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.

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Question reference: S6W-41881

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it issues to NHS boards regarding (a) arranging and (b) funding patient travel and accommodation for elective and planned care delivered in a different board area, and what datasets it collects from boards on such transfers of care.

Scottish Government guidance on the Patient Travelling Expenses Schemes can be found here: 1996-70.pdf. As set out, financial support for travel is available to eligible patients attending hospital appointments, and authorised escorts, and this can include travel where treatment is not available within their own health board area.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold data on travel arranged – this is an operational matter for Boards. Boards are expected to support patients in identifying and accessing available support.

Question reference: S6W-41885

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-41876

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what the (a) total cost was for all patients and (b) average cost was per patient registered with GPs in (i) Aberdeen City and (ii) Aberdeenshire who received secondary or tertiary care delivered by NHS (A) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (B) Lothian in each of the last five years, broken down by (1) travel, (2) accommodation and (3) subsistence costs, also broken down by how many made multiple trips, broken down by the (aa) mean and (bb) median number of trips.

Question reference: S6W-42101

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the percentage of ScotRail Inter7City trains that have operated their Inter7City cafe during their journey in each year since the introduction of the service in 2018.

Question reference: S6W-41877

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what the primary reason for travel was for 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.

Question reference: S6W-41879

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-41886

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the patient (a) feedback and (b) complaints recorded by NHS boards regarding travel for planned care outwith a patient’s board area in each of the last five years, and what main themes were identified.

NHS Health Boards are required to provide the Scottish Government with Complaints and Feedback Annual reports and complaints statistics on an annual basis, and these are published by Public Health Scotland. There are specific indicators that Boards must use when reporting their statistics, including total numbers of complaints received and closed, outcomes and timescales for completion. Complaints and Feedback Annual reports must cover, learning from complaints, complaints process experience and staff awareness and training. However, these do not include the specific themes areas requested about which complaints are made.

The most recent publication, which also includes links to each Board’s Complaints and Feedback Annual reports, was in January 2025 for the reporting year 2023/24 and can be found at the following link: .

Question reference: S6O-05256

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting skills development to promote the future of the north east fishing industry.

Question reference: S6W-41714

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40762 by Gillian Martin on 9 October 2025, what indicators it uses to evidence “a deeper level of engagement” at international events, and what evidence it will publish from the September 2025 programme in (a) Japan and (b) New York to demonstrate progress against those indicators, including baselines, targets and timescales.

I refer the Member to the answer detail for question S6W-40762, which sets out the key objectives for participation and engagements undertaken during Scotland’s programme in Osaka and Tokyo across the 6 months and also confirms the intention to publish an evaluation of Scotland’s Expo Osaka programme. We are currently working on the evaluation, which we aim to publish in early 2026.

With regard to indicators used to evidence a deeper level of engagement, I once again refer the Member to the answer to S6W-40762, particularly the stated objectives identified for the Scottish Government’s attendance at Climate Week NYC. As an example of impact, opportunities at NYCW lead directly to Ms. Martin receiving invitations to a wider range of opportunities to engage, especially at UN-sponsored events at COP30. Detail on the Scottish Government programme at COP30 will be published in due course.

Question reference: S6O-05204

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making on reducing audiology waiting lists at NHS Grampian.