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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-15938

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many cyber-attacks have been recorded on (a) its and (b) its agencies’ computer and data systems since January 2021, and, in each case, what the suspected source was, and to what extent the attack (i) gained information and (ii) damaged systems.

1. The National Cyber Security Centre advises Government departments to withhold specific information that may provide insight into the likelihood of success of specific cyber techniques and the Scottish Government follows this advice.
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2. The Scottish Government is not a formal reporting agency for cyber incidents or cyber attacks, which means that agencies are not obliged to report any cyber incidents or attacks they experience to us. However, we encourage any Scottish public body that does experience a cyber incident to notify the Scottish Government Cyber Resilience Unit under the voluntary Scottish Public Sector Notifiable Cyber Incident Procedure so that we can ensure that all relevant and necessary support can be provided.
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Between January 2021 and 17 March 2023 we were notified of 26 cyber incidents under this procedure.

Question reference: S6W-15505

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will disclose any guidance provided to NHS boards on how to (a) attract and (b) retain (i) medical and (ii) non-medical staff.

Guidance is provided by the Scottish Government to Health Boards which is publicly available on the following website SHOW - SGHSC - Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates including guidance on matters in relation to attraction and retention of medical and non-medical staff. The Centre for Workforce Supply, hosted by NHS Education for Scotland works with Health Boards to support the building of workforce capacity.

Question reference: S6W-15722

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 17 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the information set out at paragraphs 2.161 and 2.162 on page 59 of its document, A Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland: Full Business Case Stage 1, how it calculated the value of the "Commercial value of advertising space at RVMs" at £26 million; whether it will publish its workings and assumptions for calculating this figure; what its position is on whether the figure will still be accurate in August 2023; what £26 million of benefits from "Commercial value of advertising space at RVMs" being "allocated to society" means; who specifically will receive the £26 million, and, in light of this document being published in May 2019, whether it is now better able to assess who will benefit from commercial advertising on Reverse Vending Machines.

Question reference: S6W-15508

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it promotes the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of NHS staff local to their area in primary care, and what guidance it provides to NHS boards on (i) attracting and (ii) retaining (A) medical and (B) non-medical staff from local candidate pools.

Responsibility for service delivery, including recruitment and retention of medical and non-medical staff in primary care, sits locally with Health Boards and health and social care partnerships and their GP practices.

The Scottish Government recognises that in order to attract health and social care staff locally, it is important that locally accessible training opportunities are provided at an early stage. The NHS Scotland Youth Academy host regional huddle groups that are focused on raising awareness and attracting young people/parents into health and social care careers.

Question reference: S6W-15511

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many district nurses have been employed by the NHS in each of the last five years, and what its position is on the provision of regular district nurse visits to people over 65.

The number of district nurses working in NHS Scotland in each of the last five years can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence .

The Scottish Government does not direct NHS Boards to ensure that their district nurses and their teams undertake routine, planned visits to over 65s, however it is possible that such visits take place in some parts of the country. The roles of district nurses and their teams was described in the Transforming Roles District Nursing paper, which can be found here Supporting documents - Transforming nursing, midwifery and health professionals roles: district nursing roles - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Question reference: S6W-15506

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide any analysis that it has undertaken in the last five years of the effectiveness of the (a) recruitment and (b) retention policies of NHS boards.

NHS Scotland’s staffing levels are at a historic high, staffing levels have grown by over 2,900 whole time equivalent, permanent staff, representing ten years of consecutive growth.

NHS Boards are responsible for ensuring they have local policies in place to effectively recruit and retain staff. We support this through our National Workforce Strategy, which outlines the actions we will take in partnership with boards to plan, attract, train, employ and nurture the health and social care workforce.

NHS Education Scotland publishes official workforce statistics on the NHS workforce, providing evidence of the effectiveness of recruitment and retention policies of NHS Boards.

Question reference: S6W-15507

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the latest data showing the retention rate of (a) nurses and (b) doctors in the NHS.

The information requested on providing the latest data showing the retention rate of (a) nurses and (b) doctors in the NHS is not centrally available.

Information on vacancies by the three main staff groups, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The turnover rate for all staff across NHS Scotland in 2021/22 was 8.1%.

Question reference: S6W-15510

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken in the last five years on the impact of noise pollution on health.

Through Scotland’s implementation of the European Commission Environmental Noise Directive (Directive 2002/49/EC), Scottish Government ministers have a responsibility to produce noise maps of Scotland every five years. The fourth round of noise mapping is currently being undertaken. Action plans for the current round of noise mapping will be submitted in 2024 and will include the provision of information, consultation, and ultimate decision making on the issues of noise management.

Question reference: S6W-15509

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the importance of (a) medical and (b) non-medical staff in the NHS attending schools within the vicinity of their workplace to encourage local pupils to pursue a career in healthcare.

The Scottish Government recognises the value of encouraging pupils to pursue a career in healthcare. We have commissioned the Centre for Workforce Supply to develop an NHS Scotland marketing strategy to promote the NHS as an attractive employer.

We remain committed to supporting youth recruitment utilising our Developing the Young Workforce Strategy and the Young Person’s Guarantee.

We also support any initiative which encourages school pupils to consider a career in medicine. For example, Aberdeen University’s ‘Health Studies in Education’ programme which places medical students in local schools for a period of 6 weeks has been successful in establishing long term relationships between schools and the University, as well as providing a platform to introduce further activities including mentoring.

Question reference: S6O-02037

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that there is sufficient police presence throughout the north east.