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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-40230

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the remuneration package for the chief executive of the National Social Work Agency conforms to the public sector pay policy, and what benchmarking was undertaken.

The Chief Executive of the National Social Work Agency is a Senior Civil Service (SCS) post and SCS pay and terms and conditions of employment are reserved to the UK Government. The advertising process for this role ended prior to the announcement of the recently publicised SCS pay award. Therefore, this role was advertised with a salary range of £108,393 to £117,329.

Following completion of the interview stage, the successful candidate will be offered the role in line with the updated pay range effective from 1 April 2025, which is £111,916 to £121,143. This salary range is within the relevant SCS2 pay range of £100,000 to £162,500 published by the Cabinet Office.

Question reference: S6W-40280

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the future of maternity services in Caithness, what engagement it plans to have with local stakeholders, including the Caithness Health Action Team.

I met with staff, service users, local elected representatives and members of CHAT at Caithness General Hospital’s maternity service on 30 July. During the visit, I heard about the ongoing engagement between NHS Highland and CHAT, including areas of joint working to improve the experience for local service users. Following the meeting I have written to NHS Highland, asking for further information in relation to specific questions and issues highlighted during the visit. In addition, NHS Highland continues to engage regularly with local people and community groups, including the Caithness Health Action Team (CHAT) to understand the needs of its local population, including in maternity services, to inform its service model. I welcome NHS Highland’s ongoing engagement with CHAT to inform continuous improvement activity in maternity services in Caithness.

Question reference: S6W-40271

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it declaring a housing emergency, how it will respond to the reported loss of 12,000 homes from the landlord register since May 2023.

It is unclear where the figure for the reported loss of 12,000 homes from the landlord register since May 2023 has come from. The most recently published figures show an increase in registered properties of almost 8,000 from May 2023 to July 2025.

According to official published statistics derived from the Scottish Landlord Register, in May 2023 there were 238,787 registered landlords and 341,417 registered properties. By July 2025, the most recent data available, this had fallen to 232,922 landlords, while the number of registered properties had increased to 349,313:

Housing statistics: Scottish Landlord Register data - gov.scot

This represents a reduction of 5,865 landlords over the period. Importantly, while landlord numbers have declined slightly, the number of registered properties has risen by almost 8,000 homes.

While these changes may point to some landlords choosing to leave the sector, the evidence suggests that their properties are remaining in the sector, or new properties are being offered for rent.

It should be noted that there are some limitations to the administrative data from the landlord register, including the time-lag in landlords deregistering properties that are no longer available to rent. These statistics should therefore be treated with some caution.

Question reference: S6W-40256

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the number of offenders likely to be released early in the next 12 months under further emergency measures, and how victims will be notified.

The Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023 introduced the ability for the Scottish Ministers to instruct the early release of specified groups of prisoners where is it "necessary and proportionate" to do so in response to the effects an emergency situation is having or is likely to have on a prison or prisons generally, to protect the security and good order of prisons, or to protect the safety and wellbeing of prisoners and staff.

This allows the Scottish Ministers to take action that would support the safe operation of our prison system during an emergency, and to protect the safety of prison staff and prisoners. This would never be an action that we would take lightly, and the emergency early release power would only be used if it was considered absolutely necessary and proportionate to do so, in line with the legislation.

The Victim Notification Scheme is the means by which victims can indicate that they wish to be informed of information regarding the release of a specific prisoner.

Question reference: S6W-40347

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £4.9 billion investment in housing is (a) a reallocation from existing housing or local government budgets and (b) new investment.

Question reference: S6W-40366

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37772 by Gillian Martin on 3 June 2025, how it will track (a) how local authorities spend extended producer responsibility funds dispensed to them and (b) any subsequent improvement to waste services arising from such spend.

As set out in the answer to question S6W-37772, payments made under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging are not part of the Scottish Government’s budget and are made directly by PackUK (the scheme administrator) with the purpose - to pay for the cost of managing an efficient and effective household packaging waste service – set out in UK-wide packaging EPR legislation.

Packaging EPR funding is subject to local authorities’ own budget setting process and local decision-making on its use. The Scottish Government therefore has no plans to directly track how local authorities spend packaging EPR funds. However, there are mechanisms established within packaging EPR regulations requiring PackUK to assess the effectiveness of each local authority’s waste management service in relation to household packaging waste.

The Scottish Government will also continue to track and monitor local authority recycling outcomes. Local authorities are guided by both local and national waste management performance policies, recycling obligations, and reporting frameworks, which support the effective oversight and improvement of waste services. In order to monitor waste service performance, SEPA publish annual statistics on household waste data generated and managed by or on behalf of local authorities in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-40342

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considered extending the Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme to support other groups, such as low-income households or those at risk of homelessness, and for what reason it chose to focus on first-time buyers.

Question reference: S6T-02665

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Royal College of Nursing’s reported concerns regarding the decline in the number of nursing students, in light of recent UCAS figures showing that the number of accepted places on nursing courses beginning this autumn in Scotland is 5% lower than last year.

Question reference: S6T-02667

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Nuclear Industry Association's reported view that Scotland will miss out on thousands of new jobs due to its stance on nuclear energy.

Question reference: S6F-04300

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 September 2025

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to protect renters in the private sector from homelessness.