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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2215 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-26210

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on cancer research in each year since 2011-12 in (a) cash terms and (b) real terms, broken down by spending through (i) NHS Research Scotland and (ii) other routes.

Within the Scottish Government, funding for Health and Care Research comes under the policy remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO)

(A) The following table provides the amount in cash terms of CSO cancer research funding per year from 2011-12

Column 1 - NHS Research Scotland (NRS) - includes funding for the NRS Cancer Research Network; the CSO component of funding for the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow (co-funded 50:50 with Cancer Research UK); NRS Career Research Fellowships in cancer

Column 2 - Direct Funding - includes cancer projects funded through the CSO grant funding committees; Academic Fellowships in cancer funded through the CSO capacity building programmes; the CSO component of collaborative research project and fellowship funding with cancer research charities

Column 3 - total CSO cancer research funding by year

To note - for multi-year projects and fellowships, the funding figure is allocated to the year corresponding to the start date (in the case of cancer charity collaborations the funding is allocated to the year of the collaboration agreement)

Year	NRS Funding	Direct Funding	Total
2011-12	£732,970	£995,032	£1,728,002
2012-13	£763,000	£1,563,914	£2,326,914
2013-14	£763,000	£1,088,269	£1,851,269
2014-15	£788,000	£1,611,355	£2,399,355
2015-16	£950,630	£2,141,606	£3,092,236
2016-17	£929,012	£1,511,937	£2,440,949
2017-18	£927,723	£2,287,604	£3,215,327
2018-19	£958,199	£1,405,126	£2,363,325
2019-20	£911,529	£1,806,406	£2,717,935
2020-21	£1,092,364	£479,459	£1,571,823
2021-22	£825,000	£1,354,584	£2,179,584
2022-23	£860,000	£2,332,504	£3,192,504
2023-24	£1,112,434	£1,233,269	£2,345,703

From 1 April 2006 a recurring investment of £500,000 was incorporated into the NHS Boards unified budgets to support the NHS Cancer Research Network which would be subject to the annual uplift applied to Boards’ baseline budgets - this has not been included in the above table

(B) The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Question reference: S6W-26674

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many cancer nurses have been employed by each NHS board in each year since 2011-12.

Question reference: S6W-26675

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-26115

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 27 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government with which governments the First Minister raised any (a) general and (b) specific human rights issues, during his meeting with the Council of Arab Ambassadors in March 2024.

During the First Minister’s recent meeting with the Arab Ambassador Corps in London, the First Minister set out his vision for Scotland around the three pillars of equality, community, and opportunity, focusing on Scotland’s economic potential and commitment to social justice. The First Minister also outlined Scotland’s role in the world including the Scottish Government’s commitment to good global citizenship and belief in democracy, rule of law and human rights. In this context, the First Minister reaffirmed the importance of international solidarity in the face of shared global challenges such as the climate emergency, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the current crisis unfolding in the middle east.

The meeting was conducted under the Chatham House rule, as such specific issues attributable to participants are not noted.

Question reference: S6W-26137

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the remaining funding from the £10 million Long COVID Support Fund will be allocated in 2024-25, and when any such funding will be allocated.

As set out in my answer to question S6W-25994 on 18 March 2024, we remain committed to delivering the £10 million long COVID Support Fund in full. The 2024-25 budget published on 19 December 2023 outlines our plans to make £3 million from the long COVID Support Fund available over 2024-25.

We will process NHS Boards’ first tranche of their total 2024-25 allocations from the fund early in the financial year. The second tranche will be made later in the financial year following progress reporting.

We anticipate that the remainder of the funding will be allocated over the financial year 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-26083

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the UK Government allocating £685 million for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete mitigation and management works within its NHS estate up to 2024-25, whether it will provide an update on what consideration it has given to providing money to NHS boards in Scotland for this purpose.

There have been no consequentials forthcoming to the Scottish Government as a result of the UK Government decision to allocate funding for RAAC mitigation works. If rectification is required on RAAC within the NHSScotland Estate that will have to be managed from existing budgets.

Where RAAC has been found there has been no immediate disruption or concern although some rectification works will be required in addition to monitoring and management in all cases. NHS Boards will continue to consider their buildings with RAAC on an ongoing risk based approach to the management of those assets.

Question reference: S6W-26012

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress of remedial works at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh regarding the spacing of cavity barriers.

There has been significant progress on proposals for work on the spacing of cavity barriers behind the cladding, since NHS Lothian was recommended to reduce the spacing with cavity barriers from 20 metre intervals to 10 metre intervals. The following is a summary the progress to date:

1. The works required the submission to and approval from City of Edinburgh Council’s Building Control Department. The application was submitted in April 2023 and approved in October 2023.

2. Following approval from Building Control, NHS Lothian and IHSL, the consortium that built and owns the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences, have been in discussion about commercial terms for the works to be undertaken.

3. Further detail on the frequency and duration of works was provided by IHSL in February 2024. It is anticipated that, including pre-construction activities, the works will take in excess of one year to complete. An agreed start date will be finalised once commercial terms have been completed.

Question reference: S6W-26006

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 19 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress of the projects that were successful in the 2022 ScotWind leasing round, broken down by the stage that each project has achieved; in light of any modelling that it has undertaken regarding any rental income from these projects, on what date it expects to begin receiving any such income, and how much it expects to receive annually.

There are 20 ScotWind projects with seabed option agreements. The first 17 successful projects were announced by Crown Estate Scotland in April 2022. These were joined in October 2022 by three further projects, granted agreements through the Clearing process. To date, one ScotWind project, N1 - West of Orkney Wind Farm, has submitted an application for consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 and associated marine licences under section 20 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and section 65 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. All other ScotWind projects are at the pre-application stage, with 6 environmental impact assessment scoping opinions issued by Scottish Ministers to date.

Crown Estate Scotland currently expects to see rental income of £4Million per Gigawatt per annum, based on 2024 prices. Rent is indexed against the Consumer Prices Index so this figure could change. The rent will go to Crown Estate Scotland once projects are operational. While it is too early to know when that will happen, it is generally 10 years from option award. The nature of project development means Crown Estate Scotland cannot be certain at this time what total capacity will ultimately get built.

Question reference: S6F-02952

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2024

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6W-26007

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the reported £700 million that it received in option fees through the 2022 ScotWind leasing round it spent in (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24, and how much it projects that it will spend in (i) 2024-25, (ii) 2025-26, and (iii) 2026-27.

Crown Estate Scotland received £756 million in option fees from the initial ScotWind auctions in 2022-23. As set out in the 2022 Resource spending review, and subsequent budget publications, these funds were initially profiled to be drawn down by the Scottish Government over a three year period as follows:

2022-23 - £96 million

2023-24 - £310 million

2024-25 - £350 million

The final drawdown for 2022-23 was £96 million as planned. Drawdowns for 2023-24 and subsequent years are only finalised at the very end of March when the Scottish Government has more certainty over its financial position.

At the time of the 2024-25 Scottish Budget the planned drawdown for 2024-25 was decreased to £200 million reflecting the need to ensure sufficient funds were available to balance the 2023-24 financial position. Given the recent improvement to the 2023-24 position it is now likely that this will not be required in 2023-24 and therefore may be used to support future financial years.