Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-22091

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital pharmacists have been employed in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.

Information on how many hospital pharmacists have been employed in each NHS board area in each year since 2012, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot .

Data is not held from before 2012. The following figures include all pharmacists working in any territorial board, in Acute, Mental Health, or in a Community Hospital setting. It excludes ‘central staff’ since some of these were employed in primary care, but includes Golden Jubilee National Hospital and National Waiting Times Centre staff. Figures provided are head count.

NHS Board	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Ayrshire & Arran	61	66	70	66	78	65	74	70	67	67	86
Borders	14	12	11	14	14	12	15	15	14	15	16
Dumfries & Galloway	18	17	19	20	20	18	23	24	27	18	23
Fife	29	24	30	35	36	52	43	42	49	52	53
Forth Valley	37		36	36	38	42	42	42	38	35	45
Grampian	74	77	70	87	84	85	90	84	88	95	87
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	203	296	245	236	236	238	241	222	233	239	236
Highland	49		53	47	46	43	45	46	44	41	46
Lanarkshire	82	83	82	82	87	90	95	100	98	97	91
Lothian	137	152	162	151	159	163	175	146	167	172	171
Orkney		2	2	2	3	3	3	2	3	4	4
Shetland		3	2	1	3	3	3	3	4	3	3
Tayside	70	69	67	71	69	68	78	68	68	76	70
Western Isles	3	66	4	4	3	4	5	4	4	4	5
GJNH / National Waiting Times Centre	11	9	12	13	16	17	17	19	19	20	19
National total	788	810	865	865	892	903	949	887	923	938	955

Question reference: S6W-22070

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many women have had to travel outside their NHS board area for an abortion in each year since 2019-20, also broken down by the patients' NHS board.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) data is provided below on numbers of patients receiving abortion treatment in a Health Board other than their Board of residence.

It is not possible to distinguish how many patients had to receive treatment in another Health Board or how many chose to do so.

Number of terminations where Board of treatment is different from Board of residence, Scotland, 2019 to 2022.

Health board of residence	2019	2020	2021	2022 (Provisional)
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	15	8	7	9
NHS Borders	*	*	*	*
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	*	*	*	*
NHS Fife	82	73	84	85
NHS Forth Valley	12	23	14	12
NHS Grampian	11	*	10	*
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	9	6	8	8
NHS Highland	116	131	158	144
NHS Lanarkshire	348	343	266	273
NHS Lothian	5	10	6	8
NHS Tayside	9	14	11	14
Island Boards	53	45	37	45
Total	665	660	605	605

Excludes terminations where board of residence is not known or terminations were carried out privately.

* Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure.

Question reference: S6W-22071

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether its ministers have engaged with any of their counterparts in Northern Ireland, Wales and England about introducing abortion clinic buffer zones in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-21923

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent research from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which reportedly found that 58% of people surveyed in Scotland think that mental health services receive too little of the healthcare budget.

The survey by the Royal College of Psychiatrists describes some of the issues with current mental health service provision that we are working hard to improve. The recent Audit Scotland report concluded that our new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy "recognises the importance of a whole system approach to supporting mental health and wellbeing and provides a foundation for better joint working ". The Mental Health Strategy Delivery Plan and Workforce Action Plan will be published in the coming weeks, and these will set out the actions we intend to take to address many of the issues across the whole system.

Mental health spending by NHS Boards has doubled in cash terms rising from £651 million in 2006-07 to £1.3 billion in 2021-22. Spend on mental health represents around 8.8% of total NHS expenditure. We have committed that 10% of the total frontline NHS budget should be spent on mental health by the end of this parliamentary session.

NHS Boards will draw funding for mental health services from the overall funds allocated to them by the Scottish Government. I expect NHS Boards to work with their Integration Joint Board and other partners to make local budget decisions which reflect the national mental health priority and ensure the provision of local services which meet the assessed needs of their populations.

Question reference: S6W-22542

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 October 2023
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 October 2023

To ask Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on phase 3 of the Learning Estate Investment Programme.

