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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-27217

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will request that ScotRail reviews its decision to maintain toilet access charges at Glasgow Queen Street station.

Question reference: S6W-26903

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the Adult Eating Disorder Service in Glasgow, and whether it plans to continue funding the originally temporary government-funded posts at the service that are reportedly due to end in the coming months.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting and improving eating disorder services across Scotland and ensuring everyone receives the best possible care and support from our health services. It is essential that someone who is diagnosed with an eating disorder receives a thorough assessment and gets the right care and treatment for every aspect of their illness as soon as possible.

That is why in 2023-24, we directly allocated £55.5 million to Health Boards via the Mental Health Outcomes Framework. The Framework aims to enable continued improvements to mental health services, including eating disorder services, in line with the aims of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Mental health and wellbeing strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and associated specifications and standards.

Whilst this Government sets the strategic policy direction for mental health workforce development within NHS Boards, the direct recruitment of staff and operational decisions about individual services are the responsibility of each NHS Board. Workforce and service planning is conducted by Health Boards according to the needs of their populations.

Question reference: S6W-26958

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to rapidly emulate the national roll-out of pay-as-you-go mobile in/out public transport ticketing, which was launched in April 2024 in Denmark by Rejsekort and Rejseplan with vendor FAIRTIQ, in order to meet its climate change and modal shift targets.

The Scottish Government is committed to enhancing smart integrated ticketing and has set out its intention to develop a new national integrated ticketing system for public transport in Scotland, across all modes of transport, to enable a system that can used for all elements of a journey.

To support delivery of this, the recently established National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board (NSTAB) which comprises operators, transport authorities, user groups and technical experts, is set to advise Ministers on the future of smart ticketing in Scotland, including on technological standards to enable smart integration between modes. The NSTAB is currently developing their work programme for the next 3 years.

FAIRTIQ has engaged with NSTAB and will present on their smart integrated ticketing solution at an upcoming board meeting. FAIRTIQ is one example of a ticketing platform provider, and it is expected that NSTAB will consider the full range of options available for Scotland and their respective implications on cost and infrastructure. Any resulting public procurement of a new ticketing system will be required to follow public sector procurement processes to ensure best value for money.

The Scottish Government, NSTAB and stakeholders will continue to work closely together on developing these options, in order to best determine the method of delivering a new national integrated ticketing system.

Question reference: S6W-26893

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is measuring how often different charging codes are used under the new NHS dental payment reform system.

Independent dentists and dental bodies corporate make claims for items of treatment provided under NHS General Dental Services. As part of the claims process, patient charges, where appropriate, are also recorded. Practitioner Services of National Services Scotland reimburses claims on behalf of NHS Boards, and data on activity is summarised and published under quarterly official statistics by Public Health Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-27134

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Change Mental Health report, The Rural Divide: The Realities of Mental Healthcare for Children and Young People in Rural Scotland, on mental health services in rural areas.

Question reference: S6W-27130

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been allocated to Breathing Space in the last four financial years, including 2024-25, broken down by year.

Question reference: S6W-27133

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether any (a) existing and (b) new claimants of the Adult Disability Payment will be affected by the UK Government's proposed reforms to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), in light of reports that some people with mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety could be disadvantaged regarding financial support in some cases.

Question reference: S6W-27135

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any inequalities in access to mental health services in rural areas.

Question reference: S6W-26867

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address the reported high level of vacancies for psychiatrist posts.

We are taking forward a number of steps to address issues around vacancy levels for psychiatry posts.

Through the Psychiatry Working Group we are actively looking at how we can better support the recruitment and retention of psychiatrists in NHS Scotland.

We also continue to work with NHS Education for Scotland and The Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland to encourage medical students to consider a long-term career as a psychiatrist. This work includes the ‘Choose Psychiatry’ campaign, undergraduate taster sessions and improved psychiatric placements at Foundation level. 10 additional Core Psychiatry posts were created in 2022, followed by another 15 in April 2023. As part of this year’s expansion we will be adding a further 12, along with 2 extra run-through training posts in both Intellectual Disability and Child & Adult Psychiatry (16 posts in total).

Recruitment into Core Psychiatry has improved drastically in recent years. With the exception of one unfilled post in 2020, 100% of entry level posts have now filled for the fourth consecutive year (up from 63% in 2018).

The most recent publication of Mental Health Workforce data (5 March 2024) shows that under this Government and since 2007, the number of Psychiatrist Consultants across All Specialities in NHS Scotland has increased by 16.7% to 527.0 whole time equivalent posts.

Question reference: S6W-26866

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available for people who have received a private diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) but who are not able to access support due to their diagnosis not being recognised by practitioners in the NHS.

The Scottish Government acknowledges that there is the need for better access to NHS diagnostic assessment and support for people who may have ADHD, and that private assessments can lead to issues with accessing pharmaceutical interventions. We expect, however, local support for people with ADHD to not be diagnosis dependent, but rather be based on needs.

NAIT published guidance on Prescribing ADHD medication to adults following private sector diagnosis in Scotland in April 2022. The guidance was drafted in consultation with practising Psychiatrists, the Royal Colleges of Psychiatry and General Practice and individuals with ADHD.

NAIT’s guidance highlighted, for a Shared Care Agreement to work properly everyone involved must communicate effectively. A Shared Care Agreement is an agreement between a patient, their GP and a specialist service, which can include a private diagnosis service. Recommendations from specialists for ongoing prescribing on the NHS need to be made at an NHS consultation with an NHS specialist.

The Scottish Government is taking forward proposals for a proposed Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence bill to help better protect the rights of people with learning disabilities and neurodivergent people, including people with ADHD. The consultation ran from 21 December 2023 to 21 April 2024 and we are currently analysing the responses we received.