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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-10390

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether patients using private healthcare for urgent operations can recoup the costs from the NHS.

Question reference: S6W-10386

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on what the reasons are for more people reportedly using private healthcare.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the reasons why people are reportedly using private healthcare.

However, we recognise that addressing the effects of the pandemic has inevitably disrupted the NHS’s ability to carry out routine procedures, meaning longer waits for many patients. We are resuming services as quickly and as safely as possible, while patients who need urgent care, including cancer treatment, are being prioritised.

We recognise the impact long waiting times can have on patients. That is why we have introduced a new set of ambitious targets for NHS Scotland to address the backlog of planned care. Key targets are to eliminate:

Two-year waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of August 2022
18-month waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of December 2022
One-year waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of March 2023
Two-year waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2022
18-month waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2023
One-year waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2024

We are working with NHS Boards to maximise capacity to meet these targets and have increased the flexibility Health Boards and clinicians have to manage waiting lists, with a focus on eliminating long waits, as well as continuing to treat the most clinically urgent patients.

The Scottish Government remain absolutely committed to keeping our NHS true to its founding principles – publicly-owned, publicly-operated, and free at the point of need.

Question reference: S6W-10387

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that, compared with the period from October to December 2019, in the period from October to December 2021 in Scotland there has been an increase of 136% in patients paying for private cataract operations, 169% increase in private hip-replacement operations, and 111% increase in private knee operations.

Question reference: S6W-10388

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) private operations and (b) diagnostic procedures have been commissioned by the NHS from the private sector in each of the last 10 years.

Non-NHS provider figures relate to patients treated in non-NHS locations such as private hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, and care homes. Patients who receive treatment at a private (independent) hospital which is paid for by the NHS board should be recorded within the SMR by the relevant NHS board.

The following table presents the procedure information that has been supplied to Public Health Scotland (PHS).

Table 1: The number of procedures performed by Non-NHS Providers.

Financial Year	8 Key Diagnostic Tests	Other procedures stated to be diagnostic and/or including a biopsy	Other procedures	Total Procedures
2011-12	119	66	1663	1848
2012-13	486	112	5693	6291
2013-14	1267	113	7087	8467
2014-15	1298	67	7457	8822
2015-16	1053	80	7535	8668
2016-17	446	65	2827	3338
2017-18	440	234	3360	4034
2018-19	144	181	3382	3707
2019-20	175	322	4189	4686
2020-21p	429	269	3861	4559

Source: SMR00, SMR01, Public Health Scotland, extracted June 2021,
‎ Diagnostic Tests Monthly Management Information, Public Health Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-10389

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the cash value is of payments made to the private healthcare sector and independent providers of (a) healthcare and (b) social care in each of the last 10 years.

Scottish Ministers remain fully committed to a health service that provides timely, quality care, is free at the point of contact and true to the founding principles of the NHS. The creation of a National Care Service will bring social care in to parity of esteem with healthcare and end the postcode lottery of care provision to ensure that everyone can get the care they need across the country.

Our publicly owned and operated NHS in Scotland makes very limited use of the independent sector for targeted services and to supplement capacity, where necessary. Over the last 10 years, use of the independent sector by NHS Scotland has consistently represented less than 1% of total frontline spend, with spend in 2020-21 being just 0.5% of the total frontline health budget. This compares to 6.8% and 0.8% for NHS England and NHS Wales, respectively. Further detail on spend with independent providers for NHS Scotland is available in Health Boards’ accounts which are published annually on each Health Board’s website.

Social Care services are commissioned by Local Authorities and the information requested would require to be requested from them.

Question reference: S6W-10430

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much agricultural land in Scotland has been lost to tree planting in the last decade.

Tree Planting is a critical element of the Scottish Government’s plans to tackle the climate emergency and help achieve a net-zero Scotland.

Although data on land use prior to woodland establishment is not available, tree planting takes place on a range of land types, including agricultural, former agricultural, sporting, conservation, restored land, on golf courses and in association with built and infrastructure development.

Official statistics show that 82,840 hectares of new woodland was created in Scotland in the last decade.

Question reference: S6W-10783

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Scotland have died where malnutrition has been identified as a cause and is included on the death certificate, in each of the last 10 years.

The number of deaths where malnutrition was the underlying cause in any death over the past 10 years is as follows (TABLE 1):

TABLE 1 - malnutrition (E40-E46) was the underlying cause

	year
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
All	17	11	9	11	5	9	9	11	7	11	14

The number of deaths where malnutrition or the effects of hunger were mentioned on the death certificate in the past 10 years is as follows (TABLE 2):

TABLE 2 - malnutrition (E40-E46) or effects of hunger (T73.0) was mentioned on the death certificate

	year
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
All	85	83	82	95	88	100	93	108	83	89	81

Note that the figures in Table 2 include all of the deaths in Table 1. The codes referenced (E40-E46 and T73.0) are ICD-10 codes used to define malnutrition.

The source of all of the above data is the National Records of Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-01372

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what specific measures it is taking to support social care workers during the cost of living crisis.

Question reference: S6W-10429

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 6 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much agricultural land has been lost in Scotland to house building developments in the last decade.

The Scottish Government does not hold information relating to the amount of land that has changed from agricultural use to homes.

In our draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) we proposed national planning policy which included that development proposals on prime agricultural land would not be supported except in certain limited circumstances. We will lay a finalised NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament for approval in the autumn.

Question reference: S6O-01330

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many houses it estimates need to be built to tackle the current housing waiting lists in Scotland.