Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

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 ��˿�� 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

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 339 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-25604

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to (a) build on the progress from the Scan4Safety programme and (b) implement a single national transferable patient record.

The NHS Scotland Scan for Safety Programme is focused on improving traceability and patient outcomes for high risk implantable medical devices. The Programme has established pilot sites in NHS Lothian and NHS Golden Jubilee with both sites implementing Point of Care data capture in key specialities.

NHS Western Isles will commence implementation of Scan for Safety in March 2024. Work is underway to confirm further NHS Boards for roll-out in financial year 2024-25. It is planned at present to implement Scan for Safety across territorial boards by the end of March 2026.

The Scottish Government recently provided details of plans connected to electronic patient records to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee – see Electronic patient record | Scottish Parliament Website

Question reference: S6W-25606

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to collaborate with other UK nations on the adoption of national standards for healthcare interoperability, including Scan4Saftey and sharing patient records where appropriate.

The Scottish Government is collaborating with four nations partners on the adoption of data standards and has representation on various UK-level groups. Through our Data Strategy for Health and Social Care we have committed to setting out the preferred standards for use across the sector to facilitate interoperability and the sharing of patient records. In progressing this aim we have recently engaged with English and Welsh colleagues on their approach to adopting and publishing standards.

Question reference: S6W-25605

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of its funding plans to complete the roll-out of the Scan4Safety programme in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-25163

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 22 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-24594 by Jenny Gilruth on 29 January 2024, whether it will provide the information requested regarding for what reason, and based on what evidence, it has decided to set the target of two hours of physical education each school week for primary school children as opposed to a greater or lesser amount of exercise.

The Scottish Government has been committed to ensuring that all children in primary school receive at least two hours of physical education (PE) each school week since 2011. Our decision to set a target of two hours of PE for primary school children was prompted by recommendations made by the National Physical Activity Task Force which recommended “taking part in at least two hours of quality physical education classes a week and gaining the appropriate movement and behavioural skills needed for an active life”.

Question reference: S6W-25165

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how its reported two-year freeze in capital expenditure for the NHS will impact on its NHS Recovery Plan target of achieving 40,000 additional inpatient and day cases seen in National Treatment Centres by 2025-26.

The National Treatment Centres (NTCs) Programme is the single biggest increase in planned care capacity ever created in NHS Scotland. Five new National Treatment Centres (NTCs) will be opened by 2024 at Golden Jubilee (Phase 1 and 2), NTC Fife, NTC Highland and NTC Forth Valley. Combined these centres will have eight orthopaedic theatres; an inpatient/day-case ward; three endoscopy rooms and two general theatres.

As a result of the almost 10% cut in our capital budget from the UK Government, we are having to revise our pipeline of infrastructure investment and we do not expect National Treatment Centres in Ayrshire and Arran, Grampian, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Tayside to be progressed in the short to medium term. The figure of 40,000 additional activities from the 2021 recovery plan is dependent on all National Treatment Centres in development being operational, therefore we expect the additional annual activity from the programme to be 20,000 from 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-25164

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how its reported two-year freeze in capital expenditure for the NHS will impact on its NHS Recovery Plan target of recruiting 1,500 new clinical and non-clinical staff for National Treatment Centres by 2026.

The Scottish Government is continuing to provide a range of recruitment support, training and development activity to assist Health Boards in securing an appropriate mix of experienced and newly qualified staff for their National Treatment Centres (NTCs). As at 30 September 2023, close to 600 people were employed in an NTC, of which around 32% were undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland.

We keep under active review the total number of staff that we will ultimately need to recruit to our National Treatment Centres and to support the overall ambition to increase planned care activity and reduce waiting times, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan.

Question reference: S6W-24692

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to ensure that Scotland is fully prepared for any potential future pandemic.

We are working to ensure lessons identified from our policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic are put in place and that policy across government is better able to respond to the next pandemic. This includes clear responsibilities for preparedness and response; to include NHS resilience, Scottish Resilience (through SGORR), and cross-Scottish Government policy consideration of our existing plans, drawing on learnings including the UK Chief Medical Officers Technical report on the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK and Public Health Scotland’s National Incident Management Team reporting.

We are working with the UK Government and other administrations to strengthen the capabilities and countermeasures required to address future pandemics, including retaining stockpiles of PPE and the purchase of vaccines and medicines. We have established a Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness which provided interim recommendations on future pandemic preparedness in August 2022. We anticipate that the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness will provide its final report in the summer 2024 for consideration.

We are committed to responding to both the UK and Scottish Covid-19 inquiries, as learning lessons from the pandemic is vital to prepare for the future.

Question reference: S6W-24596

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what time-sensitive targets it has for bringing waiting times for any NHS service into line with relevant standards.

Waiting times for planned care services is one of many metrics that contributes to the monitoring of performance and effectiveness across NHSScotland.

There have been several changes to waiting time targets and standards over the last 30 years. The established a 12 week Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) written into legislation for eligible patients who are due to receive planned inpatient or day case treatment from 1 October 2012. The Act states that eligible patients must start to receive that treatment within 12 weeks (84 days) of the treatment being agreed. This guarantee is based on completed waits where a patient is removed from the list after being admitted for treatment.

To support the above guarantee, from 31 March 2010 no patient should wait longer than 12 weeks for a new outpatient appointment at a consultant-led clinic. More information on this can be found on the .

More recently, in July 2022 were set out for NHSScotland to address the impact of the pandemic on long waiting times for planned care. Public Health Scotland publish progress against these targets quarterly:

Question reference: S6W-24593

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact that reducing the sportscotland budget will have on the physical activity of children.

sportscotland’s budget has remained stable this year, with a £100k reduction due to a reduced requirement for non-cash funding and offsetting increase in resource requirement, both relating to recent accounting changes.

We have committed to ensure that the Active Schools programme is free for all children and young people by the end of this Parliament. sportscotland works in partnership with all 32 local authorities to invest in and support Active Schools. Active Schools is dedicated to developing and supporting the delivery of high quality sport and physical activity opportunities to all children and young people, taking an inclusive approach and providing targeted opportunities where there is a need. Data published by sportscotland shows significantly increased participation levels across the past academic year (2022-23), with 4.6 million visits to Active Schools sessions, a rise of 34% on 2021-22.

Question reference: S6O-03064

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has made of the potential impact on its Medium-Term Financial Strategy and future Scottish Budgets of reports that the cost of a National Care Service could rise to £2 billion.