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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-38436

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any species licences issued to Forestry and Land Scotland by NatureScot can be transferred to third parties without the prior approval of NatureScot, and whether any such formal consent is in place at present for third party use.

Any changes, including transferring the licence or modifying its scope, must be agreed upon in writing with NatureScot.

The current years red squirrel licence granted to Forestry and Land Scotland contains a condition (i.e. four) stating that, this licence can only be used by agents if prior permission has been granted by a FLS Decision Maker.

The current beaver licence states in condition seven that, the licence holder may permit agents or assistants to work under the terms of this licence.

The research licence states in condition two that, this licence only covers work carried out for FLS, by FLS employees and registered volunteers.

Question reference: S6W-38435

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many species-specific licences, issued by NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland currently holds; for which species, and for what purposes.

Forestry and Land Scotland currently holds three species licences. The details of which are as follows:

Licence number	Species	Purpose
280737	Wildlife and Countryside Act (as amended) Schedule 1 (breeding and lekking) and 5 (Great crested newts, Otters, and Wildcats	For science, research or education.
275762	Eurasian beavers	For the possession, control, transportation of live animals taken by live capture trapping under Licence 248144 to and from locations approved by NatureScot under that licence.
280378	Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)	To permit Contractors or Operators as agents of Forestry and Land Scotland to disturb Red Squirrels and damage or destroy their dreys during the course of forestry operations where the actions are licensable, there are no satisfactory alternatives, and actions will not be detrimental to Favourable Conservation Status.

Question reference: S6W-38437

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether Forestry and Land Scotland has allowed external organisations to work under its own species-specific killing, disturbance or shelter destruction licences when carrying out forestry operations on the national forest estate; if so, how often, and which species are involved in any instances of such a licence transfer.

Question reference: S6W-38438

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which external organisations or type of organisations have undertaken operations under any Forestry and Land Scotland species-specific licence.

Question reference: S6O-04811

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that nearly 40% of adults in Dumfries and Galloway are not registered with an NHS dentist.

Question reference: S6W-37608

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Programme for Government 2025-26 announcement of 20,000 additional orthopaedic, ophthalmology and general surgery procedures is in addition to the announcement of 30,000 procedures contained within the NHS Operational Improvement Plan, which was published in March 2025.

Our previous 2024-25 Programme for Government, published in September 2024, committed to delivering around 20,000 extra orthopaedic, ophthalmology and general surgery procedures annually in our new National Treatment Centres.

The most recent Programme for Government 2025-26, published in May 2025, has a further commitment of delivering more surgical procedures in our network of National Treatment Centres – to over 30,000 planned procedures, up from 20,000 in 2024-25. This commitment is also outlined in our NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan published in March 2025.

These commitments are specifically focused on optimising the use of our network of National Treatment Centres (NTCs) located across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-37337

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will review and update its social security uptake strategy.

Question reference: S6W-37232

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 14 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will (a) complete and (b) publish the outcome of its review of the guidance on the mothballing of rural schools and nurseries.

Local authorities are responsible for the management of their learning estate. Statutory guidance sets out the Scottish Government’s expectations in relation to the mothballing of schools and nurseries. As the First Minister stated on 24 April, we are reviewing mothballing guidance to provide greater clarity on whether it is an appropriate action to take. We will update Parliament further on this work in due course.

Question reference: S6W-37069

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it provides to Scottish Borders council to reflect any additional costs directly associated with providing nursery education in a rural setting.

The Local Government finance funding formula provides a complex but objective assessment of need and uses the most up to date information for the full range of indicators, including factors such as rurality, population, road length and deprivation. Rurality is accounted for within the Local Government finance settlement, both in relation to Early Learning and Childcare and school funding. In Early Learning and Childcare this relates to support being distributed in relation to the number of pupils living in rural areas.

The vast majority of funding allocated to councils is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on Education, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The annual Funding of Local Government publication provides an overview of the process of funding council in Scotland, while the Local Government Allocation Statistics (Green Book) publication sets out in more detail the date, methodology and calculations underlying the distribution of the funding between councils. https://www.gov.scot/collections/local-government-finance-statistics/#thefundingoflocalgovernmentinscotland.

Question reference: S6O-04599

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that one in three diagnoses of prostate cancer in Scotland are at stage 4, which is a higher proportion compared with the rest of the UK.

Staging prostate cancer is often complex and whilst data published by Prostate Cancer UK in 2023 shows apparent variation across the UK nations. Comparison to other nations should be approached with caution due to differences in staging data collection methodology and definitions.

Survival rates, the most crucial measure for any patient, can however be robustly compared and Scotland’s five-year survival rate for prostate cancer is 85.7%, similar to that of the other UK nations.