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-23729

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will list the consultancies that Transport Scotland has signed an agreement with under the Multiple Supplier Framework Agreement for Maritime Consultancy Services.

The Multiple Supplier Framework Agreement for Maritime Consultancy Services was awarded to the following suppliers (1) Stantec UK Limited (2) Turner and Townsend Project Management Limited and (3) Fisher Advisory Ltd. Transport Scotland publishes the results of all regulated procurements via contract award notices on the Public Contracts Scotland website. The Contract Award Notice is available with the following link: https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUN451348

Question reference: S6W-23927

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much public money was provided to (a) the Health and Social Care Alliance, (b) Pain Association Scotland, (c) Pain Concern, (d) Versus Arthritis and (e) all other external (i) national and (ii) regional (A) groups and (B) charities offering support on chronic pain issues, in the financial year (aa) 2021-22, (ab) 2022-23 and (ac) 2023-24.

a) The Health and Social Care Alliance were funded £10,776 by the Scottish Government in 2021-22 to carry out specific work to support people with chronic pain.

Since 2009, The Health and Social Care Alliance has also administered the ‘Self Management Fund’ on behalf of the Scottish Government which has included projects which support chronic pain issues. Details of funded projects can be found on The Health and Social Care Alliance’s website: Funded Projects – Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (alliance-scotland.org.uk)

The funding outlined in the following tables includes funding from the Chronic Pain Winter Support Fund which, in 2021, provided an additional £240,000 to increase the capacity of local support available for people with chronic pain during the winter period.

b) Pain Association Scotland

2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
£58,518	£13,500	£10,000

c) Pain Concern

2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
£32,700	£19,020	0

d) Versus Arthritis

2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
0	£7,250	£9,982

e) Other

	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Health All Round	£21,875	0	0
Purple Orchid	£37,450	0	0
Fife Sports and Leisure	£15,100	0	0
Live Borders	0	£4,938	0
Moray Wellbeing	0	£2,240	0
Affa Sair	0	0	£13,207

The 2023-24 Scottish Budget has delivered record funding of £19 billion for health and social care, including increases in funding for community and primary care health services such as GP practices where the vast majority of people with chronic pain seek support.

Question reference: S6W-23827

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to (a) review surgery provision nationally and (b) improve cross-NHS board care, to ensure that everyone affected by ovarian cancer is able to access the surgery that they need.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with NHS Boards to deliver our ambition to protect, stabilise and recover planned care. This includes maximising theatre productivity, optimising capacity and regional working.

Regional cancer networks have undertaken, and continue to undertake, improvement work to reduce ovarian cancer surgery waits. This improvement work includes increasing surgery provision and regional support.

The Scottish Cancer Network will be establishing a new National Ovarian Cancer Clinical Network, which will work to ensure equity of access to treatment for all women with ovarian cancer in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-23826

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of ovarian cancer treatment waiting times, and what strategies have been implemented to reduce any backlog.

The Scottish Government’s position has been, and remains, focussed on the ‘whole cancer pathway’ which is why the 62-day standard is in place. This covers the period from an urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) referral from a primary care clinician to the start of treatment for Scotland’s most common cancers, including ovarian cancer.

The latest published statistics (July-September 2023) show the median time for an ovarian cancer patient from USC referral to first treatment is 51 days. Once a decision to treat is made, the median wait for treatment is 12 days for ovarian cancer patients.

Scottish Government officials meet with Boards’ Cancer Management Teams fortnightly (monthly for Island Boards) to ensure patients are moving timeously through these pathways and are treated as quickly as possible. Where cancer pathway challenges are identified, innovative solutions are explored and best practice shared from other areas.

We are investing £40 million over five years to support cancer services, with £10 million provided to Boards in 2023-24 alone.

Question reference: S6W-23828

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support women with ovarian cancer in rural and remote areas, where access to treatment may be lacking.

The Scottish Government wants cancer patients to be treated as close to home as clinically appropriate. However, as treatments for some cancers become more complex and expensive, it becomes impossible to deliver them in every location.

