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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-41334

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 11 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider updating its economic impact assessment for its proposed Air Departure Tax, in light of the reported delays to its implementation.

Question reference: S6W-41319

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 11 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children are on the waiting list for cleft lip and palate surgery as of 30 September 2025, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S6W-41144

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the costs were of (a) producing and (b) publishing its paper, A Fresh Start with Independence.

Question reference: S6W-41135

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-39876 by Angus Robertson on 10 September 2025, which sites managed by Historic Environment Scotland are currently (a) temporarily and (b) permanently closed, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-41142

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many civil servants worked on its paper, A Fresh Start with Independence, broken down by (a) headcount and (b) full-time equivalent (FTE) staff.

Question reference: S6W-41145

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it took any legal advice when preparing its paper, A Fresh Start with Independence.

Question reference: S6W-41039

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will seek to schedule a parliamentary debate on fishing, in light of the commitment of the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands in the Parliament on 18 February 2025.

Question reference: S6W-40553

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) it and (b) its agencies has spent on promotion through social media influencers in each year since 2021.

(a) Details of Scottish Government spend on promotion through social media influencers in each year since 2021 to date are as follows.

Year	Spend (£)
2021	63,746.20
2022	30,930.00
2023	19,900.00
2024	13,640.00
2025	52,800.00

These services are procured by the Scottish Government marketing team via the Scottish Government Marketing Services Framework.

All marketing agencies Scottish Government work with, including those which provide influencer services, must successfully tender through the Scottish Government's Marketing Services Framework. This comprehensive process evaluates their capability, experience and value for money before they can be approved as suppliers. The framework ensures Scottish Government only works with established agencies that meet Scottish Government’s procurement standards and legal requirements.

Scottish Government’s approved framework agencies manage influencer relationships on our behalf. They conduct thorough due diligence checks on potential influencers, including comprehensive reviews of their social media history to identify any content that could constitute hate crimes or bring the Scottish Government into disrepute. This vetting process follows the same rigorous standards used across UK Government communications, as outlined in the GCS guidelines for influencer marketing.

This process ensures anyone who is used as an influencer within a marketing campaign is appropriate to that campaign’s strategy, audience, message and objectives.

b) Scottish Government does not have access to wider agency spend on influencers and is therefore unable to confirm how much its agencies have spent on promotion through social media influencers in each year since 2021.

Question reference: S6W-40742

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40384 by Ben Macpherson on 23 September 2025, how many graduates took up a placement in NHS Western Isles in (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22 and (c) 2022-23.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects data on the destinations of graduates 15 months after graduation via the Graduate Outcomes Survey. The survey is voluntary and hence does not represent the outcomes of all graduates from each year.

The following table now includes NHS Western Isles which was excluded previously due to the rounding policy. The HESA Graduate Outcomes Survey had no responses from graduates who were working for NHS Western Isles.

Scottish NHS Health Board of Clinical Medicine graduates, from Scottish providers, who said they worked in the NHS 15 months after graduating, 2020-21 to 2022-23

NHS Health Board	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Ayrshire and Arran	10	15	15
Borders	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	10	10	5
Fife	5	10	10
Forth Valley	5	15	15
Grampian	45	35	40
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	110	110	95
Highland	10	20	15
Lanarkshire	15	20	20
Lothian	50	50	55
Orkney	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0
Tayside	30	30	25
Western Isles	0	0	0
Total known and working for NHS Scotland	305	320	285

Source: HESA Graduate Outcomes Survey, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23

The survey is voluntary and hence does not represent the outcomes of all graduates from each year.

Health Board is estimated from Local Authority of work address.

Only includes graduates flagged as working for the NHS (using HESA variable NHSORG)

Clinical Medicine as defined by HECOS subject classification 100267. Note: this will not include all students completing medical degrees and exclude some specialist courses.

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5

Question reference: S6W-40552

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost was of any penalties that it issued to Openreach in each year since 2016, and for what reasons it applied those penalties.