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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

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Question reference: S6W-39712

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commission a new design options appraisal for the cancelled Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) project as a means of providing a direct heavy rail connection between Edinburgh Airport and Glasgow Queen Street Station.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to investigate a new rail link connecting Edinburgh airport to the current Edinburgh to Glasgow rail line.

The second Strategic Transport Projects Review, published in 2022, did consider this but did not identify this as a priority for investment given the current opportunities that exist for air passengers travelling by rail from Glasgow and the west, to interchange with the Edinburgh Tram service to the airport.

The Government remains committed to supporting sustainable and integrated transport solutions that strengthen Scotland’s connectivity and economic resilience.

Question reference: S6W-39959

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in the recent Strategic Defence Review, particularly those contained in chapter 6 (Home Defence and Resilience: A Whole-of-Society Approach) and chapter 7.2 (Maritime Domain), whether it will consider the potential designation of future vessels procured by Scottish Government-owned public corporations and executive agencies, including roll-on/roll-off ferries and marine protection and research vessels, as necessary for national security purposes and apply the exemption from the provisions under section 45 of the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

Question reference: S6W-40006

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any progress towards a decision on the Waterborne Freight Grant Application, submitted by DFDS, in relation to the Rosyth-Dunkirk ferry route.

Question reference: S6W-40027

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many care home places will be needed by 2050.

Question reference: S6W-40026

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of future demand for care home places, and how it plans to meet this demand.

Question reference: S6W-39534

Asked by: Elena Whitham, MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 21 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government (a) what training and (b) how much training time on neurodivergence is allocated to staff across all education settings.

The provision of ongoing professional learning opportunities and collaboration with other partners on professional development is primarily the responsibility of local authorities.

In education settings, the Scottish Government has worked closely with partners to develop resources for teachers such as the Home | Autism Toolbox Autism Toolbox. The toolbox provides a range of information and guidance to support the education of autistic learners and complements the free autism and inclusive practice professional learning resources available to all staff. We have also created resources to support universities teaching their students about autism and how best to support autistic children and young people in their classrooms.

The Teachers' Agreement (2001), which aims to enhance opportunities for professional development, made continuing professional development a condition of service while also specifying that teachers should undertake a maximum of 35 hours CPD in each working year. Within this, there is flexibility and opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of neurodivergence and ASN.

In 2024, the Scottish Government committed to examine options for teacher training and to analyse the number of initial teacher training hours attributed to additional support needs. The Scottish Council of Deans for Education is currently undertaking this work. We will consider next steps in this area once we have considered their findings, which are due shortly.

The Scottish Government has also commissioned NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the National Autism Implementation Team to provide professional learning about neurodevelopmental conditions at informed, enhanced, specialist and expert levels (according to the NES framework). These can be found on the Turas page (NHS Education for Scotland’s unified training platform) and accessed by the NHS and teachers.

Children and young people - national neurodevelopmental specification: principles and standards of care - gov.scot is also available for educators to refer to and specifies the standards that all children’s services should follow to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland. We recently reviewed the implementation of this specification in partnership with COSLA, including engagement with education staff, and have identified potential areas for improvement, including further professional learning opportunities. We have recently announced the establishment of a cross-sector task force, co-chaired by health and education officials to drive forward these changes, alongside a £500,000 investment in 2025-26 to support system improvements.

Question reference: S6W-39543

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 21 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has conducted on the impact on (a) retail crime and (b) the safety of shop workers in Scotland of the proposals in the UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

The UK-wide impact assessment on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill noted that there is not sufficient evidence to be able to provide an estimate for how this policy may impact the number of incidences of violence or abuse towards retail workers or monetise the impact. Further impact assessments will be undertaken by the Scottish Government before making any Regulations under powers in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill that rest with the Scottish Ministers.

Retail workers (as well as all other workers) are protected by a wide range of criminal laws (i.e. the statutory offence of threatening or abusive behaviour; the common law offence of assault; and the common law offence of breach of the peace).

In addition, the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-Restricted Products) (Scotland) Act 2021(“the 2021 Act”) came into force in August 2021 and created a statutory offence of threatening, abusing, or assaulting a retail worker, adding to the offences that can already be used to prosecute those who abuse retail workers.

Scottish Government partners, like the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF), share best guidance and resources, such as the free Grocery Aid helpline, and Victim Support, for victims of violence and abuse in a retail setting. We will continue to work closely with retailers to support them in preparing for and implementing the Bill.

As part of its budget for 2025-26, the Scottish Government is making an additional £3 million available for Police Scotland to work with the sector to tackle retail crime.

Question reference: S6W-39874

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 21 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support the rights of commercial tenants.

The Scottish Government introduced the Leases (Automatic Continuation etc.) (Scotland) Bill which will clarify and modernise the legal rights of commercial tenants to terminate their lease. The Bill will benefit commercial tenants, such as small businesses, who do not have the means to employ legal representation and the Government is committed to preparing and publishing guidance about the reforms to further support small business tenants. Further details and progress of the Bill is available Leases (Automatic Continuation etc.) (Scotland) Bill | Scottish Parliament Website.

Question reference: S6W-39801

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 21 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the fourth supplementary to question S6O-02531 by Siobhian Brown on 20 September 2023, in light of the minister’s comment that Scotland is “maintaining frontline services by having a higher number of firefighters than there is in other parts of the UK”, whether it can confirm how many firefighters there are in Scotland, and how this compares with the rest of the UK, also broken down by how many firefighters from (a) Scotland and (b) the rest of the UK are currently available for operational service and are employed (i) in a full-time equivalent (FTE) role or (ii) on a retained duty system (RDS), and how it ensures that, when calculating these figures, it does not double-count firefighters in Scotland who hold dual contracts with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as both FTE and RDS staff.

In answering Parliamentary Questions in relation to firefighter numbers, the Scottish Government uses nationally available Official Statistics from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and for comparative numbers, the Welsh and UK Governments.

Current Official Statistics for the SFRS in 2023/24 (statistics for 24/25 will be published on 29 August 2025) show that at 31 March 2024 there were 3,419 wholetime operational staff, 55 Retained full-time and 166 Operational Control staff all of whom are considered to be wholetime firefighters. There were 2,708 Retained Duty and 269 Volunteer firefighters which are considered to be On-Call firefighters. Both the wholetime and on-call firefighter numbers are added together to show the total number of firefighters in Scotland. The full Scottish Statistics can be found at FSOS2023-2024Statistics.pdf. Comparable statistics for Wales and England are available at Personnel (headcount) by employment type and Fire and Rescue Service area and Fire statistics data tables - GOV.UK.

SFRS statistics count individual staff who are on dual contracts twice, once in their wholetime operational role and once in their On Call role as they are two distinct and separate jobs with separate contracts. Scottish Government does not hold details on Scottish or UK firefighters that are currently available for operational service and employed on an FTE or RDS role.

Question reference: S6W-39768

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 21 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the reasons for the reported increase in patient falls recorded in hospitals since 2019.

The Scottish Government wants all care delivered within the NHS in Scotland to be safe, effective and person-centred. As part of that, the Scottish Government established the Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), hosted by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, which provides ongoing practical improvement support to Boards. Since 2021, SPSP has delivered a programme to reduce the rate of inpatient falls. The most recent data from this work (report published December 2024: 20241211-spsp-acute-adult-collaborative-full-impact-report-v10.pdf) demonstrates that the national median rate of inpatient falls in acute hospitals had sustained a decrease of 9% (when compared to baseline data beginning in 2021). This programme of work will continue to support improvement in the years ahead.