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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-26924

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with allied health professional organisations, and what was discussed.

Carolyn McDonald, in her capacity as Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (CAHPO) met most recently with the Allied Health Professions Federation Scotland (AHPFS) on 3 April, 2024. Discussion included the National Care Service, Education, Government Consultations and Representation. The CAPHO and the Scottish Government will continue to engage with relevant Allied Health Professional Bodies and Organisations on a regular basis.

Question reference: S6W-26937

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the outcome of the consultation on the licensing of activities involving animals, and what next steps it will take.

Question reference: S6W-26921

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have asked to access their medical records in (a) the last 12 months and (b) each of the previous 10 years.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Requests for access to medical records is a function conferred in law to the data controllers. NHS Scotland is made up of a federated group of independent organisations including health boards, GP Practices, Dentists, Opticians and other health services providers, each of whom may be individual data controllers depending on the specific information.

Question reference: S6W-26878

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to use the Medium Term Financial Strategy to ensure greater certainty and security for the voluntary sector in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-26761

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are currently waiting for an initial assessment of hearing loss in each NHS board area, also broken down by what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time for such an assessment is in each NHS board.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) does not hold the information requested.

PHS uses the national waiting times datamart to collect electronic patient records covering the waits that patients experience waiting for a new outpatient appointment at a consultant led clinic. If a patient has been referred to a hearing loss clinic led by an audiologist, then those waits are not captured in the national dataset. On occasions where patients are referred directly to be assessed by an ear, nose & throat (ENT) consultant then those waits are included in the official statistics reported for ENT in the following link.

However, the data captured nationally does not allow for the identification of specific clinics and services within any specialty. https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/25286/newop_feb24.xlsx

Question reference: S6W-26770

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government where the reported unspent money, which was originally allocated to the Bus Partnership Fund, will be spent.

The £500 million investment in bus priority infrastructure to tackle the negative impacts of congestion on bus services is over the longer term.

The Bus Partnership Fund is the first step towards delivering this investment which will extend beyond the term of this parliament.

Following the United Kingdom autumn statement delivering the worst-case scenario for Scotland and a nearly 9 per cent real-terms cut in our capital budget from the UK Government, the Scottish Government had to take difficult decisions to deliver a balanced and sustainable spending plan for 2024-25. As such, regrettably, the Bus Partnership Fund has been paused for 2024-25. However, future funding availability will be considered as part of our annual budget-setting process and prioritisation exercises.

Question reference: S6W-26797

Asked by: Ivan McKee, MSP for Glasgow Provan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many Waterborne Freight Grants have been awarded in the past five financial years, including 2023-24; which organisations or businesses were successful in receiving funding, and how much each recipient received in each year.

Question reference: S6W-26900

Asked by: John Swinney, MSP for Perthshire North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of staff currently employed by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner were previously serving police officers.

Question reference: S6W-26901

Asked by: John Swinney, MSP for Perthshire North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff are currently employed by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, and in what roles.

The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner employs 95 members of staff as detailed in the following table.

PIRC Team	Number of Staff	Roles
Operations	1	Director of Operations (1)
Legal Services	1	Head of Legal Services (1)
Reviews and Policy	17	Head of Reviews and Policy (1) Senior Reviews Officers (4) Review Officers (10) Administrators (2)
Investigations	62	Head of Investigations (1) Senior Investigators (4) Deputy Senior Investigators (10) Investigators (39) Technical Investigators (2) Crime & Performance Analyst (1) Reports Manager (1) Senior Administrator (1) Administrators (3)
Corporate Services	14	Head of Corporate Services (1) Executive Assistant Commissioner (1) Communications Manager (1) Communications Officer (2) Corporate Services Manager (1) Corporate Services Officer (1) Information Manager (1) Information Coordinator (1) Finance Manager (1) Finance Officer (1) HR Officer (1) HR Administrator (1) Training Coordinator (1)

Question reference: S6W-26904

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is reviewing the performance of the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme.

Since the Under 22s Scheme launched in January 2022, over 130 million free bus journeys have been made by over 700,000 cardholders across Scotland. This landmark policy is already helping young people and families with children cut costs for everyday and leisure travel, while at the same time helping to protect our climate. Scotland-wide free bus travel schemes for Young People and for Older and Disabled people provide access to free bus travel to a larger percentage of the population than schemes elsewhere in the UK.

In line with other travel/transport schemes, Transport Scotland are conducting process, impact and outcome evaluations of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel scheme.

A baseline study to establish travel behaviour and seek to understand the attitudes and perceptions of young people towards travel was undertaken prior to implementation of the scheme. This report was published on the Transport Scotland website on 24 June 2022. Following this, a Year One Evaluation of the scheme was conducted between April and August 2023 and the report was published on the Transport Scotland website on 14 December 2023.

The next stage of the evaluation of the scheme is planned for 2025, three years after opening, and will focus on longer-term impacts of the scheme and whether any behaviour change has been sustained.