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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-40362

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to address any shortfalls in the radiology workforce and the impact that any such shortfalls might have on cancer patients.

Whilst Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing are the responsibility NHS Boards. NHS Boards take account of national, regional, and local priorities, and we expect NHS boards to plan and provide safe, effective, and high-quality care, in line with their statutory service provision and workforce planning responsibilities.

To help address recognised workforce pressures, Scottish Government continues to invest heavily in radiology training. Scottish Government is currently funding around 190 specialty training places in clinical radiology, including 78 extra places which have been added since 2014. This enables doctors to train and enter the workforce following completion of training - which takes a minimum of 5 years. Clinical radiology specialty training programmes have been filled at 100% in Scotland from 2014 to 2024, with 230 resident doctors successfully completing training in this period.

To further support a coordinated response to pressures in cancer services, Scottish Government commissioned the National Oncology Coordination Group. This group considers real-time assessments and develops proactive risk mitigation proposals aligned with the strategic aims for cancer. This collaborative approach across NHS Boards in Scotland is ensuring that services can deliver for people with cancer.

Question reference: S6W-39908

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34581 by Angus Robertson on 6 March 2025, whether it will provide an update on whether it still plans to open an international office in Warsaw.

Question reference: S6W-39943

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on what the main causes are for the decrease in healthy life expectancy to a near 10-year low across Scotland between 2021 and 2023, according to the Public Health Scotland’s Healthy Life Expectancy 2021–2023 data.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving life expectancy and tackling health inequalities across Scotland. The recently published Population Health Framework, a joint publication by the Scottish Government and COSLA, highlights that the circumstances and environments in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age – known as the building blocks of health – are the most influential factors shaping health outcomes.

The Framework’s supporting evidence paper notes that Scotland has experienced a decline in healthy life expectancy – the number of years people can expect to live in good health – alongside a stalling of improvements in mortality rates after decades of steady progress. These trends are associated with several major factors: the UK Government’s austerity policies during the 2010s, Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Together, these influences have weakened the building blocks of health, widened existing inequalities, and exacerbated Scotland’s longstanding disparities in income, wealth, and power.

In response, the Population Health Framework sets out a whole-system cross-government and cross-sector approach centred on prevention. This approach builds on existing Scottish Government actions, including initiatives on diet and healthy weight, and efforts to tackle child poverty. Through this approach, the Scottish Government aims to raise overall life expectancy while closing the gap between the most deprived 20% of communities and the national average by 2035.

Question reference: S6W-39904

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34581 by Angus Robertson on 6 March 2025, whether it will provide an update on whether any additional funding has been budgeted for its plans to open an international office in Warsaw, and, if so, whether it can provide details of this.

Question reference: S6W-39976

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the funding that it provides for the initiative, what the eligibility requirements are for participation in the Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship programme, and what definition of a "woman" is used to judge eligibility.

The Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship is based around the principles of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 which reaffirms the role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflict, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction, and stresses the importance of their equal participation in all efforts for the promotion of peace and security. By bringing together women activists from a range of conflict affected countries the Fellowship facilitates sessions focussing on conflict resolution, mediation, reconciliation and dialogue methodologies with an emphasis on inclusivity and sustainable conflict resolution. The Fellowship also includes workshops on personal self-care strategies for those living in conflict areas and involved in conflict-based work.

The Fellowship has been held 3 times a year since 2015 in Edinburgh and online during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has built up a fantastic network of over 360 women from 33 countries across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America. These women are a diverse group, working in an equally varied range of professions related to peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

The Fellowship is delivered by Beyond Borders, with grant funding from the Scottish Government’s International Development Fund. Applications were recently sought by Beyond Borders for their October 2025 Fellowship Programme, with the requirements being experience or interest in working on conflict and peacebuilding. Applicants were asked to (a) complete an online form submission on the Beyond Borders website, which seeks to test applicants’ motivation, experience, knowledge, and to assess their understanding of the Women Peace and Security agenda in their own countries, and (b) submit a CV/Resume/Professional Biography, copy of passport, and Letter of Recommendation. There is no definition of a “woman” included within the criteria at this time.

The Scottish Government has been clear since the April 2025 judgement of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland vs The Scottish Ministers that it accepts the judgement of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers that it accepts the judgement.

Question reference: S6W-39909

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34581 by Angus Robertson on 6 March 2025, whether it can provide the total costs associated with its preparations for opening an international office in Warsaw, broken down by (a) year and (b) expenditure type.

Question reference: S6W-40430

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it reportedly can no longer ensure that no patient waits longer than one year for NHS treatment by March 2026.

Our position is unchanged on waiting times – by March 2026 no one will wait more than 12 months for a new outpatient appointment or inpatient/daycase treatment.

We are investing more than £110 million this year to cut waits, and we expect to see the full impact of our targeted funding in the coming months. This targeted funding is expected to deliver more than 213,000 additional procedures and appointments this year.

Our plan is clearly working with a record number of hip and knee operations last year and the highest level of operations performed in July since February 2020.

Question reference: S6W-40466

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many times, in each of the last three calendar years, its Agricultural Wages Enforcement Team has reported concerns to local authorities regarding the standards of accommodation provided in their areas to migrant workers, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) what the outcome was.

Question reference: S6W-40458

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38195 by Fiona Hyslop on 13 June 2025, what its position is on the introduction of a potential traffic congestion charge by the City of Edinburgh Council.

Question reference: S6W-40473

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will pass a note of the salient points of any substantive discussions that arose during the First Minister’s meeting with the President of the United States of America and the US Secretary of State on 9 September 2025 to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in accordance with Section 11.15 of the Scottish Ministerial Code.