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-23539

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of its "health in all areas approach" to tackling health inequalities.

Tackling health inequalities and improving population health remain clear, ongoing aims of the Scottish Government, that directly support our cross cutting missions of Equality, Opportunity and Community. We continue to pursue and promote a “health in all policies” approach as we recognise the building blocks of good health require concentrated action across government to maximise income and address socio-economic factors.

We are making progress and have prioritised tackling key drivers for poor health, including poverty and deprivation through a range of measures. This includes investment of £3bn across a range of programmes to support low income households, delivering the Scottish Child Payment, delivering Best Start Bright Futures to tackle child poverty, free school meals and the council tax reduction scheme. We are also delivering Community Link Workers and Welfare Rights Advisors to offer advice on housing, social security and employability issues within GP practices across our rural and deprived communities.

We are also taking forward work to support and encourage positive health behaviours and assuring the impact of our interventions are appropriately considered. This includes conducting Health Inequality Impact Assessments across our Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, our Alcohol Framework and any future policy planning as we implement our Tobacco and Vaping Framework.

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with its partners, including Public Health Scotland, at a national and local level to explore ways to drive improvements in health and embed health considerations within wider future policy making. Over the coming months, we will be working closely with our partners across the health and social care system, local authorities and wider stakeholders to develop long term planning for population health and integrated health and social care services.

Question reference: S6W-23435

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of NHS contraceptive education, and what importance it places on the provision of such education in (a) community and (b) NHS settings.

There has been no national formal assessment of contraceptive education however the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people across Scotland have timely access to contraception, and to information which allows them to make informed decisions about their own sexual and reproductive health. This is recognised as a priority in our recently published Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus (SHBBV) Action Plan, and we have allocated multi-year funding to a range of projects in both community and NHS settings that will help to deliver this goal. The projects include developing new information resources, such as a national sexual health microsite on NHS Inform, as well as supporting staff training and development around contraception. Details of these projects were published alongside the SHBBV Action Plan on 28 November 2023.

Question reference: S6W-23439

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with midwives regarding the use of long-acting reversible contraception.

The Scottish Government’s Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) Short Life Working Group meets quarterly and includes representation from midwifery, including the Royal College of Midwives.

We are working with the Scottish Postpartum Contraception Network (SPCN), which is a multidisciplinary group of healthcare professionals including midwifery, obstetrics, sexual health, pharmacy, public health and clinical researchers. Since 2022, the Scottish Government has funded SPCN’s work on expanding access to postpartum contraception (including LARC) across Scotland. An additional £101,000 (over 3 years) has recently been allocated to SPCN to deliver a project focused on developing training and information resources, and improving equity of access to postpartum LARC.

Question reference: S6W-23438

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what commitment it will make to increasing the availability of long-acting reversible contraception.

Question reference: S6W-23444

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the use of NHS Inform by the public, broken down by socioeconomic background.

Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS 24 currently hold that information due to the anonymous nature of NHS inform which doesn’t ask for, or collect, any personal information.

However, working with NHS 24 we are in the process of developing a formal review of NHS inform, recognising it as a national asset that is currently visited over 10 million times per month to ensure that it continues to meet future requirements and continues to support improved choice and access to services.

As part of this review work, we will engage with the public and take an evidence-based approach and commence a robust Equality Impact Assessment to ensure the service is inclusive.

Question reference: S6W-23440

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any assessment of future supplies of banded copper intrauterine devices (IUDs), in light of reports of shortages of medical grade copper.

The Scottish Government is aware that the National Supply Disruption Service (NSDR) has been managing a shortage of 10-year copper coils since June, which affected multiple suppliers and was due to a manufacturer running short of copper. Alternative devices are available, including an alternative 10-year and 5- year copper coil. The NSDR advise that production of the 10 year coil has now resumed.

Advice to clinicians was published by the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) and can be found here:

Question reference: S6W-23431

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of future (a) trends and (b) challenges for young people at risk of problem alcohol use.

The Scottish Government (SG) is clear that tackling alcohol related harm remains a key public health priority, including in relation to children and young people. To assess trends on an ongoing basis a number of sources are considered, including this and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). The SG continues to utilise, and further develop, public health surveillance data to better understand drug and alcohol trends, particularly amongst younger people.

The 2018 Alcohol Framework sets out the SG's commitment to put the voice of children and young people at the heart of developing preventive measures on alcohol harm. In line with this specific engagement, projects with children and young people have been undertaken in the development of both the continuation and new level of MUP and the public consultation on potential measures to restrict alcohol advertising and promotion in Scotland. In addition to this the SG is investing £1.5 million in Planet Youth, sometimes referred to as the Icelandic Model, which is an evidence based model for substance use prevention.

Question reference: S6W-23434

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much NHS Scotland has spent on contraceptive education in (a) community settings and (b) NHS settings, such as maternity wards and clinics, in each of the past five years.

Question reference: S6O-02863

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what value it places on the role of trade unions in delivering and sustaining a wellbeing economy.

Question reference: S6O-02786

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jackson Carlaw (on behalf of the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body) on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body when it will make a decision on the Staff Cost Provision uprating for the financial year 2024-25.