Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-14309

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of expenditure for the £147.471 million allocated to Other Board Services and Miscellaneous Income as part of the line for Covid-19 Funding and Other Services (restated) in the draft Scottish Budget 2023-24.

Despite the UK Government stepping back from COVID funding from 2022-23, there remain COVID related pressures and costs across the system. The 2022-23 health budget provides for test and protect, PPE and the ongoing vaccination programme, including costs relating to delivery of Covid-19 vaccinations and the extended seasonal flu vaccination as well as staff, venues and storage. The £147.471 million represents the net of these costs once partially offset by income related to dental and miscellaneous services which is also included in this budget line.

Question reference: S6W-14308

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of expenditure for the £1,067.300 million (fiscal resource) allocated to Social Care Support and NCS Delivery in the draft Scottish Budget 2023-24.

The 2023-24 budget confirms our ongoing commitment to invest in social care and increasing the sustainability of the sector ahead of implementation of the National Care Service.

The 2023-24 Stage 1 budget presented, at level 4, a total investment of £1.2 billion in Social Care support and National Care Service (NCS) delivery. This total represents a social care spending increase of over £800 million compared to 2021-22, demonstrating that we are well ahead of our trajectory to increase spending by 25% (£840 million) over the life of the Parliament.

The £1.1 billion expenditure line supports a number of areas including an additional £100 million for adult social care pay up to £10.90 per hour, £344 million of existing funding to support pay, £124 million for care at home investment, £60 million for the Carers Act and funding to support inflationary uplifts for Free Personal Nursing Care Rates. We note the Report on the Financial Memorandum published on 1 December by the Finance and Public Administration Committee and are currently revising the NCS Financial Memorandum. This will provide more detail on expected spend in 2023-24 and beyond.

Question reference: S6W-13934

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10553 by Jenny Gilruth on 20 September 2022, what the ScotRail budget for Rail Passenger Services (a) is for 2023 and (b) was in each of the years set out in the answer; how much of the budget remained unspent at the end of each of those years, or, if there was an overspend, how much the overspend was, and from which budget line any overspend was funded.

The draft budget for rail passenger services for (a) 2023-24 is £458 million, as published in December and remains subject to the Parliamentary approval process.

The following table sets out (b) budget against expenditure and explanations for variances that are included in the published outturn statements within the Scottish Government consolidated accounts each year.

Year	Budget £m	Expenditure £m	Comments
2016-17	266	266	No variance
2017-18	311	170	The underspend is offset by an overspend on the capital budget and relates to the reclassification of Fixed Track Access Charges expenditure.
2018-19	183	155	The underspend is offset by an overspend on the capital budget and relates to the reclassification of Fixed Track Access Charges expenditure.
2019-20	150	180	The overspend is due to increased revenue support in response to COVID-19 that was agreed to be funded within the wider SG budget.
2020-21	659	659	No variance
2021-22	568	534	The underspend is due to higher than expected fare box revenue that reduced requirement for COVID-19 support.
2022-23	431		Full year not complete. No overspend is expected at this time.

Question reference: S6W-14242

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13542 by Humza Yousaf on 20 January 2023, how many non-executive board members have completed the e-learning module on the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Equality Act.

Question reference: S6W-14154

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is using artificial intelligence to create data-driven recommendations in health and social care.

We are working in partnership across the UK to explore the safe use of AI within health and social care. AI is currently being utilised in the NHS to support clinicians by making data driven recommendations in areas like cancer screening and other medical imaging practices.

The Scottish Government is also currently considering how the specific needs of AI can be built into our wider work on data to provide the right infrastructure and support service that enables the adoption of AI solutions within the NHS. Further details on this will be set out in the forthcoming Data Strategy for Health & Social Care, including on the ethical and transparent use of AI.

Further to this, we are working to consider how AI can be used in existing decision support tools, for example the Right Decision Support Service.

Question reference: S6W-14336

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13469 by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023, how many of those places were taken by (a) international and (b) domestic students.

Information on entrants and enrolments at Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is collect by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Between 2018-19 and 2019-20 HESA introduced a new subject classification system moving from JACS over to HECOS. As such, a continuous time series can not be provided and information has been put into two different tables below.

First degree entrants to pre-clinical medicine courses at Scottish HEIs, JACS subject classification

Scottish Provider	Domicile	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
University of Edinburgh	Scotland	125	120	110	120	135	100	110	90	85	85	95	80
	Rest of UK	80	85	95	95	75	85	85	95	90	90	95	105
	Overseas	30	30	35	35	25	15	20	30	25	25	25	25
	Total	230	235	235	250	235	200	215	210	205	205	210	210
University of Glasgow	Scotland	155	145	125	110	110	145	140	140	140	140	150	165
	Rest of UK	50	65	85	100	130	60	60	60	65	60	65	65
	Overseas	30	25	30	35	30	25	30	35	35	45	35	50
	Total	235	235	240	245	270	235	230	235	235	245	250	280
University of Aberdeen	Scotland	115	110	105	135	110	90	115	105	100	115	115	125
	Rest of UK	45	60	55	30	60	55	30	40	40	35	35	35
	Overseas	20	20	20	20	15	20	20	25	25	30	30	20
	Total	180	190	180	185	185	170	170	165	165	180	180	185
University of Dundee	Scotland	140	110	115	90	105	120	75	90	95	115	115	125
	Rest of UK	10	25	30	40	40	40	30	25	35	25	20	20
	Overseas	15	15	15	25	15	10	15	25	15	15	15	15
	Total	165	155	155	155	160	170	120	140	145	155	155	160
University of St Andrews	Scotland	70	75	70	65	85	65	60	55	60	60	40	85
	Rest of UK	50	40	45	40	65	35	50	65	55	60	60	80
	Overseas	30	40	45	45	70	50	45	45	55	50	45	50
	Total	150	150	160	150	220	145	155	165	165	165	145	210

