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-02641

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 December 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2023

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of any social benefit of extending free bus travel to all under 22s.

Question reference: S6W-23438

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what commitment it will make to increasing the availability of long-acting reversible contraception.

Question reference: S6W-23435

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of NHS contraceptive education, and what importance it places on the provision of such education in (a) community and (b) NHS settings.

There has been no national formal assessment of contraceptive education however the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people across Scotland have timely access to contraception, and to information which allows them to make informed decisions about their own sexual and reproductive health. This is recognised as a priority in our recently published Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus (SHBBV) Action Plan, and we have allocated multi-year funding to a range of projects in both community and NHS settings that will help to deliver this goal. The projects include developing new information resources, such as a national sexual health microsite on NHS Inform, as well as supporting staff training and development around contraception. Details of these projects were published alongside the SHBBV Action Plan on 28 November 2023.

Question reference: S6W-23439

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with midwives regarding the use of long-acting reversible contraception.

The Scottish Government’s Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) Short Life Working Group meets quarterly and includes representation from midwifery, including the Royal College of Midwives.

We are working with the Scottish Postpartum Contraception Network (SPCN), which is a multidisciplinary group of healthcare professionals including midwifery, obstetrics, sexual health, pharmacy, public health and clinical researchers. Since 2022, the Scottish Government has funded SPCN’s work on expanding access to postpartum contraception (including LARC) across Scotland. An additional £101,000 (over 3 years) has recently been allocated to SPCN to deliver a project focused on developing training and information resources, and improving equity of access to postpartum LARC.

Question reference: S6W-23463

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it will measure the effectiveness of its Take Hold marketing campaign.

To measure the effectiveness of the Take Hold Marketing campaign, the paid-for-media marketing campaign will be evaluated.

Pre and post campaign qualitative evaluation is conducted by an independent research company, with a representative sample of the target audience of parents, to measure changes in attitudes and behaviours on seeing and engaging with the campaign. In addition a short survey will be shared with schools to evaluate the use and effectiveness of materials provided to them.

Digital metrics will also be used to gauge the impact of the campaign, including but not limited to, numbers of visits to the NHS Inform vaping pages, visits to Parent Club vaping pages, numbers of click throughs from social media and digital advertising and numbers watching campaign digital videos through to completion.

Question reference: S6W-23444

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the use of NHS Inform by the public, broken down by socioeconomic background.

Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS 24 currently hold that information due to the anonymous nature of NHS inform which doesn’t ask for, or collect, any personal information.

However, working with NHS 24 we are in the process of developing a formal review of NHS inform, recognising it as a national asset that is currently visited over 10 million times per month to ensure that it continues to meet future requirements and continues to support improved choice and access to services.

As part of this review work, we will engage with the public and take an evidence-based approach and commence a robust Equality Impact Assessment to ensure the service is inclusive.

Question reference: S6W-23423

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the £7.5 million from the Mental Health Transformation Fund, which is to be reprioritised as part of 2023-24 in-year budget changes, had not yet been spent.

Financial planning to address the significant challenges our public finances face took place in advance of the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance's update on the 2023-24 in-year budget changes on 21 November.

The difficult decisions which have had to be taken, have allowed us to help balance the Scottish Government's budget, while still progressing implementation of our mental health and wellbeing strategy from a revised direct budget of £260.3 million.

As set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual grant payments should not be made in advance of need.

Question reference: S6W-23428

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost would be of extending the 75% rates relief to hospitality and small retail businesses.

Question reference: S6W-23401

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental health and wellbeing: workforce action plan 2023-2025, whether it will provide an update on its work with the Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists and COSLA to "develop a strategy to promote more widely the role that Educational Psychologists play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people".

The Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP), in collaboration with the Scottish Division of Educational Psychologists (SDEP), and partners, are in the process of convening a working group.

This group will focus on the development of a strategy to promote more widely the role that Educational Psychologists play, as part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce, in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-23349

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to reduce waiting times for access to NHS audiology services.