Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-34541

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to carry out a new consultation regarding long-term chronic pain conditions; how this will be conducted, and take account of the differences between conditions; who will (a) organise and (b) carry out this consultation, and what the outcome was of its previous such consultation, including what improvements were recorded as a result of it.

We are exploring a new long term conditions strategy to better recognise the fact that many people living with long term conditions need the same types of support and care, regardless of their condition.

A long term conditions strategy will focus on ensuring equitable and sustainable access to the services that all people with long term conditions need, while still allowing for targeted action on condition-specific care and support where appropriate.

We have been engaging with clinicians, patients, carers and third sector organisations to find out what matters to them. We will shortly launch a full public consultation to ensure everyone can have their say.

This consultation will take place online via CitizenSpace and consideration will be given to include groups who will be unable to access the online platform.

In summer 2023 we engaged with stakeholders including clinicians, third-sector organisations and people with lived experience of chronic pain. Feedback received was used to inform the development of the updated Pain Management Service Delivery Framework – Implementation Plan.

Question reference: S6W-34509

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents involving illegal drugs have been reported in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each of the last five years, also broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-34447

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of whistleblowing have taken place in each public service organisation in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-35038

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, following the Year of Young People 2018, what plans it has to hold a new version of the initiative.

Question reference: S6W-34439

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what innovative approaches it is considering to identify undiagnosed individuals living with hepatitis C.

The most recent surveillance report from Public Health Scotland indicates that the number of people tested for hepatitis C (HCV) antibody in Scotland in 2023 had surpassed pre-pandemic levels in almost all settings. Nonetheless, detecting more infections is a priority and we are focused on testing and treating more people, wherever they are, as we continue to push towards elimination of the virus.

Current work includes ensuring that opt-out testing is optimised in drug services and prisons, and considering the results of a recent Scottish Government-funded prison-based Hepatitis Intense Test and Treat (HITT) initiative in NHS Lothian. We are also reviewing the outcomes of opt-out blood borne virus testing pilots in Scottish emergency departments to determine whether further roll-out of this model would be effective.

Question reference: S6W-34438

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30844 by Jenni Minto on 14 November 2024, when it will provide an update to Parliament on progress towards its goal of eliminating the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Progress towards eliminating hepatitis C (HCV) in Scotland is monitored by Public Health Scotland (PHS). PHS’s latest HCV surveillance report, published in January 2025, described progress as “hugely encouraging”. The number of deaths and cases of severe disease reduced by over 65% between 2015 and 2022, with the vast majority of those diagnosed (89%) having cleared their infection through treatment (exceeding the World Health Organization’s target of 80%).

However, the latest report only includes data up to 2023/24, so it is too early to say conclusively whether every indictor for HCV elimination has been reached. Work continues across key sectors to ensure we achieve and sustain elimination. I will provide a further update to Parliament once we have a fuller picture of our position and next steps post-March 2025.

Question reference: S6W-34440

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with industry partners to identify undiagnosed individuals living with hepatitis C.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any formal arrangements with industry partners to identify undiagnosed individuals living with hepatitis C. However we are aware of local community testing initiatives that have been developed and delivered with industry, such as the STEP C Free project in Forth Valley and work with the Hepatitis C Trust in Glasgow. We are happy to encourage innovative evidence-based approaches and support dissemination of learning from such initiatives through forums such as the Scottish Health Protection Network groups and our ongoing Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus local area visits.

Question reference: S6W-34452

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 14 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) it and (b) its educational bodies have spent on consultants in each year since 1999.

a) Under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, the Scottish Government published information relating to consultancy spend. The return specifies how consultancy spend is defined and returns dating back to 2015-16 can be found on the Scottish Government’s website at.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/government-expenditure-2016-to-2023/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/government-expenditure/pages/2023-to-2024

Previous PQ’s (S4W-26410 on 11 August 2015 and S4W-02171 on 14 September 2011) requesting this information contain the Consultancy figures for years 2009-10, 2010-11, 2012-13, and 2014-15

Unfortunately, data is not held for the year 2011-12, nor years prior to 2009-10 on a comparable basis.

b) Please see the following figures relating to consultancy costs from Education Scotland, Disclosure Scotland and SAAS from 2011.

Money spent on consultancy fees is included in the annual accounting reports for each organisation. This information is publicly available on organisational websites but is reproduced below for information.

	Consultancy Fees (to the nearest £1,000)
Financial Year	Education Scotland	Disclosure Scotland	SAAS
2011-12	-	64,000	24,000
2012-13	2,000	112,000	30,000
2013-14	2,000	549,000	5,000
2014-15	1,000	300,000	41,000
2015-16	5,000	142,000	20,000
2016-17	0	77,000	6,000
2017-18	26,000	33,000	0
2018-19	21,000	25,000	0
2019-20	1,000	3,000	0
2020-21	0	9,000	0
2021-22	0	8,000	0
2022-23	0	0	2,000
2023-24	0	0	3,300

Education Scotland was established in July 2011 and as such full year accounts are only available from 2012/13

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-34887

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many student applications to college have been rejected due to limited places in each year since 1999, broken down by college.

Question reference: S6W-34894

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on education; what targeted measures are in place to provide flexibility to children with Crohn's disease and colitis who may need extended time off, and how such students are supported to complete their education.

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