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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-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-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-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-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-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-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-38028

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

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported pause in the work of the Scottish Genomics Test Advisory Group, what process is being followed to ensure that appropriate companion diagnostic genomic tests are available to cancer clinicians when making decisions about treatments for patients.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring equitable access to genomic tests associated with Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) approved medicines.

While the work of the Scottish Genomics Test Advisory Group (SG-TAG) is currently paused, processes remain in place to support test development and implementation.

Requests for new genomic testing can still be submitted via an interim process in place since October 2024. New submissions are regularly reviewed by the Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine (SSNGM) horizon scanning group for consideration of next steps.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in Scotland’s genomic capabilities, and we are working in conjunction with NHS Scotland National Services Division (NSD) on a transformation programme to ensure we can commission and implement additional testing.

Question reference: S6W-38027

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 assessment it has made of any economic impact of untreated attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism.

As part of preparations for the public consultation on the proposed Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill, the Scottish Government collated existing information on how current barriers in society affect the outcomes and wellbeing of neurodivergent people. Whilst we did not secure specific data for ADHD, we identified that employment rates were 29% for autistic people compared with Scotland's national employment rate, which in 2024 was 83% for non-disabled people and 51.7% for disabled people. Responses to the consultation suggested that various barriers prevent neurodivergent adults from securing and maintaining employment, meaning that our economy is not benefiting from neurodivergent people’s skills and talents as much as it could.

Research conducted both in the UK and abroad suggests that there are further economic impacts of not providing appropriate support for neurodivergent people, including increased healthcare, education, and benefits costs.

In 2016, we committed to halving the Disability Employment Gap, outlining the initial steps that would be taken to achieve this by 2038 in A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan, published in 2018. To improve employment opportunities for those who face many structural barriers on the labour market, we have carried forward several actions into our refreshed Fair Work Action Plan: Becoming a Fair Work Nation by 2025, published in December 2022. Input was provided by disabled people and their representative organisations.

To help improve the wellbeing of autistic adults, including those with ADHD, we invest £1 million a year through our Adult Autism Support Fund to provide community support to autistic adults, both before and after their diagnoses. In a recent independent evaluation of the current Fund, 77% of participants reported feeling more confident about the future, and 66% said that their quality of life had improved. We hope that, correspondingly, such support will help ensure that autistic adults, including those who also have ADHD, continue to experience positive outcomes in healthcare, employment, and other areas that in turn helps maximise any economic contribution that they may wish to make to Scotland.