Seòmar agus comataidhean

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

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 43140 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-14947

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether pharmacy provision is keeping up with demand.

Question reference: S6W-14719

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to promote interoperable prescribing systems between the NHS providers and homecare medicines services providers.

Question reference: S6W-15241

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the view expressed in a number of the responses to the Violence Against Women and Girls Funding Review that there is a need for single-sex services with female-only staff to be widely available to women.

Question reference: S6W-15863

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-15500

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what specific steps it is taking to engage with Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) people to meet the target of recruiting 4% BME teachers in schools by 2030, as recommended in the report, Teaching in a diverse Scotland: increasing and retaining minority ethnic teachers.

The Scottish Government is clear that the continued under-representation of minority ethnic teachers, at all levels, is unacceptable and requires continued action. Through our Diversity in the Teaching Profession and Education Workforce (DITPEW) working group we are taking a range of specific steps - all of which are predicated on engagement with minority ethnic people with anti racist and educational expertise - to meet the 4% target. These include:

Appointing 2 minority ethnic, senior education professionals to co-chair the DITPEW working group and drive forward Professor Arshad's recommendations. DITPEW working group members also have lived experience of racism, professional experience in education and in developing anti-racist practice.
Working with the General Teaching Council for Scotland to develop the new National Race Diversity Lead post which is supported by SG funding in 2022-24. It sees the postholder working across local authorities, regional improvement collaboratives and schools, to facilitate increased racial diversity within the teaching profession.
Working with Dr Khadija Mohammed, Associate Dean of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at University of the West of Scotland in the development of an anti-racist framework for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) providers. The framework's aim is to ensure that minority ethnic ITE students have an anti-racist experience from initial application stage through to becoming a newly qualified teacher.
Working with minority ethnic teachers to deliver sessions through the Developing the Young Workforce Live platform, aimed at encouraging minority ethnic children and young people to consider teaching as a career.

Key to informing the development and delivery of these ambitions is the annual Scottish Government Diversity in the Teaching Profession Data report, which will be published at the end of March.

Question reference: S6W-15494

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what commitments have been made by (a) the First Minister or (b) any other minister in relation to the Independent Living Fund, when any such commitments were made, and whether they have been delivered.

(a) In 2014, the Deputy First Minister committed to re-opening the Fund and provided £5.5 million per annum to enable ILF to re-open to new applicants for the first time since 2010.Through an extensive process of co-production, the ILF Scotland Transition Fund was developed as an alternative to re-opening the 2015 Fund. The Transition Fund was designed to support young disabled people with the transition to adult life. This entirely new fund opened to applications in December 2017.

(b) The Cabinet Secretary wrote to the ILF Scotland Board on 16 December 2022, 26 January 2023 and 27 February 2023 stating his support for ILF Scotland but indicating that re-opening the 2015 Fund could only progress when affordability and sustainability could be assured.

The Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care wrote to the Chair of ILF Scotland’s Advisory Group on 23 January 2023 stating that he remains committed to re-opening the 2015 Fund but is unable to do so due to financial constraints.

Question reference: S6W-15433

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6F-01844 by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 February 2023, whether it will outline its plans for public and stakeholder engagement with regard to the proposals and policies to be included in the next iteration of the Climate Change Plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing opportunities to participate in shaping inclusive policies that promote mitigation of climate change in line with our Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change. We are aiming to engage with stakeholders and members of the public during 2023 to inform the development of the next Climate Change Plan. This is in advance of a public consultation which will commence when the draft Climate Change Plan is laid in Parliament later in 2023 for a period of at least 120 days of scrutiny.

We are engaging on the next Climate Change Plan with stakeholders through a variety of means including the Climate Change Plan Advisory Group (CCPAG) and the Climate Policy Engagement Network. The CCPAG includes representatives of academia, NGOs, business and industry and trade unions, and meetings are planned to take place up to October 2023. The Climate Policy Engagement Network will consist of representatives of key sectors of interest, organisations and relevant experts to enable meaningful participation in delivery of climate change policy. Additionally as the draft Climate Change Plan continues to be developed, we will continue engagement at a sectoral level with stakeholder representatives and we are exploring other opportunities to engage with other relevant interests.

Question reference: S6W-15287

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many visits the Zero Waste Scotland Deposit Return Scheme website has had in each month since it was launched.

The Zero Waste Scotland website pages for the Scotland Deposit Return Scheme were launched in May 2019. Data on the number of visits to these pages has been made available to the Scottish Government for the period between September 2019 to 9 March 2023, totalling 348,175 visits across this period. These pages received 21,176 in 2019 (from September), 45,956 in 2020, 72,053 in 2021, 97,691 in 2022 and up to the 9 March 111,299 visits in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-15138

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to recruit more inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) nurse specialists, in light of Crohn’s and Colitis UK’s recommended standard of 2.5 IBD nurse specialists per 250,000 patient population.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for workforce development with the NHS, it is up for individual health boards on how best to undertake recruitment planning.

Through the NHS Recovery Plan Scottish Government have committed to £1 billion of targeted investment for the recovery and renewal of Scotland’s health service and £600 million of investment support Health Boards and their staff through winter pressures. This includes £8 million to support the recruitment of 750 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from overseas.

Question reference: S6W-14718

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made regarding the effect of staff vacancies on the performance and safety of homecare medicine services.

There were significant capacity constraints across the medicines homecare market in 2022. A key challenge has been recruitment of staff in a challenging labour market, with some providers more adversely affected than others. The situation is improving but continues to be closely monitored.

Certain homecare providers have highlighted issues with nursing capacity in recent months. Where this has been raised as an issue, there has been close working with providers to ensure that available staffing resource is used in a way that helps minimise disruption to service performance.

Homecare providers have not reported any recent issues with staffing within their pharmacy departments.

Several homecare providers have experienced staffing shortages within customer services departments, and this has been a major contributing factor to the capacity constraints experienced.

There have been a small number of instances where there have been delays to the delivery of medicines to patients, which has the potential to impact on patient safety. Medicines homecare providers and Health boards have processes in place to support managing and learning from any patient safety incidents that arise during service delivery.