- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many graduate nurses have been employed by NHS Scotland in 2024, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) speciality.
Answer
The requested information on how many graduate nurses have been employed by NHS Scotland in 2024, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) speciality is not centrally held.
Information on the number of nursing staff joining the NHS broken down by band, NHS board and specialty can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce (phase one) | Turas Data Intelligence (turnover tab)
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated number of vacancies is for (a) paediatric and (b) neonatal nurses in NHS Scotland, broken down by NHS board, and what the vacancy rate was in each of the last five years.
Answer
Information on the number of vacancies for (a) paediatric nurses in NHS Scotland, broken down by NHS board can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: Dashboards | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot) (Vacancy tab)
Information on the number of vacancies and vacancy rates for (b) neonatal nurses in not centrally collected.
Information on paediatric nursing vacancy rates across NHS Scotland in each of the last five years can be found in the following table:
Vacancy rate | Dec-19 | Dec-20 | Dec-21 | Dec-22 | Dec-23 |
Paediatric Nursing | 5.5% | 2.1% | 12.5% | 8.8% | 5.3% |
NOTE: Vacancy rates for Mar 2024 are currently unavailable and will be published on TURAS on 13 August.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many university places have been available for medical students who are (a) Scotland-domiciled, (b) from the rest of the UK and (c) from overseas, in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
The number of undergraduate medical school places available since 2015, broken down by domicile, has been provided in the following table. As requested, these reflect the places available, rather than the eventual entrants.
Academic year (A/Y) | Scots/ Rest of the UK (rUK)/RoI/Gibraltar | International | Total Per year |
2015-16 | 784 | 64 | 848 |
2016-17 | 834 | 64 | 898 |
2017-18 | 834 | 64 | 898 |
2018-19 | 889 | 64 | 953 |
2019-20 | 949 | 64 | 1013 |
2020-21 | 974 | 64 | 1038 |
2021-22 | 1039 (of which 790 must be Scottish domiciled) | 78 | 1117 |
2022-23 | 1239 | 78 | 1317 |
2023-24 | 1339 | 78 | 1417 |
2024-25 | 1339 | 78 | 1417 |
It should be noted that there is no separate target for students from the rest of the UK (rUK); instead, these students are considered to be home students in line with students from the RoI and Gibraltar.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Scotland abides by the principles of the Volunteer Charter.
Answer
The NHS Scotland Volunteering program promotes the use of the Volunteer Scotland Volunteer Charter principles within its Best Practice Guide . The principles are also endorsed within the NHS Scotland’s Volunteering Programme’s Strategic Vision for 2023-28.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how much money it costs to train a (a) paediatric and (b) neonatal student nurse at a Scottish university.
Answer
The Scottish Government package of support for Scottish domiciled student nurses, midwives and paramedics remains the highest level of support offered in the UK.
Annual Student Cost Breakdown |
Teaching Grant to University (subject to change) | £7,775 |
Tuition Fees to University (subject to change) | £1,820 |
Annual Bursary | £10,000 |
Uniform Costs | On average £54.72 |
Health Checks | On average £233.79 |
Disclosure Checks: Protecting Vulnerable Groups scheme (PVG) | Costs for the scheme: ? £59 to join the scheme ? £59 or £18 to update membership (cost dependent on whether the PVG member needs to apply to work with a new vulnerable group) |
Additionally, students are entitled to claim travel allowances, the amount will be variable dependent on the students circumstances.
There are also a range of additional allowances eligible students may be entitled to claim such as:
? Dependents allowance of up to £3,640 a year;
? Single Parents’ Allowance of up to £2,303 a year;
? Childcare Allowance for parents of up to £2,466 a year;
? Disable Students’ Allowance which will be variable dependent on the students requirements
Over a three year degree the average cost to train a nurse or midwife is in the region of £60,000 plus allowances and clinical placement expenses.
With regards to neonatal nurses, although a newly qualified nurse or midwife after completing their relevant pre-registration programme can be employed within a neonatal unit, a specific neonatal qualification is undertaken post-registration following an appropriate period of clinical experience. This is currently delivered by Edinburgh Napier University as a Neonatal Care - Qualified in Speciality postgraduate certificate (SCQF Level 11) part-time blended course, typically undertaken over 1 year. The current tuition fee is £1575 for Scottish & Rest of UK students, which is funded through Health Boards. Tuition fees are subject to an annual review and may increase from one year to the next.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 6 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether the final Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will set out further detail about the proposals of the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy for supporting an approach to licensing of oil and gas exploration on a case-by-case basis, and how calculations will be made regarding climate compatibility and energy security.
Answer
Offshore oil and gas licensing is reserved to the UK Government.
The Scottish Government would be a willing partner in collaborative efforts, at UK and international levels, to further develop the detail of how robust and transparent Climate Compatibility Checkpoints could help support licensing decisions, despite the Scottish Government having no formal decision making powers in this area.
As part of this approach, our finalised Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will set out the Scottish Government’s views on key elements which could form the basis of an enhanced Climate Compatibility Checkpoint that could be used by the UK Government, and form the basis of international discussions on this issue.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government by what date the findings of the research that it commissioned into the long-term health outcomes of people accessing gender identity healthcare, which is being administered by the University of Glasgow, will be published.
Answer
The Scottish Government grant to the University of Glasgow for this purpose funds one PhD studentship and a number of small projects. The projects are currently at different stages, outputs from some of the projects are expected before the end of the year and all are expected to be completed by Spring 2025.
The successful candidate for the PhD studentship took up their post in January 2024 and the projects and PhD studentship are both wholly managed by the University of Glasgow.
As is standard with high quality research, it is anticipated that the findings will be published in relevant peer reviewed journals.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 6 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government when it will update the values of the fixed monetary penalties, which are issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and set by the Environmental Regulation (Enforcement Measures) (Scotland) Order 2015.
Answer
There are no plans to review the monetary penalties at this time.
It should be noted however that SEPA continues develop relationships with relevant parties with the aim of taking a prevention-based approach, where penalties are viewed as a last resort.
Whilst fixed monetary penalties remain as one available enforcement measure, they are intended for lower-level offending. For more significant offending, SEPA also has the option of variable monetary penalties (with the current limit set at £40k) or it can recommend prosecution in serious cases to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
SEPA collected around £ 4.8m in financial penalties in the financial year 2023-24.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government by what date Healthcare Improvement Scotland will publish the national healthcare standards.
Answer
Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is the national health and social care improvement organisation for Scotland which develops standards and indicators to support health and social care organisations improve the quality of care and support they deliver.
To support nationwide improvements in the quality of care, work is currently underway to develop a set of healthcare standards which outline the requirements for all healthcare services across Scotland.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland will publish draft National Healthcare Standards for consultation by 31 January 2025. It is anticipated that the final National Healthcare Standards will be published by end summer 2025.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 6 August 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether all Scottish Ministers routinely use ministerial despatch boxes and folders, similar to UK Government ministers.
Answer
All Scottish Ministers routinely use electronic boxes (‘e-boxes’) for ministerial business. Cabinet Folders are issued to Cabinet Secretaries on appointment.
