Seòmar agus comataidhean

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

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 3611 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-15117

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been employed in cancer diagnostic and treatment services in each NHS board in each year since 1999.

The information requested on how many people have been employed in cancer diagnostic and treatment services in each NHS board in each year since 1999 is not held by the Scottish Government. Healthcare professionals involved in diagnostics and treatment are not always exclusively dedicated to one disease group such as cancer.

Information on staff in post from 2012 onwards, broken down by NHS Board, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Question reference: S6W-15138

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to recruit more inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) nurse specialists, in light of Crohn’s and Colitis UK’s recommended standard of 2.5 IBD nurse specialists per 250,000 patient population.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for workforce development with the NHS, it is up for individual health boards on how best to undertake recruitment planning.

Through the NHS Recovery Plan Scottish Government have committed to £1 billion of targeted investment for the recovery and renewal of Scotland’s health service and £600 million of investment support Health Boards and their staff through winter pressures. This includes £8 million to support the recruitment of 750 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from overseas.

Question reference: S6W-15139

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve outcomes for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Scottish Government has funded Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP) which has a specific workstream continuing to promote improvements in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) care for patients across Scotland in partnership with third-sector and people with lived experience. Scotland’s national IBD Steering Group has identified priority areas for work over the next two years. This includes consideration of referral pathways and models of IBD care to drive a more standardised and equitable service across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-15108

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment NHS Scotland has made of the estimated costs of running hospital equipment at home.

Question reference: S6W-15130

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many children currently living in temporary accommodation have been referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

The Scottish Government does not collect this information centrally. However, I can advise that anyone who is a resident in temporary accommodation can be treated as a temporary patient at a General Practice for the first 3 months, maintaining access to healthcare and therefore CAMHS referrals. After this time, they are able to register as a patient. Accommodation type does not affect eligibility to access care.

Question reference: S6W-15356

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 9 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the number of people from a BAME background accessing patient clinical trials.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) along with partners in the UK Clinical Research Recovery, Resilience and Growth programme considers it important that clinical trial populations reflect the populations that could benefit from the treatments as closely as possible. For this reason, a theme of this programme is the widening of opportunities for people to participate in clinical research. CSO is working with partners on the UK-wide Be Part of Research initiative and invests in the Scottish Health Research Register and Biobank (SHARE) with this aim. CSO is also funding a research project looking at ways to support ethnic diversity in clinical trials populations.

Question reference: S6W-15345

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce screening for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) in children.

The Scottish Government, along with the other UK nations, takes advice on whether or not to introduce any new screening programmes from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent expert advisory group.

The UK NSC conducts an Annual Call for Topics, which allows members of the public and stakeholders to submit new potential screening programmes for the Committee to consider and assess against internationally recognised criteria. In the 2021/22 Call, Metachromatic leukodystrophy was submitted and accepted for review.

It is not yet possible to say when this review will be complete, but we continue to monitor the situation closely. Should the UK NSC recommend screening following this review, the National Screening Oversight (NSO) and Scottish Screening Committee (SSC) will then consider the best course of implementation for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-15357

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 9 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people from a BAME background have accessed patient clinical trials in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-15347

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 9 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how much money has been spent on youth work by local authorities in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

The available spend information on youth work by local authority for 2020-21 and 2021-22 is set out in the following table. Please note that the information you have requested is not available at individual local authority level prior to 2020-21.

Local Authority	2020-21	2021-22
	£000s	£000s
Aberdeen City	1,012	914
Aberdeenshire	1,381	1,774
Angus	580	315
Argyll & Bute	950	585
City of Edinburgh	5,234	5,529
Clackmannanshire	515	689
Dumfries & Galloway	1,860	2,687
Dundee City	2,134	Not Available
East Ayrshire	1,143	980
East Dunbartonshire	357	324
East Lothian	77	118
East Renfrewshire	1,180	1,034
Falkirk	1,164	1,072
Fife	5,325	5,188
Glasgow City	Not Available	Not Available
Highland	2,134	2,495
Inverclyde	1,282	1,280
Midlothian	1,354	752
Moray	679	555
Na h-Eileanan Siar	702	760
North Ayrshire	3,252	2,861
North Lanarkshire	6,362	6,158
Orkney Islands	101	165
Perth & Kinross	1,065	807
Renfrewshire	257	190
Scottish Borders	523	498
Shetland Islands	1,533	1,705
South Ayrshire	1,415	1,793
South Lanarkshire	5,835	5,547
Stirling	1,217	2,873
West Dunbartonshire	634	454
West Lothian	1,152	1,148

Question reference: S6W-15136

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 9 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much additional funding it has allocated to each local authority as a result of any funding floor mechanisms it uses, in each year since any such mechanisms were put in place.

The funding allocated for the 85 per cent funding floor from the introduction in 2012-13 up to and including 2023-24 is set out in a document that has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib number 64023

The Local Government Finance settlement also includes a main funding floor however that is self-funding which means that the 85 per cent funding floor is the only funding floor mechanism where the Scottish Government provides additional funding. The purpose of the main funding floor is to provide a degree of stability for all local authorities where the alignment of funding with relative need results in a lower-than-average change in the year-to-year funding. The main funding floor forms part of the needs based distribution formula that is discussed and agreed with COSLA on behalf of all their members each year.