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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-42467

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the decision taken in the UK Budget to provide a permanent business rate discount for retail and hospitality in England from April 2026, what discussions it has had with its Tax Advisory Group regarding the possible implications of this for retail investment in Scotland.

The Tax Advisory Group (TAG)’s most recent meeting took place on 21 October 2025, prior to the UK Government’s budget on 26 November 2025. The group’s final meeting of this Parliament is expected to take place in early 2026.

The minutes for TAG meetings are published at Tax Advisory Group - gov.scot

Ministers regularly discuss matters of importance including budget priorities and the views of stakeholders in the run-up to the Scottish Budget. As is normal, decisions on non-domestic rates policy for 2026-27 will be set out in the Scottish Budget on 13 January 2026.

Question reference: S6W-42466

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the decision taken in the UK Budget to provide a permanent business rate discount for retail and hospitality in England from April 2026, what discussions it has had with its Retail Industry Leadership Group regarding the possible implications of this for retail investment in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-42585

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-42249 by Graeme Dey on 12 December 2025, whether it will provide the information requested regarding the total costs to date, as at 12 December 2025.

Question reference: S6W-42446

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Monday, 08 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current level of uptake of the winter influenza vaccine is in each NHS board area, and how this year compares with the same period in 2024.

Question reference: S6W-42249

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the total costs of any work that it has undertaken in relation to the matters detailed in the Scottish Information Commissioner Decision 279/2025 (Written evidence to James Hamilton’s investigation into the First Minister under the Ministerial Code), including the cost of (a) any (i) internal and (ii) external legal advice, (b) its officials' time and (c) any other spending related to these matters, and what its estimate is of the potential cost of appealing the decision to the Court of Session, should it decide to do so.

Question reference: S6W-42204

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the most recent statistics on the level of uptake of the influenza vaccination, when NHS Highland received them; whether there has been a delay in making them public, and, if so, for what reason.

Publicly available influenza vaccine uptake data is published every Thursday, by Public Health Scotland (PHS), via PHS Vaccination Surveillance. Publication of influenza uptake data by eligible cohort group began on Thursday 23 October. Publication of uptake for each of the 14 Health Boards began on Thursday 27 November.

NHS Highland, along with the other territorial Health Boards, have access to a range of management information data that is updated each Tuesday by PHS. This has been available to the Health Boards since Tuesday 23 September.

Question reference: S6W-42206

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask NHS Highland to commit to provide to the public all data regarding the levels of uptake of influenza vaccination and to do so immediately upon that data becoming available.

Public Health Scotland is responsible for preparing influenza vaccination uptake statistics.

Adult influenza vaccine uptake data is publicly available via PHS Vaccination Surveillance and is updated every Thursday. This includes uptake data for each of the 14 Health Boards, including NHS Highland, which has been publicly available since 27 November.

Child influenza uptake data is also available via PHS Vaccination Surveillance for each cohort but is not broken down by Health Board.

Question reference: S6W-42205

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government who prepares the influenza vaccination uptake statistics for NHS Highland, and whether it will publish all correspondence with the authors thereof.

Question reference: S6W-42203

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the level of uptake of the influenza vaccination has been in the NHS Highland area in (a) the current year to date, and (b) each of the last five years.

As of 30 November 2025, uptake of the adult flu vaccine in NHS Highland is 45.2% (69,285 vaccinations administered).

For winter 2024-25, NHS Highland adult flu vaccination uptake was 53.4% and in winter 2023-24 it was 52.8%. The figures for 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 can all be found at: PHS Vaccination Surveillance.

Uptake for child flu vaccinations by Health Board level is not published by Public Health Scotland via PHS Vaccination Surveillance.

We recommend contacting NHS Highland’s Immunisation Team directly, as they may be able to provide you with additional data.

Question reference: S6W-42250

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether it would be appropriate for it to appeal the Scottish Information Commissioner Decision 279/2025 (Written evidence to James Hamilton’s investigation into the First Minister under the Ministerial Code) in order to postpone the disclosure of the information that it wrongly withheld until after the Scottish Parliament election in May 2026, and whether it plans to seek guidance from the Permanent Secretary on these matters.