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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: S6W-34405

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses have received support through the Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) scheme in each year since 2021, broken down by parliamentary region.

Question reference: S6W-34453

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates that it will deliver on its commitment to allocate 10% of NHS spend to mental health and 1% to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

Latest data published by Public Health Scotland on 25 February 2025 shows total spend on mental health in Scotland has increased by £179.6 million to £1.486 billion in 2023-24. That is 9.03% of total net NHS expenditure, up from 8.53% in 2022-23. Spend on child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) has increased by nearly £19.4 million to over £134 million. This is 0.82% of total spend, up from 0.75% in 2022-23.

We remain committed to delivery of the commitment and the latest data shows good progress is being made, however, as we all know, there are continued and unprecedented challenge to the public finances.

That means that achieving the targets in practice will depend on the outcome of future budgets. It is also dependent on the financial decisions taken by NHS Boards, and their partners, on the continued local investment needed to achieve the targets.

We will continue to closely monitor our progress towards both the 10% and 1% over the remainder of the Parliamentary term.

Question reference: S6W-35123

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on what dates since 2014 it has received an updated timescale for the completion of HMP Glasgow, and what the revised date given was at each update.

The Scottish Government has received regular updates from the Scottish Prison Service on HMP Glasgow in line with updates to the Infrastructure Investment Plan since 2014:

In March 2014 the Scottish Government was updated that there was an on-going site search and completion dates for the project remained uncertain.
In March 2016 the Scottish Government was updated that estimated operational date was 2022.
In September 2016 the Scottish Government was updated that estimated operational date was 2023.
In April 2019 the Scottish Government was updated that estimated operational date was 2024.
In November 2020 the Scottish Government was updated that estimated operational date was 2026.
In May 2023 the Scottish Government was updated that the project time-line was uncertain.
In July 2023 the Scottish Government was updated that the most likely time-scale for construction completion was 2027 but there were risks associated with this.
In May 2024 the Scottish Government was updated that the most likely time-scale for construction completion was 2028.

Question reference: S6W-35128

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many assaults on (a) staff and (b) prisoners have been recorded at HMP Barlinnie in each of the last five years.

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

The number of assaults on staff in HMP Barlinnie in the last 5 years are as follows:

HMP Barlinnie
Year	Staff
2020	35
2021	49
2022	30
2023	45
2024	63

The number of assaults on Prisoners in Barlinnie in the last 5 years are as follows:

HMP Barlinnie
Year	Prisoner
2020	123
2021	163
2022	117
2023	120
2024	253

Question reference: S6W-35131

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoners will be released early from HMP Barlinie due to overcrowding while the replacement prison for it remains incomplete.

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

SPS will publish information on the early release under the changes to sentencing for short-term prisoners on our website, and we have previously published information on releases under the emergency release legislation again on their website.

SPS seek to be as open and transparent as possible, whilst continuing to meet our statutory obligation to ensure that those in our care have their personal information protected; as such we cannot publish a breakdown of establishments as some of the data could relate to a small group of individuals, which may lead to their inadvertent identification.

Question reference: S6W-34828

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many alcohol-specific deaths have been recorded in each of the last five years, also broken down by what proportion were attributed to liver disease.

Data on alcohol-specific deaths are published annually by National Records Scotland (NRS) and can be found here: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/alcohol-specific-deaths-2023/

Data on alcohol-specific deaths for 2024 are not yet published. The number of alcohol-specific deaths for the five year period 2019-2023 are listed in the following table, alongside the number and proportion of these deaths where the underlying cause of death was alcoholic liver disease.

Year	Number of alcohol-specific deaths	Number where underlying cause of death was alcoholic liver disease		Proportion where underlying cause of death was alcoholic liver disease
2019	1,020		660	65%
2020	1,190		759	64%
2021	1,245		795	64%
2022	1,276		778	61%
2023	1,277		805	63%

Question reference: S6W-35062

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many requests for the closure of rural schools it has received from each local authority in each of the last four years.

Local authorities are responsible for the management of their school estate including decisions about the closure of schools. Scottish Ministers do not receive requests for school closures from local authorities.

Local authorities are however required by the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 (“the 2010 Act”) to submit school closure decisions for Ministerial review. Ministers can then “call-in” the decision for review by an independent school closure review panel if it appears to Scottish Ministers that the local authority may have failed, in a significant regard, to comply with the requirements imposed on it by the 2010 Act, or to take proper account of a material consideration relevant to its decision.

The following table sets out the number of school closure decisions for rural schools only, received by Scottish Ministers for their review from each local authority over the last four years.

Local Authority	No. of rural school closure decisions under the 2010 Act received by Scottish Ministers
Year	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Aberdeen City	0	0	0	0	0
Aberdeenshire	1	1	1	2	0
Angus	0	0	0	0	0
Argyll and Bute	0	1	0	4	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0
Dundee	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0	1	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0
Edinburgh City	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	2	0	0	0	1
Fife	0	0	0	1	0
Glasgow City	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	1	1	2	1	0
Inverclyde	0	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	0	0	0	0	0
Moray	0	0	1	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	0	0	0	0	0
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	0
Stirling	0	1	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	0	0	0	0	0
Western Isles (Eilean Siar)	0	0	0	0	0
Total	4	4	4	9	1

Question reference: S6W-35059

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many socially rented properties were vacant in each of the last 12 months, broken down by local authority area.

The information is not available in the format requested, however, the Scottish Government routinely publishes data on local authority voids, with the latest data available here: Housing statistics: Local authority housing stock - gov.scot.

Social housing landlords will start collecting data from 1 April 2025 which will report the number of self-contained properties void at the year end and, of those, the number that have been void for more than six months by category. The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) will then collect this information in May 2026, to monitor performance over that year. In addition, the SHR has recently supported an ad hoc data collection on behalf of the Scottish Government, to collect information on empty homes/voids. The letter can be accessed here:Letter to Registered Social Landlords - collection of information on empty homes / voids | Scottish Housing Regulator.

THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Question reference: S6W-35067

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the reported decision by the health secretary not to act in response to a letter warning about potential non-compliance by NHS Fife with its legal obligations is consistent with the Scottish Government’s duty to uphold the Equality Act 2010.

Question reference: S6W-35065

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what role it envisions for its economic agencies, such as Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway, in addressing the reported gender export gap and supporting women-led businesses to expand internationally.

The Scottish Government is committed to addressing the gender export gap in Scotland, confirmed by the findings in the recent Gender Export Gap research report.

Recognising the significant economic potential of women-led businesses, we are determined to ensure they are supported to expand internationally.

Our delivery agencies, including Scottish Enterprise, Business Gateway, and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, play a pivotal role in delivering this support. Working with the Scottish Government, they will be instrumental in implementing the report's recommendations, providing tailored advice, assistance, and international market access opportunities to help women-led businesses succeed on the global stage. Through these efforts, we aim to foster a more inclusive and dynamic exporting landscape in Scotland.

The Gender Export Gap report and Scottish Government’s response to it is available here: Gender export gap report: response - gov.scot.