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-14356

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 27 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) commissioners and (b) ombudsmen for which it is responsible there are; how (i) much funding and (ii) many staff each has in 2022-23, and in which year each was established.

There are 7 commissioners and ombudsmen. The following table with commissioners and ombudsmen contains year of establishment, funding and staff numbers.

In the case of Commissioners and Ombudsmen they are classed as Parliamentary Bodies and as such, are accountable directly to the Scottish Parliament with the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body conducting a sponsorship function.

Public Body	Year of establishment	Funding 2022-23	Staff numbers Q3 2022
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life	2013	£0	11
Scottish Biometrics Commissioner	2021	£400,000	3
Scotland's Commissioner For Children and Young People	2004	£0	15
Scottish Human Rights Commission	2008	£65,000	12
Scottish Information Commissioner	2005	£0	20
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman	2002	£0	84
Standards Commission for Scotland	2000	£0	4

Question reference: S6W-14354

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 27 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many other agencies, organisations and public bodies there are that it is responsible for which are not public corporations, non-departmental bodies, executive agencies or tribunals; how (a) much funding and (b) many staff each has in 2022-23, and in which year each was established.

There are 18 other significant public bodies. The following table for other significant public bodies contains year of establishment, funding and staff numbers.

Public Body	Year of Establishment	Funding 2022-23	Staff numbers Q3 2022-23
Audit Scotland	2000	£11,600,000	330
Convener of School Closure Review Panels	2010	less than £400,000	0
Court of Lord Lyon	1867	£100,000	0
Drinking Water Quality Regulator	2002	£963,000	12
HM Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland	2012	£1,798,000	0
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons in Scotland	1981	£1,035,000	0
HM Chief Inspector of Prosecution in Scotland	2003	£425,000	0
HM Fire Service Inspectorate in Scotland	2013	£732,000	0
Justices of the Peace Advisory Committee (6 bodies, the breakdown is the following):	administered by the Local Authority
Glasgow and Strathkelvin		£0	0
Grampian, Highlands and Islands		£0	2
Lothian and Borders		£0	2
North Strathclyde		£0	2
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway		£0	0
Tayside, Central and Fife		£0	2
Office of the King’s Printer for Scotland	1998	£116,000	0
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service	2013	£326,707,000	4,633
Scottish Police Authority	2013	£1,291,282,000	6,163
Scottish Road Works Commissioner	2007	£300,000	6

Question reference: S6W-14357

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many organisations there are that aim to safeguard, maintain and improve the quality of care provision, and how (a) much funding and (b) many staff each has in 2022-23, and in which year each was established.

From Scottish Government’s (SG) perspective, there are four organisations that aim to safeguard, maintain and improve the quality of care provision.

The specific details you have requested in relation to these organisations for the year 2022-23 are listed in the following table:

Organisation	Year Established	SG Funding in 2022-23 (£)	Number of Staff in 2022-23 (FTE)
Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)*	2011	38,300,000	600
Mental Welfare Commission (MWC)	1962	6,086,000	47
Care Inspectorate (CI)	2011	28,705,000	648
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO)	2002	NIL	85

It is worth highlighting that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) and Scottish Police Authority (SPA) are not included in the above table because these organisations conduct reviews of health care in custody settings in partnership with the inspectorates above.

* HIS was established by the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, taking over the work of QIS and the regulatory functions in regard to independent healthcare provision. NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) was established on 1 January 2003 as a special health board with a remit to improve the quality of healthcare in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-14587

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13427 by Lorna Slater on 19 January 2023, what further work is currently underway to ensure that the interactions between minimum unit pricing and the Deposit Return Scheme are understood, and what discussions it has had with the industry on this issue.

Scottish Government officials are undertaking work to ensure that the interactions between Minimum Unit Price and the Deposit Return Scheme are fully understood. This work includes engagement with stakeholders.

For example, a planned evaluation of the Deposit Return Scheme will explore consumer behaviours prior to the scheme’s introduction, a year after implementation and two years after implementation.

Question reference: S6W-14400

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) the Scottish Ambulance Service and (b) NHS24 has done to assess the flow of patients with diabetes using their services out of hours, and what activity has arisen from any such assessments.

As part of the Scottish Diabetes Group, we have established work streams to identify efficiencies and opportunities within the Scottish Ambulance Service. This work is still in very early stages, however there is an established process in NHS Fife and NHS Grampian that links Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) data from the patient report form with SCI-Diabetes. This system ensures local diabetes teams have information about patients presenting to SAS with hypoglycaemic episode, in order to provide rapid, informed and appropriate follow up care. We are working closely with SAS and NHS Boards to further increase this connection across Scotland.

The Scottish Diabetes Group will take forward actions to improve services provided by NHS24 for people living with diabetes in the next year.

Question reference: S6W-14404

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 17 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards include patient-reported outcomes as part of their clinical consultations, with a view to discussing emotional health.

Question reference: S6W-14425

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to promote and review the usage of the diabetes dashboard.

Question reference: S6W-14514

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13502 by Humza Yousaf on 26 January 2023, how much it has spent on those areas in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-14424

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to ensure that healthcare professionals, SCI-Diabetes and e-health teams work collaboratively to ensure that changes implemented in SCI-Diabetes support clinical care and drive improvement in diabetes care.

The SCI-Diabetes eHealth Clinical Lead provides regular updates to the Scottish Diabetes Group and Managed Clinical Networks in order to ensure that the clinical community is aware of the functionality of the dashboard and how they can work together to continuously improve it.

Any individual healthcare professional or clinical team can submit a change request to SCI-Diabetes team. Any change request made to the SCI-Diabetes system must demonstrate how the change will support clinical care and improve patient care more broadly.

Question reference: S6W-14372

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of people with type 1 diabetes have been recorded as having a diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) episode, in each year since 2007.