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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: S6W-35115

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress and impact of the £30 million allocated in 2024-25 to reduce NHS waiting times.

NHS Boards have exceeded the commitment to deliver 64,000 appointments and procedures in 2024-25, funded through our additional investment of £30 million to drive action to address the longest waits.

To the end of January 2025, Boards are reporting delivery of 75,500 appointments and procedures, as follows:

Over 9,800 of 12,000 new outpatient appointments;
almost 9,200 of 12,000 surgeries delivered;
and almost 56,500 diagnostic procedures delivered, exceeding the original plan to deliver 40,000 by 41%.

Funding was targeted in specialties including Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Urology, Diagnostics and Cancer. Since April 2024, Scottish Government has been closely monitoring progress and impact and will continue to do so until the end of March 2025.

Across Scotland, the latest published data in the PHS Stage of Treatment Statistics show that, between April 2024 and September 2024, compared to the same period in 2023, there has been an 8.3% increase in activity for inpatient/daycase procedures and 2.5% increase for new outpatients appointments. While the activity through the additional investment cannot be directly attributed to the increased activity, we are confident that has supported increased throughput.

The targeted funding has also helped reduce the total national diagnostics waiting list size. Between April 2024 and September 2024 imaging list size reduced by 7.5% and scopes by 7.3%.

At Board level, we have seen significant percentage reductions in waiting times across a number of specialities where funding has been targeted, as set out in the following table:

NHS Board	Speciality	Activity Type	% change between ongoing waits April to end Sept 2024
Ayrshire & Arran	Imaging	Diagnostics	-35.2%
Fife	Imaging	Diagnostics	-44.3%
Forth Valley	Imaging	Diagnostics	-22.9%
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	Imaging	Diagnostics	-16.7%
Grampian	Imaging	Diagnostics	-34.3%
Highland	Imaging	Diagnostics	-6.0%
Lanarkshire	Imaging	Diagnostics	-7.3%
Tayside	Imaging	Diagnostics	-11.4%
Borders	Scopes	Diagnostics	-19.0%
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	Scopes	Diagnostics	-26.7%
Grampian	Scopes	Diagnostics	-9.0%
Highland	Scopes	Diagnostics	-6.5%
Lanarkshire	Scopes	Diagnostics	-16.1%
Tayside	Scopes	Diagnostics	-8.6%
Lanarkshire	Ophthalmology	Inpatient / Daycase	-14.9%
Shetland	Ophthalmology	Inpatient / Daycase	-35.5%
Fife	Orthopaedics	Inpatient / Daycase	-5.2%
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	Orthopaedics	Inpatient / Daycase	-0.4%
Highland	Orthopaedics	Inpatient / Daycase	-6.2%
Lanarkshire	Orthopaedics	Inpatient / Daycase	-9.3%
Lothian	Orthopaedics	Inpatient / Daycase	-7.6%
Forth Valley	Urology	Inpatient / Daycase	-22.4%
Lothian	Urology	Inpatient / Daycase	-12.7%
Highland	ENT	Inpatient / Daycase	-19.0%
Lothian	General Surgery	Inpatient / Daycase	-9.8%
Highland	Gynaecology	New Outpatients	-9.6%
Highland	Orthopaedics	New Outpatients	-8.5%

Following the budget announcement in December 2024 to invest a further £200 million to reduce waiting and support reductions in delayed discharge, we will continue to build on progress to ensure that no one is waiting over 52 weeks by March 2026.

Question reference: S6W-34006

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how much has been spent on new and replacement (a) televisions and (b) monitors in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-34140

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many reports of speeding were submitted to the procurator fiscal by Police Scotland in each year since 2018, broken down by trunk road.

The following table shows the overall speeding numbers grouped by financial year reported. Charges have been identified using the Scottish Government classification of level 2 of speeding. The format in which locus information is recorded and in particular whether the locus for each case is a trunk road or otherwise would require a manual check of each case. This information is not readily available.

All charges reported to COPFS under:-
Scottish government classification level two - 45.Speeding
- count is by charge and grouped by financial year reported
*year to date 5 February 2025

			Financial year reported
Offences	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25*
Speeding offences	15,940	18,127	13,306	15,580	12,382	14,872	13,461

Question reference: S6W-34534

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the minutes of each meeting of the Future Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland: Design Advisory Group.

