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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-40593

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 1 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what further evaluation it is carrying out of the 1,140 hours early learning childcare expansion, and by what date any reports regarding this work will be published.

Question reference: S6W-40580

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 1 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the University of Aberdeen is considering suspending the student intake for its Diploma in Dental Technology programme for (a) 2025-26 and (b) 2026-27.

Question reference: S6W-40441

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40340 by Fiona Hyslop on 5 September 2025, whether it plans for battery-electric trains procured for routes in Fife to be used in the operation of services in the North East Fife constituency.

Question reference: S6W-40262

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 12 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether Single Building Assessments relating to all of the buildings identified as having (a) high pressure laminate (HPL) (96) and (b) aluminium composite material (ACM) (48) as part of their external wall system were commissioned on or before 1 September 2025, as indicated in its Cladding Remediation Programme Next Phase Plan of Action.

Substantial progress has been made by building owners in taking forward the commissioning of Single Building Assessments for these buildings, making use of the financial support available from the Scottish Government. In a small number of cases where building owners/factors are yet to engage in the Single Open Call process we are strongly pressing them to do so and considering what further action may be required. We will publish further information in due course on this cohort of buildings.

Question reference: S6W-40263

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 12 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all priority Single Building Assessments via its assessment process were completed and returned by the end of August 2025.

Question reference: S6O-04921

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with the University of Dundee and the Scottish Funding Council regarding the university’s financial situation.

Question reference: S6W-40264

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it completed its information-gathering exercise to verify the cladding status of buildings between 11 and 18 metres in height by the end of August 2025.

Question reference: S6O-04872

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 August 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with GFG Alliance, Liberty Steel and Alvance British Aluminium regarding the companies’ operations in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-39652

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 600 expressions of interest, which its Cladding Remediation Programme has received via the Single Open Call, relate to buildings that it was already aware may need an assessment or remedial work, broken down by the type of applicant.

Information on the number of expressions of interest submitted to the Cladding Remediation Programme via the Single Open Call by applicant type is now published quarterly on the Scottish Government website: An Official Statistics in Development publication - Scotland’s Cladding Remediation Programme update: Q2 2025 - gov.scot.

The ‘pilot phase’ of the Cladding Remediation Programme began in 2021, and was designed to identify a range of buildings to help inform the development of the Single Building Assessment (SBA) process. As part of this work, several buildings were assessed, and now require a ‘refresh’ to ensure assessments are in line with the SBA specification. This will not mean starting the assessment process again, as all existing information will be made available to the competent, qualified person carrying out the refresh.

The 107 buildings in the ‘pilot phase’ were put on a pathway to assessment, starting with pre-assessment checks made by an appointed fire engineer consultant. 51 were assessed as being out of scope of the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act, following a review by the appointed fire engineering consultants.

Of the 56 buildings within scope:

10 of the buildings have been taken on by the developer
two were identified by the fire engineers as being low risk and not requiring an SBA
12 have had or are undergoing an SBA commission by Scottish Government
32 will require an SBA - these will now have the opportunity to be funded for assessment through the Single Open Call

The Scottish Government Cladding Remediation Programme is providing support to the 32 eligible buildings to apply to the SOC and is working with the applicants at pace through the SOC process.

The Cladding Remediation Programme is aware that expressions of interest have been submitted in respect of some of the buildings included in the information gathering exercises being conducted with Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords, which is referred to in the recently published Cladding Remediation Programme Next Phase Plan of Action (published here: Cladding Remediation Programme: Next Phase Plan of Action - gov.scot), as well as for other buildings in their ownership. However, until the information submitted as part of that exercise has been quality assured and validated it is not possible to identify how many of those have had an expression of interest submitted via the Single Open Call.

Question reference: S6W-39651

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 11 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to extend its Cladding Remediation Programme Single Open Call beyond 30 September 2025.

The Single Open Call (SOC) has been incredibly successful in identifying buildings at risk within the Single Building Assessment (SBA) specification, with over 600 buildings, as of 30 June 2025, being identified for review. As confirmed in the Cladding Remediation Programme: Next Phase Plan of Action published 7 August 2025, funding from Stage One of the SOC has doubled to £20 million. The additional £10m funding will ensure that all eligible EOIs received by 31 December 2025 will be able to move forward. We strongly encourage all building owners and their representatives to continue to submit their buildings to the SOC ahead of 31 December 2025.

As well as enhancing funding for Stage One, the Cladding Remediation Programme: Next Phase Plan of Action also confirms the launch of Stage 2 of the Single Open Call. This will allow owners, or their representatives, to seek Scottish Government support for any required mitigation and/or essential cladding remediation works identified through the funded Single Building Assessment at Stage One.