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 47277 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6O-04005

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the impact on agriculture in Scotland, what its response is to the removal of ring-fenced agricultural support funding for devolved nations by the UK Government.

Question reference: S6O-04007

Asked by: Evelyn Tweed, MSP for Stirling, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of the UK Budget on farming and food production in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04025

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available this winter to people on low incomes, particularly as temperatures drop and in light of the reported predicted increase in energy prices.

Question reference: S6O-04014

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason routine eye tests are conducted more frequently than hearing tests.

Question reference: S6O-04024

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-04015

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the progress towards implementing the key priority areas highlighted in its Stroke Improvement Plan 2023.

Question reference: S6O-04017

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working to protect older people from heightened health risks in colder weather.

Question reference: S6W-30621

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide a breakdown by type of employee, for example, communications staff, policy staff, or, for the NHS, frontline health staff, or any other staff category for which data is recorded, for the Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics headcount figure for (a) NHS, (b) Devolved Civil Service, (c) Police and Fire Related Services and (d) Other Public Bodies for Quarter 2 in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on the type of employee as part of the Public Sector Employment data collection.

Some of the trend information on headcount can be obtained from the data sources below:

NHS Scotland Workforce data: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Scottish Government Workforce data: Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Police Officer numbers: Police officer quarterly strength statistics: 30 June 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Please note that the statistics on Police Officer numbers are provided in terms of Full-Time Equivalent, not headcount.

Question reference: S6W-30782

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30195 by Shona Robison on 9 October, how much funding has been provided to each of the national public awareness health campaigns that have run since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Financial Year 2023-24

*Paid-for media public health campaigns:

Detect Cancer Earlier	£360,115.02
Dentistry Reform	£213,310.79
Adult Mental Health	£450,109.58
Organ Donation	£32,609.15
Right Care Right Place	£171,433.19
Vaping	£178,292.84
Winter Vaccines	£676,346.72

**Low Cost / No cost public health campaigns:

Women & Girls in Sport Week	£34,658.40
Lyme Disease	£25,041.57
Smoking Cessation	£13,786.72

**Campaigns funded by Scottish Government working in partnership with executive agencies or other public sector organisations:

Childhood Flu – Public Health Scotland	£92,574
Sperm & Egg – NHS Scotland	£50,520

Financial Year 2024-25

*Paid-for media public health campaigns which have so far run in financial year 2024-25 are as follows. These are estimated costs which cannot be finalised until all campaign spend is reconciled:

Dementia Stigma	£410,000
Detect Cancer Earlier	£450,000
Organ Donation & Tissue Week	£30,000
Appropriate Use of NHS Services - Right Care Right Place	£250,000
Sexual Assault Referral Centres	£99,000

**Low Cost / No cost public health campaigns:

Women & Girls in Sport Week	£39,000
The Importance of Home Recovery - Home First	£47,000
Abortion Safe Access Zones	£25,500

**Campaigns funded by Scottish Government working in partnership with executive agencies or other public sector organisations:

Winter Vaccines – Public Health Scotland

£58,200

* publishable spend.

** non publishable spend.

Question reference: S6W-30729

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement in the letter of 3 October 2024 from its Directorate for Culture and Major Events to the managing director at The Orcadian that it is advised by procured agencies on the most "cost-effective media mix", what its position is on whether (a) "return on investment" is an appropriate aim for essential public health messaging and (b) maximising lives saved or quality-adjusted life years (QALY) would be a more reasonable aim.

Since the announcement of the freeze on marketing expenditure, the following public health campaigns have subsequently been assessed and approved to run in 2024-25 in line with the process set out in the answer to question S6W-30726 on 20 November 2024, and the desired health outcomes and aims that need to be achieved for each.

• Early Cancer Detection – Detect Cancer Earlier

• Dementia Stigma

• Appropriate Use of NHS Services - Right Care Right Place

• Adult Mental Health

• Organ Donation & Tissue

• Winter Vaccines (delivered by Public Health Scotland)

• The Importance of Home Recovery - Home First

• Sexual Assault Referral Centres

• Abortion Safe Access Zones

All activity is developed and evaluated against SMART objectives to help deliver policy outcomes, which includes actions that contribute to improving or saving lives. Where there is substantial spend on paid-for media, quantitative evaluation is carried out by an independent research agency to assess campaign performance. Return on investment is considered to assess the number of people in a target audience who can be reached, and how frequently, via a particular media channel to ensure campaigns are delivered cost-effectively.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.