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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: S6W-11475

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many clinical staff, who are employed in each National Treatment Centre, have been transferred from a previous role in the NHS.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10530 on 28 September 2022. The Scottish Government has committed to publishing further information on the recruitment of Staff to the National Treatment Centres, as part of the NHS Scotland Workforce Statistics, from 2023.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-11467

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it expects 27,500 additional inpatient and day case activity procedures to be performed by the end of 2022-23, as outlined in its NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026.

The NHS Recovery Plan Update published on 4 October provides an overview of progress during the first year since its publication and identifies key risks, such as high levels of uncertainty on the future trajectory of Covid-19 and its potential for increased Covid related pressures on the system, and mitigations. However, the ambitious targets to increase planned care capacity set out in the NHS Recovery Plan remain a key commitment.

Of the additional 55,000 inpatient / daycase procedures by 2025/26 committed to in the NHS Recovery Plan, 40,000 is expected to come from the National Treatment Centres (NTCs). In 2023, three NTCs in NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley and NHS Highland are due to open, along with the completed expansion of the NHS Golden Jubilee University National Hospital. In the first year of opening, these centres are projected to deliver an additional 12,250 procedures. This is in addition to the procedures delivered at the National Eye Centre which opened in November 2020.

In addition to the NTCs, we are working closely with the NHS Boards and the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) on accelerating implementation of improvement programmes across all NHS Boards to maximise capacity, reduce variation and increase theatre efficiencies, including Active Clinical Referral Treatment and Patient Initiated Review, freeing up additional capacity in the NHS system. We are also developing ‘Once for Scotland’ pathways, harnessing all opportunities to deliver patient care in the right place and closer to home, this includes maximising day case procedures to avoid any unnecessary stays in hospital.

We are continuing to work closely with Boards with NTC projects currently under development and will define when the additional capacity will come on stream as part of the ongoing business case development.

Question reference: S6W-11469

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the reported delay in the roll-out of the National Treatment Centres has resulted in a revision of its plan to increase the number of inpatient and day case activity procedures by 55,500 in 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-11476

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital beds, including acute beds and other beds, there have been in each financial year in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, (c) 2020-21, (d) 2021-22 and (e) 2022-23.

The latest statistics on average number of available, staffed hospital beds, including for acute specialties, is published in ‘Table 4 - beds.xlsx’ within Public Health Scotland’s annual acute hospital activity and NHS beds publication (available under the ‘Data files’ heading on this Public Health Scotland web page: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual-annual-year-ending-31-march-2022/ ).

Question reference: S6W-11473

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many clinical staff are employed in each National Treatment Centre.

The Scottish Government is committed to the recruitment of a minimum of 1,500 additional clinical and non-clinical staff to support the operation of Scotland’s National Treatment Centres (NTCs).

NTC recruitment is the responsibility of NHS Boards. It is therefore for each of the NTC Host Boards to provide detail regarding their recruitment plans and progress.

The Scottish Government however has committed to publishing further information on the recruitment of staff to the NTCs as part of the NHS Scotland Workforce Statistics, from 2023.

Question reference: S6W-11468

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £600 million funding package, announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on 4 October 2022, is in addition to the £1 billion of targeted investment, which is referred to in the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026.

As announced by myself on 4 October 2022, more than £600 million of funding is provided through the 2022-23 budget to support a range of measures to support the Health & Social Care system through the winter period. This builds on £1 billion of investment already announced in the earlier 2021-26 NHS recovery plan, and includes £550 million of additional funding and the continuation of the £50 million of Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative from the recovery plan.

Question reference: S6W-11722

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its target date is for achieving a fully zero emissions fleet of public ferries.

Question reference: S6W-11836

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered the finding of the National Dental Inspection Programme statistics, published by Public Health Scotland on 25 October 2022, that the proportion of children estimated to have severe decay or abscess increased from 6.6% in 2020 to 9.7% in 2022.

Question reference: S6W-11835

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered the finding of the National Dental Inspection Programme statistics, published by Public Health Scotland on 25 October 2022, that 58.4% of Primary 1 children were estimated to have no obvious decay experience in the most deprived areas, compared with 85.8% in the least deprived areas.

Over the extended-period we have seen significant improvements in child oral health in Scotland. The first year of the National Dental Inspection Programme in 2002/03 showed that 45% of primary 1 children had no obvious decay experience. Despite the unique challenges of the pandemic this figure has increased to 73% in 2021-22.

This is a demonstration of the success of prevention-based oral health programmes such as the Childsmile Programme - a flagship programme at the leading edge of prevention-based oral health care provision - where nursery and schoolchildren receive regular tooth brushing instruction and fluoride varnish application.

We recognise that oral health inequalities in children continue to present a considerable challenge, and have been exacerbated by the pandemic restrictions on NHS dentistry during the pandemic.

Which is why as part of the recovery of NHS dental services we have increased funding to child dental services by introducing for the first time an enhanced examination fee from 1 February 2022. The latest monthly activity statistics from Public Health Scotland show that 330,000 child examinations have been provided this year with almost 60,000 in the month of August alone.

Question reference: S6T-00951

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to mitigate the threat of avian influenza outbreaks among domestic poultry populations, in light of its impact on wild bird populations in Scotland.