Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-05347

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to manage and reduce damage and repair costs in schools.

Question reference: S6W-42411

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-41875, S6W-41876, S6W-41877, S6W-41879, S6W-41880, S6W-41882 and S6W-41884 by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025, what information it currently collects from NHS boards on patients who travel outwith their home board area to receive secondary or tertiary care, and whether it plans to introduce standardised national reporting on (a) patient numbers, (b) travel, accommodation and subsistence costs, (c) the use of remote consultation alternatives such as Near Me and (d) funded patient escorts, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

The Scottish Government does not collect patient data directly. It is for Public Health Scotland (PHS) to collect outpatient, inpatient and day case activity data from hospital administrative systems.

PHS publishes official statistics on cross boundary flow quarterly within its Stage of Treatment Waiting Times publications. This includes inpatient, day case, and new outpatient data. The most recent publication that includes cross boundary flow data can be accessed here: Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients 28 October 2025 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

PHS’s annual Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds Information report includes information on cross boundary flow. The latest publication covers the period between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 and can be found here: Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds Information (Annual) - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

Costs associated with patient travel, accommodation, subsistence and funded patient escorts are managed locally by individual NHS boards and are funded from their respective budgets. The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally and there is currently no intention to standardise national reporting on these measures.

Similarly, there are no current plans to nationalise reporting on the use of remote consultation platforms, including Near Me.

The Scottish Government’s approach reflects the principle of local accountability for service delivery and associated costs. NHS boards are responsible for managing patient transfers and related expenses within their allocated budgets. National reporting is focused on treatment activity and waiting times, which are published by PHS to ensure transparency and consistency.

Question reference: S6W-42414

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-42087 by Ivan McKee on 2 December 2025, for what reason carbon savings were not measured for the Climate Change Saltire Fellowships and Scotland Lights up Malawi projects funded from the Scottish Government carbon levy; what assessment it has made of the impact of these projects on carbon emissions, including any qualitative or quantitative evidence it holds on emissions reductions achieved, and what plans it has to ensure that robust carbon saving data is collected for projects supported by the levy in future.

The Climate Change Saltire Fellowship and Light up Malawi projects were carried out in 2009 and 2014 respectively. There is no information available relating to the reasons for not measuring the carbon impact of these projects. At the time there was a focus on supporting Climate Justice by increasing vulnerable communities' resilience to the impacts of climate change. No assessment has been made of the impact of these projects on carbon emissions as there is insufficient data available from the time.

Future projects will be assessed based on their estimated carbon savings, biodiversity improvement score or ability to change behaviours, resulting in direct and indirect carbon savings.

Question reference: S6W-42412

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41888 by Gillian Martin on 1 December 2025, what information it has on the total cost to it of the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy’s travel to attend the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, broken down by (a) travel, (b) accommodation, (c) subsistence and (d) any other associated costs.

Question reference: S6W-42413

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-42088 by Ivan McKee on 2 December 2025, what information it can provide on the current review of the Scottish Government carbon levy, including (a) the remit and scope of the review, (b) when the review (i) commenced and (ii) will be completed, (c) which (1) directorates and (2) external stakeholders are involved in, or being consulted as part of, the review and (d) whether it plans to publish the findings of the review, and, if so, when.

The review of the carbon levy commenced in summer 2025. The review is being led by the Scottish Governments Travel Management Team in consultation with Scottish Procurement and Property Directorate, Directorate for People and the Office of the Chief Economic Advisor. External stakeholders include CTM North Ltd and Enterprise Rent-a-Car ltd.

The levy is a corporate policy which applies to travel undertaken by core Scottish Government staff. If the recommendations of the review are taken forward, they will be published internally. No external publication is planned.

Question reference: S6O-05322

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that increased regulations have had on the construction costs of housebuilding.

