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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-26680

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce waiting times for clinical assessment for suspected hernias in NHS Lanarkshire.

As set out in answer S6W-26679 on 23 April 2024, excessively long waits are, of course, unacceptable. We are working hard to drive down the longest waits, which have been exacerbated by the impacts of the global pandemic, to ensure all people receive the treatment they need as soon as possible. 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 .

The commitments set out in our £1bn NHS Recovery Plan support an increase in inpatient, day-case, and outpatient activity through the implementation of sustainable improvements and new models of care, and NHS Scotland’s Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is working with Health Boards to ensure that they are able to continually identify new ways to increase capacity, and to respond to demand through service innovation and redesign.

CfSD programmes have developed strong clinically-led Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG), including one for General Surgery which is currently focused on Inguinal Hernia, Biliary Disease, and Emergency Laparoscopic and Laparotomy Scottish Audit (ELLSA) pathways.

SDGs promote multidisciplinary team working, and support local adoption of service improvement programmes and have supported several new and innovative pathway developments, many of which are now being successfully scaled up across Scotland, including Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT).

The NHS Golden Jubilee also continues to provide Health Boards, including NHS Lanarkshire, with capacity for key elective services, such as General Surgery, with patients treated on the basis of their clinical priority and length of wait.

Question reference: S6W-26669

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is putting in place for any patients with diabetes who have taken part in a hybrid closed loop system study and have recently been informed that they must revert to their previous care once the study has completed, due to a lack of funding.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living with diabetes is able to access the care that they need to live their lives well. This includes increasing access to diabetes technologies.

Between 2016 and 2022, we invested £29.6 million specifically to support the increased provision of diabetes technologies. It is important to note that this funding is in addition to baseline funding for NHS Boards.

We continue to work closely with Diabetes Managed Clinical Networks, including NHS Lothian, to identify and resolve any issues raised by NHS Boards regarding accessing diabetes technologies.

Question reference: S6W-26811

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether its final response to the Review of the Effectiveness of Environmental Governance will incorporate evidence recently submitted to the Scottish Parliament's Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee by Environmental Standards Scotland, the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland and the Law Society of Scotland, specifically regarding whether an environmental court could enhance governance arrangements.

The final Scottish Government response will take into account the views provided by stakeholders in their written consultation responses on the main issues of the report, including an environment court, which reflects the evidence that was provided to the Net Zero, Energy, and Transport Committee. The Scottish Government will continue to engage with stakeholders on environmental governance and environmental justice.

Question reference: S6W-26670

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to each NHS board in each of the last three years to support an increase in the provision of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors.

In the last three years, the Scottish Government has invested £19.6 million of additional funding specifically to increase the provision of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors. This funding consisted of £5.1 million in 2020 to 2021 and £14.5 million in 2021 to 2022. It was allocated based on the percentage of patients with Type 1 diabetes within each given NHS Board area relative to the Scottish population. This data was taken from the Scottish Diabetes Survey 2020, which can be found here: https://www.diabetesinscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Diabetes-Scottish-Diabetes-Survey-2020.pdf .

The £5.1 million of additional funding in 2020 to 2021 was allocated as per the breakdown below:

Health Board	Total funding
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	£308,700
NHS Borders	£91,325
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	£123,625
NHS Fife	£293,550
NHS Forth Valley	£252,725
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	£872,025
NHS Grampian	£461,050
NHS Highland	£279,975
NHS Lanarkshire	£581,100
NHS Lothian	£663,275
NHS Orkney	£17,150
NHS Shetland	£19,675
NHS Tayside	£298,600
NHS Western Isles	£24,725
Total excluding VAT	£4,287,500
Total including VAT	£5,145,000

The £14.5 million of additional funding in 2021 to 2022 was allocated as per breakdown below:

Health Board	Total funding
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	£824,253
NHS Borders	£269,404
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	£371,118
NHS Fife	£832,513
NHS Forth Valley	£719,165
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	£2,478,769
NHS Grampian	£1,327,914
NHS Highland	£808,477
NHS Lanarkshire	£1,669,927
NHS Lothian	£1,886,890
NHS Orkney	£46,940
NHS Shetland	£49,008
NHS Tayside	£849,048
NHS Western Isles	£66,577
Total excluding VAT	£12,200,000
Total including VAT	£14,640,000

It is important to note that this funding was in addition to and not a replacement for local budgets. As you will be aware, the Scottish Government provides baseline funding to NHS Boards, and it is for individual Boards to determine how best to utilise this funding to meet the needs and priorities of their local populations. This includes ensuring those with Type 1 diabetes have access to the most appropriate treatment and care, including diabetes technologies.

Question reference: S6W-26757

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what additional services could be provided by high street ophthalmologists that could alleviate the reported current pressure on hospital and GP services.

There is only one high street ophthalmologist (ophthalmic medical practitioner) listed to provide General Ophthalmic Services in Scotland.

However, community optometrists have been increasing their role to support the care of NHS patients and this is continuing. NHS Education for Scotland funded training is enabling more optometrists to become independent prescribers each year resulting in more care for patients without the need for hospital referral or general practice support. Scotland is also the first country in the UK to embed independent prescribing into the undergraduate optometry course from this autumn.

Additionally, community optometrists are also becoming accredited around Scotland to safely manage the care of patients with lower risk glaucoma, enabling the discharge of these patients to high quality care nearer to home, freeing up much needed hospital eye service capacity.

Question reference: S6W-26787

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of recent reports that its student teacher intake target was missed in 19 out of 20 subjects, and that 10 out of 20 subjects were unable to attract 50% of their target numbers.

This relates to indicative figures provided by universities at the start of the academic session. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) will publish the 2023-24 academic year Official Statistics data in 2025. These will provide the most accurate figures on enrolments into modern language Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes.

This information is informing the work of Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is considering issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail, together with work to improving the promotion of teaching as a valued career.

Both the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council have offered to work with universities to develop alternative routes into subjects which have traditionally been difficult to recruit to.

Question reference: S6W-26672

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of patients with diabetes it anticipates will be offered the option to transfer to a hybrid closed loop system as part of their insulin management during the financial year 2024-25, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-26558

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much total funding is made available to colleges to deliver apprenticeships.

In 2022-23 Skills Development Scotland provided Colleges with funding of £11,927,213 for the delivery of Modern Apprenticeships.

In addition, Colleges utilise credits to support the delivery of Modern Apprenticeships. Any credits used by colleges must comply with the Credit Guidance issued by the Scottish Funding Council.

In 2022-23 the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland provided Colleges £10,501,763 for the delivery of Foundation Apprenticeships.

Question reference: S6W-26559

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much total funding is made available to independent learning providers to deliver apprenticeships.

Question reference: S6O-03384

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the rural affairs secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding what steps it can take to protect horticultural workers on seasonal worker visas from unfair work practices and substandard accommodation.