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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-39505

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 13 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will issue guidance to assist local authorities in piloting and adopting innovations to ensure that policies are in place to provide equitable access to affordable electric vehicle (EV) charging points for all households.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring equitable access to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure as we transition to a net zero transport system. Approximately 40% of households in Scotland do not have access to off-street parking, and we are committed to supporting innovative solutions such as cross-pavement charging to address this challenge.

The installation of cross pavement charging is complex, covering road works permissions, neighbourhood relations, pedestrian safety and ongoing maintenance, liabilities and responsibilities for residents and local authorities. This is why we are working closely with the Scottish Collaboration of Transport Specialists (SCOTS) – a strategic collaborative body representing Scotland’s 32 local authorities and seven regional transport partnerships - to develop Scottish specific guidance for local authorities. The draft guidance will be issued to stakeholders for consultation in autumn 2025.

This summer Scottish Ministers will also launch a new ‘cross pavement charging’ pilot scheme that will offer financial support to eligible residents without off-street parking in participating local authority areas. In order to ensure a just transition, it is critical that as many households as possible can access lower-cost home charging. The learning from the pilot scheme will complement the work with SCOTS, to demonstrate safe and legal ways of rolling out cross-pavement charging infrastructure across all of Scotland’s local authorities. More information will be made available on the Energy Savings Trust website later this month.

Ensuring a fair and just transition to sustainable transport is central the Scottish Government’s net zero ambitions; this is reflected in Scottish Ministers’ visionfor the future of public EV charging and the accompanying Draft Implementation Plan, which set out a clear direction for the future of EV infrastructure in Scotland. Through our £30 million EV Infrastructure Fund, we are also continuing to support local authorities to work in partnership with the private sector to expand public EV charging across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-39678

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ensure that secondary school pupils will be taught, during education on sex and relationships, that strangulation is illegal even if it does not cause any visible injury, as is the case in England under its new relationships, sex and health education guidance.

Question reference: S6W-39298

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many court cases there currently are in any backlogs, and how many are solemn cases to be heard before a (a) high and (b) sheriff court.

Question reference: S6W-39504

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has allocated to electric vehicle (EV) home-charging solutions for residents without driveways, including the exploration of gully cableway systems, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-39039

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 18 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38278 by Neil Gray on 10 June 2025, and in light of reported data from Public Health Scotland showing that over 50% of patients were waiting over six weeks for a colonoscopy as of March 2025, what specific provisions are included within the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan to enable the six-week target waiting times standard for key diagnostic tests and procedures to be met for people being investigated for inflammatory bowel disease.

As part of the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) has published a number of clinical pathways and guidance, co-designed with clinicians, to manage patients referred routinely for colonoscopy. This includes the recently published qFIT clinical consensus document and national guidance for specifically managing IBD symptoms. Health Boards will implement these pathways to meet the six week standard. The pathways are published on Health Board websites, and it is expected all boards should be implementing these locally.

Question reference: S6W-38741

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 4 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reportedly delayed commencement of section 1(4) and section 30(2) of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020.

The Scottish Government outlined our approach to commencing section 1(4) and section 30(2) of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 in my letter of 11 March 2025 to the Convener of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. This letter can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/equalities-human-rights-and-civil-justice-committee/correspondence/2025/non-implementation-of-acts-of-the-scottish-parliament-11-march-2025.pdf. As I outlined, the Scottish Government intends to lay commencement regulations later this year which will include section 1(4) and section 30(2). There will be a lead-in period of around 12 months before these provisions come into force to take account of operational implications for the courts and any need to put court rules in place.

Question reference: S6O-04851

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review planning laws regarding the provision of private purpose-built student accommodation, in light of reported concerns over the concentration of student accommodation in certain localities and objections from local residents.

Question reference: S6W-38477

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 18 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the accuracy of figures published by the Royal College of Radiologists showing that there is a shortage of radiologists, and what assessment it has made of the level of any shortage in relation to demand.

As set out in answer S6W-38475 on 17 June 2025, over the last ten years the Consultant Radiologist workforce has increased by 27.7% (from 304.5 WTE as at March 2015 to 388.9 WTE as at March 2025). Consultant Radiologist vacancies have decreased by 3.4% over the last year to 22.4 WTE as at March 2025, which is a vacancy rate of 5.5%.

The Scottish Government continues to invest heavily in radiology training. We are currently funding around 190 specialty training places in clinical radiology, including 78 extra places which have been added since 2014, based on modelling and future workforce need. This enable doctors to train and enter the workforce following completion of training - which takes a minimum of 5 years. Clinical radiology specialty training programmes have been filled at 100% in Scotland from 2014 to 2024, with 230 resident doctors successfully completing the training in this period.

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: S6W-38167

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many summary cases there currently are in any court backlogs.

The backlogs generated by the pandemic have been largely addressed and we have now returned to a position where the number of scheduled trials across all criminal business types is below 20,000. This is considered a manageable level of workload by Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service for the justice system.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service publish monthly criminal case data.

As at the end of April 2025 the number of Sheriff Summary trials scheduled is 15,472.

Annual figures show a 53% reduction in scheduled Sheriff Summary trials since the peak in 2021-22 when it was 33,598.

Question reference: S6W-38475

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that there is a shortage of radiologists of around 25%, and what the reasons are for this being the case.

Over the last ten years the Consultant Radiologist workforce has increased by 27.7% (from 304.5 WTE as at March 2015 to 388.9 WTE as at March 2025). Consultant Radiologist vacancies have decreased by 3.4% over the last year to 22.4 WTE as at March 2025, which is a vacancy rate of 5.5%.

The Scottish Government continues to invest heavily in radiology training. We are currently funding around 190 specialty training places in clinical radiology, including 78 extra places which have been added since 2014, based on modelling and future workforce need. This enables doctors to train and enter the workforce following completion of training - which takes a minimum of 5 years. Clinical radiology specialty training programmes have been filled at 100% in Scotland from 2014 to 2024, with 230 resident doctors successfully completing this training in this period.