to social care.

Social care reform and the implementation of the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 are a central focus for this Government. In our first 100 days, we are prioritising action to improve key areas within social care. This includes support for unpaid carers, work force conditions and access to services.

Social care is intrinsic to all health and wellbeing. The reference to Care in ministerial titles demonstrates its wider role within the whole health and social care system. It is reflective not just of formally established support packages, but also of broader service remits and requirements necessary for people to live well in their communities.