Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-33663

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to attract healthcare professionals to remote and rural areas, including Aberdeenshire.

The Scottish Government have a number of initiatives already in place to attract healthcare professionals to rural areas, including Aberdeenshire.

These include the Scottish Government funded “Golden Hello” scheme, administered by NHS Scotland Boards, which provides up to £10,000 to every GP taking up an eligible post in a rural area.

Furthermore, to support GPs to develop the skills required to work in rural areas, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) offers the Rural GP Fellowship. The fellowship provides qualified GPs with direct experience of working in rural and island areas across rural and island Health Boards, with the fellowship lasting a full year.

The Scottish Government funds ScotGEM, a unique four-year programme tailored to meet the current and future needs of NHS Scotland with a focus on rural medicine, healthcare improvement and developing interest in General Practice. ScotGEM students are eligible to apply for and receive a ‘Return of Service’ bursary of £4,000 per annum which commits them to working for NHS Scotland for the corresponding number of years following graduation. The Scottish Government also pays the tuition fees for eligible students, offering an attractive package for potential applicants.

To attract dentists to rural areas we have made available a range of grants and allowances including the recruitment and retention allowance, which allows new trainee dentists practicing in eligible areas, to qualify for a ‘Golden Hello’ payment of up to £37,500 in the first three years of practice.

In collaboration with NES’ Centre for Workforce Supply and National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, we are developing a sustained model of direct support that will provide the long-term whole-system approach which is necessary to provide rural and island employers the help they need to recruit successfully. To improve attraction, this includes supporting employers to design roles that fit their organisations’ needs, ensure that job adverts speak to the right audience and helping employers in welcoming new recruits and providing effective pastoral support.

Question reference: S6W-33662

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what innovations it is pursuing to improve patient transportation in remote areas, including any initiatives piloted in Aberdeenshire.

On 30 October, the Scottish Government published the Transport to Health delivery plan which sets out commitments against transport and healthcare across the work of Health and Social Care and Transport Scotland. The plan was informed by the 2019 Transport to health and social care report prepared by the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) on behalf of Ministers.

As set out in the plan, we will support Regional Transport Partnerships to develop their own plans around Transport to Health. An example of this will be continuing to support the work of the Health and Transport Action Plan led by NESTRANS and partners in Aberdeenshire.

Transport Scotland have included Transport to Health as one of seven thematic workstreams in their approach for delivery of the Accessible Travel Framework.

Question reference: S6W-33661

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of poor transport links on access to healthcare in rural areas, and what steps it is taking to address this.

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery. All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services.

On 30 October, the Scottish Government published the Transport to Health delivery plan which sets out commitments against transport and healthcare across the work of Health and Social Care and Transport Scotland. The plan was informed by the 2019 Transport to health and social care report prepared by the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) on behalf of Ministers.

As set out in the plan, we will continue to use the NHS annual delivery plans to re-emphasise the need for Health Boards to consider patient access as part of the care pathway and reflecting the opportunity that is emerging for reducing the number of patient journeys through alternative options.

Question reference: S6W-33405

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many journeys have been undertaken by the cars in its fleet in each of the last five years, broken down by fuel type.

Question reference: S6W-33407

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many journeys undertaken by the cars in its fleet in each of the last five years were longer than 50 miles, broken down by fuel type.

Question reference: S6W-33406

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current average journey distance is for the cars in its fleet, broken down by fuel type.

Question reference: S6W-33408

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the carbon emissions associated with journeys taken by the cars in its fleet in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-33401

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many vehicles have been added to its fleet in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) vehicle type and (b) fuel type.

A breakdown of fleet additions and disposals since 2019-20, broken down by vehicle and fuel type, is provided in the following tables.

2019-20

Vehicle type	Fuel type	Number of vehicles added	Number of vehicles disposed
Car	Diesel	0	34
Car	Hybrid	0	3
Car	Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)	9	0
Car	Electric (EV)	2	0
Light Commercial	Diesel	2	12
Light Commercial	Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)	2	0
Total	-	15	49

2020-21

Vehicle type	Fuel type	Number of vehicles added	Number of vehicles disposed
Car	Diesel	0	4
Car	Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)	3	0
Car	Electric (EV)	8	1
Light Commercial	Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)	2	0
Light Commercial	Range extender (REV)	3	0
Light Commercial	Diesel	3	4
Total	-	19	9

2021-22

Vehicle type	Fuel type	Number of vehicles added	Number of vehicles disposed
Car	Diesel	0	14
Car	Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)	2	3
Car	Electric (EV)	30	0
Light Commercial	Diesel	0	3
Light Commercial	Electric (EV)	1	0
Total	-	33	20

2022-23

Vehicle type	Fuel type	Number of vehicles added	Number of vehicles disposed
Car	Diesel	0	26
Car	Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)	15	6
Car	Electric (EV)	0	1
Light Commercial	Diesel	2	1
Light Commercial	Electric (EV)	0	3
Total	-	17	37

2023-24

Vehicle type	Fuel type	Number of vehicles added	Number of vehicles disposed
Car	Diesel	0	8
Car	Petrol	0	16
Car	Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)	24	10
Car	Electric (EV)	0	1
Light Commercial	Diesel	2	4
Light Commercial	Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)	0	2
Total	-	26	41

2024-25 (up until 22-01-25)

Vehicle type	Fuel type	Number of vehicles added	Number of vehicles disposed
Car	Hybrid	0	5
Car	Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)	10	5
Light Commercial	Diesel	0	1
Heavy Goods	Diesel	0	1
Total	-	10	12

Question reference: S6W-33397

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33091 by Ivan McKee on 14 January 2025, for what purposes the (a) heavy goods lorries and (b) light commercial vehicles in its fleet are used.

Question reference: S6W-33179

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints it has received regarding the condition of the A90 in each of the last five years, and what actions were taken as a result.

There have been no official complaints logged regarding the overall condition of the A90 in the last five years. However, there has been a total of 171 individual complaints with resulting reports:

Financial Year	Number of Complaints	Action Taken
2019-20	37	Cat 1 / Cat 2 repairs completed. Complaints logged and action taken to rectify timeously
2020-21	30	Road resurfacing carried out All Cat 1/ Cat 2 repairs completed
2021-22	41	Road resurfacing carried out All Cat 1/ Cat 2 repairs completed
2022-23	34	Defective road signs removed and route reviewed for further defects All Cat 1/ Cat 2 repairs completed
2023-24	29	Road resurfacing carried out and ongoing repairs at location of Glencarse Overbridge Cat 1/ Cat 2 repairs completed

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