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: S6O-02758

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what impact UK Government annual financial settlements have on its ability to undertake long-term financial planning.

Question reference: S6W-22294

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 15 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the timescale is for Discretionary Funds to be released to colleges by the Student Awards Agency Scotland to enable this to be used to support students who are facing hardship.

Question reference: S6W-22220

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 8 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) it and (b) local authorities will save from a reduction in employer contributions to the Strathclyde Pension Fund.

The Scottish Government will not directly save money as a result of the reduction to employer contribution rates to the Strathclyde Pension Fund. Instead, it is the individual employers, including local authorities, who will save.

The amount each scheme employer will save will depend on their pensionable pay-bill and the employer pension contribution rate they are required to pay. These rates have not yet been set for employers outside of the Main Employer Group (MEG) (the 12 local authorities participating in the Fund and arm’s length external organisations).

In very broad terms, the Strathclyde Pension Fund has estimated the overall financial impact on employer contributions in the MEG, to be a £366m saving in years 1 and 2, and £51m p.a. thereafter.

Question reference: S6W-22135

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21281 by Dorothy Bain on 21 September 2023, what its position is on whether a wait of five months for a family to receive a post-mortem report is acceptable.

Bereaved families should not have to wait to receive final confirmation of the cause of death and it is imperative that information about their loved one is provided as soon as possible. As the Lord Advocate noted in her response to S6W-21281, there have been delays in reporting post-mortem results, which is unacceptable. She also recognised that collaborative work has been done to resolve the delays, and that significant progress is expected within the next few weeks.

The Lord Advocate has responsibility for the investigation of all sudden, suspicious, accidental and unexplained deaths in Scotland – including providing bereaved families with the final confirmation of the cause of death of a loved one following receipt of the post mortem report. The Lord Advocate set out her position on post-mortem toxicology delays in her answer to question S6W-21281.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-22010

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to standardise governance processes across the NHS to improve efficiency, reduce duplication and encourage innovation, and, if so, when it will do so.

The Blueprint for Good Governance in NHS Scotland has been adopted by all NHS Boards. The second edition, published in December 2022, places more emphasis on the delivery mechanisms and the need to apply a continuous improvement approach to reviewing governance arrangements. Support for innovation and the role of NHS Boards in delivering this is a key component of the Blueprint.

To provide assurance on implementation of the Blueprint, all NHS Boards will complete an annual self-assessment, the outcome of which will be used to create Board Governance Development Plans. Plans will be used by NHS Boards to refine and improve their governance processes and the Scottish Government will look at key themes and national lessons to support further development of our approach to governance.

Question reference: S6W-22050

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards implementing the five actions in the September 2018 Data Scoping Taskforce report, Medicines Use and Digital Capabilities.

Improving Scotland’s health data capabilities remains a key objective in improving outcomes for patients. We are continuing to progress work to implement changes to how we improve data collection on medicine use and outcomes. Changes to existing systems or any new systems take time to develop and implement and we continue to work with Scottish Government colleagues, industry, NHS Scotland and academia to evolve our approach to medicines data.

In relation to the first action, capturing medicines use for patients in all clinical settings, there are several relevant work programmes underway. Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) has been rolled out in eleven Health Boards and work is underway to rollout HEPMA in the remaining Health Boards. The medicines data from all Health Boards who have HEPMA deployed have been used throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to inform clinical practice and drive improvements. The Digital Prescribing and Dispensing Pathways programme is on track to replace the current paper prescription in Scotland with an entirely digital approach to capturing prescribed and dispensed medicines by the end of this parliamentary term.? There is also progress with the development of a national Homecare (medicines prescribed via hospital specialists and delivered direct to patients at home) medicines dataset whereby third-party suppliers are providing regular data (monthly) to Public Health Scotland (PHS). These data have also been used to support COVID activities and work is progressing to enhance the quality and completeness of data flows.

Action two, including medicine indication in all prescribing systems , is more complex, requires in most of the cases retrospective addition of indication data and is reliant on IT system changes. We are seeking to progress this as part of our wider work programme.

Action three , to create a national laboratory data resource , this is also reliant on work being progressed further in response to the other actions from the report, and we will consider further in due course.

In relation to action four, to improve recording of patient outcomes of medicines , we have funded the Cancer Medicines Outcomes Programme (CMOP) which has developed a robust and reliable process to understand the effectiveness and safety of cancer medicines in routine care in Scotland. We are also funding PHS to establish a National Medicines in Pregnancy surveillance asset. This asset will support monitoring and reporting to progress improvements in the safe use of sodium valproate and other teratogenic medicines in Scotland by identifying and linking medicines exposure with outcomes data sets.

In response to action five, to create a Scottish Medicines Intelligence Unit , the Scottish Government funded CMOP programme has enabled capability building and intelligence in the use of our national SACT (cancer medicines) dataset and this is generating evidence to support the evaluation of the use of and clinical outcomes from all new medicines approved through the Scottish Medicines Consortium Health Technology Assessment process.

Question reference: S6O-02633

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making on implementing the recommendations on the skills delivery landscape in the report, Fit for the Future: developing a post-school learning system to fuel economic transformation.

Question reference: S6W-22009

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to appoint an artificial intelligence champion for the NHS to enable its adoption wherever appropriate, and, if so, when it will do so.

The growth and development of AI offers our NHS the opportunity to make use of, and benefit from an exciting range of new and developing data based solutions. Our intention therefore is to empower and support NHS leadership in the use of these new technologies, to help build and share a wider knowledge base, rather than appointing a single AI champion.

By making use of Scotland’s AI Strategy, ICO advice and maintaining a focus on innovation, we will ensure that our health workforce remains at the forefront of essential health, research and care developments.

Question reference: S6W-21385

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in advance of its refreshed tobacco control action plan being published in autumn 2023, whether Public Health Scotland will be commissioned to update analysis on the estimated effects of reduced smoking prevalence on the three outcomes of smoking-attributable deaths, smoking-attributable hospital admissions and smoking-attributable NHS costs.

The Scottish Government recognises that evidence is important in supporting policy design, monitoring progress and evaluation of impact. Our refreshed Tobacco Action Plan will be published in Autumn this year and is based on a wide range of evidence. This has included and will continue to include input from Public Health Scotland and Scottish Government Analysts. In addition, evidence requirements will continue to be considered and updated as plans around refreshed tobacco actions progress. Further detail on evidence will be published later this year.

Current PHS analysis on smoking attributable deaths and smoking attributable admissions can be found on the PHS website - Smoking attributable deaths - ScotPHO and Smoking attributable admissions - ScotPHO

Question reference: S6O-02589

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the rural affairs secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding support for businesses in the rural economy that provide team accommodation for employees due to a lack of affordable rural housing.