The Scottish Parliament

Question reference: S6O-04486

Asked by: Evelyn Tweed, MSP for Stirling, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, as part of the development and delivery of its economic strategy, what assessment it has made of the contribution of the net zero sector to the economy.

Question reference: S6O-04509

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it or its agencies next plan to build CalMac ferries in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04493

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated in its Budget for revenue and capital funding for Strathclyde Partnership for Transport for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-35463

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34349 by Maree Todd on 28 February 2025, whether it anticipates that its reported trend of increases in spend on mental health and child and adolescent mental health services as a proportion of NHS board spending will continue at their present rate, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Decisions around how much is spent on mental health and child and adolescent mental health services is dependent on the financial decisions taken by NHS Boards and their partners, on the continued local investment needed to achieve the targets. It is important that Boards retain flexibility in their spending decisions to meet specific demands, including making progress towards the 1% and 10% targets

Boards should be commended for the increases in spend on mental health. While some have gone above the 10% and 1% targets.

Looking forward we expect spending on Mental Health between the Scottish Government and NHS Boards, to be around £1.5 billion in 2025-26 based on recent Health Service cost book data.

Question reference: S6W-35670

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of skin cancer have been diagnosed in each year since records began.

Question reference: S6W-35455

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that all temporary accommodation, including any supplied by private sector leasing schemes, is maintained to the same standard as permanent social housing stock.

Local authorities need to ensure that all temporary accommodation is of a high quality and meets the needs of the people that are living there. The Temporary Accommodation Standards Framework was published in 2023 and all local authorities are expected to work towards meeting these standards.

The ‘tolerable standard’, which applies to all dwellings in Scotland, is a basic level of repair that applies to all property to make it habitable. In addition, the Scottish Housing Quality Standard, also applies to social rented sector properties, was introduced in 2004 to ensure properties are energy efficient, safe and secure; are not seriously damaged; and have kitchens and bathrooms that are in good condition.

Question reference: S6W-35452

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to incorporate the role of GPs and other primary healthcare providers who have contact with children into new approaches to homelessness prevention, and what strategies are being developed to ensure their involvement.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role health services can play in helping to prevent homelessness, including for households with children. We will introduce new ask and act duties on named relevant bodies so that a wider range of services do more to prevent homelessness.

The relevant bodies include health boards, special health boards and integrated health boards. While GPs are not on the named bodies list, we anticipate that the duties on other health professionals, such as community link workers in GP practices, will ensure GPs and other practice staff are kept informed and involved in homelessness prevention.

We will work closely with stakeholders in health to ensure the regulations, guidance and training for the implementation of the new duties are fit for purpose and take into account the specific needs of particular households, including those with children. We will be funding a series of pilot projects in 2025-26 that will help inform the best approach to take.

We also know that there is good practice in preventing homelessness across Scotland and we would encourage health and other services to work together and in co-operation with other partners to prevent homelessness now rather than to wait for new homelessness prevention duties.

Question reference: S6W-35454

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to increase the availability of good quality temporary accommodation for households with children.

We have taken action to increase supply of social homes, with a focus on larger family homes, through increasing funding to local authorities for voids and acquisitions as set out in the answer to S6W-35453 on 19 March 2025.

We continue to support local authorities to transition to rapid rehousing, which is the best way to reduce the use of temporary accommodation in the longer term. Where temporary accommodation is required, it should meet the needs of the household.

Local authorities need to ensure that all temporary accommodation is of a high quality and meets the needs of the people that are living there. The Temporary Accommodation Standards Framework, published in 2023, sets out the physical, location, service and management standards to ensure consistency in standards across all local authority areas. All local authorities are expected to work towards meeting these standards to ensure that temporary accommodation is of good quality and is safe, warm and affordable.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-35626

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to regulate canine fertility clinics.

Question reference: S6W-35429

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the payments made to the Australian Council for Educational Research in financial year 2023-24 were for.

Australian Council for Educational Research International UK (ACER UK) were awarded a contract to support the Scottish Government, in consultation with its partner country Governments, to provide a needs analysis in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda to inform the design of our new Inclusive Education programmes, with a focus on improving access to education for the most marginalised – particularly girls and learners with disabilities. The total amount paid to ACER UK for their services in FY2023-24 was £54,172.

Support from the Scottish Government for Inclusive Education was a specific ask during discussions with all three partner countries of Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda, and is provided in line with commitments made in Scotland’s International Strategy: Delivering for Scotland and the Programme for Government in 2023.

In 2020-21, the Scottish Government carried out a review of its approach to International Development in light of COVID-19 which deepened pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems. The results of that Review were announced to the Scottish Parliament through a Ministerial Statement on 3 March 2021 which included agreeing priority focus areas for future international development programming, ensuring SG is supporting its partners to address the impacts of COVID-19; education was one of the priority areas.

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Question reference: S6O-04486

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Question reference: S6O-04509

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Question reference: S6O-04493

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Question reference: S6W-35463

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Question reference: S6W-35670

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Question reference: S6W-35455

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Question reference: S6W-35452

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Question reference: S6W-35454

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Question reference: S6W-35626

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Question reference: S6W-35429

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