Cancer services require a highly specialised workforce. In order to ensure the future sustainability of our services, we published our ten-year Cancer Strategy in which we have committed to modelling cancer workforce requirements and continue to grow the number of training places to expand our workforce.

As part of the Scottish Government’s work to develop a sustainable healthcare workforce, we continue to look for opportunities to increase levels of recruitment and retention of healthcare staff in rural areas and will develop a Rural Workforce Recruitment Strategy by the end of 2024. This will support employers to ensure that the health and social care needs of people, including women with ovarian cancer who live in rural communities, are met.

Question reference: S6W-23730

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the total value is of any public contracts for services procured by Transport Scotland under the Multiple Supplier Framework Agreement for Maritime Consultancy Services, since June 2021 to date.

Question reference: S6W-23897

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns that if the charitable hospice sector is unable to match NHS pay awards, nurses and hospice staff will leave the sector in search of better pay.

The Scottish Government has listened to concerns that independent hospices have about the recruitment and retention of staff, and will continue to do so.

As Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) are responsible for the governance, planning, and resourcing of adult palliative care services, including hospices, using the integrated budget under their control, we will continue to work with Chief Officers to support longer term sustainable planning and commissioning for the hospice sector, and will work jointly to develop a national guidance framework to support and improve consistency of local planning and commissioning.

Question reference: S6W-23914

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government which organisations or interested parties have received funding through the Plugged-in Communities Grant Fund in 2023-24.

The Scottish Government provides annual funding to Energy Saving Trust (EST) who are an independent organisation working to address the climate emergency. EST then deliver the Plugged-in Communities (PiC) grant fund on behalf of Scottish Ministers.

EST publish details of all PiC grant recipients along with the grant values on their website, this information can be found here - Plugged-in communities grant fund - Energy Saving Trust .

In 2023-2024 the following organisations received Plugged-in Community funding:

Annandale Community Transport Services

Beannachar Ltd

Caithness Rural Transport

Camphill School Aberdeen

Checkin Works

Coalfield Community Transport

Creich Croick & Kincardine District Day Care Association

Elder Voice

Glasgow Children’s Hospital

Glasgow No.1 Baby and Family Support Service

Handicabs (Lothian)

Healthy and Active in East Kilbride

Homeless Project Scotland

Local Energy Action Plan

Lothian Community Transport Services

Moray Carshare

South Ayrshire Community Transport

Southwest Community Transport

St Madoes and Kinfauns Parish Church

Tagsa Uibhist

The Food Train.

Question reference: S6W-23731

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its staff are currently employed in the Subsidy Control Team.

Question reference: S6W-23974

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Emma Roddick on 3 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an update on its engagement with Scottish diaspora networks regarding attracting skilled individuals to emigrate to Scotland, particularly those from the renewable energy sector.

In support of a range of priority commitments within Scotland’s population strategy , Scottish Government is developing a Talent Attraction and Migration Service, expected to launch in 2024. The service will help address Scotland's demographic challenges, attract and welcome more workers from outside Scotland with the skills that our economy will need and support those who have chosen to make Scotland their home.

This work sits alongside the Scottish Connections cross-cutting approach to diaspora engagement, set out through the Scottish Connections Framework published in April 2023. It includes a series of commitments and ambitions to strengthen and expand our relationships with, and between, Scotland’s international communities. As part of this work, two new resources for diaspora were launched on 30 November on Brand Scotland’s website, scotland.org , to help people around the world join our # ScottishConnections community .

Through the 2022 National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) , the Scottish Government has committed to implement a Talent Attraction programme to support employers recruit workers with the skills they need. The Scottish Government established an Industry Advisory Group (IAG) to inform and co-design our approach to attracting talent from outside of Scotland, including from the rest of the UK. Membership of the IAG reflects the priority growth sectors identified in the NSET, including renewables, life sciences, fintech, advanced manufacturing, financial services and space. Scottish Renewables are the representatives for the renewables industry on this advisory group.