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-13437

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what emerging technologies it has identified to assist in bridging any gap between service capacity and demand in health and social care, alongside expanding workforce capabilities and expertise.

The Scottish Government is working in conjunction with NES to support the identification of emerging technologies to assist the gap between service demand and capacity within the health and care system, particularly around staff training to enhance skills. Examples include:

Online training provision within the Scotland Deanery.
Train-the-trainer for “simulation” training across a number of specialties and in specific procedures, such as in cystoscopy.
Virtual reality pilots for communications training in handling stressful situations in pre-hospital emergency care and mental health tribunals.
Mental health simulation training.
Virtual reality simulators, including six endoscopy simulators in 6 different health boards, alongside a national introductory course covering cancer diagnosis.
A national urology simulator and learning programme.

Question reference: S6W-13447

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work has been undertaken to develop an effective workforce planning system for the health and social care sector that enables the prediction of future capacity and capability requirements, along with the identification of any gaps and pressure points.

The Scottish Government has engaged directly with representatives from NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to develop, deliver and subsequently assess workforce, finance and service plans in 2022-23. Scottish Government guidance on the production of three-year workforce plans, issued in April 2022, set out expressly how and where medium-term workforce planning should make assessments of changing local service demand as part of analysing any local staffing gaps and pressure points, alongside setting out the actions that health boards and health and social care partnerships are taking to address identified issues.

Question reference: S6W-13482

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done with stakeholders to determine the feasibility of developing multi-year intake numbers for nurse and paramedic training places in order to provide certainty and sustainability for this workforce.

The Scottish Government has worked alongside Higher Education Institutions, NHS Boards, NHS Education Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service, and the Scottish Funding Council to agree controlled intakes for nursing, midwifery and paramedic science programmes and those discussions included multi-year intakes. An announcement on the details of the commissioned intakes for these subjects will be made shortly.

Question reference: S6W-13508

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has developed a national online portal to support all NHS staff equality networks to share resources, information and support.

Question reference: S6W-13486

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the aim set out in the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland, whether it has increased paramedic training numbers by 32%, bringing the total student numbers for 2022-23 to 941.

Question reference: S6W-13460

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has established the Centre for Workforce Supply within NHS Education for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-14008

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to meet emergency repair work at fishing harbours since July 2019.

Question reference: S6W-13788

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many incidents of burst water pipes were reported in the South Scotland region in December 2022, and how this figure compares with December 2021.

Scottish Water does not maintain information by parliamentary region and is only able to provide information for the closest equivalent operational area (South Region Water Operational Area). There were 488 reports in December 2022 in this large geographical region compared to 256 reports in December 2021. This would include both leaks reported by customers as well as those identified separately by Scottish Water as part of their active leakage management.

In December 2022, Scottish Water experienced a significant increase in the number of burst water pipes as a result of a freeze and rapid thaw, and Scottish Water operatives worked tirelessly in freezing conditions during this time to respond to the issues which occurred on the water network. During this period Scottish Water also saw an increase in bursts on customer private supply pipes and internal plumbing, which had a significant impact.

Scottish Water has an annual campaign to raise awareness about how important it is for customers to protect their pipes by taking appropriate measures. More information about this is available on their website at Winter Wrapped Up - Scottish Water and Protect your Pipes - Scottish Water .

South Region Water Operational Area includes: Dumfries & Galloway, Scottish Borders, East Lothian, Midlothian, City of Edinburgh, West Lothian, South Lanarkshire and North Lanarkshire.

Question reference: S6W-13766

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it will lay the remaining regulations to allow for section 50 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, prohibiting pavement parking, to be commenced.

Transport Scotland is continuing to consult with Local Authorities and others to develop both the secondary legislation required to allow them to enforce the National pavement parking prohibition as well as the Parking Standards Guidance which will underpin the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.

The first of the associated regulations, which sets out the Exemption Order Procedures which local authorities must follow, was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 16 November and came into force on 9 December 2022.

My officials continue to work on the other secondary legislation which is required during the course of this year. These further regulations will ensure Local Authorities have all of the necessary tools to enforce the pavement parking prohibitions from late 2023 onwards.

Question reference: S6W-13784

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the statement in its Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan that "many young people are already choosing renewable or low carbon roles" and that "only 12% of the oil and gas workforce is under 30", what its response is to the suggestion that its comments regarding domestic oil and gas production ending and a presumption against new exploration and production in the North Sea, for example by the Cabinet Secretary in the Scottish Parliament on 10 January 2023, might be impacting young people’s choices to move into the oil and gas sector.

Data from the industry itself clearly shows that a significant proportion of the oil and gas workforce will retire in the coming years.

As a responsible government, we have set out a pathway to ensure a fair and just transition for our energy workforce, and to bring a new generation of skilled workers into the industry. Given the North Sea basin is mature and production is already in decline, any other course of action would only serve to put jobs and our economy at risk.