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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: S6F-04291

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 September 2025

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will review its policy on public sector settlement agreements, in light of reports that £4 million of public money was spent on public sector pay-offs in 2023-24.

Question reference: S6W-40065

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has assessed how devolved social security spending per capita varies across different local authority areas, and, if so, whether it will provide details for each of the last five years.

Social Security Scotland does not currently publish statistics on spending per capita. Expenditure for each individual benefit is included in its Official Statistics publications available on the Social Security Scotland website.

Social Security Scotland recently published Official Statistics on the number of individual clients paid, which includes total expenditure by local authority area for financial year 2024-25.

Social Security Scotland continues to review the statistics it produces, taking account of user needs when developing future publications, in line with Code of Practice for Statistics.

Question reference: S6W-40149

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of 23 assaults on prison officers at HMP Greenock between 2020 and 2024, and what measures it is taking to ensure the safety of staff at the facility.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS has a zero-tolerance approach to violence towards staff and has support mechanisms in place to assist prison officers who have been affected by it. Incidents of criminality are reported to Police Scotland and SPS will actively seek prosecution.

Following the successful pilot of Body Worn Video Cameras at 3 prison sites, cameras are to be rolled out across the prison estate which will include HMP Greenock.

The cameras will complement an already well established range of staff training, security systems and clear operating procedures used to promote and support safety for everyone working and living in prisons.

Question reference: S6W-40022

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent in total on prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration programmes in each of the last five years, and what percentage of the total Scottish Prison Service budget this represented in each year.

Question reference: S6O-04911

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase the availability of residential social care beds in the west of Scotland, in light of reported closures and service reductions in the region.

Question reference: S6W-39710

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government at what time the last ScotRail service of the day on each route (a) currently departs and (b) departed in 2019.

Question reference: S6W-39709

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail evening rail services currently operate on each route, and how this compares with the number of evening rail services on each route in 2019.

Question reference: S6W-39941

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help local authorities fill or repurpose vacant retail space in high streets and town centres.

The Scottish Government is supporting local authorities to address vacant retail spaces in our high streets and town centres through a range of measures and we remain committed to supporting the broader retail sector where possible, using the levers available to us.

This is why Scotland has a competitive non-domestic rates regime, with the Basic Property Rate frozen for 2025-26 and £733 million in reliefs. Additionally, we are supporting the use or repurposing of vacant units through the Fresh Start Relief and Business Growth Accelerator Relief to support the reuse and improvement of long term empty properties. Further significant funding support is available through programmes such as the Place Based Investment Programme and Regeneration Capital Grant Fund is helping deliver community led regeneration. The Scottish Government’s National Planning Framework 4 also promotes the reuse of empty buildings and town centre living to boost local economic activity.

Question reference: S6W-39730

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many train journeys have been cancelled for non-weather-related reasons in (a) 2025 to date and (b) each of the past five years, and what compensation was offered to passengers.

Details on cancelled rail passenger services, for each train operating company for the period until December 2024 are available on the Office for Rail and Road website, and can be found here: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/compendia/toc-key-statistics/. The Member may wish to contact train operating companies directly in order to obtain more recent and more detailed data, related to cancellations of their services.

Compensation that is offered to rail passengers is a matter for individual train operating companies. The Member may wish to contact them directly to obtain this information.

Question reference: S6W-39677

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average time has been between initial project approval and start on site for affordable homes in each year since 2010.

Prior to 2018-2019 site start dates were not collected as there was no requirement on our previous recording system for this information. Due to this, approval dates were used as a proxy for start dates. The following table provides an average time between approval and site start date for affordable homes between 2018-2019 and 2024-2025.

Financial Year	Average Time between Approval Date and Start Date (Working Days)
2018-2019	107
2019-2020	124
2020-2021	92
2021-2022	91
2022-2023	68
2023-2024	50
2024-2025	27

Once a project has been approved, this does not necessarily mean an immediate progression to site start. Progression from project approval to a contractor being able to mobilise a site can take time. There are also instances where a project may face unforeseen delays due to planning or infrastructure constraints.

Homes acquired on the open market and those acquired through programmes such as the Home Owners’ Support Fund (HOSF) and Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme may have the same approval and site start date as is the process when acquiring an affordable home in this way. These homes have been excluded from the figures above as have projects such as Local Affordable Rent Housing Trust (LAR) and PfP Capital Mid Market Rent Initiative, where an initial bulk approval was granted with homes to be delivered over a number of years. There are also instances where a project may be withdrawn after approval stage and we have excluded these projects. We have also excluded projects which have been approved but have not yet started on site.