The Design Advisory Group (DAG) was working with Scottish Government to help develop plans for the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland. As the group was working independently, it took responsibility for minuting its own meetings.

We understand that due to some resourcing and capacity issues within the group, there has been a delay in finalising and publishing the minutes. However, the DAG, like the Scottish Government, is committed to transparency and accountability and will aim to publish the minutes by the end of March 2025.

Question reference: S6W-34174

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many calls to each emergency service have been recorded as being (a) hung up and (b) terminated before completion in each year since 2018; what proportion of calls this represents, and what information it has regarding the reasons given for calls ending in this matter.

Question reference: S6W-34175

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what reasons have been recorded by emergency services for calls having been hung up or terminated prematurely, and, on average, what percentage of cases each reason represents.

Question reference: S6W-34392

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what powers it has to influence grid management in Scotland, and whether it has assessed the possibility of using any such powers to align Scottish transmission impact assessment thresholds with those in England and Wales.

The Scottish Government has no powers to influence grid management in Scotland as legislation and regulations relating to gas and electricity networks are reserved to the UK Government. The independent system operator, National Energy System Operator (NESO), is responsible for strategic planning and day-to-day operation of the electricity network, working with network companies across Great Britain. Regulation of the electricity and gas networks is carried out by the independent energy regulator Ofgem.

The Scottish Government has no role in networks regulation apart from its statutory planning and consenting process.

Question reference: S6W-34129

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on legal advice and representation for current and former ministers in relation to public inquiries in the last 10 years, broken down by inquiry.

There are at present five ongoing Scottish statutory public inquiries, and a number of UK statutory inquires which could seek evidence from ministers in Scotland. The Edinburgh Trams Inquiry reported in September 2023 following hearings in 2017-2018 and the Penrose Inquiry reported in 2015, albeit from the records available we do not believe that external legal advice was taken in connection with those inquiries which falls within the scope of this question. The amount spent by the Scottish Government on external legal advice, including representation for current and former ministers, in relation to public inquiries is as follows:

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry	£1,191,298 inclusive of VAT
The Sheku Bayoh Inquiry	£20,160 inclusive of VAT
The Covid-19 Inquiries	There have been no legal costs for current or former ministers for the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry. For the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, we do not hold a breakdown of legal costs per witness. £2,123,692 inclusive of VAT
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry	£673,942 inclusive of VAT
The Eljamel Inquiry	No such costs have been incurred to date.
Infected Blood Inquiry	£432,045 inclusive of VAT between 2018/19 and 2024/25[1]

To note, we are unable to cost the Government’s internal legal advice provided by the Scottish Government Legal Directorate.

[1] These figures are for overall legal advice or support for the Scottish Government and former staff or Ministers, and include some travel and accommodation costs for travel to hearings in London.

Question reference: S6W-34957

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34287 by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025, regarding its commitment to increase access to GPs, whether this includes the commitment in the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 to recruit 1,000 additional staff in primary care mental health, and whether that recruitment process has already begun.

While financial challenges have caused this programme to remain paused since 2022, we remain committed to delivering increased mental health and wellbeing workforce capacity in general practice, when budgets permit.

We have already prioritised significant investment to build mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF). As of March 2024, 182.5 WTE mental health workers had been recruited under PCIF and at March 2022, the action 15 commitment had seen an additional 356 WTE mental health workers recruited to general practice.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan sets out a range of actions to achieve the ambition in the Strategy, including an action to work collaboratively to improve access to support, assessment and treatment in primary care mental health and wellbeing services; and to produce an initial report on progress by November 2024. The Mental Health in Primary and Community Care Report was published on 20 December 2024 detailing a range of actions to enhance access to mental health and wellbeing support in general practice and communities.

Question reference: S6W-34924

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how often it meets the National Specialist Services Committee; when it last met the committee, and what was discussed.

The Scottish Government attend the National Specialist Services Committee (NSSC) who meet quarterly. Apologies were provided for the most recent meeting on 25 November 2024.

Discussions at the 25 November meeting included:

Finance Update
Requests for New Designations
Approved Designations
De-designations
Designated Services – Assurance Reporting
Hyperbaric Medicine
New Commissions/ Business Cases for Prioritisation - Overview of Business Cases & Scoring Process
National Planning and Networks Update
Reviews update
NSD Highlight Report
Any Other Business:
Planning Process
Implications to new NSSC Governance
New Governance process for SLAs