- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding (a) how many and (b) what proportion of patients registered with GPs in (i) Aberdeen City and (ii) Aberdeenshire who received care delivered by NHS (A) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (B) Lothian in each of the last five years were offered a “Near Me” or other form of remote consultation as an alternative.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The member may wish to contact NHS Grampian directly for this information.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many times a person has appeared in court on a charge of cruelty and unnatural treatment of children, as per the definition in the Scottish Crime Recording Standard: Crime Recording and Counting Rules, and received a (a) custodial and (b) non-custodial sentence, in each year since 2021.
Answer
The figures are provided in the following tables.
Custodial
How many times a person has appeared in court on a charge of cruelty and unnatural treatment of children, and received a custodial sentence:
Details | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
Cruelty (neglecting & causing) to & unnatural treatment of children – Total custodial | 2 | 11 | 11 |
Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database
Non-custodial sentence
How many times a person has appeared in court on a charge of cruelty and unnatural treatment of children, and received a non-custodial sentence:
Details | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
Cruelty (neglecting & causing) to & unnatural treatment of children – Total non-custodial | 71 | 90 | 153 |
Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when each of its ministers last took a ferry for official business-related travel.
Answer
Scottish Ministers can utilise ferry services for business purposes. I have included a table which provides a breakdown of the most recent ferry journeys by current Scottish Ministers.
Minister | Date of most recent ferry journey |
First Minister | 20-08-2025 |
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic | 10-03-2025 |
Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government | 17-08-2025 |
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care | 20-08-2025 |
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills | 28-03-2024 |
Cabinet Secretary for Transport | 13-08-2025 |
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands | 16-07-2024 |
Cabinet Secretary for Housing | 19-05-2023 |
Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans | 24-05-2023 |
Minister for Business and Employment | 10-04-2024 |
Minister for Public Finance | 03-11-2025 |
Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity | 13-08-2025 |
Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health | 09-11-2025 |
Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing | 17-07-2024 |
Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy and Sport | 24-03-2024 |
Please note that we proactively publish information on ministerial travel, which can be found on the Scottish Government website: https:--www.gov.scot-collections-ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts-.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the number of funded
patient escorts, such as spouses, other family members and support workers, who accompanied patients registered
with GPs in (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire who received care delivered
by NHS (i) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (ii) Lothian in each of the last five
years, broken down by (A) travel, (B) accommodation and (C) subsistence costs.
Answer
The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government.
While the Scottish Government provides the overall guidance to NHS Boards for the patient travel expenses reimbursement schemes, individual Boards are responsible for developing and applying their own policies and for determining patient and escort eligibility. The cost of travel funded/refunded under the schemes is met from Boards’ budgets.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on any changes to eligibility rules or reimbursement rates for patient travel and accommodation in the last five years, and what impact these have had on the projected budget for 2025-26.
Answer
The Scottish Government provides the overarching guidance to NHS Boards for patient travel expenses reimbursement and there has been no change to that guidance in the last 5 years. The Scottish Government has committed to a review of this overarching patient travel expenses reimbursement guidance. However, a start date for the review is not confirmed at this time; it is important that the review is considered within the context of wider reform on access to health care which is already in progress.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the types of clinical care areas for which patients registered with GPs in (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire travelled to receive care delivered by NHS (i) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (ii) Lothian in each of the last five years, broken down by speciality.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The member may wish to contact NHS Grampian directly for this information.
- Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what funding was allocated by its Health Directorate to eye health research in each year since 2019-20.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) supports open competitive grant and fellowship schemes for applied health research in Scotland across a wide remit. This remit is inclusive of consideration of applications for funding for research on eye health. Applications submitted to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees.
Funding awarded through these schemes in the years from 2019 - 2025 for research relating to eye health has included:
Competitive grant and fellowship schemes
Year funding committed | Total funding awarded (£) |
2021 | 73,000 |
2022 | 237,062 |
2024 | 699,466 |
2025 | 97,000 |
CSO also provides funding to support NHS Research Scotland (NRS) infrastructure, enabling NHS Boards to host and participate in clinical studies and trials funded by public, charitable, and industry sectors. This includes dedicated support for a NRS Ophthalmology Research Network, which facilitates the setup and delivery of Ophthalmology clinical studies across Scotland. Annual funding for this network is shown in the following table:
NRS Ophthalmology Research Network
Financial Year | CSO Funding (£) |
2019-20 | 14,404 |
2020-21 | 14,404 |
2021-22 | 14,821 |
2022-23 | 18,000 |
2023-24 | 19,000 |
2024-25 | 20,000 |
2025-26 | 21,000 |
In addition, CSO contributes financially to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in order that NIHR research programmes are open to applications from researchers in Scotland. These programmes also provide research funding opportunities for eye health research.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many adult social care packages have been (a) initiated and (b) cancelled within each (i) NHS board and (ii) local authority area in each of the last five years.
Answer
(a) Data on the number of adult social care packages which have been initiated is not held centrally.
Numbers of new personal care clients were previously collected and published annually until 2022-23. Data was based on one quarter of data (January to March), each year and was available at local authority (LA) level, although not all LAs were able to provide the information:
Social care: eligibility criteria and waiting times Scotland 2022-2023 - gov.scot.
Due to difficulties faced by LAs in providing the data requested, including issues with consistency and comprehensiveness, this data collection has been paused while SG work with Public Health Scotland to explore ways to obtain more robust data.
(b) Data on adult social care packages which have been cancelled is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the reasons for any applications to the Future Farming Investment Scheme not being approved.
Answer
There were many reasons why applications were not considered eligible for grant supporting. These were:
- One or more items applied for not fundable (multiple unrelated items applied for as a single entry/incomplete description/no supporting animals for item/no lengths, areas etc.)
- Application email provided was not valid
- Business declared their business didn't deliver any of the Scottish Governments Vision for Agriculture
- Failed the Active Farmer/Crofter BPS test
- No other Support Scheme Claims
- No Single Application Form Submitted
- Not Registered & Approved for Funding
- Didn't Comply With Whole Farm Plan requirements for BPS
- Payment Holds Applied To Business
- Agricultural Area Less than 3 hectares
- Previous Capital Grant Scheme Claim Refused
- Declared New Entrant but evidence showed not meeting FFIS definition
- Declared Young Farmer but evidence showed not meeting FFIS definition
- Declared Organic Land but evidence showed not meeting FFIS definition
- Declared they were a medium sized business to obtain higher grant than entitled to
- Declared they were a large business to obtain higher grant than entitled to
- Declared they were a small business but farmed area greater than 30 hectares
- Declared that more than 50% of their agricultural business was on a tenancy but wasn't
- Declared they were island based but weren’t
- Did not declare previous SACGS/CAGS Payment
- Recoverability Safeguard Not Passed (level of outstanding debt to SG)
- Applied for more than their maximum grant eligibility
Businesses that were eligible were then scored against the schemes objectives: business efficiency, business sustainability, environmental protection, greenhouse gas reduction, climate adaptation, as well as public good.
FFIS was a competitive scheme and businesses which met all verification checks and scored highest against scheme objectives were ultimately granted funding.
- Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many civil servants were assigned to process applications to the Future Farming Investment Scheme.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to S6W-41743 on 18 November 2025. 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.