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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-40118

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on implementing the recommendations of the review of governance of NHS endowment funds, in order to increase the funding available to the NHS.

Question reference: S6W-40136

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-39520 by Mairi Gougeon on 30 July 2025, whether it will provide a breakdown of the total amount that it has awarded from the Marine Fund Scotland to (a) aquaculture and fish farming, (b) trawling and (c) dredging, in each year since the fund started.

Question reference: S6W-40128

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to conduct a post-implementation review of its Habitats Regulations, similar to that carried out by the UK Government in July 2025, and, if so, what the timeline for this will be, and whether it will publish any conclusions that it has reached on the regulations to date.

Question reference: S6W-39745

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of Scotland’s economic growth in the last two years has been attributable to (a) public and (b) private sector activity.

Question reference: S6W-39746

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response it to reports of a recent trend of businesses increasingly relocating production from Scotland to other parts of the UK.

Question reference: S6W-39626

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out an analysis of the outcomes of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.

Question reference: S6W-39661

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what practical and financial steps it will take to stimulate myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) research.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funded with other health research organisations the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership that has published priorities for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) research. In addition, CSO with other research funders have developed a toolkit for researchers to guide them on funding streams that provide opportunities for ME/CFS research. These streams include CSO’s open competitive grant and fellowship schemes that fund applied health research across a wide remit, inclusive of ME/CFS research as well as National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) programmes that can also fund ME/CFS research in Scotland with CSO’s financial contribution to NIHR opening these programmes to applications from researchers in Scotland. Applications submitted to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees.

Question reference: S6W-39677

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average time has been between initial project approval and start on site for affordable homes in each year since 2010.

Prior to 2018-2019 site start dates were not collected as there was no requirement on our previous recording system for this information. Due to this, approval dates were used as a proxy for start dates. The following table provides an average time between approval and site start date for affordable homes between 2018-2019 and 2024-2025.

Financial Year	Average Time between Approval Date and Start Date (Working Days)
2018-2019	107
2019-2020	124
2020-2021	92
2021-2022	91
2022-2023	68
2023-2024	50
2024-2025	27

Once a project has been approved, this does not necessarily mean an immediate progression to site start. Progression from project approval to a contractor being able to mobilise a site can take time. There are also instances where a project may face unforeseen delays due to planning or infrastructure constraints.

Homes acquired on the open market and those acquired through programmes such as the Home Owners’ Support Fund (HOSF) and Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme may have the same approval and site start date as is the process when acquiring an affordable home in this way. These homes have been excluded from the figures above as have projects such as Local Affordable Rent Housing Trust (LAR) and PfP Capital Mid Market Rent Initiative, where an initial bulk approval was granted with homes to be delivered over a number of years. There are also instances where a project may be withdrawn after approval stage and we have excluded these projects. We have also excluded projects which have been approved but have not yet started on site.

Question reference: S6W-39609

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the average cost difference for rural off-gas-grid households is between alternative low-carbon heating solutions and (a) heating oil and (b) liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and what action it can take to address any affordability gap.

The Home Energy Scotland website has estimates on the potential annual savings from installing a standard air source heat pump where there is an existing oil or LPG boiler: https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/heat-pumps

We provide uplifts through our Heat in Buildings delivery schemes to help meet additional challenges faced by homeowners in rural and island communities. The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan offers an uplift of £1,500 to the grant and loan funding available for energy efficiency measures in remote rural areas and islands. The Warmer Homes Scotland scheme operates a national customer price model to ensure equal access to grant funded installation of energy efficiency improvements across Scotland, including in rural and island areas. And both our Area Based Schemes and the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund provide an uplift to reflect higher delivery costs in more remote areas, of 11% in rural areas and 22% in remote rural/island areas.

Heating oil and liquified petroleum gas supply chains and energy price regulation are reserved matters. We engage constructively with the UK Government on a regular basis.

Question reference: S6W-39660

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to ensure that NICE-compliant specialist services for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) are introduced by NHS boards, and that these services comply with the principles contained in the delivery plan for ME/CFS to ensure that people in Scotland with the condition do not receive inadequate care compared with those in England.

There are no devolved elements of the UK Government’s delivery plan on ME/CFS. It covers the population of England only.

We are unable to formally endorse the Plan due to differing healthcare systems and statutory structures.

However, the 2025-26 Scottish Budget includes an additional £4.5 million to deliver new specialist support across the country for long COVID, ME/CFS and other similar conditions. We want this money to have maximum impact and we are working closely and carefully with health boards across Scotland to allocate it as quickly and effectively as possible.

The provision of healthcare services is the responsibility of NHS health boards. In commissioning boards’ plans for this funding we have stressed the importance of ensuring that services are informed by current clinical best practice, such as National Institute for Excellence in Healthcare (NICE) guidelines NG:206 and NG:188– which are available to clinicians across the UK - and that care is delivered in line with the relevant recommendations, wherever applicable.