- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many pupil support assistants have been trained to carry out invasive medical procedures in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The information you have requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils attending independent schools have been charged for in-hospital educational support in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Decisions about the fees for hospital education services are a matter for local authorities and NHS boards to consider as appropriate.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the costs associated
with the production and publication of the paper, Your Right to Decide.
Answer
The Scottish Government has consistently proactively published information on costs for independence papers, once all costs have been incurred.
Costs associated with the publication of the Your Right To Decide paper will be available in due course.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 11 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many clinical trials have taken place in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
NHS Research Scotland holds a record of the number of clinical studies that Health Boards participate in each year. These data are held from 2014 to present and indicate a range of study numbers from 1464 to 1711 over this time period.
Noting that clinical studies can be carried out across multiple Health Boards at the same time, Table 1 reports the total number of unique clinical studies per year, and Table 2 reports the number of clinical studies per Health Board per year.
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| Financial Year |
| 14/15 | 15/16 | 16/17 | 17/18 | 18/19 | 19/20 | 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 | 23/24 | 24/25 |
Unique Studies | 1567 | 1606 | 1668 | 1711 | 1694 | 1652 | 1464 | 1558 | 1627 | 1568 | 1540 |
Table 1. Total number of clinical studies.
| Financial Year |
| 14/15 | 15/16 | 16/17 | 17/18 | 18/19 | 19/20 | 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 | 23/24 | 24/25 |
National Waiting Times Centre Board | 60 | 60 | 56 | 63 | 67 | 56 | 49 | 50 | 62 | 77 | 83 |
NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 130 | 122 | 118 | 110 | 101 | 89 | 53 | 60 | 62 | 59 | 51 |
NHS Borders | 57 | 57 | 44 | 38 | 39 | 37 | 33 | 31 | 28 | 20 | 25 |
NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 74 | 65 | 61 | 49 | 48 | 43 | 32 | 34 | 29 | 28 | 19 |
NHS Fife | 133 | 129 | 137 | 124 | 119 | 114 | 83 | 89 | 74 | 80 | 75 |
NHS Forth Valley | 101 | 75 | 89 | 75 | 70 | 56 | 49 | 67 | 72 | 70 | 54 |
NHS Grampian | 316 | 338 | 332 | 329 | 329 | 325 | 297 | 331 | 337 | 312 | 284 |
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 792 | 806 | 869 | 896 | 908 | 881 | 822 | 789 | 833 | 819 | 788 |
NHS Highland | 113 | 110 | 117 | 114 | 106 | 95 | 94 | 85 | 79 | 67 | 68 |
NHS Lanarkshire | 142 | 139 | 132 | 130 | 128 | 111 | 98 | 122 | 134 | 135 | 123 |
NHS Lothian | 604 | 612 | 620 | 664 | 665 | 631 | 531 | 610 | 613 | 613 | 585 |
NHS Tayside | 319 | 344 | 360 | 340 | 336 | 311 | 261 | 314 | 306 | 283 | 278 |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
Total | 2841 | 2857 | 2935 | 2932 | 2916 | 2749 | 2402 | 2582 | 2629 | 2563 | 2433 |
Table 2. Number of clinical studies per Health Board.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 11 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many hours NHS staff spent on clinical trials and research as part of protected development working time in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this data.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 11 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many hours NHS staff have spent on trainee research as part of protected development working time in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board
Answer
The specific information - the number of hours NHS staff have spent on trainee research as part of protected development working time - requested is not gathered or held centrally by Scottish Government. This is a matter for the individual Health Boards.
The Scottish Government is committed to supporting NHS Scotland staff development and career progression. As part of the 2023-24 pay deal, Agenda for Change staff have reaffirmed rights to Protected Learning Time (PLT), ensuring access to essential training - including statutory, mandatory, and profession-specific learning - within working hours. Health Boards are expected to support this through consistent policies, including study leave where appropriate. A national PLT Implementation Group is leading work to ensure all NHS staff have equitable access to high-quality learning opportunities, regardless of role or location.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 August 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had regarding including methanol awareness in the school curriculum.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37406 on 19 May 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.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 10 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the new Scottish Life Sciences Strategy.
Answer
Scottish Government is working closely with industry to refresh the Life Sciences Strategy for Scotland 2025 Vision which was published in 2017. The new strategy will set out ambitions for the Life Sciences in Scotland from 2025 - 2035 and is expected to be published in the Autumn of this year.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 9 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how much has been spent on removing chewing gum in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. Local authorities are responsible for setting budgets for street cleansing within their council area.
As chewing gum is a problematic form of litter that is difficult to remove, a UK-wide Chewing Gum Taskforce has been established which has two main objectives – cleaning up historic gum staining and changing behaviour so gum is disposed of correctly. Since 2021, the Taskforce has been responsible for dispersing up to £10 million of funding from chewing gum manufacturers. Grants of up to £27,500 are provided to local authorities to remove chewing gum and promote correct disposal. More information about the work of the Taskforce, including information on the councils that have received funding and reports on the first 3 years of activities, is available on the Keep Britain Tidy website.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 9 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports in The Herald on 16 August 2025 and analysis carried out by STL Solutions Ltd into the determination of short-term let (STL) planning applications by the City of Edinburgh Council, what its position is on whether (a) the reported refusal by the City of Edinburgh Council of over 97% of traditional STL applications amounts to a de facto blanket ban and was the planned outcome of its legislation, or whether it risks driving activity into non-compliance and a black market; (b) the City of Edinburgh's practice of treating almost all STLs as a material change of use, and then reportedly refusing them in nearly every case, is consistent with its national planning framework policies and demonstrates a case-by-case assessment and (c) it is fair that operators that have reportedly spent thousands of pounds securing an STL licence should then be refused planning permission reportedly creating many appeals at taxpayers’ expense, and whether this dual approach is proportionate.
Answer
All applications for planning permission are decided on their own merits and, by law, must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. The development plan consists of both National Planning Framework 4 and the local development plan for the area. It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to make comment about decisions made by a planning authority.
Through the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019, the Scottish Parliament legislated to allow planning authorities to designate short term let control areas (‘control areas’). Under these provisions, City of Edinburgh Council has designated the entirety of its administrative area as a control area. Within control areas, certain changes of use from a dwellinghouse to short-term letting are automatically deemed to be material changes of use requiring planning permission. It is for the planning authority to consider on a case-by-case basis whether changes of use that occurred before the designation of a control area constitute material changes of use requiring planning permission.
The planning system and the licensing system have different and distinct regulatory purposes. The purpose of planning is to manage the development and use of land in the long term public interest, whereas the purpose of short-term let licensing is to ensure the safety of guests and safeguard Scotland's reputation as a high quality tourist destination. Scottish Government guidance encourages anyone who is considering using a house or flat as a short term let to check with the relevant planning authority whether planning permission is required.