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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.

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Question reference: S6O-01263

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how much it is allocating in its Budget for infrastructure plans.

Question reference: S6W-08705

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to developing a cross-government delivery plan for ME based on the two core principles outlined by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in his statement of 12 May 2022, and whether it will commit to listening to those with lived experience of ME/CFS in the development of healthcare education, research and services.

The Scottish Government welcomes the announcement from the UK Government on the ambition to develop an Action Plan on ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), and fully supports its two core principles. We plan to work with the UK Government to explore areas of potential shared interest and learning, particularly in terms of research into ME/CFS.

We also welcome the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline for ME/CFS and are considering how best to review the existing Scottish guidance in light of this. On 12 May 2022, NICE published an implementation statement to support the implementation of the ME/CFS guideline. We intend to contact health boards in Scotland to raise awareness of the implementation statement and the key recommended changes to practice within the guideline.

We recently commissioned an external organisation to consult with the third sector, those with lived experience and clinical stakeholders to consider how we move forward in reviewing the existing Scottish guidance and on addressing priorities for service improvement in ME/CFS care. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders on how we progress the findings of this consultation and consider what other activity is required to support implementation of the NICE guideline recommendations.

Question reference: S6W-08706

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported increasing numbers of long COVID patients who have ME/CFS, the publication of NICE guideline, NG206, on the diagnosis and management of ME/CFS, published on 29 October 2021, and the Scottish Government’s reported commitment to implementing the NICE guideline in Scotland, what its position is on any need to urgently develop an implementation note for the NICE guideline, and whether it will commit to publishing this by September 2022.

Question reference: S6F-01193

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2022

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on work to close the attainment gap.

Question reference: S6W-08461

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported findings of the recent report by the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership, with Cancer Research UK, that in 38.5% of cases, patients in Scotland were diagnosed with cancer only after emergency admittance to hospital.

The Scottish Government has committed a further £20 million over the parliamentary term to our Detect Cancer Early Programme, which aims to provide greater public awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer to improve earlier diagnosis rates.

Significant funding has also been targeted at increasing diagnostic capacity across NHS Scotland. This includes our Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal plan to specifically support scope based diagnostics backed by £70 million and our £1bn NHS Recovery Plan which sets out our plans and ambitions for the next five years.

The NHS remains under sustained pressure as a result of COVID-19, with the number of people awaiting diagnostic tests now at the highest level since 2018. Patients continue to be seen based on their clinical urgency, for example those referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer continue to be prioritised for key diagnostic tests.

Question reference: S6W-08390

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 19 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to gather data on restraint practices applied to care-experienced children while being securely transported.

To uphold the rights of children and young people who require secure transport, and to meet the Secure Care Standards and the Youth Justice Standards , the Scottish Government and COSLA led Secure Care Group seek to identify and develop solutions to the issues surrounding secure care transport in Scotland. A service specification is in development which will include an appropriate recording and monitoring process.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on proposed children’s care and justice legislation, including seeking views on whether legislative reform is needed around the use of secure transport.

Question reference: S6W-08389

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what data exists regarding the use of restraint applied to care-experienced children while being securely transported.

The responsibility for the organisation and funding of secure transport lies principally with the local authority responsible for the child’s placement. Information on the use of restraint applied to care-experienced children whilst being securely transported is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government has a contract with GEOAmey for escorting children serving a custodial sentence within secure care, who are Scottish Ministers’ responsibility. As part of that contract GEOAmey must provide the Scottish Government with details of when restraint is used. No incidents of restraint have been recorded during the current contract.

Question reference: S6T-00711

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the investigation into the recent spike in deaths of newborn babies.

Question reference: S6W-08042

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding the Chief Scientist Office provided for clinical research in each year since 2012.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) provides funding to support and facilitate high quality applied research across a wide health and care remit

CSO Approach to Funding – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

This includes funding in support of research in areas of public health, or health and care where delivery may be outside of clinical settings

CSO's annual budget from 2012-13 to 2022-23 is provided below:

2012-13 £67.9 million

2013-14 £68.3 million

2014-15 £68.5 million

2015-16 £66.8 million

2016-17 £64.8 million

2017-18 £64.4 million

2018-19 £67.2 million

2019-20 £69.9 million

2020-21 £69.9 million

2021-22 £75.4 million (includes £3.5 million non-recurring COVID-19 funding)

2022-23 £78.4 million

Question reference: S6W-08044

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding the Chief Scientist Office provided to support clinical research careers in each year since 2012.

These are the directly funded clinical academic fellowships (CAF) and Senior Clinical Academic Fellowships (SCAF) awarded by the Chief Scientist Office since 2012.

Year	Fellowships Awarded	Total Funding committed
2012	CAF/12/04	£666,181
	CAF/12/05
	CAF/12/07
2013	CAF/13/02	£775,052
	CAF/13/03
	CAF/13/09
	CAF/13/13
2014	CAF/14/02	£343,061
	CAF/14/04
2015	CAF/15/03	£1,459,574
	CAF/15/07
	SCAF/15/01
	SCAF/15/02
2016	CAF/16/01	£2,210,713
	CAF/16/06
	CAF/16/09
	SCAF/16/01
	SCAF/16/02
	SCAF/16/03
2017	CAF/17/01	£2,107,722
	CAF/17/06
	CAF/17/11
	SCAF/17/01
	SCAF/17/02
	SCAF/17/03
2018	CAF/18/02	£1,851,621
	CAF/18/05
	CAF/18/08
	CAF/18/12
	SCAF/18/01
	SCAF/18/02
2019	CAF/19/01	£1,636,496
	CAF/19/04
	CAF/19/05
	SCAF/19/01
	SCAF/19/02
2020	CAF/20/01	£659,011
	CAF/20/02
	CAF/20/03
2021	CAF/21/05	£700,147
	CAF/21/06
	CAF/21/13