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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 4324 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S7W-00972

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Allied Health Professions workforce review.

Question reference: S7W-00973

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for the digitisation of patient records, and what projects in this field have been completed, broken down by NHS board.

The digitisation of records is managed operationally by individual Health Boards and GP practices, information on implementation of digitisation projects within each Health Board is not held centrally.

For information on our plans at a national level, the refreshed Digital Health and Care Strategy, published in 2021 outlines our ambitions and plans for improving digital infrastructure within the NHS. The strategy can be found here:https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/strategy-plan/2021/10/scotlands-digital-health-care-strategy/documents/enabling-connecting-empowering-care-digital-age/enabling-connecting-empowering-care-digital-age/govscot%3Adocument/enabling-connecting-empowering-care-digital-age.pdf.

Our most recent update on how the Scottish Government are progressing with these plans, can be found in our Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2025-2026 which is available at:https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/strategy-plan/2025/08/care-digital-age-delivery-plan-2025-2026/documents/care-digital-age-delivery-plan-2025-26/care-digital-age-delivery-plan-2025-26/govscot%3Adocument/care-digital-age-delivery-plan-2025-26.pdf

Question reference: S7W-00975

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has been spent on temporary staff engaged through staff banks in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S7W-00976

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 19 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many GP link workers have been employed in each of the last 10 years.

As part of an annual update on Primary Care Improvement Plans (PCIP), the Scottish Government (SG) publishes information on workforce numbers for the General Practice Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), which support delivery of the 2018 GP contract. Community Link Workers (CLWs) are a key part of the MDT and detailed information on their workforce numbers can be accessed at: Primary care improvement plans: implementation progress reports - gov.scot. Please see the below table for a breakdown of WTE CLWs in post from 2017 to 2026.

Year	CLWs WTE
2026	354.8
2025	369.3*
2024	325.5
2023	308.2
2022	290.4
2021	189.3
2020	165.6
2019	98.6
2018	51.4
2017	53

*Please be advised that the 2025 figure has been recently revised due to data quality improvements. The initial 2025 progress report showed 342.3 CLWs in post; however, the 2026 progress report, revises this figure to 369.3 CLWs for 2025.

Question reference: S7W-01088

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 14 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding so-called corridor care, where patients receive care outwith appropriate clinical settings, what (a) data it collects and (b) advice it (i) provides to and (ii) work it carries out with NHS boards to support them in eradicating the issue.

Question reference: S7W-00515

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Alison Thewliss on 10 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when the proposed "Molly’s Suite" for paediatric palliative care will open.

The Scottish Government supports the development of a paediatric palliative care suite in Greater Glasgow and Clyde. We want to ensure that children and young people receive high quality palliative care and that their families and carers have flexible support, based on their individual needs, in a location that suits them.

‘Molly’s suite’ will build on the work done by young cancer patient Molly Cuddihy to ensure children and young people at the end of their life are properly supported and treated with dignity. Work to develop it is being led by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC), working in partnership with Children’s Hospices across Scotland (CHAS).

My officials have asked the Board for an update on progress, which I will share with the Member in due course.

Question reference: S7W-00526

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Alison Thewliss on 9 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when the EpiPen pilot scheme for eateries will commence.

Adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs), such as an EpiPen®, are prescription-only medicines which are prescribed by an authorised healthcare professional and dispensed at a registered pharmacy. A current exception to this is that schools are allowed to purchase AAIs without a prescription, for emergency use in children with a prescription and who are at risk of anaphylaxis, but whose own device is not available or not working.

The regulation for the licensing, quality, safety, and efficacy of medicines is reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Extending access to AAIs to eateries in Scotland will require a change to the Human Medicines Regulations (HMR) 2012. Scottish Government officials are engaging with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the MHRA about the changes to the HMR 2012 that will be required and will develop options for a pilot following these discussions.

Question reference: S7W-00527

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when psychological therapies will be integrated into the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub.

The expansion of the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub to provide a national pathway to brief psychological interventions for those would benefit from early treatment but would not meet the criteria to access local specialist secondary care mental health services launched in December 2025. This is providing treatment from professionals appropriately trained in psychological practice. The expansion also allows people calling the Hub access to existing digital psychological therapies. This is helping to improve early identification of the need for support and timely access to early intervention support to prevent mental health issues escalating, support for life events, and to help people cope with physical health conditions.

Since the initial launch and in line with this government’s manifesto commitment, improvement work will continue to ensure the service can increase the number of people who can benefit from treatment.

Question reference: S7W-00535

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Alison Thewliss on 9 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when the complex care investment programme will deliver the 400 beds it is projected to free up in Scotland’s hospitals.

The Scottish Government and COSLA published the Coming Home Action Plan in March 2026. The action plan is backed by Scottish Government funding of up to £20m to support implementation. The majority of this funding will be distributed via the Independent Living Fund (ILF) Scotland through the creation of a new Coming Home fund.

No timeline has been set on releasing hospital beds through this new fund. In line with a person-centred approach and to ensure safe and supportive transitions, all moves from hospital to the community will progress at the pace appropriate for each person to ensure their individual needs are met.

Question reference: S7W-00496

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Alison Thewliss on 9 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Scottish National Party’s 2026 manifesto commitment to establish a Home Energy for Health support scheme, when it will commence.

Our Programme for Government, which will set out our plans, will be put to the Parliament in due course.

We have committed to supporting the cost of electricity for the use of life saving equipment in homes and we are taking this work forward. We plan to widen the support available by building on the national policy of reimbursing electricity costs for home dialysis equipment we published in 2024. We are continuing to engage with the third sector and NHS Boards to ensure implementation of the existing policy.

This work will help to inform future work relating to home energy health support.