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-33540

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase vaccination uptake in rural areas.

Health boards are expected to offer vaccination in a way that best suits the needs of their communities, using a patient-centred approach, as set out in Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) 5-year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan.

This plan states that boards should “ensure availability of a range of flexible, responsive, and good-quality immunisation services that meet the needs of all communities, including our rural and island communities”.

The Scottish Government continues to fund Scottish Ambulance Service mobile vaccination units. These are available to every Health Board to deliver across all vaccination programmes and are to be used to reach under-served communities, including those in rural areas.

Boards also offer flu and COVID-19 vaccinations to housebound patients at home on request. Details on how to arrange this are included in the vaccination appointment letter.

Lastly, there is the option for rural health boards to explore the use of Community Treatment and Care services to support vaccination programmes in rural communities.

Question reference: S6W-33524

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many vacancies for (a) GPs, (b) nurses and (c) allied health professionals there currently are in rural areas.

The requested information on how many vacancies for (a) GP's there currently are in rural areas is not centrally held. However this information is available by health board and can be found on the following link:

General Practice Workforce Survey 2024 | Turas Data Intelligence

The requested information on how many vacancies for (b) nurses and (c) allied health professionals there currently are in rural areas is not centrally held. However this information is available by health board and can be found on the following link: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Question reference: S6W-33529

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many healthcare facilities in rural areas have been modernised in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-33523

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many GP practices in rural areas have closed in each of the last five years, and what steps are being taken to replace any practices that have closed.

Question reference: S6W-33537

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what role telemedicine plays in rural healthcare, and how its use has changed in the last five years.

Telemedicine is essential to supporting care across Scotland. Access to services has shifted significantly over the past 5 years and we expect this to continue as we roll out improved ways to engage with health and social care services. Digital services are supporting people across Scotland to reduce unnecessary travel whilst also saving time, cost and uncomfortable journeys.

A range of different services have been scaled up including over 2 million NHS Near Me video appointments, over 100,000 people using Connect Me for remote health monitoring at home and exponential increase in access to Digital Mental Health Therapies across Scotland all supporting rural access. The NHS Near Me closure report highlights that the highest uptake of Near Me usage is seen predominantly in rural Health Boards.

Question reference: S6W-33790

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any issues related to lower energy performance certificate (EPC) ratings in (a) homes in rural areas compared with homes in urban areas and (b) older homes compared with newer builds.

We provide uplifts in our heat in buildings delivery schemes to help meet additional challenges faced by homeowners in rural and island communities.

The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan offers an uplift of £1500 to the grant funding available for energy efficiency measures in remote rural areas and islands.

The Warmer Homes Scotland scheme operates a national customer price model to ensure equal access to grant funded installation of energy efficiency improvements across Scotland, including in rural and island areas.

Both our Area Based Schemes and the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund provide an uplift to reflect higher delivery costs in more remote areas, of 11% in rural areas and 22% in remote rural/island areas.

We will work with Historic Environment Scotland, and other key stakeholders to find the best solutions for older and more traditional buildings. We are considering the development of an assessment tool which could provide owners with information on the types of heating systems and energy efficiency measures appropriate for traditional buildings or those with protected characteristics.

We published a Government Response to our consultation on Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) reform on 21 January. We will lay regulations later this year which will push ahead with reforms to the infrastructure and assessor market operational framework for EPCs.

Question reference: S6W-33535

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many emergency air ambulance call-outs have been made to rural areas in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-33233

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, as part of any legal agreement regarding the (a) back-to-back deal that it facilitated between Tata Steel and Liberty Steel in 2016 to buy Dalzell Steel Works and (b) £7 million loan from the Scottish National Investment Bank provided to Liberty Steel, whether there were any conditions placed on Liberty Steel to submit fully audited accounts every year.

Question reference: S6W-33219

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will list the applications that were successful in the latest round of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, broken down by NHS board.

The list of successful applicants for Year 3 of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults was published in November 2024. This provides details of the local authority where the organisation is based, the name of the project and the amount of funding awarded by the local This Sector Interface.

The list of successful applicants can be found within the following link.

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults Projects awarded funding Year 3 - 2023/2024

Year 4 of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults opened for applications on or before 30 September 2024 and is well under way. Third Sector Interfaces will submit their End of Year reports in Spring 2025. A full list of the successful applicants will be published thereafter.

Question reference: S6W-33234

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, as part of the guarantee that it provided for the purchase of the Lochaber smelter, whether there were any conditions placed on (a) Alvance and (b) GFG Alliance to submit fully audited accounts every year.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

Chamber and committees

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