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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-37716

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many cataract operations have been conducted per week since 2020, broken down by NHS board.

Public Health Scotland publish annual information on cataract procedures in our Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (annual) publication.

The publication does not have weekly figures but annual figures for cataract procedures between financial year 2019-20 to financial year 2023-24 can be found within the ‘Eye’ grouping in table 7 of our publication. This table includes splits by admission type and by health board of treatment and can be downloaded here.

Question reference: S6W-38060

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the First Minister's speech on improving public services and NHS renewal, which was published on 27 January 2025, what proportion of the additional 10,000 procedures planned across the National Treatment Centres will be in ophthalmology, and how this compares with previous years.

In total over 16,000 cataract procedures at National Treatment Centres (NTCs) have been allocated to health boards across Scotland in 2025-2026 (44.9% of the total NTC allocation). This is compared to over 13,500 cataract cases allotted to NTCs in 2024-2025 which made up 36.5% of total NTC capacity allocated last year. This activity is split between NTC Highland and the Eye Centre at the Golden Jubilee University National Hospital. Please note that some activity performed by NTC Highland is a re-provision of core activity for NHS Highland.

Health Boards are also delivering additional ophthalmology activity in 2025-26 as part of the £106M funding to reduce waiting times and improve capacity and the wider £21.7bn investment we are making in health and social care services this year.

Question reference: S6W-38145

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what patient-facing features will be available to people piloting the national Digital Front Door app within NHS Lanarkshire later in 2025.

The initial users in NHS Lanarkshire will be patients accessing dermatology outpatient services. They will have the following features:

Secure login using a unique ID through Scot Account.
Receive digital letters from the dermatology team
View dermatology appointments
Access personal health information, including demographics, medications and allergies.
Use a national service finder to locate health and care services.

These details have been published in our Operational Improvement Plan which you can access here; https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-scotland-operational-improvement-plan/pages/5/.

To ensure good practice in our approach, we intend for the initial version to be tested thoroughly in Lanarkshire before we seek to spread and scale it across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-37938

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 11 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, as part of its work to further the case for Scottish independence, and in light of its series of papers, Building a New Scotland, which aimed to form a prospectus for an independent Scotland, what its policy is for what the weekly state pension entitlement would be in an independent Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-37970

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is provided to clinicians who are considering prescribing a medicine off-label when unlicensed for a particular condition, when there is a Scottish Medicines Consortium approved medicine available, which is licensed for that indication.

Guidance to clinicians to support prescribing medicines off-label is provided by the General Medical Council (GMC) . The guidance states that doctors should usually prescribe licensed medicines in accordance with the terms of their licence but they may prescribe medicines off-label where, on the basis of an assessment of the individual patient, they conclude, for medical reasons, that it is necessary to do so to meet the specific needs of the patient. In addition, extant guidance states that, unless there is a specific clinical reason, clinicians should prescribe a licensed medicine which has been accepted for routine use in the NHS in Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) as opposed to prescribing off-label or unlicensed medicines.

Question reference: S6W-38105

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the detailed Project Willow report by EY-Parthenon, what Government decisions that are to be made before the end of 2025 in respect of Project (a) 5, (b) 6, (c) 7, (d) 8 and (e) 9 are being referred to at page 44.

Question reference: S6W-38108

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the detailed Project Willow report by EY-Parthenon, what its position is on whether it is feasible to use approximately 240,000 hectares of agricultural land for the production of cover crops for Project 6 (HEFA), as set out at page 124, and, if it considers it to be feasible, whether it has any concerns regarding competition with food production.

Question reference: S6W-38142

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is currently in place to inform ministers’ decisions when they depart from the recommendations of a public inquiry reporter in renewable energy cases.

Question reference: S6W-38198

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recently published Cost of Living Research 2025 report by Disability Equality Scotland, which highlighted issues that disabled people are having with ferry travel, what steps it is taking to ensure that all ferry services are accessible to everyone, and what consideration it has given to extending free ferry travel to disabled people.

I welcome the report and note the ferry recommendation.

The recently published Strategic Approach of the Islands Connectivity Plan sets Accessibility as one of four priorities for future ferry services and identifies a number of actions to support the delivery of this priority, including development of a Ferries Accessibility Standard and reopening of the Ferries Accessibility Fund.

The Scottish Government has recently introduced free travel on inter-islands ferries for under 22 year olds and an extension of the ferry journey voucher scheme to 19-21 year olds and there are no current plans to extend this further. However, we invest significantly to keep ferry fares affordable for all, including on Road Equivalent Tariff and islander fares, as well as the Older and Disabled Persons Concessionary Travel Scheme. In addition, a number of local authorities already provide concessionary ferry travel for disabled people.

Question reference: S6W-38106

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the statement at page 21 of the detailed Project Willow report by EY-Parthenon that "across all scenarios, the direct GVA impact in total across projects is negative", how it plans to keep the nine projects identified in the Project Willow report operational.

The Scottish Enterprise and UK Office for Investment have established the Grangemouth Investor taskforce which is focussed on identifying and attracting investment in the proposals outlined in Project Willow, with a particular focus on opportunities that the Grangemouth Just Transition Fund could support to ensure they become market investible.

The Scottish Government is not the developer nor owner of any of the nine potential projects suggested through Project Willow. The responsibility for assessing the commercial viability of a project rests solely with the project developers.