Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-42752

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware that its guidance on adopting a "light touch" approach to regulation of landlords is reportedly being cited as justification by the Highland Council to explain why no rent penalty notices and fiscal reports have been issued over an 18-month period from July 2022.

Question reference: S6W-42231

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how long the process for granting a permanence order with power to adopt should take.

Permanence Orders with authority to adopt are governed by the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 and The Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations 2009. The Act makes the child’s welfare paramount and requires decision-makers to consider any risk of prejudice caused by delay, but it does not set statutory time limits.

The 2011 Scottish Government Guidance on the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 emphasises that decisions should be made within timescales appropriate to the child’s developmental needs and that avoiding delay is essential, as prolonged uncertainty can harm a child’s welfare and stability.

The duration of the process varies according to the child’s circumstances, the complexity of the case, and the time taken to complete necessary legal and administrative procedures.

Question reference: S6W-42230

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what national overview is in place for the streamlining of co-ordination between local authorities during the process for adoption from fostering.

The Scottish Government provides national oversight to ensure adoption from fostering is coordinated effectively across local authorities. Guidance on the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, The Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and The Looked-After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 recommends permanence planning to begin promptly when a child becomes looked after to support timely and stable permanence arrangements.

Scotland’s Adoption Register also facilitates matching across local authorities by providing a national system to link approved adopters with children from any local authority in Scotland.

To promote consistent and effective practice in permanence, the Scottish Government has commissioned the Association for Fostering, Kinship and Adoption Scotland to develop three national good practice guides on permanence in kinship care, foster care and adoption, which will be available in early 2026.

Together, these measures provide a national framework intended to promote consistency and improve coordination for children moving from foster care to adoption.

Question reference: S6W-42232

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how long the process for adoption from fostering should take, from beginning the process to the adoption being finalised.

The process of adoption is governed by the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 and The Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations 2009, which set out the legal framework for adoption and the responsibilities of local authorities and adoption panels. The 2007 Act makes the child’s welfare paramount and requires decision-makers to consider any risk of prejudice caused by delay, but it does not set statutory time limits.

The 2011 Scottish Government Guidance on the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007emphasises that decisions should be made within timescales appropriate to the child’s developmental needs and that avoiding delay is essential, as prolonged uncertainty can harm a child’s welfare and stability.

The duration of the adoption process varies depending on the child’s circumstances, the complexity of the case, the time needed for assessments, matching, panel consideration, and legal procedures. This includes cases where a child is already placed with foster carers.

Question reference: S6O-05264

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of parents now being able to request Gaelic school provision in their areas, what financial and resource support it is providing to local authorities to ensure that such requests can be considered and implemented.

Question reference: S6W-41966

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when the National Framework for Pain Management in Scotland’s Workforce Short-Life Working Group will report on service provision and staffing recommendations.

We are committed to rapidly improving care and services for people with chronic pain by delivering the actions in the Supporting documents - Pain management - service delivery framework: implementation plan - gov.scot at the pace that is required.

A dedicated short-life working group on workforce planning has been established to review current provision of chronic pain services and consider what future models and capacity are required to ensure services are sustainable. This group is due to present their recommendations in the new year.

Question reference: S6W-41969

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether a risk assessment has been undertaken on the effects on existing chronic pain patients of stopping (a) lidocaine infusions, (b) pain relief injections and (c) radio-frequency denervation treatments.

We are aware of the concerns that have been raised about access to specialist interventions, such as lidocaine infusions, pain relief injections and radio-frequency denervation treatments, and we are committed to ensuring that decisions about these treatments are made transparently and fairly.

To support this, the Scottish Health Technologies Group is conducting an independent review of the safety and effectiveness of a range of specialist interventions for chronic non-malignant pain in adults, including lidocaine infusions and radio-frequency denervation treatments.

The findings of this review, expected in January 2026, will ensure that decisions on access to these interventions are guided by the best available clinical evidence and shaped by the experiences of people living with chronic pain. This includes an assessment of the risks and benefits of each of those treatments.

We encourage anyone with chronic pain using any of these treatments to speak with a healthcare professional before stopping treatment. They will be best placed to provide specific advice, support and recommend any alternative treatments should this be deemed clinically necessary.

Question reference: S6W-41968

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) lidocaine infusions, (b) pain relief injections and (c) radio-frequency denervation treatments have been performed in outpatient departments or as day cases annually for chronic pain relief in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-41967

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any extra funding has been ringfenced and will be made available to aid NHS chronic pain specialist clinics, in light of chronic pain being a priority concern of the Scottish Government.

In 2025-26, we have provided a record £21.7 billion for health and social care and there is no additional ringfenced funding being made available for NHS chronic pain specialist clinics.

We are investing £200 million across the health and social care system to increase capacity and reduce backlogs. For chronic pain services, this investment will support Health Boards to create additional appointments and strengthen the flow of patients through the system, helping more people to be seen more quickly.

