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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-15340

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many post-foundation specialty training post vacancies for junior doctors in NHS Scotland have not been filled in each year since 2018.

Question reference: S6W-15061

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the current average length of time is for which agreed interim care placements are in place, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-15117

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been employed in cancer diagnostic and treatment services in each NHS board in each year since 1999.

The information requested on how many people have been employed in cancer diagnostic and treatment services in each NHS board in each year since 1999 is not held by the Scottish Government. Healthcare professionals involved in diagnostics and treatment are not always exclusively dedicated to one disease group such as cancer.

Information on staff in post from 2012 onwards, broken down by NHS Board, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Question reference: S6W-15118

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans will be included in its new cancer strategy to develop a workforce plan for cancer diagnostic and treatment services.

We are considering workforce as one of the key pillars in our new cancer strategy, which we anticipate will be published in spring this year. The cancer strategy will align with the Health and Social Care: National Workforce Strategy, published in 2022.

A public consultation was held early on in the process of developing the new strategy, which included engagement with professionals working in cancer services.

Question reference: S6W-15087

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what specific support it is providing to staff employed by the Glasgow Lighthouse Lab who are at risk of redundancy.

Scottish Government Officials have had contact with representatives of the University of Glasgow and met with representatives of UNITE on 10 January to discuss recent developments in respect of the Glasgow Lighthouse Lab which is contracted by the UK Government until March 2023 to undertake processing of PCR tests as part of the COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS). The CIS is outwith the control of the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government has provided support to affected University of Glasgow staff through its Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative and will continue to provide such support to any impacted staff as may be required.

Question reference: S6W-14734

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) children and (b) adults have received hospital or hospice at home support in each year since 1999.

Public Health Scotland collect Management Information on the number of adults receiving Hospital at Home. However, no data is collected on children receiving this service or on patients receiving a Hospice at home services, although some of the patients receiving hospital at home may be receiving end of life care.

The following table shows the total number of adults (16+) who have been supported through Hospital at Home services by calendar year and Health Board, and shows a 60% increase in patients treated since 2015. A patient could have one or more admission to Hospital at Home services within the year. However, individual episodes are not counted, and the same patient is not counted more than once within the same year.

Health Board	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022 p
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	134
NHS Borders	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	41
NHS Fife	174	1,594	1,784	1,679	1,459	1,379	1,285	1,232	937
NHS Forth Valley	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	372	300
NHS Grampian	-	-	-	-	91	*	325	444	636
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	219
NHS Lanarkshire	249	1,631	2,325	2,514	2,527	2,506	2,388	2,329	1,842
NHS Lothian	-	1,084	1,557	1,868	2,060	2,304	2,415	2,423	2,407
NHS Orkney	-	-	-	-	-	*	-	-	-
NHS Tayside	-	-	-	-	-	-	119	218	227
NHS Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	*	154
Scotland	423	4,309	5,666	6,061	6,137	6,504	6,584	7,135	6,897

The data was extracted from SMR01_HAH_PI, February 2023.

(*) indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure and to help maintain patient confidentiality.

(-) indicates values that are zero.

Figures for 2022 are provisional (p) and subject to change.

Source: Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6W-14717

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve access to homecare medicines services.

National Procurement (NP), part of NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), with representation from Health Boards, have regular performance management meetings with homecare providers to review key performance metrics and to agree and track progress against recovery plans.

Where a particular provider is experiencing service disruption, Health Boards will seek to register patients, where feasible, with alternative providers to help reduce demand on the affected provider. A challenge over the past year has been that multiple providers have experienced staffing issues which has created market-wide capacity constraints.

Question reference: S6W-15088

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will take action to prevent the closure of the Glasgow Lighthouse Lab, in light of it reportedly being Scotland's flagship COVID-19 testing facility.

Question reference: S6W-15139

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve outcomes for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Scottish Government has funded Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP) which has a specific workstream continuing to promote improvements in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) care for patients across Scotland in partnership with third-sector and people with lived experience. Scotland’s national IBD Steering Group has identified priority areas for work over the next two years. This includes consideration of referral pathways and models of IBD care to drive a more standardised and equitable service across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-15060

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the number of patients there currently are who have (a) been offered and (b) agreed to an interim care placement without the relevant Health and Social Care Partnership having put an interim care plan in place, broken down by local authority area.

	Advertised	Filled	Fill Rate	Unfilled
2018	1,125	958	85%	167
2019	1,096	1,015	93%	81
2020	1,062	1,015	96%	47
2021	1,088	1,020	94%	68
2022	1,155	1,073	93%	82