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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-37741

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the university intake targets for medicine for the financial years 2019-20 to 2025-26, broken down by the number of students from (a) Scotland, (b) the rest of UK and (c) outside of the UK.

The following table shows the intake targets for medicine from 2019-20 to 2025-26.

For some, but not all, of the requested years, a minimum Scottish Domicile intake was set and where applicable this is indicated

Academic Intake year	Overall target	Scots/rUK/RoI (*also includes EU students)	Minimum to be Scottish Domicile	International (*includes EU students)
2019-20	1013	949*	579	64
2020-21	1038	974*	612	64
2021-22	1117	1039	757	78*
2022-23	1317	1239	n/a	78*
2023-24	1417	1339	n/a	78*
2024-25	1417	1339	n/a	78*
2025-26	1417	1339	n/a	78*

Scotland’s medical school intake targets, including accompanying guidance letters, are available to view on the Scottish Funding Councils website.

Question reference: S6F-04075

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 May 2025

To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government is taking to address the performance of NHS 24, in light of reports that nearly one in five calls to the service went unanswered last year.

Question reference: S6O-04618

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress made to improve access to and reduce waiting times for breast reconstruction surgery following cancer treatment.

Question reference: S6W-36143

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason pharmacists working in communities reportedly do not have full access to clinical records for people in their care.

Community pharmacists currently have access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) which provides information on recent acute and repeat prescriptions and allergies and the Key Information Summary (KIS) where available, which provides information about a person’s health issues, a carer’s name and contact details, preferences on how a person would like to be cared for, the treatment they would like and where they would like to be cared for. In addition, several health boards are providing community pharmacists access to their clinical portal which provides additional clinical information.

There are several barriers that currently make full access to clinical records difficult including the interoperability of the different IT systems used across the NHS and providing assurances on data protection and information governance requirements.

Question reference: S6W-36142

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current arrangements are to allow pharmacists working in the community to access their patients’ clinical records; which records they can see, and whether they can amend records to include consultations and items prescribed by the pharmacist.

Community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians gained access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) on 2 October 2023. The ECS provides information on recent acute and repeat prescriptions and allergies. They also have access to the Key Information Summary (KIS) where available, which provides information about a person’s health issues, a carer’s name and contact details, preferences on how a person would like to be cared for, the treatment they would like and where they would like to be cared for.

In addition, several health boards are providing community pharmacists access to their clinical portal which provides additional clinical information. Clinical portals support Health Boards to allow healthcare professionals to access information about an individual, including in some cases those from other Health Boards when required, with their permission.

Community pharmacists can create, read and edit Pharmacy Care Records (PCRs) to record details of consultations they have undertaken (for example Pharmacy First consultations) as well as details of any items that have been prescribed and/or dispensed in their community pharmacy. The PCR also allows them to create a structured report which can be sent to any other healthcare organisation.

Question reference: S6W-36144

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to review the current reported restrictions on pharmacists working in the community having access to full clinical records for patients in their care to ensure safe prescribing.

Question reference: S6W-36141

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its policy goals are for pharmacists working in the community in relation to being able to access full clinical records for patients in their care to ensure safe prescribing, and when it expects these goals to be met.

The Scottish Government is committed to collaborate with key partners across the NHS in Scotland to ensure that relevant information, with the appropriate safeguards in place, is available to all healthcare professionals, including community pharmacists, when and where they need it.

As community pharmacists expand their clinical role, there is an increasing need for them to have read/write access to clinical records to ensure that they can safely assess and agree a clinical management plan for a person and any associated actions or treatments can be viewed by other healthcare professionals involved in a person’s care, without any unnecessary delay.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has commissioned work to explore how read/write access to clinical records can be delivered incrementally.

Question reference: S6W-36035

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the delay in implementing the Fracture Liaison Service audit on the ability to (a) evaluate gaps in osteoporosis care and (b) prevent avoidable fractures.

The Public Health Scotland (PHS) scoping exercise of Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) across NHS Boards, and subsequent business case, identified a need for a Scotland-wide FLS audit. Scottish Government acted on these findings and commissioned PHS to implement a national FLS audit.

The audit will create high-quality, standardised data and consistency across NHS Boards in order to identify and evaluate gaps in osteoporosis care, preventable harm to drive improvements, support clinical decision-making and reduce health inequalities.

Whilst there was an initial delay regarding recruitment, this has now been completed and progress now continues at pace. We do not expect the initial set up delays to impact on the overall delivery and outcomes of the FLS audit.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-35534 on 21 March 2025 and S6W-36002 on 1 April 2025

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

Question reference: S6O-04568

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what support is available to teachers who experience physical violence or verbal abuse in schools.

Question reference: S6O-04496

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of some teachers requesting self-defence classes due to the prevalence of violence in schools.

It is the Government’s understanding that Freedom of Information requests recently released by Scotland’s Councils found that only two teachers across Scotland have made this request, whilst fifteen other Councils that responded said no requests have been made.

Our approach is focused on creating safe and nurturing schools, prioritising prevention and de-escalation of distressed behaviour.

Teachers and pupil support staff should be supported through their school’s relationships and behaviour policy. Arrangements for de-escalation and support should be provided to them where situations do escalate.

This is a view shared by some of our teaching unions, including NASUWT and the SSTA.