The Scottish Government provides the resources and sets out the overall strategic direction for NHS Scotland. It is the responsibility of NHS Boards and healthcare professionals locally to best determine how they allocate the resources we have provided to meet the needs and priorities of their local populations.

Question reference: S6W-41822

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) fatal and (b) serious accidents there have been on each road in the trunk road network covering the Highlands and Islands region in each year since 2021.

The following tables presents the total number of personal injury collisions on the trunk roads in Highland Council Region between 1 January 2021 and 5 October 2025 (latest date for which data is available for serious and slight collisions and 12 November 2025 for fatal collisions), broken down by month and severity.

Personal Injury Accident Statistics: By route as noted in tables

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A82	2021	3	5	2	8	20	38
	2022	2	2	5	2	13	24
	2023	1	6	4	6	20	37
	2024	2	6	8	7	17	40
	2025	2	2	6	4	4	18
	Total	10	21	25	27	74	157

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A828	2021	0	0	0	1	1	2
	2022	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2023	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2024	0	0	0	1	0	1
	2025	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	0	0	0	2	1	3

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A830	2021	0	0	0	2	4	6
	2022	0	1	1	0	3	5
	2023	0	0	1	1	1	3
	2024	0	1	2	3	3	9
	2025	1	1	0	0	1	3
	Total	1	3	4	6	12	26

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A835	2021	0	1	0	1	3	5
	2022	1	0	1	2	4	8
	2023	1	1	1	5	4	12
	2024	0	0	2	1	2	5
	2025	0	1	1	0	6	8
	Total	2	3	5	9	19	38

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A86	2021	0	2	0	2	0	4
	2022	0	1	1	0	1	3
	2023	0	1	0	4	1	6
	2024	0	1	0	2	4	7
	2025	0	0	0	0	3	3
	Total	0	5	1	8	9	23

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A87	2021	1	0	2	6	5	14
	2022	1	0	2	2	2	7
	2023	2	3	1	3	9	18
	2024	1	2	4	6	9	22
	2025	3	0	1	1	7	12
	Total	8	5	10	18	32	73

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A887	2021	0	0	0	0	1	1
	2022	1	0	0	0	0	1
	2023	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2024	0	1	0	1	1	3
	2025	0	0	0	1	2	3
	Total	1	1	0	2	4	8

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A889	2021	0	0	0	1	0	1
	2022	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2023	0	0	0	0	1	1
	2024	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2025	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	0	0	0	1	1	2

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A9	2021	2	6	4	3	14	29
	2022	8	5	3	1	16	33
	2023	2	9	6	7	16	40
	2024	7	12	7	7	16	49
	2025	4	3	3	2	7	19
	Total	23	35	23	20	69	170

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A95	2021	0	1	0	1	1	3
	2022	1	1	1	0	0	3
	2023	0	2	2	0	2	6
	2024	0	0	0	0	4	4
	2025	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	1	4	3	1	7	16

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A96	2021	1	0	0	1	3	5
	2022	1	0	4	0	6	11
	2023	0	3	4	5	5	17
	2024	2	0	1	4	3	10
	2025	2	1	0	0	3	6
	Total	6	4	9	10	20	49

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A99	2021	1	0	0	0	2	3
	2022	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2023	1	0	1	0	3	5
	2024	0	0	0	0	2	2
	2025	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	2	0	1	0	7	10

*Data up to 5-1-2025 for serious and slight accidents provided from Transport Statistics Injury Road Collision database and fatal accidents up to 12/11/2025 provided from Transport Statistics Injury Road Collision database and Transport Scotland Fatal Accident Register.

Source: Transport Statistics Injury Road Collision database /Transport Scotland’s Fatal Accident Register

Notes:

Statistics for Parliamentary Question

Date Period: 01-01-2021 – 5-10-2025 (for slight and serious) 31-8-25 (for fatal)

Date Extracted – 12-11-2025

Please note that the personal injury accident information provided above is based on the current figures available. The following are potential reasons for an accident not appearing on our system:

Transport Scotland only holds accident information which is provided to us by Police Scotland. Transport Scotland does not hold information relating to damage only accidents (i.e. not involving an injury).

Transport Scotland only holds accident information for the trunk road network. The accident information Transport Scotland holds is subject to change. For example, we receive late returns from Police Scotland, who are responsible for recording details of injury accidents.

Annual Scottish accident figures are published by Transport Scotland on a yearly basis and can be found by entering Reported Road Casualties Scotland into your search engine.

From summer 2019, Police Scotland introduced a new system for recording traffic collisions. Due to improved recording and categorisation processes, it is expected that there will be an increase in the number of casualties and accidents on Scottish roads that are classified as serious.

Statisticians within the Department for Transport have devised a method for adjusting the road casualty figures to ensure that they can be compared over time on a consistent basis. Transport Scotland’s Key Reported Road Casualties and Reported Road Casualties statistics publications will present both adjusted and unadjusted figures.

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