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-11405

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has updated its eHealth strategy 2014-2017, and whether it plans to produce a new strategy in the future.

Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy was published in April 2018 and refreshed in October 2021 supersedes the eHealth strategy 2014-2017. The Digital Health and Care Strategy embraces the aims and progress as previously set out but incorporates a broader and more collaborative aim for digital transformation across Health and Care.

A copy of the 2021 Digital Health and Care Strategy can be found on the Scottish Government website Digital health and care strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Question reference: S6O-01514

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what further financial support it will provide to Argyll and Bute to help tackle depopulation of rural areas and islands.

Question reference: S6W-11662

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what has been done to progress its fair work plans, including the expansion of Fair Work First criteria to include the Living Wage.

Payment of the real Living Wage has always been central to our Fair Work First approach; the policy has been applied to some £4bn of public sector funding since 2019.

As committed to in the Bute House Agreement, we will introduce a requirement on public sector grants to pay at least the real Living Wage, and provide appropriate channels for effective voice, subject to limits on devolved competence. Ministers will confirm the detail of the conditionality in the coming weeks.

Fair Work is more important than ever, and we will use all the levers we can to drive fair work practices. Public sector funding should leverage wider benefits, support the development of a sustainable economic recovery and a successful wellbeing economy. One example will be the future civil engineering framework (£600m over four years) that includes a requirement to pay at least the real Living Wage.

Fair Work, including fair pay, is vital in tackling the cost crisis, in-work poverty and child poverty.

Question reference: S6W-11401

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of student midwives who began training did not go on to graduate in each of the last five years for which complete figures are available.

Data showing the percentage of pre-registration students who were in the "inactive" training state on a three-year pre-registration midwifery programme over the last five years for which complete figures are available is found in the table below. “Inactive” refers to students who are neither in training nor have completed their programme – many students will return to their studies and go on to complete their programme.

Year	Total percentage of pre-registration midwifery students who were in inactive training state
2016	10%
2017	10%
2018	3%
2019	3%
2020	3%

Source: Published NES Official Workforce Statistics

Question reference: S6W-11399

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the age profile of the NHS midwifery workforce was in (a) Scotland and (b) each NHS board, in (i) 2016 and (ii) the most recent year for which figures are available.

Information on what the age profile of the NHS midwifery workforce was in (a) Scotland and (b) each NHS board, in (i) 2016 and (ii) the most recent year can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The Employment - demographic tab gives the percentage of the workforce over the age of 55 and the median age, this information can be broken down by board and job role from 2012.

Question reference: S6W-11398

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many midwives there have been in the NHS in (a) Scotland and (b) each NHS board area, in each year since 2016, broken down by (i) headcount and (ii) full-time equivalent terms.

Question reference: S6W-11400

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people (a) were accepted onto pre-registration midwifery training courses, (b) started their pre-registration midwifery training, (c) were at any stage in their pre-registration midwifery training, and (d) successfully completed their pre-registration midwifery training, in each academic year since 2016-17.

(a) The number of people accepted onto pre-registration midwifery training courses since the 2016-17 academic year is shown in the following table:

Year	Number of acceptances
2016	175
2017	210
2018	225
2019	255
2020	310
2021	235

Source: NES, based on proprietary UCAS report

(b) The number of people who started their pre-registration midwifery training is set out in the following table, which shows the number of students commencing pre-registration midwifery courses for the first time each year:

Year	Number of commencements
2016	179
2017	207
2018	243
2019	269
2020	308

Source: Published NES Official Workforce statistics

(c) The following table shows the number of pre-registration midwifery students in training at 31 st October each year based on data extracted on 12 October 2021:

Year	Total number of pre-registration midwifery students
2016	540
2017	567
2018	615
2019	730
2020	857

Source: Published NES Official Workforce statistics

(d) NHS Education for Scotland (NES) do not publish data on the number of people who successfully complete training in any given year. Instead, data is published on the percentage of pre-registration midwifery students for any given cohort who were in “complete” pre-training state on a three year programme. However, not all students from the same cohort will complete their programme in the same year as some will take more than 3 years to graduate – completion rises by a further 10% between 3 years 2 months and 5 years after commencing study. For this reason, it is not possible to provide numbers for students who have completed their pre-registration training in each academic year.

Cohorts 2013 – 2017, who were due to graduate from 2016 – 2020, are available in the percentage of pre-registration midwifery students who were in “complete” pre-training state on a 3 year programme based on information extracted on 12 October 2022. Later cohorts show a lower completion percentage as there has been less time for students to complete their programmes than for earlier cohorts.

Cohort	Total percentage of pre-registration midwifery completed training
2013	95%
2014	89%
2015	85%
2016	86%
2017	82%

Source: Published NES Official Workforce statistics

Question reference: S6W-11402

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the adequacy of NHS midwifery staffing in remote and rural areas.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that NHS Scotland has a skilled and sustainable workforce, we work in partnership with NHS Boards who are responsible for taking decisions about the configuration of midwifery services, commensurate with their local population needs.

We have taken a range of measures to support midwifery workforce supply, having grown the number of funded places on undergraduate midwifery programmes in Scotland by 20% over the last decade, to 301 funded places in 2022. Additionally, we offer a comprehensive and competitive package of student support, which is the best in the UK. In January 2022, we welcomed students from across Scotland on to a new, shortened midwifery training pathway at Edinburgh Napier University. These students will qualify as midwives in 20 months whilst continuing to work in their home regions, including in Scotland's remote and rural health boards.

In addition to our investment in education and training, we are providing direct recruitment support to all health boards across Scotland, through coordinated national marketing activity and support for ongoing international recruitment, including £8m to support the recruitment of up to 750 nurses, midwives and AHPs announced on 04 October 2022. We continue to look for opportunities to increase levels of recruitment and retention of healthcare staff in rural areas and have committed to undertaking further activity on remote and rural recruitment and retention, under the auspices of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-11206

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last provided funding for a face, arm, speech, time (FAST) campaign to raise awareness of stroke symptoms.

The Scottish Government last provided funding to support a FAST campaign in 2018.

We receive many requests to run awareness campaigns, and we assess these carefully.

Where there is not an active public campaign relating to a specific condition, the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland refer the public to the NHS Inform website for further information in the first instance. The NHS inform stroke page provides the public with information relating to the FAST test and the importance of seeking medical attention.

Question reference: S6W-11205

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to increase the budget of the Long COVID Support Fund to reflect (a) inflation and (b) any growth in the number of people affected by Long COVID.

As set out by the Deputy First Minister on 7 September 2022, there is a finite budget and, as a result of inflation eroding the purchasing power of available funding, the Scottish Government budget is now worth £1.7 billion less than it was in December 2021. As a result, health funding is worth £650 million less and the Scottish Government continues to work with Health Boards to mitigate the impact of financial pressures across services, including those supporting the needs of people living with long COVID.

£3 million of the £10 million long COVID Support Fund has been made available to NHS Boards and key partners over 2022-23. We engage with NHS Boards on a regular basis regarding their capacity needs, and will continue to do so in order to inform the allocation of the fund.