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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: S6T-00301

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to NHS boards that are under pressure.

Question reference: S6T-00296

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools are currently shut due to staff shortages resulting from COVID-19 cases.

Question reference: S6W-04425

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many deaths have been attributed to alcohol-related liver damage in each year since 1999.

Information about alcohol specific deaths, which includes deaths by latest cause, is published annually by National Records of Scotland. The latest data was published on 17 August.

There have been 16,917 deaths attributed to alcohol liver disease since 2000. Records prior to the year of 2000 do not include latest cause of death, so it is not possible to report the number of deaths attributed to alcohol-related liver damage for 1999 year.

More information is available on Alcohol-specific deaths | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)

Question reference: S6W-04342

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people it estimates are awaiting dental treatment as a result of the reported backlog in (a) North Ayrshire and (b) Inverclyde.

Question reference: S6W-04180

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported figures suggesting that the cumulative excess summer mortality per 100,000 people was higher in 2021 than in each of the preceding 40 years.

Covid-19 was the highest single cause of excess mortality during summer 2021. Every one of these deaths is a tragedy. All those affected by the virus have our sympathy and we are working to prevent others from experiencing that same heartbreak.

As a result of the Scottish Government’s vaccination programme and increased medical knowledge of the virus, in summer 2021 the mortality rate was far lower, despite greater transmission of the virus. We are now offering boosters to protect the population further.

We are also working to remobilise our NHS safely and will be providing over £300 million in a winter funding package to support the health of people across Scotland this winter.

Question reference: S6W-04232

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of babies that were eligible for a first health visitor check received one on time in each year since 2019.

Public Health Scotland collect and publish data on the coverage of health visitor first visits pertaining to each financial year. In 2019-20, of children who became eligible for their first health visitor review, coverage was 97.5% and in 2020/21 coverage was 97.2%.

Information for 2019/20 is available on the Public Health Scotland website in their Annual Report on Child Health Pre-School Review Coverage - https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/child-health-pre-school-review-coverage/child-health-pre-school-review-coverage-2019-to-2020/ .

The Annual Report on Child Health Pre-School Review Coverage for 2020/21 is not yet published but updated statistics on first visit coverage can be calculated using data published alongside the Public Health Scotland Infant Feeding Statistics - https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/infant-feeding-statistics/infant-feeding-statistics-financial-year-2020-to-2021/ . It should be noted that health visiting data from previous years are updated within each annual infant feeding publication, and can change slightly from earlier publications due to increased data completeness. This is mainly due to late submission of data rather than reviews being carried out very late.

Data up to and including August 2021 are available on the Public Health Scotland (PHS) wider impacts dashboard - https://scotland.shinyapps.io/phs-covid-wider-impact/ .

Public Health Scotland data does not show exactly when each review took place, only that an eligible child received the review. It is therefore not possible to say how many reviews took place between days 11 – 14 of a baby’s life (the agreed timeframe for the first visit). In determining the extent of coverage for the first visit, Public Health Scotland will calculate the percentage of eligible children who received the review by the time the data is extracted. Further detail on how coverage is calculated can be found within relevant Public Health Scotland publications.

Question reference: S6W-04072

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the expected timetable is for NHS boards to access the long COVID support fund, to help them deliver a long COVID support service.

We anticipate that the long COVID Support Fund will be allocated over the next three financial years, providing Boards with additional resource to respond in a flexible and tailored manner to the needs of people with long COVID.

Our 2021-22 Budget takes the total health portfolio funding to in excess of £16 billion, with a further £1.9 billion of funding to address pressures related to COVID-19. This substantial additional investment is already benefiting a range of NHS services which are supporting the needs of people living with long COVID.

Question reference: S6W-04264

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on researching the (a) benefits and (b) costs of gene editing, in each year since 2016.

In 2021, the Scottish Government commissioned a study from the Plant Health Centre on the implications of gene editing for plant health, including environmental impacts, at a cost of £18,441 to date.

Otherwise no funding has been committed specifically to research on the benefits and costs of gene editing since 2016. The Scottish Government has access to a wealth of expertise in its advisors, including the Chief Scientific Advisor for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, who follow the latest scientific evidence and are qualified to comment on the impacts of gene editing.

Question reference: S6W-04390

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of its plans to recruit 320 additional staff in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) over the next five years, and how many additional staff members it expects to have recruited in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, (c) 2023-24, (d) 2024-25 and (e) 2025-26.

In our NHS Recovery Plan we have committed to provide sufficient funding for around 320 additional staff in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) over the next 5 years.

Since May 2021, we have allocated approximately £40m to NHS Boards to support CAMHS and the implementation of the National CAMHS Service Specification. Through this funding, NHS Boards have started to recruit additional staff to implement the Specification and to build professional capacity to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs. NHS Boards will recruit a variety of staff in different roles, based on individual service needs.

The breakdown of CAMHS workforce is published on a quarterly basis through the NHS Education for Scotland (NES) CAMHS Workforce publication. This data can be found on the NES Turas Data Intelligence platform and provides a breakdown of staffing per NHS Board in CAMHS, including breakdown of professional role.

The Scottish Government is not responsible for the recruitment of NHS staff. It is NHS Boards’ responsibility to recruit workforce. The Scottish Government has provided guidance to NHS Boards, through the National CAMHS Service and Neurodevelopmental Specifications, on the appropriate roles and professionals expected to be employed within Boards.

Question reference: S6W-04423

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 22 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many objections it has received in response to proposals for a National Care Service.

The Scottish Government’s consultation on a National Care Service closed on 2 November, and received around 1,300 written responses. There was also significant digital and face to face engagement with members of the public throughout the consultation period.

Written responses will be published, where permission has been given, along with summary notes of points raised at the engagement events. An independent contractor has been appointed to undertake a detailed analysis of the responses and we expect to publish the analysis report in early 2022.