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-13607

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to support and develop online testing for sexual health and blood borne viruses, and how many people have accessed and used such online testing in each year since 2007.

The Scottish Government began supporting efforts to implement online testing in 2020. Since then, we have provided over £0.5m for the development of a “once for Scotland” approach to STI home testing. This was rolled out in NHS Lothian in December, and work is underway to explore further roll-out. This service allows people to request a test online and perform home self-sampling, while providing clinicians with comprehensive, real-time data. We are aware that in addition to the work supported by the Scottish Government that a number of NHS Boards have also progressed work in this area. The Scottish Government does not directly collect data on the numbers of people who have directly accessed such services.

Since 2021, we have also provided funding to pilot the provision of at home HIV self-testing kits. Two methods of testing for HIV have been offered, encompassing HIV self-testing (in which the individual tests their own blood sample and interprets the results) and HIV self-sampling (in which a laboratory tests and processes the blood sample). The most current data from HIV Scotland shows that over 10,000 kits have been requested through this Scottish Government-funded project. This further breaks down to 8,545 self-testing kits and 1,752 self-sampling kits.

Question reference: S6W-13644

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the £61.9 million increase in National Care Service and adult social care expenditure in its 2023-24 Budget will be allocated.

The published 2023-24 Stage 1 budget showed at level 4, a total investment of over £1.2 billion in Social Care support and NCS delivery. The £61.9m additional funding will help support a number of areas as noted in the response provided for S6W-13643 on 19 January 2023.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-13199

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made regarding the safety of specialist homecare medicines services.

As pharmacies, medicines homecare providers must demonstrate that they can meet the standards for registered pharmacies set by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). The standards are designed to create and maintain the right environment for the safe and effective practice of pharmacy and to improve the quality and safety of services provided to patients and the public. The GPhC inspect registered pharmacies to seek assurances that the standards are being met. Depending on the range of services provided, medicines homecare providers may also be registered with additional regulators such as the Care Inspectorate and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

To ensure compliance with regulatory standards, providers must have governance arrangements in place to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of patients and the public. This will include effective systems for risk management and the management of complaints and incident including root cause analysis of issues arising and implementing corrective and preventative actions.

Health Boards have contractual arrangements in place with Homecare Providers via either Service Level Agreements or Framework Agreements. These agreements detail responsibilities for service provision and define service requirements including governance and reporting.

Before arrangements are made to set-up a new service, Health Boards undertake risk assessments to assess the risks associated with supplying a particular medicine through a home delivery service. In addition, before a patient is on-boarded on to a service, checks are undertaken to help ensure that homecare is suitable for an individual patient.

Question reference: S6W-13198

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the number of any vacancies or shortages of (a) nurses and (b) pharmacists in the delivery of specialist homecare medicines services, and any impact these have on (i) performance and (ii) patient safety.

There were significant capacity constraints across the medicines homecare market in 2022. A key challenge has been recruitment of staff in a challenging labour market, with some providers more adversely affected than others. The situation is improving but continues to be closely monitored.

Certain homecare providers have highlighted issues with nursing capacity in recent months. Where this has been raised as an issue, there has been close working with providers to ensure that available staffing resource is used in a way that helps minimise disruption to service performance.

Homecare providers have not reported any recent issues with staffing within their pharmacy departments.

Several homecare providers have experienced staffing shortages within customer services departments, and this has been a major contributing factor to the capacity constraints experienced.

There have been a small number of instances where there have been delays to the delivery of medicines to patients, which has the potential to impact on patient safety. Medicines homecare providers and Health boards have processes in place to support managing and learning from any patient safety incidents that arise during service delivery.

Question reference: S6O-01835

Asked by: Gillian Martin, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is tackling the gender pay gap.

Question reference: S6O-01829

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill, including the latest discussions it has had with the UK Government.

Question reference: S6O-01828

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what road improvements are being carried out on the A77 and A70 to address any challenges faced by road users.

Question reference: S6O-01831

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-01833

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it will improve transport connectivity for Scotland’s islands.

Question reference: S6O-01830

Asked by: Audrey Nicoll, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with stakeholders regarding retraining and upskilling the north east energy sector workforce.