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-26318

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-11374 by Aileen Campbell on 28 September 2017, whether it will provide an update on what preventative action (a) Health Protection Scotland and (b) each NHS board has taken to warn of tick-related health conditions; what (i) posters, leaflets and other information have been issued and (ii) events have been organised on this topic (A) routinely and (B) since 2017, and what analysis it has carried out or plans of the effectiveness of this.

Question reference: S6W-26317

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to set up regional blood testing centres for Lyme disease.

Question reference: S6W-26312

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what it is doing to (a) raise awareness of and (b) improve (i) diagnosis and (ii) treatment of Lyme disease.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing its work on preventing, raising awareness and improving our understanding of Lyme disease and ticks.

The Scottish Government-led Lyme Disease Awareness Raising Group will run the Lyme Disease Awareness Raising Campaign in May 2024 to coincide with National Lyme Disease Awareness Month. During which patients, activists, educators and Government will share information through social media and other platforms to raise awareness of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.

In May 2023, the group ran the Lyme Disease Awareness Raising Campaign which saw posters in community pharmacies across Scotland. The campaign was supported by PR activity, organic social media and stakeholder engagement for wider messaging dissemination. In addition to the posters, pharmacies were provided with information cards for customers to take away which included a QR code to link to further information on NHS Inform

A follow up campaign was carried out in summer 2023, with posters provided for display in local libraries, GP surgeries, community and leisure centres to highlight signs and symptoms to people holidaying in Scotland and may have missed the May campaign.

The campaign assets were shared with a variety of stakeholders including Visit Scotland, the Lyme Resource Centre, and Ramblers Scotland. A small-scale evaluation was undertaken in July in relation to engagement and impact of the May campaign.

The Scottish Health Protection Network (SHPN), comprising Public Health Scotland (PHS) and NHS Health Boards, as well as Local Authorities and other agencies with a responsibility for public health, formed a Lyme disease group as a subgroup of the Gastrointestinal Infections and Zoonoses (GIZ) group at the beginning of 2016.

The Scottish Government continue to work closely with PHS and the as well as the SHPN Tick Borne Diseases subgroup which has developed content for an e-learning module to be made accessible through Turas for all health care workers in Scotland which is hoped to be ready this spring. The module covers an overview of ticks and tick borne diseases and focusses on the common presentations of Lyme disease which will allow care workers to diagnosis and treatment for the diseases early.

In addition, the Scottish Government will continue to use its own platforms to highlight the need to be tick aware and to set out the signs and symptoms of possible infection.

Question reference: S6W-26314

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to ensure that visitors to parks and other areas for outdoor recreation are aware of the risk of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.

Question reference: S6W-26313

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what public awareness campaigns it (a) has held and (b) is planning in 2024 on Lyme disease, including its prevention and symptoms.

Question reference: S6W-26316

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Scotland have Lyme disease.

This information is not held centrally. Public Health Scotland published a Gastrointestinal and Zoonoses report on 7 February 2023 which provides figures and trends of Lyme Disease. The report can be found at Gastrointestinal and Zoonoses - Biennial report 2020 to 2021 - Gastrointestinal and Zoonoses - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please email [email protected].

Question reference: S6W-26315

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken to improve medical professionals’ understanding, recognition and treatment of Lyme disease.

Question reference: S6W-26311

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to S5W-31031 by Joe FitzPatrick on 24 August 2020, whether it will provide an update on how many visits the NHS Lyme disease webpage has had since it was created.

As at 25 March 2024, the NHS Inform Lyme Disease page has had 264,020 views since 1 April 2022. An additional page, 'Avoiding bugs and germs outdoors', which also contains information relating to Lyme Disease, has had 8,741 views in the same time.

Additionally, the NHS Inform Tick Bites web page has had 827,956 views since 1 April 2022.

Due to NHS Inform moving to a new analytical site in April 2022, data prior to this date is trend indicative rather than exact amounts.

From 1 January 2017 to 21 March 2022, the Lyme Disease page had 492,814 views, ‘Avoiding bugs and germs outdoors’ had 19,734 views and the Tick Bites page had 54,779 views.

Question reference: S6W-26649

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 1 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it will publish its national action plan on relationships and behaviour in schools.

Question reference: S6W-26648

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 1 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it will publish updated guidance on the use of mobile phones in schools.