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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-14119

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, whether it has completed its review of the current digital funding delivery model for health and social care, and, if so, what the outcomes were.

Question reference: S6W-14129

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the development of a digital platform will contribute to the twin aims of citizen and staff access to relevant real-time information across the health and care system.

Scottish Government and COSLA will shortly set out a Data Strategy for Health and Social Care, which will articulate the first set of principles and deliverables needed to improve the access and use of data.

One of the core ambitions of the Data Strategy is to: empower the people of Scotland by giving individuals clear and easy access to, and the ability to manage and contribute to, their own health and social care data where it is safe and appropriate to do so. To achieve this, we will confirm data sources and data sets that are safe to be consistently shared. For individuals, data access will be enabled through the implementation of the Digital Front Door.

To support access for our professionals, the National Digital Platform, and its associated National Clinical Data Store provide the foundation for consistent access to information. The success of this has so far been demonstrated through the accessibility of vaccination information. Establishing and expanding these platforms is a critical focus to providing staff with a safe and secure way to access clinical and care data. More details can be found at The National Digital Platform .

Question reference: S6W-14109

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how much it has spent on buying devices and equipment since October 2021 to enable health and care staff to work remotely/flexibly, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) type of device or equipment.

Question reference: S6W-14138

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to improve the (a) security capabilities and (b) resilience of its health and social care services’ digital systems.

The Scottish Government actively promotes cyber security in order to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks and protect against the unauthorised exploitation of systems, networks and technologies. We promote best practice, regulatory requirements, and global international standards for the improvement of Cyber security practices.

For the NHS, each Health Board must report improvements to resilience and capabilities to the Scottish Government through regulatory audits. In doing so the Scottish Government is able to monitor continual improvements by Boards against the Scottish Public Sector Cyber Resilience Framework.

The Scottish Government, have also established the Cyber Centre of Excellence to enhance its response to security. This will enable Scotland-wide management of cyber security services, that can be proactively, securely and consistently delivered across the NHS.

Additionally, supporting the adoption of Microsoft Office 365 across the health and care sector allows organisations to make use of the most up to date threat protection available from a trusted supplier.

Question reference: S6W-14103

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has put in place a regular assurance process for reporting and regular discussions to support health and care organisations with planning, strategy development and other key decision making as appropriate.

The Health Planning process is intended to provide Scottish Government with confirmation that NHS Boards and their partners have plans in place to continue to deliver safe and accessible treatment and care and fully deliver Ministerial priorities. Plans are submitted by NHS Boards and reviewed internally by policy, finance, and workforce officials.

The plans represent the agreement between SG and NHS Boards setting out how Boards will deliver Ministerial priorities and work towards a more sustainable model of care; and, in doing so support Scottish Government to hold Boards to account for their contribution over the year. Progress is reviewed and reported on quarterly, and NHS Boards have the opportunity to formally update their plans on an annual basis.

Scottish Government leads and/or attends regular meetings with Board Chief Executives, Functional Directors, and other clinical and non-clinical stakeholders to discuss planning, strategy development and other key decision making as appropriate.

Question reference: S6W-14150

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what training programmes it has developed to ensure that all health and care staff have the essential digital skills that they need to do their job, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-14151

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that (a) consistent and (b) tailored digital skills learning and development on accessible platforms exist for all health and care staff.

Currently, staff can access digital skills learning and development resources through the Turas platform managed and run by NHS National Education for Scotland, and through the skills platform of SSSC. Work is underway on reviewing the accessibility of this, with a view to considering the creation of a Central Library of Digital Skills Resource. This work aims to understand the user needs in relation to digital confidence, accessing technology and building digital skills. It is tailored to the requirements of specific roles to enhance career progression for all staff across health and care. We will work with our wide range of partners across health and care to ensure effective communication of this resource and that it complements existing resources.

Question reference: S6W-14094

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, whether it is the case that it has provided the ability for people to use digital products and services to manage their condition(s), and, if it is not the case, when it plans to do so.

Our remote health pathways programme continues to support the public with access to monitor a condition from home through a supported service which can improve treatment compared to a self-management service. The blood pressure monitoring service in particular allows people to feed in their blood pressure and receive feedback on how to manage their wellbeing from home. This is in addition to existing services that support self-management, such as My Diabetes My Way. Other services are expected to be increased across a range of other conditions as set out in the Digital Health and Care delivery plan. (see Care in the Digital Age: delivery plan 2022 to 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ).

Question reference: S6W-14068

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what preparation the Parliament has made for the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-14133

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has developed a (a) commercial and (b) procurement strategy that covers all national, regional and local approaches to (i) developing and (ii) buying digital products for health and social care.