- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding Ineos proceeding with the closure of Scotland's only refinery at Grangemouth, in light of the UK Government's reported £600 million loan to the company for a project in Belgium.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what factors it considered when determining not to introduce any new bands or increase the rates of Scottish income tax for the remainder of this parliamentary session.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2025
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what it will do to address any difficulties with recruitment and retention in local government due to the reported declining value of pay.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2025
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what contracts it has awarded to external companies for social media management and related services in the last five years, and what the total cost was of any such contracts.
Answer
Social media management involves the management of Scottish Government social media accounts across platforms, and the directly related services comprise organic content production and outreach to secure content from creators and influencers.
The majority of the Scottish Government’s social media management and organic content creation is managed by internal teams, supported occasionally by agencies where required.
The Marketing Services Framework covers the provision of all marketing services, including the development of materials to deliver targeted messaging, engagement with audiences and to support behaviour change. The Media Planning, Buying and Associated Services Framework covers services for a full range of media including television, radio, press, digital, online, cinema and out of home.
Social media management support would be covered by various lots within these frameworks, depending on the required service, such as:
- Digital content production, including websites and routine i.e. non-advertising social media content is covered by Lot 3 Digital Marketing Services. The list of suppliers is here
- Managing accounts or outreach on behalf of the Scottish Government is covered under Lot 4 Public Relation Services. The list of suppliers is here
- Promotional Media to increase visibility of online content is covered by both Lots 1 and 2 for domestic and international use. The list of suppliers is here
The total spend by the Scottish Government against each of these Lots includes social media management and related services, but spend is not limited to this. The limitations are detailed, along with total spend for the last 5 years, below:
Digital Services agencies occasionally carry out social content creation for the Scottish Government – this is commissioned alongside activity such as website content creation, testing and improvement, and services relating to the successful, safe and secure functioning of websites - to meet the overall policy objectives of each project. A breakdown of the annual Scottish Government marketing spend on Digital Services contracts can be found here and the figures are outlined below:
- 2019-2020 - £566,678
- 2020-2021 - £265,975
- 2021-2022 - £432,181
- 2022-2023 - £133,378
- 2023-2024 – £96,302
Public Relation Services agencies carry out influencer marketing and social content creation for the Scottish Government, and this is commissioned alongside media relations and other PR functions to meet the overall policy objectives of the project. A breakdown of the annual Scottish Government marketing spend on PR Services contracts can be found here and the figures are outlined below:
- 2019-2020 – £411,238
- 2020-2021 - £530,488
- 2021-2022 - £695,596
- 2022-2023 - £281,760
- 2023-2024 –£340,111
Media Services agencies carry out media planning and buying for the Scottish Government to promote marketing activity including social media content over social media advertising channels. This is often commissioned alongside other online advertising channels such as paid for search and display advertising– to meet the overall policy objectives of each project.
A breakdown of the annual Scottish Government marketing spend on online channels via Media Planning and Buying contracts can be found here and the figures are outlined below.
- 2019-2020 - £1,333,735
- 2020-2021 - £5,057,831
- 2021-2022 - £6,265,931
- 2022-2023 - £1,459,995
- 2023-2024 – £1,168,354
To note, Scottish Government marketing outputs as a whole will be carried across multiple social platforms in either paid or organic form in the course of campaign activity, as this bolsters the desired policy outcomes in line with key Scottish Government priorities.
Scottish Government marketing and advertising spend is published each year and can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ including a breakdown by media type. As the 2024-25 financial year is not yet complete the information is not included.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans for NHS Scotland to combine medical records in a database that is shared with third parties, similar to the reported proposals by NHS Digital for England.
Answer
Health data is shared, typically in an aggregated and anonymised format, with trusted third parties through trusted research environments known as ‘Safe Havens’. These Safe Havens comprise of a national Safe Haven within Public Health Scotland and four regional Safe Havens associated with NHS Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lothian, and Tayside.
Safe Havens play a crucial role in protecting personal data, providing a secure space, and supporting the secure use of NHS data for researchers to access and analyse healthcare data without compromising individual privacy. Within Safe Havens researchers can work with anonymised or pseudonymised data, reducing the risk of re-identification of individuals. By implementing robust security measures and access controls, Safe Havens ensure that only authorised individuals can interact with the data, and that they can only access the level of data that is appropriate and proportionate.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has provided to NHS boards in relation to recording a patient’s biological sex on medical records.
Answer
The existing Scottish Government Records Management Health and Social Care Code of Practice (Scotland) 2024 has guidance on managing health records of people who identify as transgender. This links to guidance from the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, the General Medical Council and NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). It was recognised in 2020 that it was an area under development, and subsequently the Scottish Government's Chief Statistician issued guidance for public bodies on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. The Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care 2024 incorporates the Chief Statistician's guidance along with feedback from stakeholders, providing further guidance to NHS Boards.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide a specific timeline for the launch of the delayed cruise ship levy consultation.
Answer
The Scottish Government plans to launch a formal public consultation on a potential local authority cruise ship levy in Scotland in February this year.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on NHS Scotland's progress on the digitisation of all patient medical records.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-33304 on 24 January 2025. 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/questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting NHS boards to digitise legacy medical records, and what progress has been made on this over the last five years.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-33304 on 24 January 2025. 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/questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what funding is available to rural NHS boards for the development of innovative healthcare delivery models.
Answer
The NRAC (resource allocation formula) is an objective measure of the need for health care services across Scotland. The current formula, which was established in 2005, considers the population share of each Board adjusted for the age/sex composition of the population, the relative health needs due to morbidity and life circumstances, and the excess cost of delivering healthcare to rural and remote areas. We have committed to a review of the funding formula. This supports vital work to reduce health inequalities; ensuring that we continue to allocate funding according to the relative need for healthcare in each Board area.
The Rural Centre of Excellence was established to oversee and develop innovative healthcare pathways in rural areas. The Scottish Government has committed £3.03m in 2023-26 to progressing the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, which launched in October 2023. The Centre will focus initially on Primary Care and community services priorities in Phase 1 as an initial proof of concept.
In 2022, one of Scotland’s Innovation Centres, the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI), secured a £5 million investment from Moray Growth Deal to establish a Rural Centre of Excellence for Digital Health and Care Innovation. This seeks to address health and care issues across rural areas, including addressing citizen data requirements and supporting place-based care in the community. It also supports the acceleration of innovation capabilities to attract important economic growth to Rural Scotland.
