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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.

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Question reference: S6W-40376

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail services have been (a) cancelled, (b) part-cancelled and (c) delayed by at least (i) one minute, (ii) 15 minutes, (iii) 30 minutes and (iv) 60 minutes in (A) each of the last three financial years and (B) 2025-26 to date, and how many of these were attributed to (1) air conditioning/cooling failures, (2) other rolling-stock defects, (3) train crew availability, (4) infrastructure or signalling faults, (5) the weather and (6) other causes, also broken down by ScotRail service group.

Question reference: S6W-40371

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38735 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 1 July 2025, what its response is to the new research on the welfare benefits system and premenstrual dysphoric disorder published in the report, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder: The Welfare State: Recommendations for Reform.

Question reference: S6W-40375

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered increasing the budget allocated to the Future Farming Investment Scheme in the event that it is oversubscribed.

Question reference: S6W-40377

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support and accelerate economic growth across Scotland’s circular fashion and sustainable textiles sector; what consideration it has given to establishing a national industrial cluster for circular fashion and sustainable textiles, and what steps it will take to engage with Scottish operators, such as ACS Clothing, in its design and delivery of policies to support Scotland’s circular economy and net zero commitments.

Question reference: S6W-40373

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when applicants to the Future Farming Investment Scheme will be informed whether their application has been approved.

Question reference: S6W-40374

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications it received to the Future Farming Investment Scheme in 2025.

Question reference: S6W-40267

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-40341

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Neil Gray on 5 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to pilot spinal muscular atrophy screening in Scotland.

Based on current planning, in early 2026, Scotland will become the first country in the UK to begin an in service evaluation (ISE) of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) screening. Under the plans, all babies in Scotland will be offered screening for the condition for at least the next two years.

The Scottish Government recognises that SMA can be devastating for babies and families, and supports any intervention that can be shown to improve the quality of life for those affected.

While there is evidence around the benefits of SMA screening, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) requires further supporting evidence before it can recommend it as a long term part of the newborn screening programme.

This ISE will allow the NHS to potentially find and treat babies with SMA earlier than they otherwise might have, and will generate valuable data to inform the UK NSC’s final recommendation on SMA screening.

The evidence generated by the Scottish ISE will be submitted to the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which will analyse it alongside data from the planned SMA ISE in England.

Question reference: S6W-40340

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 5 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress made in the further decarbonisation of Scotland's suburban rail services, and what plans it has to replace the rolling stock currently operating on ScotRail’s suburban services.

I can confirm that the next phase in Scotland’s programme to decarbonise the railway network will involve the electrification of sections on the Fife and Borders railways. Works are already underway, with significant progress being made on the electrification of the line between Haymarket and Dalmeny. This forms part of the Scottish Government’s sustained investment in Scotland’s rail infrastructure and represents the initial phase of enabling works for the future electrification of the Fife Circle services.

The Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to electrification supports the deployment of electric and battery-electric trains. I can further confirm that ScotRail has been authorised to initiate a procurement exercise for a new electric Suburban Fleet. This procurement will facilitate the replacement of trains currently operating on the Borders Railway and in Fife, as well as replace some of Glasgow’s Suburban trains. ScotRail expects to issue a contract notice for the Suburban Fleets in Autumn 2025.

This latest Scottish Government investment will be in excess of £342 million and demonstrates our continuing commitment to making Scotland’s railway even greener, with greater capacity and reliability.

Question reference: S6W-40143

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 5 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the eligibility criteria for a COVID-19 vaccine have reportedly changed, in light of reported concerns that older people who act as unpaid carers, who were previously eligible for a vaccine, will now have to pay up to £100 for one.

The Scottish Government’s decision-making throughout the COVID-19 vaccination programme has been guided by the expert clinical advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

In its statement of 8 April 2024 the JCVI stated it no longer advised an offer of COVID-19 vaccination for unpaid carers and household contacts of people with immunosuppression. As a result, unpaid carers and household contacts of people with immunosuppression were removed from the programme as of winter 2024-25. This position is consistent across all UK nations, and remains unchanged for winter 2025-26.

The reasons the JCVI no longer advised the inclusion of these groups are:

that the indirect benefits of vaccination (vaccinating an individual in order to reduce the risk of severe disease in other people) became less evident compared with previous years due to high levels of population immunity;
the fact that vaccines provide moderate protection against severe COVID-19 for a few months;
protection against mild symptomatic infection is much more limited in terms of peak protection and duration of protection and that with the evidence available, protection against transmission is extremely limited.

In its statement of 14 November 2024, the JCVI once more updated its advice on eligibility for COVID-19 vaccination and for winter 2025-26 the following groups remain eligible:

Residents in care homes for older adults
All adults aged 75 years and over
Individuals aged 6 months and over who are immunosuppressed (as defined in the 'immunosuppression' sections of tables 3 and 4 in the COVID-19 chapter of the Green Book).

The statement advised that the COVID-19 vaccination programme should now move to JCVI's standard cost effectiveness assessment, as per other routine vaccination programmes.

Furthermore, over the last four years, population immunity to COVID-19 has been increasing due to a combination of naturally acquired immunity following recovery from infection and vaccine-derived immunity. COVID-19 is now a relatively mild disease for most people, though it can still be unpleasant, with rates of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 having reduced significantly since it first emerged. This has led to a more refined approach to the targeting of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, with a focus on individuals where there is good evidence of a high risk of hospitalisation and/or mortality.

The Scottish Government encourages those eligible to take up the offer of COVID-19 vaccination.