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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-00550

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-00549

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6T-00344

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to NHS Lothian, and other NHS boards, given the consequences and impact of delayed discharges.

Question reference: S6T-00339

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what resilience measures are in place to tackle serious organised crime and terrorism, in light of reports that the Assistant Chief Constable in charge has been suspended.

Question reference: S6W-04586

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it is giving to widening access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to all people at risk of HIV transmission.

The Scottish Government’s recovery plan for sexual health and blood borne virus services, Reset and Rebuild, includes an action to widen access to PrEP to a much broader range of people, including those who do not access sexual health services. The plan acknowledges that this will require novel models of care and access to PrEP in settings that people who do not currently access it will find acceptable.

In the plan, the Scottish Government has committed to working with stakeholders to support and develop a number of research projects to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on service users and providers, including piloting an evaluation of new care pathways, such as a community based PrEP service.

The recovery plan also makes available an additional £0.5 million of funding, on top of the existing funding provided to third sector delivery organisations, to support specific recovery actions, particularly those focussed on testing, HIV and Hepatitis C elimination.

Finally, the Scottish Government has established an HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal Oversight Group, which will support delivery of a proposal for how Scotland can eliminate HIV transmission by 2030. The action to widen access to PrEP will form a key part of the final proposal, which is expected to be delivered by Autumn 2022.

Question reference: S6W-04469

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to reach a mutual agreement between NHS Scotland, England and Wales regarding COVID-19 vaccine certification.

Question reference: S6W-04392

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether its commitment to increase the GP workforce by 800 by 2026 will amount to 800 additional whole-time equivalent posts.

The commitment to recruit 800 additional GPs is based on GP headcount and we remain on track to meet that commitment by 2027 as originally set out.

We have taken a number of actions to fulfil this commitment, including increasing the number of medical places at universities, and taking steps to encourage medical graduates to choose general practice. To that end, between 2015-16 and 2021-22 the Scottish Government will have increased the annual intake of medical places in Scottish universities from 848 to 1117 (269 places, a 32% increase). The majority of these new places are focused on general practice.

By increasing the amount of undergraduate curriculum that is delivered in general practice to 25%. We are confident increased exposure to general practice will encourage more students to train as GPs. With an increase of 89 GPs in 2019-20 we are now confident we are starting to see the positive impact of these actions.

Question reference: S6W-04239

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many individuals have downloaded the COVID-19 vaccine passport app on a digital device and, of those who have downloaded it, how many have (a) successfully used it to produce evidence of a vaccination on the device of their choice, (b) called or emailed the service provider to report a fault with the app or process and (c) been unable to use the app due to database issues that have resulted in an incorrect vaccination status being shown.

Public Heath Scotland publish a weekly COVID-19 statistical report every Wednesday which includes this information. As at 15 November 2021 the COVID Status app had been downloaded over 1.5 million. It is important to note a single user may choose to download the App on multiple devices so this total figure does not represent unique individuals.

As we do not track individual’s use of their certificates, it is not possible to indicate how many people have used their certificate.

For part’s (b) and (c), the Deputy First Minister wrote to the Covid-19 Recovery Committee setting out the information requested in detail. This can be accessed on the Scottish Parliament website here .

Question reference: S6W-04597

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the Child Disability Payment pilot, and when a full evaluation will be carried out and published.

On 22 November Child Disability Payment was launched across Scotland. This has followed an initial pilot, whereby families of children and young people with a disability living in Dundee City, Perth & Kinross and Western Isles council areas, could apply for the benefit.

We have received positive anecdotal feedback throughout the pilot. Both parents and support workers have said that the application process has been easier and less daunting, and that the support offered by Social Security Scotland has been helpful and caring.

The first high level statistics covering the first 5 weeks of the pilot were published on 18 October 2021 and are available at gov.scot . The next set of Child Disability Payment statistics are due to be published in January 2022. This will cover the period from 26 July to 21 November 2021, and will provide us with the data that will allow us to carry out a more detailed evaluation.

We have also been inviting clients, staff and stakeholders to take part in research to share feedback and help us learn from their experience of the service during the pilot phase. This will be published in Spring 2022. Research will continue beyond national launch as we continue to look for ways to improve and enhance the service for the people of Scotland.

As set out in Evaluating the Devolution of Disability Benefits , we will begin a thematic evaluation of the policy changes that are being implemented with the roll-out of the disability benefits, including use of supporting information, client consultations and supporting information.

During 2021-22 the main focus will be to define the size, scope and research questions, and assessing the potential methods and data sources available. In addition, we have commissioned the evaluation of Child Winter Heating Assistance to report in Summer 2022.

Question reference: S6W-04490

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital patients have tested positive for COVID-19, after having been admitted to hospital without the disease.

Between 24 February 2020 and 31 October 2021 there have been 6,348 COVID-19 cases that were probable or definite hospital onset.

1,973 were reported as probable hospital onset (first positive specimen on days 8 to 14 of admission to NHS board).

4,375 were reported as definite hospital onset (first positive specimen date was 15 or more days after admission to NHS board).

The rate of COVID-19 transmission in hospitals has followed a similar rate in the community. When community prevalence reduces, a general reduction in hospital onset COVID cases follows approximately two to three weeks later.

However, while community prevalence has recently increased, nosocomial cases of COVID-19 were observed to rise at a slower pace, which may be largely due to the vaccination programme.

While patients with COVID continue to be admitted to hospitals, the risk of transmission remains. We cannot be complacent and we must continue to ensure that all infection prevention precautions are strictly followed.