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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-14069

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker MSP on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how much has been spent in preparation for the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-14092

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to enable people to (a) book/rearrange appointments, (b) order prescriptions, (c) update their details and (d) generally conduct all routine "transactions" online, and how many people have made use of these services in the last two years, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-14112

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what user-friendly, role-appropriate information and resources it has produced to support people being cared for.

The Scottish Government recognises it is important for the workforce and members of the public to have access to information about digital services they use in the right format. To support us with this we take a strong participatory approach which includes a Digital Health and Care Equalities and Inclusion Advisory Group comprised of around 20 representatives including those with lived experience.

Examples of user-friendly information available include the Protect Scotland App which was available in a number of languages and in child friendly format. We have also developed guidance on Near Me in a range of formats including child friendly, easy read versions and an information leaflet in a range of languages.

Our cross-sector Building Digital Skills & Leadership Programme led by NHS Education for Scotland aims to provide digital skills learning for all staff across health and social care that is tailored to the jobs they do and is aligned to the current and emerging technologies that are transforming services for our patients and service users.

Question reference: S6W-14088

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it is doing to enable prevention, independent living, and healthy ageing through the provision of digital services in the home.

Scottish Government is doing a range of things to support partners including work on telecare, enhanced use of Near Me and remote monitoring. Delivery is ongoing, as set out in the annual delivery plan for Digital Health & Care (see Care in the Digital Age: delivery plan 2022 to 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). An update will be published later this year with delivery priorities for 2023-24 and will include an overview of progress against existing commitments.

The Action Plan for Digital Approaches in Care Homes also responds to the current and emerging needs of care home providers and their residents and to realise the benefits of digital technologies. The Plan supports delivery of the Digital Health & Care Strategy and is aligned and informed by a wide range of national strategies, plans and programmes.

Question reference: S6W-14130

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has published a cloud-first strategy across health and care.

The Digital Directorate have published Scotland’s Cloud First policy alongside a set of principles and a framework for adoption. Cloud First – Cloud First - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The Cloud First policy is an integral part of delivering the Scottish Government Digital Strategy - A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Digital Health and Care Strategy is set within the wider context set out by the Digital Strategy for Scotland and acts as a support to it and confirms how our health and care services will adopt and embed its principles and approaches including the Cloud First policy. Within that context, work is currently underway on the overall Technical Roadmap for Scotland's health & care system, which includes the use of cloud technology as appropriate.

Question reference: S6W-14140

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to ensure that essential health and care digital services are secure-by-design and that this approach is adopted across the supply chain.

The Scottish Government promotes the use of the Cyber Security Procurement Support Tool, which was developed to help public sector organisations to identify cyber risks and improve the cyber security of supply chains by asking suppliers consistent questions about protection against cyber threats. The need to embed secure-by-design will be further reinforced in the developing Procurement and Commercial Strategy and through ongoing industry engagement.

Question reference: S6W-14129

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the development of a digital platform will contribute to the twin aims of citizen and staff access to relevant real-time information across the health and care system.

Scottish Government and COSLA will shortly set out a Data Strategy for Health and Social Care, which will articulate the first set of principles and deliverables needed to improve the access and use of data.

One of the core ambitions of the Data Strategy is to: empower the people of Scotland by giving individuals clear and easy access to, and the ability to manage and contribute to, their own health and social care data where it is safe and appropriate to do so. To achieve this, we will confirm data sources and data sets that are safe to be consistently shared. For individuals, data access will be enabled through the implementation of the Digital Front Door.

To support access for our professionals, the National Digital Platform, and its associated National Clinical Data Store provide the foundation for consistent access to information. The success of this has so far been demonstrated through the accessibility of vaccination information. Establishing and expanding these platforms is a critical focus to providing staff with a safe and secure way to access clinical and care data. More details can be found at The National Digital Platform .

Question reference: S6W-14148

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how many health and social care staff do not currently have the essential digital skills that they need to do their job, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-14147

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what tools and training resources it has created to support the improvement of information governance and cyber skills within health and social care.

Since launching the Digital Health and Care Strategy in 2021 the Scottish Government has created various resources to support the improvement of Information Governance and cyber security skills, including but not limited to:

The National IG Competency Framework for Health and Care which consists of tools, training resources, and career pathways that can be used to empower staff in areas of information governance, cyber security, data science, management of data and digital assets.
The Scottish Information Sharing toolkit which includes tools and resources for information risk management, privacy and ethics, Incident response templates and playbooks.
Working closely with academia and professional bodies to develop courses in data science and risk management to support staff with their Information Governance and cybersecurity skillset
Providing grants to access training courses for people interested across health and social care, as part of their career development.

Question reference: S6W-14119

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, whether it has completed its review of the current digital funding delivery model for health and social care, and, if so, what the outcomes were.