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 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.

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Question reference: S6W-18973

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many private first aid companies are currently registered and authorised to provide event cover, and what criteria are used to assess their eligibility.

There is no register of authorised first aid providers however, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides guidance which sets out steps an employer should take to ensure the training their first aiders receive is adequate and appropriate for the needs of their workplace. The guidance gives examples of the types of training provider the employer might select: Selecting a first-aid training provider: A guide for employers GEIS3 (hse.gov.uk) .

Under Health and Safety legislation, which is reserved, it is the responsibility of the employer to satisfy themselves of the competence of first aiders. HSE provides relevant guidance on first aid provision and on event safety Events health and safety (hse.gov.uk) . The Events Industry Forum’s ‘ purple guide ’ includes example first-aid and medical assessments for an audience at an event.

Question reference: S6O-02447

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to end the marking and assessment boycott in Scottish universities.

Question reference: S6W-18485

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 21 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) flu, (b) DTaP/IPV, (c) MMR, (d) Td/IPV, (e) MenACWY, (f) HPV and (g) COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed to people living in Scotland in each year since 2018-19.

The number of vaccines distributed to people living in Scotland for the outlined immunisation programmes is monitored by Public Health Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally. Vaccination statistics in Scotland are publicly reported as outlined below. Due to differences in eligibility since 2018-19 and changed reporting systems used across programmes, it is not possible to directly compare uptake percentages between years.

(a) Flu - Flu & COVID vaccinations

(b) DTaP/IPV, (c) MMR https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/show-all-releases?id=20562

(d) Td/IPV, (e) MenACWY, https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/teenage-booster-immunisation-statistics-scotland/

(f) HPV : https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/hpv-immunisation-statistics-scotland/ and HPV vaccination statistics for men who have sex with men, Scotland - 5 year period ending 30 June 2022 - HPV vaccination statistics for men who have sex with men, Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland

(g) COVID-19 Archived COVID-19 Vaccination in Scotland up to September 2022

Question reference: S6W-18482

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on the provision of free vitamins for pregnant women in each financial year since the scheme’s inception.

Question reference: S6W-18470

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what steps it is taking to increase breast cancer screenings amongst women in socially deprived areas, and when the breast cancer quality performance indicators will next be published.

The Scottish Government welcomes the latest statistics publication from Public Health Scotland that reported a small improvement in screening uptake in the most deprived areas in comparison to last year. However, we recognise that there is still work to be done to ensure that screening uptake in the most deprived areas continues to increase.

Over 2021-22 and 2022-23, we provided £2 million towards projects that tackled inequalities within the cancer screening programmes. In 2023-24, an additional £1 million will be provided to build on this work. The Scottish Government has also helped support the development of a National Screening Equity Strategy that will consider the main causes of inequalities and will outline initial actions to address barriers and facilitate access of underserved groups. This strategy is due for publication this summer. More generally, the breast screening modernisation programme board will be taking forward the recommendations from a major review of breast screening, which will address screening uptake as a whole.

With regard to breast cancer quality performance indicators, Public Health Scotland are responsible for publication and are best placed to advise further.

Question reference: S6W-18481

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the budget of the neonatal care fund has been in each year since 2018-19.

Scottish Government launched the Neonatal Expenses Fund (NEF) in April 2018 to help support parents to be able to spend as much time with their babies as possible, while they were receiving care within a neonatal unit.

Scottish Government increased funding in July 2021 to form the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF), which subsumed the NEF to create a single unified fund. This new commitment extended support to families of children and young people receiving inpatient care up to age 18.

The fund is demand-led and the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring sufficient funding to NHS Boards to support all valid YPFF claims. Budgets for both funds are as set out in the following table.

NEF	2018-19	£1.5 million
NEF	2019-20	£1.5 million
NEF	2020-21	£1.5 million
YPFF	2021-22	£5 million
YPFF	2022-23	£4 million
YPFF	2023-24	£4 million

Question reference: S6W-18479

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many food (a) incidents, (b) crimes and (c) recalls have been recorded by Food Standards Scotland in each year since 2018-19.

Question reference: S6W-18552

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to fund the cumulative pay uplift offered to junior doctors, and how much the proposed uplift will cost in total.

Question reference: S6O-02354

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has assessed the economic impact on businesses of the changes to the Deposit Return Scheme that it announced on 18 April 2023.

The deposit return scheme is a major undertaking for businesses, bringing very significant environmental and economic benefits. Accordingly, we have regularly consulted with a wide range of businesses, trade associations, the scheme administrator, and other organisations as part of the decision making process.

The suite of impact assessments has been updated to reflect the draft regulations laid in May 2023, and as part of this, the Scottish Government has produced a supplementary analysis to the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment. This document includes the economic impacts of the amendments to the scheme announced in April. We will publish updated impact assessments in due course.

Question reference: S6W-17937

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the finding by the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland that black and minority ethnic people in Scotland are 4.8 times more likely to be compulsively sectioned during times of crisis than their white counterparts.

We know the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing structural inequalities within our society, putting some communities and groups within the population disproportionately at risk for more adverse impacts on their mental health. That is why we have committed to making the mental health of these groups a priority.

We have established an Equality and Human Rights Forum to help influence and deliver measurably improved outcomes for minority ethnic groups. The forum will set out actions to address racialised mental health inequalities in the upcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Delivery Plan and will build on our existing work.

We are also considering the report from the Scottish Mental Health Law Review which included recommendations to improve monitoring and address ethnicity in rates of detention and compulsory treatment. We intend to set out our initial response to the report, including priority actions, by summer 2023.

	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Pregnant Women Vitamins	283,983	283,983	283,983	283,983	283,983	283,983

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Incidents	112	98	94	120	139
Crimes	3	2	5	0	5
Recalls (Total)	141	145	125	115	123
Recalls (FSS Led)	17	8	3	4	11