Question reference: S6W-42085

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 5 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41710 by Gillian Martin on 18 November 2025, what work was undertaken in relation to the reported action point recorded in the note of the meeting between the Minister for Climate Action and HadFab Limited on 22 May 2024 that “SG officials [were] to explore the idea of a ‘Heroes of Net Zero’ campaign highlighting the diverse range of green jobs contributing to net zero”, including (a) which officials and directorates were tasked with this work, (b) what advice was subsequently provided to ministers, (c) what consideration was given to the objectives, target audiences, delivery timeline, key milestones and forecast or actual costs of such a campaign and (d) what the reasons are for the statement in the answer to question S6W-41710 that the Scottish Government “has not proposed a ‘Heroes of Net Zero’ campaign, has not done so in the past and is not aware of any proposals to do so in the future”.

The Heroes of Net Zero campaign was raised to me in a meeting in 2024.

Ideas for future communications campaigns are discussed with teams involved in Let’s Do Net Zero. The suggestion has not been taken forward this year.

I refer the member to the question S6W-41710 which was answered on 18 November 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Question reference: S6O-05261

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the economy secretary has had with ministerial colleagues on how its internal modelling of oil and gas jobs in the north east compares with the latest industry estimates.

Question reference: S6W-42088

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide information on its policy regarding the use of revenue collected from the Scottish Government carbon levy on business flights, including (a) the objectives of the levy, (b) the criteria and process for selecting carbon reduction projects on the core estate to be funded from the levy, (c) the governance and oversight arrangements for managing the levy funds, including which directorates are responsible, (d) how often the rate and operation of the levy have been reviewed since its introduction and (e) what changes have been made as a result of any such reviews.

(a) The objectives of the levy

The levy is designed to raise money from business flights to be invested in carbon reduction and active travel projects to reduce the impact of business travel and improve health and wellbeing.

In 2018 the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform approved a proposal to focus the money raised from the levy to reduce the Scottish Government’s carbon emissions to help compensate for the carbon emitted from business travel, which was the original purpose of the Levy. This has the benefit of reducing the Scottish Government’s carbon emissions in a measurable and reportable way.

(b) Projects are selected based on the potential for carbon reduction either via fully or partially funding projects, funding behaviour change initiatives, training or promoting active travel options.

(c) The carbon levy is administered by the Environmental Management Team within Workplace Division in the Scottish Procurement & Property Directorate.

(d) The rate of the carbon levy has not been reviewed since it was created in 2009. Officials are currently carrying out a review. The operation of the levy was reviewed in 2018.

(e) A review is currently underway. No changes have been made to the rates since the levy was introduced. The review in 2018 resulted in a change to the way the levy was spent. Agreement was given to support using the levy to fund carbon reduction projects on the Core Scottish Government Estate.

Question reference: S6W-42087

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41713 by Ivan McKee on 13 November 2025, whether it will provide information on what money collected from the Scottish Government carbon levy on its business flights has been spent since the levy was introduced, broken down for each funded project by (a) project name and location, (b) delivery partner, (c) nature and description of the work undertaken, (d) carbon standard or methodology used, (e) cost, (f) verified or estimated CO2 reduction and (g) cost per tonne of CO2.

3 Projects have been funded since the levy was introduced.

1) Project 1

(a) Climate Change Saltire Fellowships

(b) Greener Scotland

(c) The Scottish Government agreed to set up a carbon emissions off-set/reduction fund as part of the bid to secure the 2014 Commonwealth Games for Glasgow. The fellowship scheme targeted resources to students from Commonwealth countries least able to deal with the impacts of climate change.

(d) N/A

(e) £40,000

(f) Not Measured

(g) N/A

2) Project 2

(a) Scotland Lights up Malawi

(b) 2020 Climate Group, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Glasgow Caledonian University

(c) To bring safe, solar energy to rural communities in Malawi replacing paraffin lights with rechargeable solar lighting.

(d) N/A

(e) £200,000

(f) Not Measured

(g) N/A

3) Project 3

(a) Solar PV

(b) Scottish Government

(c) To provide funding to install solar panels on SAH to demonstrate installing renewables on a listed building in a conservation area and world heritage site.

(d) GHG Protocol

(e) £200,000

(f) 39,128 Kg CO2 saved to date.

(g) N/A

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