I am pleased to announce that the successful Learning Estate Investment Programme Phase 3 projects are as follows:

1. Hazlehead Academy (Aberdeen City)

2. Mull Campus (Argyll and Bute)

3. Lochies ASN School (Clackmannanshire)

4. Lenzie Academy (East Dunbartonshire)

5. Carrongrange ASN School extension (Falkirk)

6. Forres Academy (Moray)

7. Chryston High School extension (North Lanarkshire)

8. Kirkwall ASN Centre (Orkney)

9. Brae Campus (Shetland)

10. Riverside and Letham Primary School (West Lothian)

I am grateful for all the bids that local authorities submitted. This newest phase of investment through our Learning Estate Investment Programme will continue to support local authorities, who maintain statutory responsibility for the school estate, to build modern, state of the art, learning environments.

The decision will mean that every local authority which has submitted a bid through the Learning Estate Investment Programme has now received funding for a project in Phases 1, 2 or 3.

The £2 billion Learning Estate Investment Programme follows on from the successful £1.8 billion Scotland’s Schools for the Future Programme, which delivered 117 new or refurbished learning facilities across Scotland.

As a direct result of Scottish Government investment, the proportion of schools in “good” or “satisfactory” condition has increased from 61% in April 2007 to 90.7% in April 2023.

We will now take forward further engagement and collaboration with COSLA to explore how we can address the remaining sub-standard condition schools, and schools required due to population growth, which remain a priority for local authorities across the country.

Question reference: S6W-22230

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many freight sailings there were on routes from Aberdeen on the Northern Isles Ferry Services contract with Serco NorthLink, from January 2019 to date, broken down by month.

Freight Sailings from Aberdeen

	Jan-19	Feb-19	Mar-19	Apr-19	May-19	Jun-19	Jul-19	Aug-19	Sep-19	Oct-19	Nov-19	Dec-19
Aberdeen - Lerwick	13	18	18	14	14	13	13	14	11	14	12	8
Aberdeen - Lerwick via Kirkwall	5	4	4	4	5	7	9	9	7	8	9	6
Aberdeen - Kirkwall	2	4	5	5	4	5	4	4	13	7	4	6

	Jan-20	Feb-20	Mar-20	Apr-20	May-20	Jun-20	Jul-20	Aug-20	Sep-20	Oct-20	Nov-20	Dec-20
Aberdeen - Lerwick	10	11	15	17	18	15	18	14	13	13	11	9
Aberdeen - Lerwick via Kirkwall	3	3	3	1	0	3	5	7	9	9	7	6
Aberdeen - Kirkwall	4	4	7	8	9	5	4	5	11	6	6	6

	Jan-21	Feb-21	Mar-21	Apr-21	May-21	Jun-21	Jul-21	Aug-21	Sep-21	Oct-21	Nov-21	Dec-21
Aberdeen - Lerwick	6	8	22	11	13	12	19	14	13	13	10	12
Aberdeen - Lerwick via Kirkwall	4	3	5	5	4	9	4	7	8	8	8	6
Aberdeen - Kirkwall	4	4	4	3	4	3	4	5	12	8	4	5

	Jan-22	Feb-22	Mar-22	Apr-22	May-22	Jun-22	Jul-22	Aug-22	Sep-22	Oct-22	Nov-22	Dec-22
Aberdeen - Lerwick	12	10	16	15	13	14	13	13	13	13	10	12
Aberdeen - Lerwick via Kirkwall	4	4	6	7	6	10	9	9	7	8	7	6
Aberdeen - Kirkwall	4	6	4	4	5	3	5	4	12	10	5	3

	Jan-23	Feb-23	Mar-23	Apr-23	May-23	Jun-23	Jul-23	Aug-23	Sep-23
Aberdeen - Lerwick	12	15	19	13	13	13	15	13	13
Aberdeen - Lerwick via Kirkwall	7	6	7	8	9	9	10	10	9
Aberdeen - Kirkwall	5	5	4	5	9	8	6	4	12

Question reference: S6W-22228

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the (a) crewing levels and (b) frequency of ferry services between the mainland and the Orkney Islands.

