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 44254 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6F-01743

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2023

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that dozens of people living in Scotland with no recourse to public funds are being made homeless and forced to sleep rough on the streets or in cars.

Question reference: S6F-01745

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2023

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the second round of the UK Government's Levelling Up Fund allocations in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-13692

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done to ensure that the legislation, policy and guidance that (a) integration authorities and (b) the NHS use, when planning and commissioning services, are designed to support consistent, timely and appropriate provision of care and support for people with neurological conditions.

We have recruited a multi-disciplinary cross-agency working group, including a broad spectrum of individuals involved in planning and commissioning services, to develop and implement a quality assurance programme for the General Standards for Neurological Care and Support. This has been led by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and will support health and social care providers to identify what they are doing well and where they can improve.

Undertaking this work will identify areas of good practice and improvement across NHS Scotland and help to drive forward better standards of care for people with neurological conditions.

We are also in the process of engaging with local leads in all Scottish health boards and Health & Social Care Partnerships, and exploring with them local priorities and scope for establishing leadership groups and a national practice sharing forum for neurology.

Question reference: S6W-13690

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done with (a) third sector and (b) carer organisations to help ensure that carers of people with neurological conditions are aware of their rights under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016.

In 2021 we supported the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS) to produce three new ‘What to Expect’ information guides for carers of people with neurological conditions. These guides include information on carers’ rights under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 and comprise:

The guides were endorsed by the Coalition of Carers and are available at the NAoS website: https://www.scottishneurological.org.uk

We are currently supporting the NAoS to undertake a project in early 2023 to work with carers centres assessing current resources and identifying gaps that still need to be addressed regarding information, training and signposting.

Question reference: S6W-13449

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to ensure that it captures primary healthcare workforce data to inform policy-making and any service changes.

The Scottish Government see good accessible workforce data as a key tool for effective future planning within the Primary Healthcare Workforce. We have a number of ways in which we do this.

In General Practice, Public Health Scotland published workforce planning data through the General Practice Workforce Survey in November 2022 that gives us access to the latest General Practice workforce wte data, this is followed by the General Practice Workforce and Population Survey that gives us accurate headcount data across General Practice, published most recently in December 2022.

Workforce data on general dental practitioners is published by NES biannually, the latest data was published in December 2022.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery intends to publish a report on workforce planning for the eyecare workforce by end March 2023.

Reporting arrangements are in place to monitor progress of Health and Social Care Partnerships against their Primary Care Improvement Plans (PCIPs). This includes progress on establishing Multi-Disciplinary Teams. Further information is provided in our annual statistical publication that published in March 2022.

Question reference: S6W-13413

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is doing to support research into the discovery of new antibiotics, non-antibiotic solutions and new combinations of medicines.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) supports funding schemes for applied health research across the range of health challenges including prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Applications are assessed through independent expert review with funding decisions based on the recommendations of independent expert research committees. Currently funded projects include an investigation of a novel class of antibiotic and on targeting antibiotic use.

In addition, CSO contributes financially to a range of National Institute for Health & Care Research funding schemes so these are open to applications from researchers in Scotland. These schemes can also consider applications for research relating to infectious diseases with funding recommendations made following independent expert review.

CSO also invests through NHS Research Scotland in a range of clinical research infrastructure to support Health Boards to host and participate in clinical studies and trials, including an Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Network to support the delivery of studies in this area.

The Scottish Government has also agreed, in principle, to join a new payment and evaluation model for new antimicrobial products, led by National Institute for Health & Care Excellence and NHS England. Frameworks are set to be finalised and in place by end of March 2023, at which point, all four nations will collectively decide on the new products that will be awarded contracts. If this new model is successful, we hope it will help to address supply chain issues by incentivising industry research and development into new antimicrobials.

Question reference: S6W-13429

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its commitment to "collate new or better use existing data sources" in relation to secondary breast cancer.

The National Cancer Quality Steering group have overseen the development of a newly proposed QPI on 'Recurrence Following Breast Cancer Treatment' in 2022. This proposal contains 3 parts - i) local recurrence (or new cancer) following conservation surgery; ii) local recurrence (or new cancer) following mastectomy; and iii) any recurrence (or new cancer) in same breast, axilla or distant site after surgical treatment.

This QPI, along with the other revisions have recently been subject to a public engagement exercise and all comments received via this process are due to be discussed at a further Breast Cancer QPI Formal Review meeting later in January prior to final agreement.

Further to this, the Scottish Government continues its dialogue with Public Health Scotland, NHS England and the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership alongside breast cancer specialists and the charity Breast Cancer Now regarding data collection for secondary breast cancer.

Question reference: S6W-13628

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when its representatives last met with (a) representatives and (b) the Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and what was discussed.

There are regular meetings between Scottish Government officials and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) representatives, covering a wide range of subjects. The last such meeting took place on 10 January 2023 when the MHRA Cross-UK Partnership group met. The purpose of the MHRA Cross-UK Partnership group is to ensure that officials from the devolved administrations are kept updated on key MHRA issues that may affect or involve them. At the last meeting, the MHRA Corporate Plan, its Post Implementation Review of the Human Medicines Regulations, and safety issues were discussed.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is a member of the Sodium Valproate Implementation Working Group, which is supporting the safe introduction of new measures to further strengthen the safe prescribing of sodium valproate in clinical practice. The group last met on 6 January 2023.

A meeting took place on 9 December 2022 with the Chief Medical Officers and the Deputy Chief Medical Officers and the MHRA Chief Executive was invited as a guest. Dame June Raine attended briefly on 9 December and provided an informal update on sodium valproate.

Question reference: S6W-13627

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding any poor customer service processes and response times at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and whether any businesses in Scotland have raised related concerns with the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-13710

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken with NHS Scotland's Information Services Division to ensure a cohesive approach to capturing the needs of people with a neurological condition.

In 2019, we published a Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action 2020-25 , with a vision to ensure everyone with a neurological condition can access the care and support they need to live well, on their own terms.

Commitment 12 of the Framework aims to gather better data regarding neurological conditions. The Scottish Epilepsy Register project, funded through the Framework, is focussed on improving data collection and patient safety and driving up standards of care. We are exploring with NHS National Services Scotland proposals to scale up and consolidate the work of the Register, which may ultimately serve as a replicable model for other neurological conditions.

Scottish Burden of Disease data is also available on a number of neurological conditions including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease: Scottish Burden of Disease (shinyapps.io)

I further refer the member to answer S6W-13707 and S6W-13708 on 23 January 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