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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 990 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-06521

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 1 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many FOI requests were rejected by each NHS board because they did not meet the legal criteria for receiving a response, in each year since 2007.

The Scottish Government does not gather information about the FOI performance of other Scottish public authorities. However, the Member may wish to note that since April 2013 public authorities have submitted FOI handling data to the Scottish Information Commissioner on a quarterly basis: FOI and EIR statistics database (itspublicknowledge.info) .

Individual NHS Boards may hold additional information.

Question reference: S6W-06606

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what additional support it has provided to Historic Environment Scotland to enable Tantallon Castle, Dirleton Castle, Seton Collegiate Church and Hailes Castle, in East Lothian, to reopen.

The Scottish Government provides Historic Environment Scotland with considerable funding: a total of £72.9m in 2020-21 and £75.9m in 2021-22. Historic Environment Scotland is responding to the safety concerns identified at the properties in care using its existing resources of both Government funding and other income.

I can confirm that while there is restricted access at these specific sites in East Lothian, there is still public access available to the grounds of Tantallon Castle, and to the grounds, exhibition and shop of Dirleton Castle.

The Scottish Government will continue to discuss the sites with restricted access regularly with Historic Environment Scotland, whose programme of prioritised inspections will inform the timescale for reopening.

Question reference: S6W-06581

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 1 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many children living in (a) Midlothian, (b) East Lothian, (c) Scottish Borders, (d) Dumfries and Galloway, (e) South Ayrshire (f) East Ayrshire, (g) North Ayrshire, and (h) South Lanarkshire council areas are eligible to receive a free bicycle and, of those, how many (i) have received a free bicycle, and (ii) are yet to receive a free bicycle.

We do not have the information requested as we are still in the test phase of this programme which will help establish eligibility. In this government’s first 100 days, we established six pilot schemes to provide free bikes for school age children who cannot afford one. A further four pilots were then established by the end of 2021. These pilots will run for up to 12 months, testing different approaches and delivery models to help inform a national rollout. Sustrans are running a pilot in Dumfries & Galloway, Cycling Scotland are running a pilot in Midlothian and Scottish Cycling are running a pilot in North Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and Scottish Borders. To date, there have been 238 bikes issued in Dumfries & Galloway. We do not have figures for the bikes in the remaining four local authorities as they are accessed through a non-ownership model linked to training.

Question reference: S6W-06517

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many service user complaints have been brought against each NHS board, how many of those complaints were upheld, and how much was paid in compensation from those complaints, in each year since 2007.

The NHS complaints procedure does not provide for financial compensation.

Public Health Scotland produce an annual statistical release with links to each NHS Board Annual Complaints and Feedback reports. All data prior to 2010 has been archived to the National Records of Scotland web archive.

The information available on service user complaints, including complaints upheld can be accessed from the following links;

Links to NHS Complaints Data

2020/21 - Annual report on NHS complaints - 2020 to 2021 - Annual report on complaints - Publications - Public Health Scotland

2019/20 - Annual report on complaints - 2019/20 - Annual report on complaints - Publications - Public Health Scotland

2018/19 - Quality Indicators | NHS Complaints Statistics | Health Topics | ISD Scotland

2017/18 - Quality Indicators | NHS Complaints Statistics | Health Topics | ISD Scotland

2016/17 - 2017-10-03-Complaints-Report.pdf (isdscotland.org)

2015/16 - 2016-10-04-Complaints-Report.pdf (isdscotland.org)

2014/15 - 2015-09-29-Complaints-Report.pdf (isdscotland.org)

2013/14 - 2014-11-25-complaints-Summary.pdf (isdscotland.org)

2012/13 - 2013-09-24-Complaints-Report.pdf (isdscotland.org)

2011/12 - 2012-09-25-Complaints-Summary.pdf (isdscotland.org)

2010/11 - 2011-10-25-Complaints-Report.pdf (isdscotland.org)

Question reference: S6W-06507

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff in each NHS board have (a) been made redundant and (b) taken voluntary severance, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-06518

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has spent on external legal support in connection with service user complaints, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-06510

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff in each NHS board have taken early retirement, and what the total cost was of those early retirement packages, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-06502

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff hours have been lost in each NHS board due to staff absence, and what the total cost was of those staff absences, in each year since 2007.

The information requested is not centrally available.

NHS Education for Scotland publishes annual data on sickness absence rates and on bank and agency spend for Medical & Dental and Nursing & Midwifery staff. It should be noted that there are a variety of reasons Boards may choose to deploy bank and agency staff and this does not directly represent spending associated with staff absence.

The data can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics website:

NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Question reference: S6W-06503

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has spent on contracts for external management consultants, broken down by contract, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-06496

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of unfair dismissal have been brought against each NHS board, what the outcome was of those cases, and how much was paid in compensation from those cases, in each year since 2007.