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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: S6F-03043

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 April 2024

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6W-26729

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much money would have been allocated to GPs through the GP Premises Sustainability Fund over the current financial year that will now not be allocated.

The Scottish Government did not allocate money to GP practices through the GP Premises Sustainability fund.

GP practices could apply for GP Sustainability Loans to their Health Boards. These were funded by the Scottish Government as and when loans were completed.

The GP Sustainability Loans scheme is currently paused while the Scottish Government reimburses Health Boards for loans that were completed in 2023-24. This is due to a greater than anticipated number of loans having completed last year.

Question reference: S6W-26730

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its reported decision to suspend the GP Premises Sustainability Fund, how many applications for such loans to GPs have been processed since the scheme was introduced in 2018, and how many applications remain outstanding.

Question reference: S6W-26209

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many cancer nurses have been employed in each year since 2011-12, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S6O-03296

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land since it launched on 1 April 2022.

Question reference: S6W-26210

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on cancer research in each year since 2011-12 in (a) cash terms and (b) real terms, broken down by spending through (i) NHS Research Scotland and (ii) other routes.

Within the Scottish Government, funding for Health and Care Research comes under the policy remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO)

(A) The following table provides the amount in cash terms of CSO cancer research funding per year from 2011-12

Column 1 - NHS Research Scotland (NRS) - includes funding for the NRS Cancer Research Network; the CSO component of funding for the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow (co-funded 50:50 with Cancer Research UK); NRS Career Research Fellowships in cancer

Column 2 - Direct Funding - includes cancer projects funded through the CSO grant funding committees; Academic Fellowships in cancer funded through the CSO capacity building programmes; the CSO component of collaborative research project and fellowship funding with cancer research charities

Column 3 - total CSO cancer research funding by year

To note - for multi-year projects and fellowships, the funding figure is allocated to the year corresponding to the start date (in the case of cancer charity collaborations the funding is allocated to the year of the collaboration agreement)

Year	NRS Funding	Direct Funding	Total
2011-12	£732,970	£995,032	£1,728,002
2012-13	£763,000	£1,563,914	£2,326,914
2013-14	£763,000	£1,088,269	£1,851,269
2014-15	£788,000	£1,611,355	£2,399,355
2015-16	£950,630	£2,141,606	£3,092,236
2016-17	£929,012	£1,511,937	£2,440,949
2017-18	£927,723	£2,287,604	£3,215,327
2018-19	£958,199	£1,405,126	£2,363,325
2019-20	£911,529	£1,806,406	£2,717,935
2020-21	£1,092,364	£479,459	£1,571,823
2021-22	£825,000	£1,354,584	£2,179,584
2022-23	£860,000	£2,332,504	£3,192,504
2023-24	£1,112,434	£1,233,269	£2,345,703

From 1 April 2006 a recurring investment of £500,000 was incorporated into the NHS Boards unified budgets to support the NHS Cancer Research Network which would be subject to the annual uplift applied to Boards’ baseline budgets - this has not been included in the above table

(B) The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Question reference: S6W-26675

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-26115

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 27 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government with which governments the First Minister raised any (a) general and (b) specific human rights issues, during his meeting with the Council of Arab Ambassadors in March 2024.

During the First Minister’s recent meeting with the Arab Ambassador Corps in London, the First Minister set out his vision for Scotland around the three pillars of equality, community, and opportunity, focusing on Scotland’s economic potential and commitment to social justice. The First Minister also outlined Scotland’s role in the world including the Scottish Government’s commitment to good global citizenship and belief in democracy, rule of law and human rights. In this context, the First Minister reaffirmed the importance of international solidarity in the face of shared global challenges such as the climate emergency, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the current crisis unfolding in the middle east.

The meeting was conducted under the Chatham House rule, as such specific issues attributable to participants are not noted.

Question reference: S6W-26137

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the remaining funding from the £10 million Long COVID Support Fund will be allocated in 2024-25, and when any such funding will be allocated.

As set out in my answer to question S6W-25994 on 18 March 2024, we remain committed to delivering the £10 million long COVID Support Fund in full. The 2024-25 budget published on 19 December 2023 outlines our plans to make £3 million from the long COVID Support Fund available over 2024-25.

We will process NHS Boards’ first tranche of their total 2024-25 allocations from the fund early in the financial year. The second tranche will be made later in the financial year following progress reporting.

We anticipate that the remainder of the funding will be allocated over the financial year 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-26083

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the UK Government allocating £685 million for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete mitigation and management works within its NHS estate up to 2024-25, whether it will provide an update on what consideration it has given to providing money to NHS boards in Scotland for this purpose.

There have been no consequentials forthcoming to the Scottish Government as a result of the UK Government decision to allocate funding for RAAC mitigation works. If rectification is required on RAAC within the NHSScotland Estate that will have to be managed from existing budgets.

Where RAAC has been found there has been no immediate disruption or concern although some rectification works will be required in addition to monitoring and management in all cases. NHS Boards will continue to consider their buildings with RAAC on an ongoing risk based approach to the management of those assets.