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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.

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Question reference: S6W-38017

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on school security measures in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-38024

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school-aged children have been home educated in each year since 1999.

Scottish Government does not collect the information on the number of children and young people in receipt of home education.

Local authorities hold responsibility for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children being home educated, and that the education they are receiving is suitable for their age and ability. In line with the Scottish Government's home education guidance, it is recommended that local authorities should make contact on an annual basis with those families who are known to be home educating within that local authority area.

As part of the update to this guidance, Scottish Government will work with local authority partners to consider options for collecting an aggregate number of children and young people home educating in their area.

Question reference: S6W-38021

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many self-employed counsellors have been contracted by each local authority to work in schools in each year since 1999.

Local Authorities have the statutory responsibility for education therefore the Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. Local authorities may hold this information.

As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to invest in access to school counselling services, since 2021 local authorities have reported on key measures of their counselling provision. A summary of these reports can be found at: Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services – summary reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-38016

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what review it has undertaken of the provision of school security measures across the school estate.

Question reference: S6W-38022

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has achieved its reported commitment to provide a counsellor for every secondary school.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government.

We continue to support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding to ensure that all school pupils aged 10 and above and all secondary schools in Scotland have access to school counselling services.

In December 2020, all local authorities confirmed that access to counselling services were in place across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-38019

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many counselling sessions have taken place in schools in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Local Authorities have the statutory responsibility for education therefore the Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. Local authorities may hold this information.

As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to invest in access to school counselling services, since 2021 local authorities have reported on key measures of their service delivery. A summary of these reports can be found at: Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services – summary reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-38020

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many counsellors have been employed in schools in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

We continue to support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding a year to ensure access to school counselling services across Scotland.

As part of the commitment, local authorities provide reports on school counselling services which includes number of counsellors in post (this relates to number rather than FTE).

There is variation in how the access to counselling service is being delivered across authorities. Some authorities employ counsellors directly, while others procure third sector counselling.

The following table shows the numbers of counsellors local authorities reported were in post in each of the reporting periods.

	Number of counsellors in post in each reporting period
Local authority	January - June 2021	July - December 2021	January - June 2022	July - December 2022	January to June 2023
Aberdeen City	13	15	17	14	23
Aberdeenshire	12	N/A	12	22	14
Angus	N/A	12	12	9	7
Argyll and Bute	7.5	9	9	9	7
Clackmannanshire	17	5	9	9	6
Dumfries and Galloway	4.5	10	10	10	10
Dundee City	10	16	18	14	19
East Ayrshire	N/A	10	12	13	14
East Dunbartonshire	7	11.2	8	8	12
East Lothian	1	5	5	5	8
East Renfrewshire	4	3	3	3	3
Edinburgh	3	15	24	N/A	29
Falkirk	12	16	18	16	19
Fife	10.1	15	20	20	20
Glasgow City	14	38	49	26	7
Highland	38	35	41	28	34
Inverclyde	3	2.7	3	3	3
Midlothian	4	8	9	9	9
Moray	5.2	10	10	10	9
North Ayrshire	9.5	11	11	10	9
North Lanarkshire	4	N/A	0	76	86
Orkney	N/A	2	1	2	N/A
Perth & Kinross	N/A	9	13	13	10
Renfrewshire	13.2	13.2	29	28	33
Scottish Borders	0	11	11	61	63
Shetland Islands	3	3	3	3	3
South Ayrshire	14	10	13	11	11
South Lanarkshire	40	43	49	46	56
Stirling	10.3	10.3	14	13	16
West Dunbartonshire	14	56	10	12	14
West Lothian	19	28	28	30	30
Western Isles	6	11	N/A	11	10
Total	298	443	471	544	594

Further information on the published summary reports can be found on the Scottish Government website at: Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services – summary reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Where N/A has been recorded, local authorities did not provide this information. In some cases, local authorities provided the number of hours of counselling provided each week.

Question reference: S6W-38023

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many school buildings that have been surveyed still currently contain asbestos, and whether it will provide a list of any such schools, broken down by local authority area.

Local authorities have statutory responsibility for the control and management of asbestos within their schools, therefore, the Scottish Government does not hold this information. Furthermore, health and safety is not devolved to the Scottish Government, and the Health and Safety Executive has UK-wide responsibility for enforcement of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

However, the Scottish Government takes the issue of asbestos within schools very seriously and continues to engage with COSLA, local authorities and the Health and Safety Executive on this matter.

Question reference: S6O-04815

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the eligibility criteria for rapid cancer diagnostic services, including the rationale for them usually only being available to those over the age of 18, in light of any unique challenges faced by children and young people being diagnosed with cancer.

Question reference: S6W-38025

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported reductions to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism services, and whether it plans to implement a national approach to providing appropriate pathways and support for neurodevelopmental conditions.

I recognise that there has been a significant increase in adults seeking ADHD and autism assessments across Scotland. I recognise how important assessment and support through local services can be and I expect NHS Boards to deliver appropriate local services to ensure that their local population have the highest quality of care and treatment at the right time and in the right place.

The Scottish Government is working with the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to develop national Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways, building on the pilots we funded in four NHS Board areas and the subsequent learnings and recommendations. We are engaging with a wide range of interests in this work and we have also met with the Royal College of Psychiatrists to discuss their recent proposals.

We are continuing to work with NHS Health Boards and local authorities to improve services and support for children and young people, including supporting them to implement the Neurodevelopmental Service Specification for Children and Young People, underpinned by GIRFEC and encouraging multi-agency working. To support this, in addition to investment through Health Boards, we have provided over £1 million to fund five Neurodevelopmental tests of change. We have also provided further funding, totalling almost £250,000, in financial year 2024-25 to fund a range of individual projects to improve neurodevelopmental assessment and support for children and young people.