A transport appraisal of passenger and freight ferry services between the Northern Isles and the Scottish mainland, in line with the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG), was undertaken in 2016-2017 to inform the specification of the Northern Isles Ferry Services contract awarded in 2020. The study report is published here:

final-report-appraisal-of-options-for-specification-of-2018-northern-isles-ferry-services-april-2018.pdf (transport.gov.scot)

Crewing is a matter for the ferry operators.

Question reference: S6W-21974

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) music, drama and art and (b) science teachers have been employed in secondary schools in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by local authority area.

The number of Full-time Equivalent (FTE) Secondary Teachers with Music, Drama or Art as their main subject taught, broken down by local authority, is shown in Table A. FTE teacher numbers with Science as the main subject taught are shown in Table B. Science includes the following subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Science (general).

Teacher FTE numbers for individual subjects in Secondary schools are published in Table 8.9 in the annual Teacher Census Supplementary statistics available from https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/ .

Table A: Secondary school teachers (FTE) with Art & Design, Music or Drama as main subject taught by local authority [Note 1][Note 2]

	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Aberdeen City	80	78	72	72	67	72	77	78	75	85
Aberdeenshire	110	108	111	100	105	105	109	112	116	116
Angus	53	49	51	49	52	53	54	55	53	53
Argyll and Bute	48	50	53	49	46	49	47	48	44	44
City of Edinburgh	146	140	144	145	144	143	159	160	170	173
Clackmannanshire	20	20	18	22	20	20	19	20	19	22
Dumfries and Galloway	78	80	75	72	74	76	77	73	73	68
Dundee City	68	62	60	62	61	63	65	62	68	67
East Ayrshire	56	53	54	53	58	55	58	57	59	54
East Dunbartonshire	57	58	60	65	65	66	66	73	74	72
East Lothian	43	42	43	45	43	46	45	44	47	46
East Renfrewshire	67	66	71	68	75	71	79	72	76	79
Falkirk	75	75	78	89	88	85	89	92	98	95
Fife	185	177	179	180	169	178	171	173	182	176
Glasgow City	221	218	216	227	245	248	263	268	288	284
Highland	111	106	105	98	102	104	105	103	108	108
Inverclyde	36	37	35	37	36	38	38	39	41	36
Midlothian	42	43	42	42	42	43	50	47	52	52
Moray	42	42	39	39	37	38	40	42	45	46
Na h-Eileanan Siar	14	12	11	12	13	12	13	12	11	11
North Ayrshire	65	63	60	62	68	67	67	71	67	76
North Lanarkshire	171	174	176	175	176	178	180	192	200	192
Orkney Islands	12	12	14	13	13	14	12	13	12	14
Perth and Kinross	60	58	57	64	62	66	62	70	70	73
Renfrewshire	80	80	79	76	75	76	78	86	92	82
Scottish Borders	44	41	41	42	46	51	50	51	51	52
Shetland Islands	14	14	12	11	11	11	11	12	13	13
South Ayrshire	47	44	41	41	42	46	45	52	55	59
South Lanarkshire	161	160	159	163	164	164	172	187	186	184
Stirling	45	43	41	40	38	44	41	43	42	44
West Dunbartonshire	43	43	41	41	44	41	46	42	41	40
West Lothian	86	82	80	83	85	87	82	87	90	90
All local authorities	2,372	2,326	2,318	2,337	2,361	2,409	2,469	2,534	2,617	2,607
Grant aided schools	5	5	5	5	5	4	4	4	5	4
Scotland Total	2,377	2,331	2,323	2,342	2,366	2,413	2,473	2,539	2,623	2,612

Note 1: This does not include head teachers or depute head teachers.

Note 2: Includes Art and Design, Music, Drama, Speech and Drama .

