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: S6F-03751

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

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

Question reference: S6F-03746

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03745

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03764

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the recent CBI report, which reportedly suggests that businesses are preparing to “cut staff and raise prices”.

Question reference: S6W-33670

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are being implemented to reduce waiting times for older people's healthcare in rural and remote areas.

The original basis for our National Treatment Centres (NTC) programme was to provide additional protected elective capacity and infrastructure to meet the needs of the elderly population. We opened two new NTCs in Fife and Highland in Spring 2023, while the NTC-Golden Jubilee Surgical Centre opened in August 2024 and the phased opening of NTC Forth Valley began in October 2024.

Since opening, NTC-Highland has provided hip and knee replacement surgery and cataract surgery for patients throughout NHS Highland, NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside. In 2025-26, capacity will also be provided to patients in NHS Shetland.

The NHS Golden Jubilee also continues to provide some key elective services to all Health Boards, including those with patients who live in remote and rural areas. This includes capacity for endoscopy, radiology, ophthalmology, general surgery, colorectal surgery and orthopaedic surgery.

In parallel with this, a number of ophthalmic surgeons are now undertaking sequential bilateral cataract surgery, particularly in remote and rural areas, to prevent patients having to travel twice for surgical intervention. This enables both cataract surgeries to be performed on the same day, one after the other, and ensures patient focussed holistic care is delivered. This also contributes to the net zero ambition of Scottish Government.

Finally, the Budget we set out on 4 December 2024 will deliver almost £200 million to reduce waiting lists and help support reduction of delayed discharge. By March 2026, we expect no one to be waiting longer than 12 months for a new outpatient, inpatient treatment or day case treatment. We want to make progress on improving our NHS, but to do that, Parliament must approve our Budget Bill which will drive the long-term and lasting improvements that we all want to see.

Question reference: S6W-33698

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting research and innovation in optometry to improve the early detection of eye conditions.

Under General Ophthalmic Services arrangements in Scotland, all community optometry practices are required to have a range of equipment (including a digital retinal imaging equipment) to support the early detection of eye disease.

The SCONe project (https://clinical-sciences.ed.ac.uk/ophthalmology/scone) is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh, Glasgow Caledonian University and the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. It brings together the retinal images taken during an NHS eye examination with other routinely-collected healthcare data within Scotland’s NHS National Safe Haven. The first aim of SCONe is to analyse these images in order to evaluate changes in the macula and age-related macula degeneration.

Question reference: S6W-33652

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting the development of healthcare facilities in rural and remote areas, including any planned expansions in Aberdeenshire.

Question reference: S6W-33684

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact of community optometry services on reducing hospital referrals for eye-related conditions.

Question reference: S6W-33651

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any workforce shortages and training gaps in rural healthcare, particularly in areas such as Aberdeenshire.

The Scottish Government commissioned NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to establish the Centre for Workforce Supply (CWS) in November 2021 to support workforce capacity across NHS Scotland and to ensure it has the right people, in the right place at the right time. The CWS works collaboratively with health boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships and other key stakeholders to support the implementation of innovative workforce initiatives which help tackle priority supply challenges. Over the next year, CWS will be leading work connecting with health boards such as Public Health Scotland, and NHS Grampian, with a view to understanding how population health, service demand, and workforce supply data, can be used more effectively in workforce planning.

NES have a range of resources and training programmes in place to support rural practitioners across Scotland including increasing the opportunities to train in rural Scotland, the GP Rural Fellowship and the new GMC Rural and Remote Health (unscheduled and urgent care) Credential.

We also commissioned the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care (NCRRHC) in 2023, again delivered by NES. The purpose of NCRRHC is to co-ordinate work to improve remote, rural and island healthcare recruitment and retention; to increase access to training; and to develop new models of service delivery, which are focused on improved outcomes for rural and island communities.

Further, the Scottish Government has convened a Remote, Rural and Islands Task and Finish Group which is developing a framework and sustainable operating model to plan sustainable services for rural and island communities, which will include workforce considerations such as recruitment, retention and training.

Question reference: S6W-33680

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is addressing the reported disparity in access to specialised healthcare services, such as oncology and cardiology, between urban and rural areas.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering equitable and sustainable healthcare services across NHS Scotland through a comprehensive reform agenda. This includes a renewed approach for planning for NHS Scotland to ensure that appropriate clinically led planning for services is undertaken at a level which is best aligned to the size of population who make use of those services, and that this is undertaken in a collaborative and coherent way, with appropriate national leadership. These initiatives aim to deliver the highest quality outcomes for Scotland's population, ensuring healthcare services are equitable, effective, and future-proofed.

As part of this broader NHS reform, work is currently underway to develop and implement target operating models for NHS Scotland’s oncology services. These models are designed to ensure the delivery of excellent care that is equitably accessible to everyone across Scotland, regardless of their geographic location.

In addressing disparities in cardiology services, the Scottish Government’s Heart Disease Action Plan (2021) outlines specific actions to ensure timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment, and care for all individuals with suspected heart disease. Building on this, in 2024, we collaborated with clinicians across Scotland to establish agreed care pathways for cardiology. Combined with data from the Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme, these pathways will help identify priority areas for improvement and drive meaningful change in heart disease care delivery.

An NHS Board-led working group has also been convened to develop a framework for safe, quality and sustainable healthcare services across our rural and island communities. This work aims to develop a balanced model, with services provided as local as possible and specialised as necessary in order to ensure equity of outcomes.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

Chamber and committees

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