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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-33071

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it spent money creating an outline business case for a Scottish public energy company, in light of the comments made by the Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy at the meeting of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on 7 January 2025, that setting up a public energy company is "not something that we are able to do under the current devolution settlement".

Question reference: S6W-33527

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place to improve hospital infrastructure in rural areas.

Health Boards received core capital funding of £453 million as part of their 2025-26 budget allocation from the Scottish Government, which is an increase of £139 million on 2024-25. This will be primarily focussed on delivering improvements to existing facilities and upgrading medical equipment. It will also allow the plans to complete the Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Cancer Centre in Aberdeen and for plans to replace the Belford Hospital in Fort William to be taken forward.

In the last 5 years, the Scottish Government have successfully delivered facilities that support remote and rural healthcare such as Badenoch and Strathspey Community Hospital and Broadford Hospital in Skye. There has been substantial investment in national treatment centres which serve all of Scotland, including the NTC Highland which is located in Inverness.

Question reference: S6W-33525

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what incentives are in place to attract healthcare professionals to work in rural areas.

The Scottish Government has a number of incentives already in place, amongst which is the Scottish Distant Island Allowance (SDIA), an addition to salary which supports staff with the costs of travelling to and from the mainland. NHS staff who work in the majority of Scotland’s islands are eligible to receive SDIA.

There is also the Scottish Government funded ‘Golden Hello’ scheme, administered by NHS Scotland Boards, which provides up to £10,000 to every GP taking up an eligible post in a rural area.

To attract dentists to rural areas we have made available a range of grants and allowances including the recruitment and retention allowance, which allows new trainee dentists practicing in eligible areas, to qualify for a ‘Golden Hello’ payment of up to £37,500 in the first three years of practice.

Furthermore, to support GPs to develop the skills required to work in rural areas, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) offers the Rural GP Fellowship. The fellowship provides qualified GPs with direct experience of working in rural and island areas across rural and island Health Boards, with the fellowship lasting a full year.

ScotGEM offers a unique four-year programme tailored to meet the current and future needs of NHS Scotland with a focus on rural medicine, healthcare improvement and developing interest in General Practice. ScotGEM students are eligible to apply for and receive a ‘Return of Service’ bursary of £4,000 per annum which commits them to working for NHS Scotland for the corresponding number of years following graduation. In addition to the return of service bursary, the Scottish Government pays the tuition fees for eligible students, offering an attractive package for potential applicants.

In addition to the Scottish Government funded incentives, staff being recruited to posts in rural and island areas may also be eligible for relocation expenses, the decision to offer relocation expenses lies solely with boards.

Question reference: S6W-33540

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase vaccination uptake in rural areas.

Health boards are expected to offer vaccination in a way that best suits the needs of their communities, using a patient-centred approach, as set out in Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) 5-year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan.

This plan states that boards should “ensure availability of a range of flexible, responsive, and good-quality immunisation services that meet the needs of all communities, including our rural and island communities”.

The Scottish Government continues to fund Scottish Ambulance Service mobile vaccination units. These are available to every Health Board to deliver across all vaccination programmes and are to be used to reach under-served communities, including those in rural areas.

Boards also offer flu and COVID-19 vaccinations to housebound patients at home on request. Details on how to arrange this are included in the vaccination appointment letter.

Lastly, there is the option for rural health boards to explore the use of Community Treatment and Care services to support vaccination programmes in rural communities.

Question reference: S6W-33538

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of rural healthcare facilities are currently equipped with digital infrastructure for telehealth consultations.

Telemedicine can describe a range of different digital solutions to support consultations and engagement with the NHS. As a result, it is not possible for the Scottish Government to set out a conclusive percentage.

It is the responsibility of individual Health Boards to ensure appropriate digital infrastructure is in place. This is in line with commitments within Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy to scale up and embed proven telehealth and remote digital solutions.

Question reference: S6W-33015

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it will provide to railway operators to install advanced security technologies, such as drones or motion detectors, to deter theft at remote railway sites.

Question reference: S6W-33537

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what role telemedicine plays in rural healthcare, and how its use has changed in the last five years.

Telemedicine is essential to supporting care across Scotland. Access to services has shifted significantly over the past 5 years and we expect this to continue as we roll out improved ways to engage with health and social care services. Digital services are supporting people across Scotland to reduce unnecessary travel whilst also saving time, cost and uncomfortable journeys.

A range of different services have been scaled up including over 2 million NHS Near Me video appointments, over 100,000 people using Connect Me for remote health monitoring at home and exponential increase in access to Digital Mental Health Therapies across Scotland all supporting rural access. The NHS Near Me closure report highlights that the highest uptake of Near Me usage is seen predominantly in rural Health Boards.

Question reference: S6W-33542

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the needs of rural areas are considered in the planning of national healthcare strategies.

The Scottish Government considers the varying needs of all parts of our population when developing plans and strategies, including the needs of people living in rural and island areas. We recognise that our rural and island communities have specific, place-based needs when it comes to the effective delivery of public services, including healthcare.

That is why we have established an NHS Board-led working group which is considering ways to improve delivery of safe, quality and sustainable healthcare services across rural and island Scotland.

More broadly, work is underway to develop a systematic approach to mainstreaming rural policy, the Rural Assessment Toolkit, which will support identifying and addressing the needs of rural communities and economies in our work.

Under the Islands Act 2018, the Scottish Government has a duty to consider issues that affect island communities in the development and delivery of all policies, strategies and services. We are also working with island communities and local authorities to develop a new National Islands Plan to be published later this year.

These workstreams support our endeavours to meaningfully improve outcomes for our rural and island communities across portfolios.

Question reference: S6W-33535

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many emergency air ambulance call-outs have been made to rural areas in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-33981

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to prevent counterfeit whisky from damaging the reputation of Scotch whisky globally, in light of a 2018 report by Rare Whisky 101, which reportedly found that, of 55 selected bottles acquired from different sources, 21 proved to be fake.