Table B: Secondary school teachers (FTE) with Science as main subject taught by local authority [Note 3][Note 4]

	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Aberdeen City	94	92	92	93	91	97	98	103	115	121
Aberdeenshire	154	153	161	163	166	163	165	168	175	177
Angus	75	76	75	77	77	77	75	81	76	68
Argyll and Bute	51	50	46	48	47	49	49	50	53	53
City of Edinburgh	190	189	185	181	191	198	209	218	227	236
Clackmannanshire	27	27	25	23	25	22	25	29	29	27
Dumfries and Galloway	99	96	97	98	97	96	96	95	99	97
Dundee City	78	76	78	72	70	69	70	72	75	72
East Ayrshire	66	70	68	68	72	69	68	69	70	71
East Dunbartonshire	88	89	90	95	92	94	96	108	106	101
East Lothian	60	60	60	60	63	67	66	67	67	70
East Renfrewshire	99	94	97	93	93	99	107	103	108	105
Falkirk	99	94	95	94	95	94	98	101	101	99
Fife	217	217	207	206	220	211	217	216	222	226
Glasgow City	248	255	248	268	276	275	293	307	318	315
Highland	165	165	158	157	162	161	162	164	159	162
Inverclyde	43	44	45	44	44	48	44	43	47	43
Midlothian	46	45	46	45	47	48	46	52	55	56
Moray	56	58	55	53	52	55	53	55	60	56
Na h-Eileanan Siar	23	22	22	21	22	21	20	22	21	17
North Ayrshire	83	82	84	87	79	87	83	84	93	92
North Lanarkshire	212	212	200	203	199	197	217	231	231	238
Orkney Islands	18	16	15	15	17	19	17	18	16	17
Perth and Kinross	78	81	79	77	78	81	82	81	78	80
Renfrewshire	98	101	105	107	101	99	101	112	112	117
Scottish Borders	69	64	66	65	64	67	57	69	66	70
Shetland Islands	21	21	22	22	21	19	20	21	22	22
South Ayrshire	66	62	65	66	64	62	65	69	69	68
South Lanarkshire	192	200	201	209	210	211	220	217	222	218
Stirling	69	69	64	65	66	64	69	69	70	70
West Dunbartonshire	58	59	60	64	61	61	65	62	61	59
West Lothian	119	120	115	122	124	120	119	122	130	127
All local authorities	3,053	3,057	3,022	3,060	3,088	3,101	3,169	3,277	3,354	3,347
Grant aided schools	10	11	10	10	10	10	10	9	9	10
Scotland Total	3,063	3,068	3,032	3,070	3,097	3,111	3,179	3,286	3,363	3,357

Note 3: This does not include head teachers or depute head teachers.

Note 4: Science includes Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Physical Science, Science (general) .

Question reference: S6W-22004

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to address the rise, reported by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), in the number of women travelling to England to access abortion services pre-20-weeks' gestation, in light of its commitment to provide NHS abortion services within Scotland and the Women's Health Plan progress report stating that all mainland NHS boards in Scotland are now able to deliver services up to 20 weeks' gestation.

All mainland Health Boards now offer abortions for all patients up to at least 20 weeks’ gestation in line with the recommendations in the 2022 Healthcare Improvement Scotland Sexual Health Standards.

The abortion statistics for England and Wales show that from January to June 2022, 19 patients resident in Scotland were treated in England or Wales who were over 20 weeks’ gestation and 5 patients who were between 13 and 19 weeks’ gestation. It is not possible to confirm how many of those patients sought treatment in England or Wales by choice and how many were referred there by their Health Board.

We understand that there will be rare occasions where waiting times mean that women under 20 weeks’ gestation are required to travel to England as they would not be able to access the service in Scotland before 20 weeks. We are working with BPAS to seek data on this, but the majority of patients needing to travel are over 20 weeks.

We continue to encourage Health Boards to ensure that patients close to 20 weeks’ gestation are prioritised for appointments.

Question reference: S6W-21997

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21421 by Jenny Gilruth on 2 October 2023, in relation to the 280,000 devices that have been distributed, whether it can provide a breakdown by type of device, including for example, laptop and tablet, and, at the point of distribution, how many devices were in a (a) new and (b) used condition.

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