Parliamentary questions
Miles Briggs
4,209 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
8 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its apology for historical adoption practices, what assessment it has made of the findings of the Truth Recovery Design Panel report for the Northern Ireland Executive, Truth, Acknowledgement and Accountability.
Answer · Natalie Don-Innes: In developing the national apology, the Scottish Government engaged with individuals and families affected by historic forced adoption, drawing on personal testimonies and findings from relevant inquiries across the UK and internationally. This included findi…
8 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported announcement that £3 million will be allocated to Adoption England to help deliver more multidisciplinary teams to support young adoptees up to 26 years of age and their families, whether it will consider providing funding to deliver similar action in Scot…
Answer · Natalie Don-Innes: The Scottish Government’s Adoption Vision Statement, published in November 2024, highlights the need for continued and lifelong support for all those affected by adoption.Adoption support should include a range of multi-disciplinary universal and specia…
8 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the current average waiting time is for patients to access diabetic (a) glucose monitoring and closed-loop insulin pumps and (b) insulin pumps.
Answer · Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government is committed to expanding access to diabetes technology and since 2016, we have invested almost £30 million to support expansion. Last year, we established a national programme aiming to provide over 2000 more people with access …
8 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have accessed the drug, Givinostat, in each NHS board.
Answer · Jenni Minto: The detailed information requested is currently being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib number 65811).
8 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of access to the drug, Givinostat.
Answer · Jenni Minto: The detailed information requested is currently being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib number 65812).
3 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been turned away from secure care in each year since 1999.
Answer · Natalie Don-Innes: Information on referrals is not held centrally.Local authorities have statutory responsibility for most secure placements and make referrals directly to the secure care services. A placement in respect of any child may only be accepted if the secure accommoda…
3 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many visits by NHS dentists to schools there have been in each year since 1999.
Answer · Jenni Minto: This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government but may be retrievable from individual Health Boards. All state primary schools are involved in the basic inspection. The sample size for schools and the detailed inspection should be available…
3 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many tribunals in relation to school support have taken place in each local authority area in each year since 1999, broken down by the reason for the tribunal.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government does not record this information. The First-Tier Tribunal for Scotland, Additional Support Needs (ASN) Jurisdiction is a separate and independent body.Yearly statistics Tribunal Forum | First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Health and Educ…
3 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the levels of traffic at the Sheriffhall Roundabout in each year since 1999.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: Transport Scotland doesn’t, as a matter of course, undertake assessments of traffic levels at Sheriffhall roundabout, or other locations on the strategic road network. Traffic data is captured on an ongoing basis for specific projects or studies.Congest…
3 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have accessed cancer drug trials in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Jenni Minto: Directly comparable data is available from Financial Year 2014-2015 onwards corresponding to the introduction of the EDGE clinical research management system across the territorial NHS Boards and this data has been provided in the table below.Patient recruitm…
3 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children have received a dental check-up by an NHS dentist at school in each year since 1999.
Answer · Jenni Minto: This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The information may be held under the National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP) which is a key function of the Public Dental Service, for which responsibility lies with Health Boards.The NDI…
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many primary school pupils in each local authority area are currently not entitled to free school meals as a result of its decision not to roll out free school meal provision to all primary school pupils.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: This information is not held centrally.Local authorities have a statutory duty to promote school meals and to take all reasonable steps to ensure that all children and young people entitled to receive free school meals are given full support to access them.As…
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints it has received from members of the public in relation to school education in each year since 1999.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Local Authorities are responsible for providing a range of public services, including education, so the member may wish to approach local government for the information requested.
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many phone call appointments have been undertaken by health visitors in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Jenni Minto: The information requested is not held centrally.
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many international students have been treated at A&E in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested as international students cannot be identified from the A&E data collected by Public Health Scotland.
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been placed in temporary accommodation in the City of Edinburgh Council area in each year since 1999, also given as the percentage of the national number that this represents.
Answer · Paul McLennan: The following table shows the number of children and young people placed in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh at some point during each year, and as a percentage of Scotland from 2017-18 to 2023-24.Data on temporary accommodation placements (HL3) is only a…
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been placed in hotels and guest houses under temporary accommodation measures in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Paul McLennan: The Scottish Government does not collect specific information on temporary accommodation placements within hotels and guest houses. These are both captured under a broader ‘other’ category (via HL3 data collection).Information is captured on Bed &…
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been reported as running away from home in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Siobhian Brown: The information requested is not held or collected centrally by Scottish Government. However, Police Scotland may be able to provide some data obtained from their National Missing Persons Application which was introduced in April 2019.
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) primary and (b) secondary schools have been in (i) red and (ii) amber warning levels for potential violence from pupils in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: This information is not held centrally. Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, education is the responsibility of local authorities.
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many international students have accessed child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Maree Todd: This data is not held centrally; aggregated data for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Waiting Times is sent to Public Health Scotland from each NHS Board. This data does not contain specific information about the number of young people acces…
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many international students have accessed GP services in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many international students have accessed GP services in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been reported missing in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Siobhian Brown: The information requested is not held or collected centrally by Scottish Government. However, Police Scotland may be able to provide some data obtained from their National Missing Persons Application which was introduced in April 2019.
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many young people have been removed from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) waiting lists in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Maree Todd: This data is not held centrally; aggregated data for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is sent to Public Health Scotland from individual NHS Boards. This data reports on the following:number of referrals to CAMHS services;numbers waiting to …
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many care-experienced people have (a) requested and (b) received independent advocacy in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Natalie Don-Innes: The Scottish Government does not hold this information.Individual local authorities manage and monitor the provision of independent advocacy to meet local needs, including ongoing provision for care experienced people.The Scottish Government is currently work…
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been placed in temporary accommodation in each year since 1999.
Answer · Paul McLennan: The following table shows the total number of children and young people that were in temporary accommodation at some point during each year from 2017-18 to 2023-24.Data on temporary accommodation placements (HL3) is only available from 2017-18.Children and yo…
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to implement a presumption against children moving schools when they are placed in temporary accommodation.
Answer · Paul McLennan: The Scottish Government recognises the disruption a homeless household can experience when placed in temporary accommodation and is aware of the issues that can arise if accommodation is located too far from the household’s employment, education and sup…
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many health visitors have been employed in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Neil Gray: The information requested on how many health visitors have been employed in each local authority area in each year since 1999 is not held centrally.
2 Apr 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many in-person visits have been undertaken by health visitors in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer · Jenni Minto: The information requested is not held centrally.
27 Mar 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding what progress is being made to assist colleges in Scotland with the student sponsor licence to provide more flexibility for the sector.
Answer · Graeme Dey: International students have a positive economic impact. We want to attract and retain international students in Scotland. While immigration is a reserved matter, the Scottish Government is committed to working closely with the UK Government to make a positive…
27 Mar 2025 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) review it (i) has undertaken and (ii) plans to undertake and (b) engagement it has had with the UK Government in light of reports that an estimated 30,000 women across the UK were prescribed stilbestrol, and how many women affected were resident in Scotland.
Answer · Jenni Minto: I have the utmost sympathy for the women who may have been adversely affected by diethylstilbestrol (otherwise known as DES or stilbestrol).The regulations for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is t…