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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: S6O-01144

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what impact driver shortages will have on the availability of rail services for passengers in Mid-Scotland and Fife.

Question reference: S6O-01145

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many early learning and childcare providers, including private providers, received funding from the £9.8 million Childcare Sector Omicron Impacts Fund that opened for applications in March this year.

Question reference: S6O-01147

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the social impact of economic development in the north east.

Question reference: S6W-07576

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how the £5 million that it provided for the financial year 2020-21 to support the wellbeing of people working in health, social care and social work was (a) allocated and (b) spent.

Question reference: S6W-08164

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-03513 by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2021, what development plans it has for Scotland’s genetic laboratories and frontline genetics services, and what investment it will make in the current financial year to support the delivery of any plans.

The Scottish Government has committed £6.2 million to genomics for the financial year 2022-23. This is in addition to the funding allocated to the 4 genetic laboratories in Scotland by NHS Boards through NHS National Services Division (NSD) commissioning arrangements.

The Scottish Government fully recognises the role of genomics in improving patient outcomes. We have provided funding to NSD to establish a Transformation Team led by a Lead Clinical Scientist alongside resource that specialises in transformative programme management and Data Analytics. The Team will be operational from June 2022.

This team will be responsible for delivering the rapid adoption of a number of genetic tests for cancer across the genetic laboratories as well as developing an action plan for the implementation of the recommendations from the Genetic Laboratory Major Service Review.

The transformation team will work within NSD and support the Scottish Government to develop our long term plans for genomics medicine in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-08168

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a genomic diagnostics strategy, and, if so, when.

Question reference: S6W-08190

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether stroke care is being provided to a standard that is in keeping with Article 26 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Article 26 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ( Article 26 – Habilitation and rehabilitation | United Nations Enable ) sets out several obligations relating to habilitation and rehabilitation.

These obligations have the stated aim of enabling “persons with disabilities to attain and maintain maximum independence, full physical, mental, social and vocational ability, and full inclusion and participation in all aspects of life”, through timely access to “multidisciplinary assessment of individual needs and strengths” to “support participation and inclusion in the community and all aspects of society.”

The Scottish Government are committed to ensuring that people who have had a stroke receive the best possible care as quickly as possible. We know that early assessment of rehabilitation need following an acute stroke, and the delivery of rehabilitation by a multi-disciplinary team, are important elements of improving outcomes and these are priorities within the Scottish Stroke Improvement Plan (2014).

Through the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme (SSIP), NHS boards are required to demonstrate their provision of access to acute therapy assessment, access to inpatient stroke therapy, access to community stroke therapy and the availability, by days per week, of community therapy input.

Article 26 also requires the provision of appropriate training for professionals working within habilitation and rehabilitation, as well as the “availability, knowledge and use of assistive devices and technologies, designed for persons with disabilities”.

Through SSIP reviews, NHS boards are also required to demonstrate that health and social care staff in hospital and community settings are trained to a level appropriate for their involvement in stroke care. Where appropriate, highly-trained specialist staff involved in the rehabilitation process are best placed to advise on the provision of assistive devices and technology that may be of benefit to people affected by stroke.

Question reference: S6W-08194

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with NHS boards in relation to (a) training and (b) increasing staff capacity to deliver stroke rehabilitation services.

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Lead, who conducts the annual review process, meets with NHS boards on behalf of Scottish Government. This engagement allows us to understand the provision of stroke services, including training and staff capacity across NHS boards, and where challenges or opportunities for sharing good practice exist.

Scottish Government representatives also sit on the National Advisory Committee for Stroke (NACS), where specialists from NHS boards across Scotland provide expert advice and recommendations relating to Scottish Government policy for the provision of stroke care. NACS has recently developed the Progressive Stroke Pathway ( Strokes: progressive stroke pathway - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ), which was published on 22 March 2022. This document sets out an ambitious vision of what a progressive stroke service in Scotland should look like.

The rehabilitation sub-group of NACS, which is made up of specialists across a range of disciplines from various NHS boards in Scotland, played an important role in helping to shape the Progressive Stroke Pathway recommendations relating to stroke rehabilitation services. On the back of this input, the Progressive Stroke Pathway makes a number of recommendations relating to the provision of stroke care, and the contributions of appropriate training and staff capacity in helping deliver this.

We will continue to engage regularly with these specialists from across Scottish NHS boards as we move into the implementation phase, considering the recommendations made in the Progressive Stroke Pathway.

Question reference: S6W-07934

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to tackle any gaps in data in order to better inform NHS workforce planning.

On 11 March 2022, we published the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy.

As part of the Strategy, we have committed to taking forward specific actions to improve how we gather, use and assess NHS Workforce data. This includes taking steps to improve the demographic data we collect and the analysis we undertake of data obtained at different geographic levels within our health and social care system.

The Strategy further commits us to taking forward complementary actions to improve workforce planning capacity and capability within our health boards and health and social care partnerships (HSCPs).

New guidance has already been communicated to health boards and HSCPs to support the production of demand-led 3-year workforce plans, supported by local systems’ workforce data. Later this year we will also publish new staffing projections for health and social care.

Complementary data systems and data improvement work is taking place, as part of the Implementation Programme being established to support delivery of the Workforce Strategy. We have undertaken to publish annual updates outlining progress with the Strategy’s implementation, in support of our tri-partite ambition to achieve long-term workforce sustainability through recovery, growth and service transformation.

Question reference: S6W-07946

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings it had with trade unions, staff representatives and passenger or transport groups between December 2019 and March 2022 in relation to the nationalisation of Scotland’s railways.

Between December 2019 to March 2022 Transport Scotland undertook regular meetings with trade unions, staff representatives and passenger/transport groups at which the subject of ScotRail services moving to a Scottish Government owned operator i.e. ScotRail Trains Limited from 1 April 2022 would have been discussed.

The former Minister for Transport, Mr Dey, met with the collective Rail Trade Unions twice and individually with them once, with the exception of RMT who declined to meet at the time. There was a third collective meeting schedule to take place on the day Mr Dey resigned.

I have had one collective Rail Trade Unions meeting and have held five individual meetings with Trade Union representatives. Public ownership was discussed at all these meetings along with other issues such as pay negotiations and industrial relations for example.

The former Minister for Transport also met with Transport Focus and I met with Transport Focus on 21 April where I provided an update on the transition from Abellio ScotRail to ScotRail Trains Ltd.