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-31933

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S6W-18745 by Jenni Minto on 21 June 2023, whether it can provide a list of meetings of the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024, and a summary of what was discussed at each meeting.

The Scottish Hospice Leadership Group is comprised of the Chief Executives of most of the independent Scottish hospices and their key partners.

The group is not a Scottish Government body, however Scottish Government officials attend their meetings on a regular basis to discuss matters of mutual interest.

The Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health last met the Chair of the group on 18 September 2024 to discuss working towards establishing a longer term sustainable funding model.

Question reference: S6W-31923

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve access to special care dental care for people with complex needs, including disabled people, older people and people with underlying health conditions.

Question reference: S6W-31922

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many special care dentists there are.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on dentists working in NHS dentistry in Scotland who are also registered with the General Dental Council (GDC) as a specialist in special care dentistry.

However, the Public Dental Service (PDS) does provide special care dentistry for their registered patients. Information on the number of PDS dentists in Scotland is available online at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.

Question reference: S6W-29735

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government by what percentage the block grant from the UK Government has increased (a) each year and (b) cumulatively since 2007, and by how much the local government budget has increased (i) each year and (ii) cumulatively over the same period.

The total Resource (RDEL) Block Grant funding received by the Scottish Government (SG) each year since 2007/08, along with calculations of the year-on-year percentage change and the cumulative change over the specified timeframe is as follows:

Year	Basis	£'m	Percentage Change Year on Year	Cumulative increase since 2007-08
2007-08	Outturn	22,905	-	-
2008-09	Outturn	23,552	2.82%	2.82%
2009-10	Outturn	24,486	3.97%	6.90%
2010-11	Outturn	25,211	2.96%	10.07%
2011-12	Outturn	24,814	-1.57%	8.33%
2012-13	Outturn	24,968	0.62%	9.01%
2013-14	Outturn	25,466	1.99%	11.18%
2014-15	Outturn	25,660	0.76%	12.03%
2015-16	Outturn	25,563	-0.38%	11.60%
2016-17	Outturn	26,098	2.09%	13.94%
2017-18	Outturn	26,716	2.36%	16.64%
2018-19	Outturn	27,255	2.02%	18.99%
2019-20	Outturn	28,621	5.01%	24.95%
2020-21	Outturn	38,852	35.75%	69.62%
2021-22	Outturn	36,939	-4.93%	61.27%
2022-23	Outturn	35,993	-2.56%	57.14%
2023-24	Outturn	37,609	4.49%	64.19%
2024-25	Plans	39,814	5.86%	73.82%
2025-26	Plans	41,141	3.33%	79.62%

The Total Local Government resource settlement each year since 2007-08, along with calculations of the year-on-year percentage change and the cumulative change over the specified timeframes is set out below. This is split into 2 parts, 2007-08 to 2012-13 and 2013-14 to 2025-26. Extended time series comparisons of the Local Government Settlement are inappropriate and misleading due to the impact of the Concordat and machinery of government changes such as the transfer of police and fire services out of local government which create discontinuities in the time series data. The data presented for the Local Government Settlement is taken from the relevant Local Government Circular published following the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order in each year. It is important to note that additional funding is often allocated to local authorities in-year and processed through a retrospective redetermination in the subsequent year’s Local Government Finance Order. By extension such funding is not reflected in this time series data but is published in the relevant Local Government Finance Circular and is available at Local government finance circulars - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Year	£'m	Percentage Change Year on Year	Cumulative increase since 2007-08
2007-08	8,717	-	-
2008-09	10,062	15.43%	15.43%
2009-10	10,603	5.37%	21.63%
2010-11	10,688	0.81%	22.62%
2011-12	10,432	-2.4%	19.67%
2012-13	10,487	0.53%	20.30%

Year	£'m	Percentage Change Year on Year	Cumulative increase since 2013-14
2013-14	9,583	0.00%	0.00%
2014-15	9,666	0.87%	0.87%
2015-16	9,871	2.12%	3.00%
2016-17	9,560	-3.15%	-0.24%
2017-18	9,527	-0.35%	-0.59%
2018-19	9,724	2.07%	1.47%
2019-20	10,016	3.00%	4.52%
2020-21	10,616	5.99%	10.78%
2021-22	10,928	2.94%	14.04%
2022-23	12,156	11.24%	26.85%
2023-24	12,374	1.79%	29.12%
2024-25	13,056	5.51%	36.24%
2025-26	13,803	5.72%	44.03%

Question reference: S6W-32112

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the UK Government’s reported commitment to a permanently lowered tax rate for grassroots music venues in England and Wales from 2026-27, whether it will commit to implementing any such relief in full in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-32113

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the UK Government’s consultation on reforming its business rates system, whether it has any plans to undertake a similar consultation on potential changes to non-domestic rates in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-31917

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31416 by Neil Gray on 28 November 2024, how many of the 30 remaining Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM) graduates who chose not to take up GPST 1 posts (a) took up and (b) did not take up other roles in the NHS.

Further to the published answer to question S6W-31416 there were 35 students who had not taken up a GPST post in Scotland (including three still in foundation training).

The data below indicates the destination of these students:

Training post in NHS Scotland (excluding 10 GPST)	6
Clinical Fellow post in NHS Scotland	11
Post in NHS England	8
Total	25

The destination of the remaining seven is currently unknown.

Question reference: S6W-31918

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31416 by Neil Gray on 28 November 2024, within which NHS boards the remaining eight individuals that chose to take up GPST 1 posts are placed.

Question reference: S6W-31852

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of its youth work budget for the next three years, and what percentage increase is planned.

Question reference: S6W-31848

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of its youth work budget, by local authority area, for the current financial year.

The Scottish Government highly values youth work and continues to fund youth work across Scotland in a variety of ways. Local Authorities are required to provide adequate and efficient Community Learning and Development (CLD), which includes youth work, as set out in the Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013. In line with the Verity House Agreement, Local Authorities have the autonomy to allocate resources to meet the specific needs of young people in their areas.

In addition to the block grant given to Local Authorities, the Scottish Government directly funds a range of youth work initiatives, projects and programmes. These initiatives aim to support diverse youth work models, promote partnership working and enhance the quality of youth work.

NHS Tayside	2 trainees
NHS Forth Valley	2 trainees
NHS Lothian	1 trainee
NHS Fife	1 trainee
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1 trainee
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1 trainee