Source: HESA student data

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5

EU students are included in the overseas figures

Pre-clinical medicine as defined by JCAS code 'A100'

First degree entrants to pre-clinical medicine courses at Scottish HEIs, HECOS subject classification

Scottish Provider	Domicile	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
University of Edinburgh	Scotland	105	115	130
	Rest of UK	75	95	95
	Overseas	35	25	30
	Total	215	235	255
University of Glasgow	Scotland	190	205	240
	Rest of UK	55	60	50
	Overseas	50	70	35
	Total	295	335	325
University of Aberdeen	Scotland	145	140	175
	Rest of UK	35	30	25
	Overseas	30	40	25
	Total	210	215	220
University of Dundee	Scotland	130	140	140
	Rest of UK	20	20	20
	Overseas	15	25	25
	Total	170	185	185
University of St Andrews	Scotland	75	50	95
	Rest of UK	75	65	90
	Overseas	55	60	60
	Total	205	175	250

Source: HESA student data

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5

EU students are included in the overseas figures

Pre-clinical medicine as defined by HECOS code '100276'

Question reference: S6W-14327

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider implementing a plan to research any possible link between chronic urinary tract infections and endometriosis as part of the Women's Health Plan, and what action it is taking to improve specialist appointment waiting times for those experiencing chronic urinary tract infections.

The Women’s Health Plan focusses on a specific set of priorities including enhancing care and support for those with endometriosis. Whilst chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs) are not specifically mentioned in the priorities for this iteration of the Plan, we recognise that many women are significantly affected by the condition.

In addition, we have commissioned the Health and Social Care Alliance to take forward a programme of work on lived experience in order to put the voices of women at the heart of the Plan.

We recognise that research is essential if we are to increase our understanding of endometriosis and develop new and effective approaches to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of this debilitating condition. That is why we are jointly funding a £250,000 research project with Wellbeing of Women, which aims to develop improvements into treatment and management options for the condition.

We will raise awareness and support the implementation of the new Endometriosis Referral Pathway for NHS Scotland developed by the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme. The Pathway aims to ensure those with endometriosis receive individualised treatment in relation to their symptoms by improving earlier intervention and support within primary care, streamline referrals to secondary and tertiary care where required.

Our Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan, backed by £70m investment, was published on 30 November 2021 and focusses on key areas such as Balancing Demand and Capacity; Workforce Training and Development; and Infrastructure Innovation and Redesign. This will be achieved through the implementation of key actions that are focused on reducing the waiting times back to the 6-week target during the life time of this Parliament.

In addition, in July last year, we introduced ambitious targets for NHS Scotland to address the backlog of planned care, undoubtedly exacerbated by the pandemic. We are working intensively with NHS Boards to maximise capacity and to clear remaining waits as soon as possible, with a specific focus on specialities and areas where there are larger amounts of people waiting, including Urology.

Question reference: S6W-14337

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on pilot schemes to fast-track applications for blue badges for disabled parking for people with motor neurone disease.

Following the successful completion of a two-year Scotland-wide pilot in 2022, the new fast-track Prescribed Blue Badge model for people with motor neurone disease (MND) was launched on 9 May 2022 via the provision of updated guidance for local authorities.

MND specialist nurses in Scotland now have the power to prescribe a Blue Badge for people with an MND diagnosis should their MND specialist nurse deem them as meeting the eligibility criteria. This means that such applicants can bypass the Local Authority assessment process and experience significantly shorter waiting times.

Question reference: S6W-14306

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to proposals from Midlothian Council to remove free musical instrument lessons for some pupils.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the removal of fees associated with instrumental music tuition so income is not a barrier to children and young people taking up an instrument. Access to instrumental music tuition is for local authorities to determine depending on local circumstances and priorities.

Councils are autonomous and it is their responsibility to agree their annual budgets taking into account their statutory duties and national and local priorities.

Question reference: S6W-14335

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13437 by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023, (a) how much it has spent and (b) what quantifiable effect any spending has had on assisting to bridge the gap between service demand and capacity within the health and care system in relation to (i) online training provision within the Scotland Deanery, (ii) train-the-trainer for “simulation” training across a number of specialties and in specific procedures, such as in cystoscopy, (iii) virtual reality pilots for communications training in handling stressful situations in pre-hospital emergency care and mental health tribunals, (iv) mental health simulation training, (v) virtual reality simulators, including six endoscopy simulators in six different health boards, alongside a national introductory course covering cancer diagnosis and (vi) a national urology simulator and learning programme.

The Scottish Budget provided baseline funding of over £492 million to NHS Education for Scotland in 2022-2023, it is for NHS Board to determine how they use this funding. In addition to this, further funding has been made available to NHS Education for Scotland to support specific programmes of work including:
‎ £22.3 million is provided towards the improvement of Mental Health Training and £3.7 million for the NHS Scotland Academy which offers accelerated training programmes to those working, and soon to be working, across many roles within Health and Social Care. Much of the training and education activity delivered by NHS Education for Scotland is supported and enhanced through digital solutions.

We continually monitor the sufficiency of education and training support across NHS Scotland as we work to deliver a sustainable Health and Social Care workforce and implement improvements in patient care. As part of this, The Scottish Government has regular strategic engagement with NHS Education for Scotland regarding its priorities. The Scottish Government also has a number of other mechanisms to oversee and review each Board’s performance. The Annual Reviews held by Ministers remain an important part of the accountability process as do Board Annual Operating plans, building on the local governance arrangements which form part of Board structures.

Chamber and committees