- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many alcohol-specific deaths have been recorded in each of the last five years, also broken down by what proportion were attributed to liver disease.
Answer
Data on alcohol-specific deaths are published annually by National Records Scotland (NRS) and can be found here: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/alcohol-specific-deaths-2023/
Data on alcohol-specific deaths for 2024 are not yet published. The number of alcohol-specific deaths for the five year period 2019-2023 are listed in the following table, alongside the number and proportion of these deaths where the underlying cause of death was alcoholic liver disease.
Year | Number of alcohol-specific deaths | Number where underlying cause of death was alcoholic liver disease | Proportion where underlying cause of death was alcoholic liver disease |
2019 | 1,020 | 660 | 65% |
2020 | 1,190 | 759 | 64% |
2021 | 1,245 | 795 | 64% |
2022 | 1,276 | 778 | 61% |
2023 | 1,277 | 805 | 63% |
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many lives it estimates have been saved annually as a result of minimum unit pricing for alcohol, and what assessment it has made of the impact of the recent uprating to 65p per unit.
Answer
Research conducted by Public Health Scotland estimated that Minimum Unit Pricing had reduced alcohol-attributable deaths in Scotland by 13.4%, or 156 per year, up to the end of 2020, compared to what would have happened if Minimum Unit Pricing had not been in place.
Public Health Scotland’s final report on the independent evaluation of the impact of Minimum Unit Pricing can be found here:
https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/evaluating-the-impact-of-minimum-unit-pricing-for-alcohol-in-scotland-a-synthesis-of-the-evidence/
Data on alcohol-specific deaths for 2024 is due to be published later this year. The Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment for the continuation and future pricing of Minimum Unit Pricing includes estimated impacts of a 65p per unit minimum price on mortality outcomes based on modelling undertaken by the University of Sheffield. It is estimated that, compared to the removal of Minimum Unit Pricing, a minimum price of 65p per unit would result in 110 fewer alcohol-specific deaths in the first year. Additionally, it is estimated that there would be 191 fewer all-cause deaths, as reducing alcohol consumption can prevent deaths from causes beyond those wholly attributed to alcohol, such as injuries or other health conditions.
The Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment can be found here:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/minimum-unit-pricing-mup-continuation-future-pricing-business-regulatory-impact-assessment/
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital admissions in each of the last five years have been directly attributed to alcohol consumption, and how much this has cost.
Answer
The number of hospital admissions wholly attributable to alcohol is published on the Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) website. For the five year period, the number of hospital admissions wholly attributable to alcohol is presented in the following table.
Financial year | Number of hospital admissions wholly attributable to alcohol (acute and psychiatric hospitals combined) |
2023-2024 | 32,301 |
2022-2023 | 31,218 |
2021-2022 | 35,274 |
2020-2021 | 35,148 |
2019-2020 | 39,174 |
Currently, there is no data available on the overall cost of hospital admissions wholly attributable to alcohol.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the reported decision by the health secretary not to act in response to a letter warning about potential non-compliance by NHS Fife with its legal obligations is consistent with the Scottish Government’s duty to uphold the Equality Act 2010.
Answer
The Scottish Government and Scottish Ministers act in a manner consistent with the Scottish Government’s duty to uphold the Equality Act 2010 at all times.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what role it envisions for its economic agencies, such as Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway, in addressing the reported gender export gap and supporting women-led businesses to expand internationally.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to addressing the gender export gap in Scotland, confirmed by the findings in the recent Gender Export Gap research report.
Recognising the significant economic potential of women-led businesses, we are determined to ensure they are supported to expand internationally.
Our delivery agencies, including Scottish Enterprise, Business Gateway, and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, play a pivotal role in delivering this support. Working with the Scottish Government, they will be instrumental in implementing the report's recommendations, providing tailored advice, assistance, and international market access opportunities to help women-led businesses succeed on the global stage. Through these efforts, we aim to foster a more inclusive and dynamic exporting landscape in Scotland.
The Gender Export Gap report and Scottish Government’s response to it is available here: Gender export gap report: response - gov.scot.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many socially rented properties were vacant in each of the last 12 months, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The information is not available in the format requested, however, the Scottish Government routinely publishes data on local authority voids, with the latest data available here: Housing statistics: Local authority housing stock - gov.scot.
Social housing landlords will start collecting data from 1 April 2025 which will report the number of self-contained properties void at the year end and, of those, the number that have been void for more than six months by category. The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) will then collect this information in May 2026, to monitor performance over that year. In addition, the SHR has recently supported an ad hoc data collection on behalf of the Scottish Government, to collect information on empty homes/voids. The letter can be accessed here:Letter to Registered Social Landlords - collection of information on empty homes / voids | Scottish Housing Regulator.
THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many stroke patients have required mechanical thrombectomy in each of the last five years, and what proportion of these procedures took place outside daytime hours.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what impact adopting the BE FAST (balance, eyes, face, arms, speech, time) test could have on the number of additional strokes that could be detected quicker annually.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of additional strokes that could be detected by adopting BE FAST.
The Scottish Government’s position is that the current evidence base does not support a move to the use of BE FAST, and this is supported by Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland and Stroke Association, however we will regularly review this position based on the best available evidence.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to harmonise the reporting of violent and abusive behaviour towards teachers and staff in schools.
Answer
The Scottish Government expects all incidents of violent and abusive behaviour towards staff to be recorded.
In Scotland our local councils employ education staff and we expect all local authorities to be ensuring that their schools have policies in place which determine clearly what action should be taken to address challenging behaviour and to best protect their staff in the workplace. This would include having processes in place to record violent and abusive incidents towards teachers and staff.
The joint relationships and behaviour in schools action plan includes an action to review all current processes for recording incidents, to identify potential means of streamlining processes and improving consistency. An update on the plan will publish in the coming weeks.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of strokes recorded in each of the last five years were posterior circulation strokes, and what information it has on how many of these were initially missed despite using the FAST (face, arms, speech, time) test.
Answer
The requested information is not held centrally. The Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA) does not routinely collect information on posterior circulation strokes or data on whether there has been a FAST “pre-alert” before arrival at hospital.