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: S6O-01792

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 will improve rail infrastructure, journey times and rail connectivity across the South Scotland region.

Question reference: S6O-01779

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what government business it plans to bring forward for the current parliamentary year.

Question reference: S6O-01786

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comments by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce regarding the Budget 2023-24 that it represents “a clear disadvantage for Scotland’s businesses and workers”.

Question reference: S6O-01783

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any investment arising from the Tay Cities Deal.

Question reference: S6O-01774

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of a new report by the Resolution Foundation stating that the average household will be £2,100 worse off by the end of next financial year, how ministers across government are working to prioritise support for low-income households, as set out in its Covid Recovery Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-13321

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were convicted of shoplifting in each of the last five years, and of those, how many have reoffended within a year of conviction.

The number of people convicted in Scottish courts, where the main charge was Shoplifting, was published on 21 June 2022 in Table 4b of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland 2020-21 bulletin.

The most recent five years of data are shown in the following table:

Financial year	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21 1
People convicted where the main charge was Shoplifting	6,248	5,661	5,928	5,422	2,673

1. Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and may not be indicative of long term trends.

The number of people reconvicted of Shoplifting within one year of being convicted of the Index crime of Shoplifting was published on 4 October 2021 in Reconviction Rates in Scotland Statistics .

Data are only available for the most recent three years and are shown in the following table:

Cohort	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
People reconvicted of Shoplifting within one year of being convicted of the index crime of Shoplifting	1,137	990	997

Question reference: S6W-13206

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many graduates are expected to qualify in the 2022-23 academic year from the Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM) course.

Question reference: S6W-13393

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is on track to meet its commitment to introducing a national 24/7 thrombectomy service by 2023.

Work is ongoing to establish the most effective means of further expanding access to thrombectomy, including how the increased budget will be best used in recruiting staff to maximise the number of patients able to benefit from this treatment.

We are also in discussions with National Services Division, to ensure that decisions taken on potential expansions of the thrombectomy service consider the wider access requirements of patients across Scotland and ensure access is as equitable as possible.

Question reference: S6W-13391

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will reverse any planned reductions to thrombectomy funding for the current year.

The Scottish Government remains committed to introducing a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service in Scotland. As a result of the Emergency Budget Review, the thrombectomy service was not reduced, rather the expansion of the service was paused.

The budget for thrombectomy and development of a refreshed stroke improvement plan has been increased from £8.6 million for 2022-23 to £12.5 million in 2023-24. Prior to the 2023/24 budget announcement, the delivery of a national thrombectomy service had already received over £16 million of investment.

Question reference: S6W-13301

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when all six rural hospitals in Scotland each will have three general surgery consultants.

While the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare, it is for each NHS Board to decide best how to utilise funding, facilities and staff while taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.

We will develop a Remote and Rural workforce recruitment strategy by the end of 2024. This will support employers to ensure that the Health and Social Care needs of people who live in remote and rural communities are met.

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.

The number of doctors in training is also up 24.3% under the SNP - or 1,295.6 WTE (from 5,336.1 WTE as at September 2006 to 6,631.7 WTE as at Sept 2022). And we have now created the biggest ever expansion of medical training posts – 152 places at £37m over the next four years to help future-proof our NHS. This equates to 2.5% increase in WTE workforce of 6,100 trainees – who make up 42% of doctors in hospitals. This brings the total number of additional places created by Scottish ministers to 725, since 2014.

In all areas of NHS Scotland, a great deal of effort is going into ensuring that services have sufficient capacity to deal with COVID-19, manage other risks and resume planned services as safely and effectively as possible. This includes ensuring that there are sufficient levels of consultant, including general surgeons.