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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-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-39365

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 6 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS board areas currently have a dedicated Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Intervention (MNPI) team in place, and what plans there are to ensure that everyone who requires such services can access psychological support from a MNPI team in their area.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving perinatal and infant mental health services across Scotland. Anyone who requires Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Intervention (MNPI) services should be able to access them as part of their maternity or neonatal care.

We are providing £123.5 million funding to Boards to improve the quality and delivery of mental health and psychological services for all. This funding includes provision for access to MNPI services across all 14 Boards. Continued investment since 2019 has resulted in a substantial increase in services across Scotland, leading to all Boards having access to MNPI services, either from a local MNPI team or, for very small Board areas, via pathways to MNPI care in larger maternity hospitals where the patient may deliver.

The way in which MNPI services are provided differs across Boards, depending on population size and birth rate. However, we expect those who need the services to be able to access them in all areas of Scotland. Some Boards will have independent MNPI teams, working closely with local perinatal mental health services, and agreed referral criteria and pathways into care; while smaller Boards, such as Island Boards should provide access to psychological therapies via local primary care, adult mental health or perinatal mental health clinical psychology, with pathways into specialist MNPI support in the maternity hospital where they deliver.

Question reference: S6W-39432

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 1 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when details of the 2025-26 Bus Infrastructure Fund will be published.

Question reference: S6W-39353

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all firefighters are provided with wearable tracking devices for use during incidents to record their heart and breathing rates, in order to provide early warning signs of potential health issues to those monitoring from outside the risk area.

The operational guidance used to keep firefighters safe is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Firefighters in Scotland do not currently have wearable tracking devices to record their heart and breathing rates. SFRS is exploring whether the specification for replacement Breathing Apparatus can monitor breathing rates as part of the integrated communication capability.

Question reference: S6W-39354

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all fire stations are stocked with a spare thermal imaging camera.

Question reference: S6W-39351

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all firefighters who are tasked with entering a burning building are provided with a breathing apparatus set that has built-in radio communications with the incident commander and others, to ensure that all are able to communicate their whereabouts or status in the event that they become separated.

Question reference: S6W-39352

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all firefighters are provided with wearable tracking devices for use during incidents to track their location.

Question reference: S6W-39359

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many fire stations had firefighting staff that exceeded the permitted maximum of 24 hours of overtime per month in 2024.

Question reference: S6W-39357

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any emergency measures introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic period to operate with reduced manpower in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have been reversed and staffing levels returned to pre-pandemic minimum safe levels.

The operational guidance used to keep firefighters safe is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). SFRS generally operates with a crew of 5 on the first appliance deployed to an emergency and this was reduced to 4 during the COVID-19 pandemic. SFRS has a range of options to ensure the availability of its appliances, which on occasion may include appliances being crewed with 4 rather than 5 firefighters.

Question reference: S6W-39350

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the retained duty system fire stations in the Shetland Islands Council area currently have full staffing complements.

The recruitment of staff is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. There are challenges in recruiting and retaining on-call firefighters in some rural areas of Scotland and there are currently no on-call fire stations in Shetland with a full staffing complement. However, a full staffing complement is not required for an on-call fire appliance to be deployed because it can attend emergencies if there are 4 crew available at any given time. When an appliance is not available, a response will be provided from the next nearest available location.