Stephen Kerr

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government on what dates the First Minister has held meetings regarding the commitment to keeping The Promise for care-experienced children since May 2024; who attended; what was discussed, and what the outcomes were.

Answer · Natalie Don-Innes: The Scottish Government is fully committed to keeping The Promise by 2030. Given the cross Governmental scope of the activity related to The Promise, the First Minister regularly discusses the commitment and has undertaken various engagements with the care co…

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what impact adopting the BE FAST (balance, eyes, face, arms, speech, time) test could have on the number of additional strokes that could be detected quicker annually.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of additional strokes that could be detected by adopting BE FAST.The Scottish Government’s position is that the current evidence base does not support a move to the use of BE FAST, and this…

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many stroke patients have required mechanical thrombectomy in each of the last five years, and what proportion of these procedures took place outside daytime hours.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of strokes recorded in each of the last five years were posterior circulation strokes, and what information it has on how many of these were initially missed despite using the FAST (face, arms, speech, time) test.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The requested information is not held centrally. The Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA) does not routinely collect information on posterior circulation strokes or data on whether there has been a FAST “pre-alert” before arrival at hospital.

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital admissions in each of the last five years have been directly attributed to alcohol consumption, and how much this has cost.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The number of hospital admissions wholly attributable to alcohol is published on the Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) website. For the five year period, the number of hospital admissions wholly attributable to alcohol is presented in the following table.F…

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many lives it estimates have been saved annually as a result of minimum unit pricing for alcohol, and what assessment it has made of the impact of the recent uprating to 65p per unit.

Answer · Jenni Minto: Research conducted by Public Health Scotland estimated that Minimum Unit Pricing had reduced alcohol-attributable deaths in Scotland by 13.4%, or 156 per year, up to the end of 2020, compared to what would have happened if Minimum Unit Pricing had not been in…

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many alcohol-specific deaths have been recorded in each of the last five years, also broken down by what proportion were attributed to liver disease.

Answer · Jenni Minto: Data on alcohol-specific deaths are published annually by National Records Scotland (NRS) and can be found here: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/alcohol-specific-deaths-2023/Data on alcohol-specific deaths for 2024 are not yet published. The number…

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the revised projected costs are for the proposed national treatment centre in Livingston, and how this compares with the original estimate of £70.9 million.

Answer · Neil Gray: The development of the National Treatment Centre in Livingston is currently paused therefore there are no revised project costs.

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional procedures were expected to be carried out by the new national treatment centres for elective surgery by 2026, and what impact any delays to the centres has had on waiting times.

Answer · Neil Gray: As outlined in our NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 annual progress update, published 18 December 2024, our five National Treatment Centres are expected to deliver an additional 20,000 procedures per annum once fully operational.However, with the 2025-26 Budget pr…

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent to date on planning and development for each of the five national treatment centres, and how this compares with the estimate in its initial proposals.

Answer · Neil Gray: As set out in answer S6W-29116 on 6 September 2024, the cost incurred to date in relation to the planned National Treatment Centre in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Grampian, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside is as follows.BoardCost incurred to date o…

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how the reported additional £13.6 million investment in general practice in 2024-25 is being allocated, and what proportion will be directed towards recruitment and retention initiatives.

Answer · Neil Gray: Scottish Government have allocated £13.6 million to General Practice to assist with recruitment and retention by directly funding GP practices to pay partners and staff; distributed by Scottish Workload Formula and Income & Expenses Guarantee entitl…

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the reported decline in the number of fully qualified GPs from 4,514 in 2022 to 4,438 in 2024 on people's access to primary care services.

Answer · Neil Gray: Scottish Government have not conducted an analysis of the impact of GP Numbers on GP access: access is affected by a number of factors and we continue to work with the profession to ensure they offer suitable access arrangements for their patients.The latest …

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many GPs took early retirement in each of the last five years, also broken down by what proportion of the total GP workforce this represented.

Answer · Neil Gray: The Scottish Government does not hold information on the retirement ages of GPs.

