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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-12218

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost for agency nurses has been in the current financial year to date, and what it estimates the cost will be for the whole of the current financial year.

Question reference: S6W-12217

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how the number of people employed in the creative industries sector has changed between 2018, when it was reportedly 87,000, and 2022, and what the employment figures in the sector represent as a percentage of total employment in Scotland.

The information requested is publicly available on the Scottish Government website and can be found here: Growth Sector Statistics Database .

The latest figures showing employment in the sector, in 2020, had remained broadly the same at 87,000, representing 3% total employment in Scotland.

We are aware however that they do not truly reflect some key aspects of the sector, such as the number of freelancers and self-employed people. We estimate this to be around 40,000, which we have gathered from the APS data source.

Question reference: S6W-12213

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 29 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many foreign trips for its ministers are planned in the next six months; how many air miles in total these trips will cover, and what the total estimated cost of the trips is.

Scottish Government officials make provisional overseas travel plans as part of official government business diary management and planning for Ministers. Until the date of the visit, these are provisional and contingent on Parliamentary Business and other commitments and issues arising. They are also subject to last minute changes.

All Ministerial engagements and travel information (including costs) are proactively released 3 months in arrears and available here Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Information regarding the distance of the journeys (miles travelled by air) can be released in response to a PQ or FOI after the event on request, or calculated based on the information released when the visit has been completed.

Question reference: S6W-12219

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the current nurse retention rate is, given as a percentage, for nurses who completed a funded degree programme in nursing and midwifery in 2022.

Question reference: S6W-12214

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on its Creative Communities programme in the last year.

Phase 3 of the Creative Communities programme ran between August 2021- August 2022 and provided funding to 24 organisations across 17 local authorities. Led by Inspiring Scotland, the programme has: engaged with 56 volunteers, employed 112 artists, 22 community support workers, assisted 10 young people to complete internships and facilitated over 3,500 hours of arts workshops and creative activities. The third phase of the programme received a total of £600,000 in joint funding from Scottish Government’s culture and justice portfolios.

Question reference: S6W-12216

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how the National Partnership for Culture is progressing, and whether it will provide examples of any opportunities that it has identified to date for individuals and organisations.

The National Partnership for Culture published its recommendations on 16 March 2022. These 14 recommendations were underpinned by principles for meaningful delivery such as pooling of experience and resources across different fields. In response we are taking forward a range of actions, which are detailed in full in our publication of 27 September 2022, available at: National Partnership for Culture recommendations: Scottish Government response - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . This includes strengthening cross-portfolio links in areas such as health and wellbeing to harness opportunities for collaboration, as well as taking forward actions with partners to support cohesive working between national and local organisations. The National Partnership for Culture will meet to discuss its future plans on 14 December 2022.

Question reference: S6O-01621

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many pharmacists have been recruited into primary care since 2018.

Question reference: S6W-12215

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its "work on making the culture and heritage sector part of Scotland as a Fair Work Nation by 2025".

The Scottish Government continues to engage with the culture and heritage sectors to build fairer and more inclusive workplaces.

As part of the refresh of our Fair Work Action Plan, the Scottish Government has extended Fair Work criteria to public sector grants and other funding streams and contracts wherever relevant and appropriate to do so. We will take forward work with Creative Scotland on implementing Fair Work First amongst the organisations that they fund; and we have included in the grant letters for the five National Performing Companies conditions regarding Fair Work First. We have worked with Historic Environment Scotland to revaluate their grant framework refresh, including Fair Work First principles, for 2021 onwards.

Creative Scotland commissioned Culture Radar to review Fair Work within the sector in Scotland, on behalf of Scottish Government. This review has now concluded and Scottish Government is currently considering the recommendations. We are also engaged with the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence centre on its ‘Good Work Review’, an independent review of working conditions in the creative sector, to ensure the Scottish creative industries context is reflected in its findings.

The Scottish Government is also engaging with public sector stakeholders on the implications of implementing the real Living Wage requirement in public sector grants.

Question reference: S6W-11750

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what incentives it has introduced to encourage (a) more GPs to work in rural practices and (b) doctors to take up positions in practices and hospitals rather than working as locums.

We are already taking forward a range of initiatives to support recruitment and retention of workforce in rural General Practice. The Golden Hello scheme offers a one-off bursary of £10,000 to every GP taking up an eligible post in a remote and rural area. Furthermore, ScotGEM is a four-year graduate-entry medical degree which began in 2018, with a focus on rural medicine and healthcare improvement, supporting graduates to choose careers in general practice.

Doctors completing FY2 have a variety of options to continue their careers in NHS Scotland. This includes, but is not limited to, becoming an Locum Appointment for Training physician, an SAS physician or a locum physician; time spent in which can count towards Specialty training and can be good option to gain a wider range of skills and experience and to strengthen future applications to Specialty training. While it is important for local areas to have general practice and hospital doctors which meet the needs of their populations, locums posts can play an important role within our NHS too, working flexibly in response to changes in local need or circumstances and helping to cover leave and other absences.

Question reference: S6W-11751

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what work has been done (a) regarding workforce planning and (b) to increase the number of places for Scottish students to study medicine in response to the reports of a shortage of GPs and other doctors.

In March 2022, we published The National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland . This Strategy sets out a new framework to shape Scotland’s health and social care workforce over the next decade and places training, wellbeing, job satisfaction and the principles of Fair Work at its heart. The strategy, the first of its kind, stresses the need to plan, attract, train, employ and nurture staff.

As part of this publication, and as announced in the 2021 Programme for Government, we have committed to increasing the number of medical school places by 100 per annum over the lifetime of this Parliament, whilst also doubling the number of Widening Access places over the same period. This will result in an additional 500 medical school places and 120 Widening Access places, ensuring a healthy supply of trainee doctors for further training at postgraduate level.

We have also committed to expanding the number of trainee doctor posts in line with medical workforce modelling intended to achieve a planned and sustainable medical workforce to meet current and future needs. We remain committed to increasing the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800 by 2027. In June of this year we launched our national GP recruitment campaign to promote working as a GP in Scotland as a good career choice.