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-15213

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported chronic understaffing in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Question reference: S6W-15212

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any plans to remove high reach appliances from any fire stations.

Question reference: S6W-15214

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that every firefighter has adequate breathing apparatus training.

Question reference: S6F-01855

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2023

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6W-14427

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it plans to introduce a similar fare cap on Scottish bus travel to those introduced in parts of England.

We continue to monitor the introduction of the £2 fare cap in England, however in Scotland we already provide free bus travel for more of the population compared to the rest of the UK, investing £300 million annually to the benefit of over 2 million people, helping improve access to education, leisure, and work. The network support grant plus was also extended to 31 March 2023 which is conditional on participating operators meeting terms and conditions including in relation to freezing fares to help keep bus travel more affordable.

Additionally, the Scottish Government is progressing the Fair Fares Review to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares that supports the long term viability of our public transport system as we recover from the pandemic. The Review is considering both the cost and availability of services and the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry.

Transport Scotland continues to collaborate with bus operators through the bus taskforce, to support the industry in addressing the immediate challenges, and improve bus services for people in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-14426

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce a fare cap on Scottish train travel now that ScotRail is under public ownership.

As a result of the pressures that household budgets are under the Scottish Government confirmed last year that there would be no change to rail fares before March 2023. Any change to rail fares this year will be confirmed in due course but Scottish Ministers are very clear that they will not rise by an amount equivalent to the July Retail Price Index rate of 12.3 per cent.

As part of the Scottish Government’s fair fares review Transport Scotland will take forward the pilot to evaluate the removal of peak rail fares. The pilot will apply to the whole network for the six-month period, commencing in the next financial year. Work on the precise methodology, design and evaluation is ongoing with Transport Scotland officials working closely with Scottish Rail Holdings and ScotRail Trains Ltd to derive maximum benefit for this scheme.

Further details on the peak fares pilot will be confirmed over the coming weeks.

Question reference: S6W-14612

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 03 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to allow NHS Scotland patients to access their medical records online.

Scottish Government and COSLA will shortly set out a Data Strategy for Health and Social Care, which will articulate the first set of principles and deliverables needed to improve the access and use of data.

One of the core ambitions of the Data Strategy is to: empower the people of Scotland by giving individuals clear and easy access to, and the ability to manage and contribute to, their own health and social care data where it is safe and appropriate to do so. To achieve this, we will confirm data sources and data sets that are safe to be consistently shared. For individuals, data access will be enabled through the implementation of the Digital Front Door.

The Digital Front Door will be an iterative development and there will be a phased approach to implementation. As set out in our Digital Health and Care Delivery Plan . we expect the first version of the Digital Front Door being available for release in autumn/winter 2023 and this will be accompanied by an implementation plan.

Question reference: S6W-14339

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how (a) many (i) full- and (ii) part-time staff have been employed and (b) much it has spent on (A) travel costs, (B) accommodation costs, (C) research costs, (D) payments to organisations, (E) any other expenses and (F) its work in total, to support its membership of the Open Government Partnership in each year since it became a member.

Scotland has been a member of the Open Government Partnership since 2016. The Open Government team works collaboratively with civil society to promote transparency, participation, inclusivity and accountability across the Scottish Government and internationally. This includes sharing learning with governments around the world, and funding to promote participation and co-production work in Scotland. Scottish Government strongly supports these priorities and recognises the value of this work. We are currently delivering Scotland’s third Open Government Action Plan, which includes a focus on health and social care, climate change, fiscal transparency, improving participation, and data and digital.

It is not possible to accurately identify costs to support membership of the Open Government Partnership for the years 2016 - 2020. This is due to changes in the organisation of teams and categorisation of resources.

The number of staff working to support membership of the Open Government Partnership since 2016 is comparable to current numbers of staff.

You will also want to note that the costs of the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights’ attendance at the OGP Europe Regional Meeting in October 2022 were recently published in response to S6W-13376 on 17 January 2023.

Breakdown of Open Government team approximate spend, excluding staff costs

Financial year	Item	Approximate figures
2021-22	Grant funding	£84,000
	Action Plan co-creation process	£23,967.60
	External research	£30,825
	Publishing	£3,089.05
	Commissioned support	£12,138
TOTAL £154,019.65
2022-23 (as of 31 Jan 2023)	Grant funding	£84,000
	Independent evaluation	£9,450
	Travel and accommodation	£430.26
	Publishing	£938.54
TOTAL (as of 31 Jan 2023) £94,818.80

Open Government team staff costs and numbers

Year	Total staff costs	Staff numbers
2021-22	£201,389	3 FTE, with 1 FTE vacant for 4 months
2022-23	£222,704	3 FTE, with 1 FTE vacant for 2 months

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-14334

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Chief Dental Officer (CDO) advisory group, what work the group has undertaken, what the outcomes have been of this work, and whether the group has made any recommendations to the Scottish Government in relation to NHS Dental Services.

The CDO Advisory Group have met on four occasions from October 2022 to December 2022. The minutes from the Advisory Group workshops, and copies of all papers provided to the group, are publicly available and can be viewed online at: Updated 17/01 – CDO Advisory Group – Meeting Papers | Scottish Dental .

A working draft of a revised Determination I of the Statement of Dental Remuneration (NHS care and treatment items), which has been developed by the Scottish Government following the advice of Advisory Group members, is also available online at: Reform of NHS Dental Services – Determination I Working Draft | Scottish Dental .

Question reference: S6W-14250

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the training places for nurses, midwives and doctors that it committed to support in its National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care are currently available; how many applications there have been for them, and how many places have been taken up.

The Scottish Government set an intake target of 4,837 fully funded places on nursing and midwifery programmes for the academic year 2022-23. For academic year 2022-23 4,368 students have enrolled on pre-registration programmes.

We have also increased the intake target for Scotland’s medical school programmes to 1,317 in academic year (AY) 2022-23, an increase of 279 places since AY 2020-21. Management data provided by universities show that 1296 of the 1317 places were filled. The difference between the actual intake and the target intake is a result of minor under recruitment by Universities, however this is within expected tolerances.

The rise in places continues the expansion funded by the Scottish Government that has taken place since 2016. In total, the medical intake has increased from 848 in 2015-16 to 1,296 in 2022-23, representing a 53% increase. A further 100 places will be added in the academic year 2023-24, progressing our Programme for Government (PfG) commitment to increase medical undergraduate places by 500 places,

As students can apply for up to five different programmes through UCAS, data on the number of individual applicants to nursing, midwifery or medical programmes is unavailable.