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the number of people who have sought transgender chest surgery privately in each of the last five tears, including those who fundraise through online platforms.

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government does not collect or hold information on how many individuals may seek regulated independent healthcare provided transgender chest surgery.

10 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been referred for transgender chest surgery, including masculinising mastectomies, in each of the last five years, also broken down by how many were aged (a) 17 to 25 and (b) 26 and over.

Answer · Jenni Minto: This information is not collected centrally by the Scottish Government and is an operational matter for NHS National Services Scotland, National Services Division (NSD).Gender reassignment surgeries, as a treatment option for assessed gender dysphoria, are hi…

4 Feb 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the minutes of each meeting of the Future Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland: Design Advisory Group.

Answer · Kaukab Stewart: The Design Advisory Group (DAG) was working with Scottish Government to help develop plans for the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland. As the group was working independently, it took responsibility for minuting its own meetings.We understand that due to som…

30 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance has been issued to the Scottish Prison Service regarding the use of common good funds in prisons.

Answer · Angela Constance: I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:The use of common good funds (CGF) within Scottish prisons aligns with the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) and is governed via the…

29 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the Project Willow study on the future of the Grangemouth refinery will be (a) delivered to it and (b) published.

Answer · Gillian Martin: Recommendations and key outputs will be made available via a public information document shortly after the study’s conclusion, expected in the coming weeks.

29 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government which (a) organisations and (b) groups will be provided with copies of the (i) draft and (ii) final version of the Project Willow study on the future of the Grangemouth refinery.

Answer · Gillian Martin: Recommendations and key outputs will be made available via a public information document shortly after the study’s conclusion, expected in the coming weeks.

29 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government who (a) commissioned and (b) is paying for the Project Willow study on the future of the Grangemouth refinery.

Answer · Gillian Martin: The Scottish Government and UK Government have jointly funded the ‘Project Willow’ cross site study. This has been commissioned by Petroineos and supplied by Ernst and Young Parthenon.Recommendations and key outputs will be made available via a pu…

20 Jan 2025 · Topical Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will update the Parliament on the supply and availability of the flu vaccine.

14 Jan 2025 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to mitigate against future increases to Social Security Scotland's overall spend on benefits.

14 Jan 2025 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many rural schools there have been in each year since 2007.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The number of publicly funded rural schools in Scotland since 2013 is set out in the following table. Schools were counted as rural if the postcode of the school was classified as accessible rural and remote rural under the Scottish Government’s 6-fold …

7 Jan 2025 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the plans forthe contract for Contact Scotland BSL, which provides free services to BSLusers.

17 Dec 2024 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to reform planning regulations to enable the construction of new nuclear power stations.

11 Dec 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people currently in receipt of Adult Disability Payment have their primary residence outside of Scotland, broken down by how many have their primary residence (a) in the rest of the UK and (b) outside of the UK.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Social Security Scotland routinely publishes information on Adult Disability Payment caseload, broken down by local authority.As of 31 October 2024, statistics showed that there were 374,655 clients on the Adult Disability Payment caseload, of which 480 were …

10 Dec 2024 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the potential impact on agriculture,what assessment it has made of the number of family farms in Scotland that willincur inheritance tax liability as a result of changes announced in the UKBudget.

6 Dec 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its allocation of £145.5 million tomaintain teacher numbers, where the original documents in relation to anyassociated funding agreements with local authorities are or will be published.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Since 2012-13 the Scottish Government has had a policy position of increasing/maintaining teacher numbers and has made a range of historical financial allocations to local government to support this.During COVID-19, in the 2020-2021 school year, we provided a…

3 Dec 2024 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the effectiveness of its funding for active travel.

3 Dec 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether an economic impact assessment has been conducted into the impact of the closure of the Queensferry Crossing due to risks of falling ice.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: No specific economic impact assessment has been carried out in relation to closures of the Queensferry Crossing due to the risk of falling ice. A range of estimates exist for the daily impact of the Queensferry Crossing being closed but vary depending on whet…