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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-18618

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to tackle any growing use of nitazenes and new psychoactive substances in Scotland, in light of reports that such drugs are already causing deaths.

Following reports at the end of 2022 that nitazenes, a new form of synthetic opioid, had been detected in a drug related death in Scotland, Scottish Government officials have worked closely with Public Health Scotland (PHS) colleagues to monitor and better understand this new substance of concern.

Through work done with PHS to improve our public health surveillance system, an alert was issued through their RADAR (Rapid Action Drug Alert and Response) system in January in relation to nitazenes, highlighting the risks and dangers associated with these substances, but also providing information for people who take drugs as well as setting out actions which drug and alcohol service staff could take. This alert was further updated on 29 March. A copy can be found here - RADAR Alert 2023/04, Nitazene type drugs in Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

As a result, drug and alcohol services, health care settings and high-risk settings, like prisons, have all been urged to follow harm reduction advice for opioids and polydrug use and to increase and optimise the availability of naloxone to people they support.

Following the identification of this new substance in drug related deaths in Scotland, and a recommendation from the RADAR toxicology sub-group, post-mortem screening in Scotland has been expanded to ensure that toxicology providers are now routinely testing for nitazenes and, in selected cases, retrospective post-mortem testing has also been conducted.

Due to the potential for nitazenes, and other new psychoactive substances, to be present in the wider drugs supply, we are committed to delivering drug checking facilities in Scotland to enable us to respond faster to emerging trends in the drug supply. We anticipate that license applications to the Home Office, to grant permission for the establishment of these facilities in Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen, will be submitted in the coming months.

Question reference: S6O-02408

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there was a delay of more than 80 days in processing 70% of Adult Disability Payments in April 2023.

Question reference: S6W-18714

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional advanced nurse practitioners, which were announced in April 2018, have been trained to date.

Question reference: S6W-18705

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it met its target of 58,000 additional outpatient activity in 2022-23, as outlined in its NHS Recovery Plan.

Our £1 Billion backed NHS Recovery Plan aims to continually increase capacity for outpatients.

We have seen an increase in the level of activity for new outpatients in the latest quarter (May 2023), which was at the highest level of activity in any quarter since the start of the pandemic.

Last year there were over 1.2 million patients seen for an outpatient appointment, an increase of 8% compared to 2021, when over 1.1 million outpatients were seen.

Further statistics on additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-2023 will be released alongside the NHS Recovery Plan update this autumn.

Question reference: S6W-18704

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it met its target of 27,500 additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-23, as outlined in its NHS Recovery Plan.

Our £1 Billion backed NHS Recovery Plan aims to continually increase capacity for inpatient and day case procedures.

We have seen an increase in the level of activity for inpatient / day-cases in the latest quarter (May 2023), which was the highest level of activity in any quarter since the start of the pandemic.

Last year, over 217,000 patients were seen as an inpatient or day case. This reflects a 15.3% increase from the previous year.

Further statistics on additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-2023 will be released alongside the NHS Recovery Plan update this autumn.

Question reference: S6W-18706

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it met its target of 78,000 additional diagnostic procedures in 2022-23, as outlined in its NHS Recovery Plan.

Our £1 Billion backed NHS Recovery Plan aims to continually increase capacity for outpatients.

We are seeing improvements in diagnostic waiting times, and we continue to prioritise those referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer for scope-based diagnostic tests.

Further statistics on additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-2023 will be released alongside the NHS Recovery Plan update this autumn.

Question reference: S6W-18384

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 9 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time equivalent (a) primary and (b) secondary school teachers have been employed in Scotland in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6O-02357

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the reportedly rising number of people of working age who are economically inactive are inactive as a result of NHS waiting lists or long COVID.

Question reference: S6W-17852

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to improve occupational therapy staffing levels in the NHS.

Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) Staffing levels in Occupational Therapy have increased by 19% or over 400, from 2161.4 at September 2007 to 2573 at December 2022. Overall, NHS Scotland’s staffing levels are up by around 28,900 WTE. This is a 22.7% increase, from 127,061.9 WTE at September 2006 to 155,926.9 WTE at December 2022).

In March 2022, the Scottish Government published the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social care, which sets out our long term vision for achieving a sustainable health and care workforce, alongside the action we are taking now to support the training, attraction and recruitment of staff, including allied health professionals. This includes a commitment to investing over £11 million in the current parliament, in international recruitment activity, and the provision of some £22 million in 2022-23 to local authorities, to support the employment of additional staff including occupational therapists.

Question reference: S6W-18263

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 2 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether there will be any difficulty securing tenders for the long-term solution on the A83 Rest and Be Thankful, in light of the reported issues with the A9 dualling programme.

Design and assessment work on both the medium and long-term solutions are progressing at pace. We also continue to explore methods to reduce the timescales to bring forward these improvements as soon as possible, whilst continuing to maximise the availability of the existing A83.

Clearly market conditions have changed in the past few years - the pandemic, Brexit and inflationary pressures have all played their respective parts in changing the procurement and delivery landscape across Government. However, we will continuously review the impact of current inflationary pressures and market conditions for both the medium and long-term measures.