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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-27354

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in improving the pathways of less survivable cancers, including shortening the time to agreeing treatment options, as set out in its Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023-26.

The Scottish Government has been making progress in several ways to improve and shorten the pathways of less survivable cancers.

For example, the Scottish Government awarded the Scottish HepatoPancreatoBiliary Network funding of £653,000 over two years to redesign the pancreatic and liver cancer pathways - the PHCC Pathway Improvement Project. The project has been extended for one more year and we are exploring options for sustained delivery of its positive outcomes after March 2025.

Through the Detect Cancer Earlier programme, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) continues to design and support the implementation of optimal cancer diagnostic pathways. As reflected in the Cancer Strategy, lung, head and neck and colorectal cancer have been identified as the first tranche. Scotland’s first optimal cancer diagnostic pathway for lung was published in December 2022.

Scotland’s first Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) have been established in 5 Health Boards across Scotland. They provide primary care with access to a new fast-track diagnostic pathway for people with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer. An evaluation published in February 2024 shows success in finding cancer while delivering a high standard of quality care at speed. Lung and Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) were the two most commonly found.

Question reference: S6W-27356

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to increasing training places in medical and clinical oncology, and whether any medical workforce modelling data has recommended an increase in places.

The Scottish Government has funded the creation of 15 additional training places in Clinical Oncology since 2015 (5 in 2015; 2 in 2020; 4 in 2022, and; 4 in 2023). Additional Medical Oncology places were also created in 2022 (3) and 2023 (3). These places were created in line with recommendations made by the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group, which are informed by medical workforce modelling undertaken by NHS Education for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-27355

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it made on creating the 152 extra doctor training places in 2023 that it announced in November 2022; how many additional trainee doctors were recruited into each speciality in 2023, and whether it will maintain or increase the number of training places in 2024.

The creation of 152 extra specialty training places for trainee doctors went ahead in 2023 as planned. A breakdown of these posts by specialty can be found here .

The recruitment of trainee doctors in 2023 was the most successful to date; a total of 1,231 specialty training posts were advertised and 1,156 (94%) filled. Please note that these figures are accurate as at 26 March 2024 i.e. when end-year data was published. The publication itself can be found here , and a full breakdown of recruitment by specialty can be found here .

The Scottish Government announced funding on 23 November 2023 for further expansion taking place in 2024. This will see 153 additional specialty training places created this year – the largest uplift to date. More information can be found here . The 2024 recruitment cycle is currently underway and will conclude in November.

Question reference: S6O-03481

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will close the gap in funding for 1,140 hours of early learning and childcare between private, voluntary and independent providers and council-run facilities.

Question reference: S6W-27028

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 15 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-26975 by Richard Lochhead on 24 April 2024, and in light of the UK Government’s publication, Project Gigabit progress update - April 2024, whether it expects Project Gigabit procurement covering Fife to launch throughout 2024.

The Scottish Government and Building Digital UK (BDUK) have worked together to develop a number of potential Type A (local) and Type B (regional) Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland. The Scottish Government will lead delivery of these procurements, so that Project Gigabit and our own Reaching 100% (R100) programme can work together in Scotland.

A potential procurement in the Fife, Perth and Kinross areas has been identified as part of this process. It is expected that this procurement will launch later in 2024, so long as the Scottish Government is confident that there is the continued supplier interest necessary for it to succeed.

Question reference: S6O-03405

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the ending of the Bute House Agreement will have on the Housing (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S6W-26519

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many households received support through the Warmer Homes Scotland programme in each financial year of its operation, broken down by local authority area.

The first phase of Warmer Homes Scotland began in September 2015, and closed to new applicants on 31 March 2023. The second phase of Warmer Homes Scotland was launched on 2 October 2023.

The following table shows the number of households who have received support through both phases of the Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) scheme in each financial year since 2015, broken down by local authority area.

