- Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 April 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 12 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what action will be taken to maintain a diversion route from the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful once the upgrade of the A82 between Tarbert and Inverarnan commences.
Answer
Since the significant landslides that occurred in August and September 2020, contractors have installed various landslide mitigation measures including drainage improvements, debris fences, a catch pit and material barriers to improve the resilience of the A83 and the Old Military Road diversion route. The mitigation has been augmented by the construction of a 175m long, 6m high debris bund, which further protects the Old Military Road.
In addition to this contractors have enhanced operational procedures for managing the A83 corridor including how we monitor hillside conditions during periods of bad weather. So far, the protection afforded by these measures has meant that the A83 and the Old Military Road local diversion have been able to remain in operation for all but eight occasions during 2021 and 2022 to date, meaning traffic did not have to use the longer diversion via Inveraray and Crianlarich. The effectiveness of these measures will continue to be reviewed and improved where possible. As part of the Access to Argyll and Bute (A83) project we are also progressing plans for a medium term resilient route through Glen Croe and we will bring forward proposals for this by late 2022.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many undergraduate medical students it anticipates will be admitted to Scottish universities in (a) 2022, (b) 2023, (c) 2024 and (d) 2025, and, of these, how many it anticipates will be designated as Scottish funded entrants.
Answer
The Programme for Government (PfG) 2021 commits to expanding medical school places by at least 100 per annum over this lifetime of this Parliament and doubling the number of widening access places. The medical undergraduate intake for 2022-23 has been set at 1317, of which it is anticipated that 1,239 students will be Scots/UK/ROI or Gibraltar and 78 will be international including EU. This intake represents an increase of 200 places above the 2021/22 intake target of 1,117 thereby delivering the first two tranches of the PfG commitment.
The Scottish Government is committed to growing the number of Scottish domiciled students studying medicine at Scottish universities as a policy priority through widening access and other targeted interventions. Places reserved for widening access students are being increased by 30 (bringing the total to 90) and pre-medical entry places are being increased by 20 (bringing the total to 70 places) in 2022-23.
Intake targets for 2023-24 and 2024-25 have not yet been set but will be considered in light of the PfG commitment.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many postgraduate medical students it anticipates will be admitted to Scottish universities in (a) 2022, (b) 2023, (c) 2024 and (d) 2025, broken down by medical school, and, of these, how many it anticipates will be Scottish-domiciled residents.
Answer
As postgraduate medical students do not form part of the controlled medical school intake the Scottish Government is unable to respond.
Universities are independent, autonomous institutions responsible for their own selection procedures and offers, with intake numbers and the breakdown of these a decision for each individual medical schools.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many undergraduate nursing students it anticipates will be admitted to Scottish universities in (a) 2022, (b) 2023, (c) 2024 and (d) 2025, and, of these, how many it anticipates will be Scottish funded entrants.
Answer
Student nurses entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 9% in 2022-23, to a total recommended intake of 4536 students. This will be the 10 th successive increase in recommended student numbers, with the intake doubling over the last decade. We anticipate most of these students will be eligible for the Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary.
Every year, the Scottish Government undertakes a robust nursing student intake planning process to determine the target number of pre-registration students to which Scottish universities should recruit to in the following academic year to meet estimated future nursing workforce demands.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what it anticipates the drop-out rate will be for nursing undergraduates in (a) 2022, (b) 2023, (c) 2024 and (d) 2025.
Answer
Attrition rates vary each year across all degree programmes, it is therefore not possible to predict attrition rates for future cohorts. However, we have observed that course completion rates for pre-registration nursing programmes have been steadily improving year-on-year, and we anticipate that this trend will continue.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the reported statement that the number of delayed discharges is back to pre-pandemic levels, whether it will provide details of the figures on which this is based.
Answer
Weekly management information published as part of the Coronavirus (Covid-19): Trends in Daily Data publication ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-trends-in-daily-data/ ) shows that delays first exceeded pre-pandemic levels (1,640 delays in January 2020) on 19 January 2020, with 1,664 delays recorded. Delays remained above 1,640 for the next two weeks before reducing again to pre-pandemic levels between 9 February and 23 March.
The whole health and social care system is under severe pressure and staff continue to work tirelessly to provide safe care. However, we continue to see extreme pressures across the whole health and social care system, with more people coming through hospitals who need high levels of care and support to go home, alongside high levels of unmet need in the community.
To address this significant additional funding has been allocated to support social care, including £62m to enhance care at home capacity; £48m to increase the hourly rate of pay; £40m to provide interim care arrangements; and £20m to enhance multi-disciplinary teams. Funding is also being used to rapidly scale up Hospital at Home services, which aim to reduce acute admissions and support timely discharge.
- Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the NHS Workforce Strategy, what level of additional staffing it considers will be needed by Scotland’s genetic laboratories in future years to ensure that patients can benefit from advances in precision treatments, and what steps it is taking to recruit and retain laboratory staff with the necessary skills to undertake, report and advise multi-disciplinary oncology teams on genetic test findings.
Answer
The Genetic Laboratory Major Service review considered the workforce requirements for our future genomics capabilities in NHS Scotland. A link to the report is available here:https://www.nss.nhs.scot/specialist-healthcare/specialist-services/genetic-and-molecular-pathology-laboratories/
In line with the recommendations from the Major Service Review, the NSD Transformation Team will consider the workforce planning requirements to implement the recommendations from the report in developing the action plan.
Over the coming months we will be expanding the membership of our Scottish Genomics Leadership Group(SGLG) and relevant work stream to include a wider pool of stakeholders than those currently on the SGLG. This expanded structure will consider the recommendations from the Major Service Review as well as considerations for further genomics expansion.
One of the workstreams will lead on workforce planning and will be done in partnership with relevant Trade Union representatives.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 April 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 12 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the proposed Deposit Return Scheme, what discussions it has had with Circularity Scotland on whether the company is planning to raise the producer fee in respect of glass from the level previously indicated.
Answer
We have had no discussions with Circularity Scotland Ltd on this subject.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 April 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 12 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, in respect of the proposed Deposit Return Scheme, whether it has any plans to carry out another Gateway Review to consider the current economic uncertainty that is facing businesses.
Answer
The Assurance of Action Plan report which followed the Gateway Review of 2021 recommended a further Gateway Review be conducted in approximately March 2022. This review is being carried out this month.
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 April 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 12 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider establishing a national student homelessness duty as part of its planned student accommodation strategy.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08079 on 4 May 2022. 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 .