- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many social media managers it currently employs, and what the associated costs are.
Answer
Please find below, the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) number of social media managers currently employed within the Communications division and the associated cost.
Year: 2024/25
Cost: £472,571*
FTE: 10.9
* 1 April 2024 to 31 December 2024. Costs for the financial year 2024-25 are not available until the end of the financial year.
The headcount FTE fluctuates from month to month, accounting for vacancies. Headcount FTE is a snap-shot at a point in time, in this case 31 December 2024.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is implementing to ensure that rural NHS boards have the necessary infrastructure to manage electronic medical records effectively.
Answer
Scottish Government implements a number of measures to support rural NHS Boards’ digital infrastructure. These include:
- The Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN)
- A Strategic Digital Fund -For a number of years the Scottish Government has provided additional non-recurring funding to support local strategic digital developments, with a particular emphasis on ensuring continued funding for Highlands and Islands Boards to protect rural services
- Access to the Scottish Government/COSLA Digital Maturity Assessment platform - a standardised management tool for digital transformation. This platform enables NHS Boards to document progress, analyse results, identify priorities, and align with local and national digital and data strategies.
- Recent analysis of data from the Scottish Government/COSLA Digital Maturity Assessment shows both progress in electronic records management and areas for development at organisational and system wide level.
- The Scottish Government and COSLA have also developed a range of resources to increase the digital capabilities of the leadership and workforce thereby improving the ability to identify digital transformation opportunities and implementation.
- A Records Management Code of Practice was published in August 2024.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what additional funding it is providing to NHS boards to improve access to physiotherapy and rehabilitation services in rural communities.
Answer
The Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare, and it is for each individual NHS Board to decide how best to utilise funding, to meet local health needs. Over the last five years, the number of Allied Health Professionals (AHP’s) across Scotland have increased by 17.8% including a 20.6% increase in Physiotherapists as at June 2024.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it remains committed to ensuring that all of the loans that it has made to Glasgow Prestwick Airport are repaid in full by the new owner, should the airport be sold.
Answer
I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.
Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.
The process is ongoing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it still plans to sell Glasgow Prestwick Airport to the private sector.
Answer
I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.
Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.
The process is ongoing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to keep people safe and secure at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, and how any such measures compare with those in other airports in Scotland.
Answer
Glasgow Prestwick Airport operates on a commercial basis and at arm’s length from the Scottish Government and Ministers do not intervene in operational matters.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many arrests have been made at Glasgow Prestwick Airport in each of the last five years, and what the primary reasons were for any such arrests.
Answer
Glasgow Prestwick Airport operates on a commercial basis and at arm’s length from the Scottish Government and Ministers do not intervene in operational matters. Additionally, statistics regarding arrests in any location at a matter for Police Scotland.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the bidding process for Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
Answer
I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.
Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors the (a) accuracy and (b) completeness of patient medical records, and what steps are being taken to address any discrepancies.
Answer
It is the legal responsibility of the assigned Health Board or GP practice to act as the data controller for an individual's medical record. The data controller will monitor the data and rectify any discrepancies, in line with existing Data Protection legislation and processes.
Each NHS Scotland Health board has a privacy notice to inform the public of why and how they use information they are in control of and this can be accessed via their individual website.
Guidance is publicly available on NHS inform at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/care-support-and-rights/health-rights/confidentiality-and-data-protection/health-records/#viewing-your-health-records.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the criteria that the new owner of Glasgow Prestwick Airport must maximise the employment potential of the airport means that there would be no immediate redundancies, should the airport be sold.
Answer
I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.
Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.
The process is ongoing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.