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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-39789

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 August 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in each (a) local authority and (b) NHS board area have accessed distress brief intervention services in each of the last five years.

Since launch in 2017, over 92,000 people have now been referred to our world-leading Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme. DBI is now live in every Health and Social Care Partnership area across Scotland, providing timely support to those in distress and easing pressures on frontline services.

A breakdown of Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) referrals by NHS Board level area for the financial years 2020-21 to 2024-25 is included in the following table. This data is not held at local authority level.

Table 1 – DBI Level 2 Local Referrals Across Scotland by Health Board for Financial Years 2020-21 to 2024-25

Health Board	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	23	264	455	861	953
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	0	85	451	776	702
NHS Fife	0	0	0	40	448
NHS Forth Valley	0	0	0	0	67
NHS Grampian	1,092	1,244	1,276	1,612	1,664
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	22	329	546	4,601	5,405
NHS Highland	863	888	917	1,208	1,539
NHS Lanarkshire	2,451	2,283	2,463	2,722	2,404
NHS Lothian	0	65	396	1,131	2,010
NHS Orkney	0	7	31	123	40
NHS Scottish Borders	922	1,148	1,103	1,120	889
NHS Shetland	0	0	0	6	12
NHS Tayside	0	0	195	1,380	1,525
NHS Western Isles	0	0	0	0	35

Source: PHS DBI Level 2 Dataset for all referrals up to 31st March 2024 and from DBI Level 2 Provider Monthly Returns from 1st April 2024.

In addition to local provision, people can access DBI through national routes via NHS 24 and Police Scotland & Scottish Ambulance Service Call Centres. In total, 26,332 referrals have been made through the national pathways across 2020-21 to 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-39787

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 August 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many emergency mental health assessment units are operational (a) nationally and (b) in each NHS board.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of emergency mental health assessment units available nationally or in each Health Board.

This notwithstanding, we can report that all Health Boards have a 24/7 mental health unscheduled care pathway in place for anyone in need of urgent mental health assessment or urgent referral to local mental health services. These pathways enable local mental health clinicians to receive referrals from the national NHS 24 Mental Health Hub and provide advice and support to frontline services such as Police Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service. They also avoid the need to attend the Emergency Department unless that is where the person needs to be cared for.

Question reference: S6W-39788

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have received support from school counsellors in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-39107

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has given to Clyde Gateway in each year since it was established, broken down by the purpose of the funding.

The Scottish Government has awarded over £213 million of regeneration funding to Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company (URC) from 2007 for the purpose of supporting the delivery of its 20-year operating plan. This includes direct support through annual capital and resource funding to develop and regenerate key sites identified in the plan, support core running costs and other activities it delivers in support of local communities.

Grant awards were made in each financial year are provided in the following table:

Financial Year	Capital funding £000	Resource funding	Comment
2006-07	3,022
2007-08	5,000
2008-09 to 2010-11	57,000		Three-year funding from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2011
2011-12	11,554	746
2012-13	17,725	1,525
2013-14	19,525	1,525
2014-15	9,290	1,850
2015-16	1,816	184
2016-17	3,070	500
2017-18	5,000	500
2018-19	5,000	500
2019-20	6,130	500
2020-21	6,000	1,000	£500k revenue funding provided to support COVID-19 response.
2021-22	9,000	500
2022-23	5,500	500
2023-24	5,000	500
2024-25	1,000	500
2025-26	3,000	500

Additionally the Scottish Government agreed to a contribution of £3.8 million in capital funding from the Net Zero portfolio in 2024-25 toward the ongoing remediation works at Shawfield.

We understand that Clyde Gateway in delivering their strategic operational plan have, since their formation in 2007, developed numerous projects to support the communities. Information on all of the grants Clyde Gateway may have received from various funding bodies supported with Scottish Government funding is not held centrally in the format requested

Question reference: S6W-39486

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 July 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Neil Gray on 23 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the number of appointments and procedures that the additional £106 million investment will provide in 2025-26.

Through our £106 million additional investment targeted at the longest waits, NHS Boards plan to deliver more than 300,000 appointments and procedures this year.

The additional appointments and procedures are expected to break down as follows:

195,000 imaging scans;
31,000 inpatient or day-case procedures; and
88,000 new outpatient appointments.

A proportion of funding will also support cancer activity and provide critical supporting services which help our NHS deliver activity including pathology, diagnostic reporting and pre-assessment.

In addition, the Government has also now committed a further £4 million to deliver extra dermatology activity, bringing total additional funding for this year to over £110 million. This will support a planned:

4,100 new outpatient appointments; and
1,500 ‘see and treat’.

This funding will also see photo-triage of up to 8,300 digital images, allowing clinicians to triage, diagnose and assess some skin conditions, leading to a better and quicker service for patients.

Today’s announcement means 213,000 more appointments will be delivered this year than in 2024-25 and exceeds our Programme for Government target of delivering 150,000 extra appointments by more than 60,000.

NHS Boards will receive their allocated funding on delivery of activity. The Scottish Government may move funding between Boards and specialities throughout the year, subject to progress.

Question reference: S6O-04849

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the findings of the latest Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, which included for the first time new questions around crimes of fraud and computer misuse.

Question reference: S6O-04665

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work that it is doing to support those affected by historic forced adoption.

Question reference: S6O-04563

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting the uptake of childhood immunisations in NHS Lanarkshire.

Question reference: S6O-04498

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that local authorities are failing to ensure compliance with animal welfare regulations in relation to Scotland-based racing greyhounds being transported to race meetings in England.

Question reference: S6W-36395

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Neil Gray on 31 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34287 by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025, which outlined specific commitments relating to NHS renewal, when it will publish the operational improvement plan setting out more detail on delivery.

I am pleased to confirm that the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan has published today: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836914556

The plan focuses on the following four critical aspects to help protect the quality and safety of care, supported by the increased investment for health and social care in the 2025-26 Scottish Budget:

improving access to treatment;
shifting the balance of care;
digital and technological innovation;
prevention.

It details how the specific commitments outlined in the answer to question S6W-34287 will be delivered – building on health boards’ own delivery planning to prioritise how services will be improved across NHS Scotland. This plan will be followed by publication of a population health framework later in the spring and a health and social care service renewal framework in June.