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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-42901

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what conclusions it has drawn from recent evaluations of the expansion to 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare, particularly in relation to accessibility, flexibility of provision and outcomes for children and families.

As a result of the priority that the Scottish Government has placed on investing in funded ELC, families across Scotland have benefitted from the provision of 1140 hours of high quality funded ELC since 2021.

Our interim evaluation published in 2024 showed that uptake of the expanded hours is high, and there are promising signs that the expansion is delivering improvements in flexibility, accessibility and affordability of provision.

We expect to publish our overall evaluation on the outcomes of the expansion to 1140 hours for children, parents and families over the 2018 to 2025 period in February.

Question reference: S6O-05368

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the request from the Scottish Retail Consortium, Go Forth Stirling BID, and other business improvement districts for Scotland to follow England and introduce a permanent business rate discount for all retail, hospitality and leisure premises.

Question reference: S6W-42811

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-05341

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, 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 its response is to reported concerns from businesses across Scotland that have recently received letters confirming a revaluation of their non-domestic rate liability.

Question reference: S6O-05285

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish further details of the estimated true cost of its net zero policies for households in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-42018

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding was allocated by its Health Directorate to eye health research in each year since 2019-20.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) supports open competitive grant and fellowship schemes for applied health research in Scotland across a wide remit. This remit is inclusive of consideration of applications for funding for research on eye health. Applications submitted to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees.

Funding awarded through these schemes in the years from 2019 - 2025 for research relating to eye health has included:

Competitive grant and fellowship schemes

Year funding committed	Total funding awarded (£)
2021	73,000
2022	237,062
2024	699,466
2025	97,000

CSO also provides funding to support NHS Research Scotland (NRS) infrastructure, enabling NHS Boards to host and participate in clinical studies and trials funded by public, charitable, and industry sectors. This includes dedicated support for a NRS Ophthalmology Research Network, which facilitates the setup and delivery of Ophthalmology clinical studies across Scotland. Annual funding for this network is shown in the following table:

NRS Ophthalmology Research Network

Financial Year	CSO Funding (£)
2019-20	14,404
2020-21	14,404
2021-22	14,821
2022-23	18,000
2023-24	19,000
2024-25	20,000
2025-26	21,000

In addition, CSO contributes financially to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in order that NIHR research programmes are open to applications from researchers in Scotland. These programmes also provide research funding opportunities for eye health research.

Question reference: S6O-05199

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address tooth decay in children.

Question reference: S6W-41705

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what preparation has taken place with NHS boards to implement changes to the reporting of NHS waiting times statistics, as announced by Public Health Scotland on 28 October 2025, and over what time period this preparation took place.

The Waiting Times Guidance was published in November 2023, and preparations for implementation began in early 2024. NHS Boards engage on a monthly basis with Public Health Scotland’s Waiting Times Coordinator to provide updates on progress across all aspects of the guidance.

In addition, Health Boards and Public Health Scotland, participate in the Waiting Times Information Group, which meets every two months to discuss changes to the statistics and share best practice. These meetings have included presentations from system suppliers to support implementation. The next meeting of this group is scheduled to take place later this month.

Question reference: S6W-41704

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Public Health Scotland regarding the changes to the methodology for reporting on NHS waiting times statistics announced on 28 October 2025, and when these discussions took place.

Question reference: S6W-41703

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the new methodology for reporting NHS waiting times statistics announced by Public Health Scotland on 28 October 2025, which NHS boards are yet to switch to this new methodology, and what assessment it has made of the reliability and utility of waiting times statistics while NHS boards are switching between two different reporting methodologies.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) implemented the changes to the national data mart to ensure consistency in reporting of Accredited Official Statistics across all health board data for Stage of Treatment waiting times, aligned with the Waiting Times Guidance 2023.

For local reporting of Stage of Treatment waiting times, the implementation of the new reporting methodology requires a software update, which Boards are gradually implementing. All NHS Boards are working closely with their software suppliers to agree a suitable switchover date. To date, one Board has successfully enabled the updated functionality, and further Boards are expected to apply the guidance through software updates over the coming months.

PHS has undertaken a comprehensive assessment of the impact of moving from the previous reporting methodology to the new approach, ensuring that any differences are fully understood and managed. Original PHS estimates are in line with the impact on official statistics, however PHS is unable to verify how system upgrades have impacted the calculations on local systems.