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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-38164

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to Healthcare Improvement Scotland's Unannounced Inspection Report: Maternity Services Safe Delivery of Care Inspection - Ninewells Hospital, how it plans to support maternity units to ensure that women are receiving acceptable levels of care and are able to maintain dignity at all stages of their care journey.

Question reference: S6W-38161

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recently reported research, which suggests that hundreds of lives could be saved every year with extra cancer scans for women with very dense breasts.

Question reference: S6W-38163

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on how the policy and planning that it has put in place will address reported concerns by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights about "high rates of maternal mortality" and "disparities in access to sexual and reproductive health services" affecting women and girls in remote and rural areas.

Question reference: S6W-38162

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to invest in the provision of roof slating apprenticeship courses in Ayrshire, in order that young people in the area can benefit from the £300 million investment in heat and energy in line with the Just Transition Plan’s aims and objectives.

Question reference: S6W-37762

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of its Programme for Government 2025-26, what action it is taking to ensure that alcohol harm prevention is integrated into its health agenda.

Alcohol harm prevention is firmly embedded in the Scottish Government’s approach to improving Scotland’s health, as demonstrated by our world leading policy of minimum unit pricing. Work is underway to consider the range of options for any future uprating of minimum unit pricing. There will be full engagement with all stakeholders on any options considered.

The Scottish Government remains committed to progressing work on protecting children and young people from exposure to alcohol marketing. Public Health Scotland has been commissioned to carry out a review of the evidence for the range of options that are available to the Scottish Government under devolved powers.

The Population Health Framework, to be published in the coming weeks, will set out what more can be done in the coming decade to mitigate against the social and economic drivers of ill health and health inequalities to build a Scotland, with places and communities, that positively supports health and wellbeing. This includes factors that can harm health including alcohol.

As part of this approach, work has also begun on developing the future approach to addressing the harms caused by drugs and alcohol, with a focus on ensuring that alcohol deaths and harms are a key area of focus and priority. We will be working with partners to build on learning and progress to date, including from the national mission, and consider how we tackle both drugs and alcohol related harms and deaths with equal emphasis.

Question reference: S6W-37765

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to increase the role of registered (a)(i) district, (ii) school and (iii) general practice nurses and (b) health visitors to help reduce health inequalities.

Tackling health inequalities is a key part of the preventative care role for school nurses, general practice nurses and health visitors and is aligned to public health priorities to improve health and wellbeing outcomes, particularly for women and children. District nurses have a role in disease management in populations affected by health inequalities, delivered in community settings, and support people to stay healthy at home.

Question reference: S6W-37761

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve data collection across (a) social care, (b) general practice and (c) NHS services.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the collection and use of data in health and social care, ultimately to improve outcomes for people.

For example:

a) We have set up the Social Care Data and Intelligence Programme Board (SCDIPB) to support and optimise the development and analysis of social care data. The Board is working to implement the recommendations of the Care Home Data Review (https://www.gov.scot/publications/care-home-data-review-full-report/) to streamline and improve the collection and use of social care data. Changes to TURAS Care Management have also reduced the data burden on care homes, providing a picture of available beds, occupancy and pausing duplicate data collections.

b) We have made significant progress in the data made available to General Practice, such as the collection of weekly capacity and pressures data provided by NHS Health Boards, and monthly activity data published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). We have also commissioned NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) to develop a Primary Care Data and Intelligence platform for March 2026, which will provide a single point of controlled access to general practice data.

c) In addition, we continue to improve NHS data collections by developing new diagnostic activity statistics and new data on Hospital at Home. This is being undertaken in collaboration with PHS and NHS NSS as set out in Scotland’s Data Strategy for Health and Social Care, published in February 2023. The Strategy sets out our commitments to improve the collection, use and sharing of data, more information can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/data-strategy-health-social-care-2/.

Question reference: S6W-37763

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent action it has taken to improve recruitment and retention within the nursing workforce, in light of the Royal College of Nursing’s report, The Nursing Workforce in Scotland 2025.

As referred to in the Royal College of Nursing’s report, The Nursing Workforce in Scotland 2025, published on 6 May 2025, the Scottish Government published the Ministerial Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce report in February 2025.

The report includes 44 recommendations to tackle all barriers to recruitment and retention of nursing and midwifery staff, beyond pay, terms and conditions. Phase 2 has commenced and a Ministerial Oversight and Implementation Group have been established to develop a detailed workplan which will be agreed shortly to take forward the agreed recommendations. Members of the Taskforce acknowledged that implementation will take time and investment to ensure genuine change for our nursing and midwifery staff.

Question reference: S6W-37555

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support and improve the experiences of any women of Wigtownshire who have reportedly had to travel 80 miles to give birth without access to pain relief, in light of the increased risk of giving birth at the roadside.

As outlined in the response to S6W-32069 on 6 January 2025, the Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards to provide maternity services that are delivered as close to home as practicable, balanced with ensuring the safety of mother and baby. Within the policies we set, it is for NHS Boards to determine the model of service delivery best suited to meet the needs of their local areas and population.

All decisions about care throughout pregnancy, including around place of birth, should be made by women in discussion with their clinical team. These decisions will take account of their individual needs and circumstances. To support this, in February 2025 we published the new Pathway for Maternity Care. This sets out the core care that women and their babies should receive under a whole-person, individualised care approach which takes account of their specific circumstances. We also published the new Birthplace Decision leaflet to provide women with the up-to-date information they need to make informed decisions about where they would like to give birth.

Women will be given advice when they contact maternity triage services in labour to help them make decisions about when to travel to hospital, and on pain relief options available to them.

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: S6W-37561

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to improve the reported lack of maternity care provision in Wigtownshire.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway has confirmed that all pregnant women in Wigtownshire continue to receive all of the maternity care that they require. Antenatal and postnatal maternity care, including maternity scanning is delivered by midwives locally via the Oaktree Family Centre in Stranraer. Women can also choose a home birth and will be supported by local midwives. Women who require more complex care may require some of their antenatal and postnatal care at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and will be advised to birth there.