	Financial Years – WHS 1									WHS2
Local Authority Areas	15-16	16-17	17-18	18-19	19-20	20-21	21-22	22-23	23-24		23-24
Aberdeen City	39	128	100	106	69	74	121	151	98		32
Aberdeenshire	60	224	175	141	114	85	181	191	155		25
Angus	34	130	93	89	68	48	117	136	124		32
Argyll and Bute	33	161	110	113	98	69	153	118	122		12
City of Edinburgh	60	284	285	219	188	165	346	394	272		75
Clackmannanshire	15	54	33	31	34	20	39	64	35		10
Dumfries and Galloway	65	209	227	170	140	90	187	184	179		32
Dundee City	57	193	211	136	100	108	175	202	132		47
East Ayrshire	41	113	93	67	89	58	133	113	64		46
East Dunbartonshire	25	80	68	60	69	60	112	80	80		36
East Lothian	22	71	54	57	56	34	65	106	82		20
East Renfrewshire	28	72	74	80	53	47	85	74	35		16
Falkirk	36	106	109	81	94	80	130	129	84		51
Fife	107	367	353	267	235	218	375	444	284		79
Glasgow City	138	450	461	418	373	367	620	534	293		168
Highland	82	493	358	270	225	155	261	254	211		48
Inverclyde	27	223	150	111	130	68	146	129	76		27
Midlothian	20	76	83	68	59	42	82	92	68		18
Moray	18	96	81	54	62	47	78	86	75		19
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar	6	116	177	105	111	75	76	73	81		0
North Ayrshire	45	148	105	76	93	56	152	156	114		47
North Lanarkshire	87	338	273	247	263	247	387	374	216		131
Orkney Islands	6	35	39	35	28	17	33	35	45		0
Perth and Kinross	44	134	130	100	83	68	124	148	125		35
Renfrewshire	57	173	181	130	140	86	188	192	114		73
Scottish Borders	22	103	120	79	69	48	85	107	78		36
Shetland Islands	1	9	56	30	47	23	56	48	56		5
South Ayrshire	31	143	120	67	86	57	125	141	98		39
South Lanarkshire	88	338	319	189	236	234	373	387	190		88
Stirling	25	73	72	36	48	29	54	69	47		18
West Dunbartonshire	18	81	59	61	55	50	93	67	41		23
West Lothian	35	133	134	125	92	79	159	200	126		67
Grand Total	1,372	5,354	4,903	3,818	3,607	2,904	5,311	5,478	3,800		1,355

Question reference: S6O-03292

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what new financial support will be available to farmers and land managers to manage water, including to prevent flooding of homes.

Question reference: S6W-26043

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any local authority ceasing its funding for secondary school music tuition and relying on the funding provided by the Scottish Government following the 2021 announcement of the removal of fees to fund this service.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any local authority ceasing its funding for secondary school music tuition and relying solely on the additional funding provided by the Scottish Government. The most recent Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2023 (improvementservice.org.uk) confirmed that 61,715 pupils participated in instrumental music lessons in academic year 2022-23, the highest number since the annual survey began 11 years ago.

The policy of free instrumental tuition has now firmly been established across all Local Authority Music Services. The Scottish Government continues to support local authorities to deliver free instrumental music tuition in schools, with £12 million allocated this financial year alone. The purpose of this funding is to enhance the instrumental music tuition offer that is provided through Local Authority budgets.

Question reference: S6W-26041

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether a reduction in the provision of secondary school music tuition would breach the 2021 arrangement to remove fees from such provision.

There is no evidence of an overall reduction in the provision of secondary school music tuition. In fact the most recent Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2023 (improvementservice.org.uk) published in December 2023 confirmed that 61,715 pupils participated in instrumental music lessons in academic year 2022-23, the highest number since the annual survey began 11 years ago.

The policy of free instrumental tuition has now been firmly established across all Local Authority Music Services. The Scottish Government continues to support local authorities to deliver free instrumental music tuition in schools, removing financial barriers to learning an instrument.