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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-38246

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the number of qualified youth workers that are currently employed in Scotland.

Youth work falls within the scope of The Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013. This regulation, in effect, requires local authorities to identify need and plan provision of Community Learning and Development in their areas.

As the regulatory requirements for Community Learning and Development are placed with education authorities, the Scottish Government does not collate information on youth workers.

Question reference: S6W-38206

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much Baroness Helena Kennedy KC was paid in her role as chair of the Independent Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-37842

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many police officers have had claims not accepted by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-38266

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reviewed the impact of the national guidance on reimbursement for home dialysis costs to include utility costs, including water and electricity, following its introduction in March 2024.

In January 2024, we implemented a Scotland-wide policy reimbursing home dialysis patients for their extra electricity costs incurred in their treatment. At the time of implementation, there was a commitment to undertake a review 6-12 months later to ensure that the Policy had been fully applied across all NHS Boards. This Review has been completed and concluded that all Boards had reimbursement policies for eligible patients. This removes the financial disincentive to making a choice for home dialysis over in-centre treatments, allowing personal choice in where and how to receive treatment.

Question reference: S6W-38252

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the number of applicants that were (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful in applying for a Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme payment for 2025-26, broken down by local authority area.

The application window for the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (SUSSS) scheme year 2025 does not open until 1 September 2025.

In the following table, details are provided of the number of businesses that had a successful or unsuccessful application under the SUSSS in 2024, broken down by local authority area. Applications included as unsuccessful are those applications which were rejected as they did not meet the scheme eligibility criteria.

Local Authority	Successful	Unsuccessful
Aberdeenshire	9	1
Angus	8	0
Argyll and Bute	78	1
City of Edinburgh	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	6	1
East Ayrshire	10	0
East Lothian	2	0
Highland	478	8
Inverclyde	2	0
Midlothian	1	0
Moray	7	0
North Ayrshire	8	0
Orkney	6	0
Perth and Kinross	36	1
Renfrewshire	1	0
Scottish Borders	10	0
Shetland	53	4
South Ayrshire	2	0
South Lanarkshire	6	1
Stirling	19	0
West Dunbartonshire	1	0
Western Isles	370	11
Total	1114	28

Question reference: S6W-38237

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on how many early learning and childcare settings have withdrawn from the funded provider scheme since 2022, and what analysis it has conducted of the reasons for any such withdrawals.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many providers have withdrawn from offering funded early learning and childcare (ELC), or their reasons for doing so.

Information on the number of private, and third sector childcare services delivering funded ELC in each local authority in September each year is captured through the ELC census. This information is published as part of the Summary Statistics for Schools and is available in Table 1 of the Additional early learning and childcare statistics spreadsheet. It is important to note that there may currently be additional services delivering funded ELC that were not doing so at the time of the Census. Table 1 also includes information on the share of ELC registrations that were in private and third sector services (Partnership Centres) in each year.

Table: Number of Partnership Centres (private and third sector services) providing funded ELC

	2022	2023	2024
Number of ELC Partnership Centres	985	962	956
Share of registrations in Partnership Centres	30.3%	30.5%	31.0%

Source: Additional early learning and childcare statistics (as part of the Summary Statistics for Schools) for 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The Care Inspectorate collect data from childminding services regarding the provision of funded ELC places. Figure 23 of the 2023_Early_learning_and_Childcare_Statistics.pdf publication provides data on the number of childminding services approved to deliver funded ELC at the 31 December in each year over the period 2020 to 2023. This reports that 1,220 childminding services were approved to deliver funded ELC as at 31 December 2022. For 31 December 2023 this figure was 1,127.

Since 2021, the Care Inspectorate has given all services who are in the process of cancelling their registration the option to provide them with the reasons why they are cancelling. An analysis of the reasons given by day care of children and childminding services (regardless of whether they offer ELC or not) for cancelling their registration over the period 2021 to 31 December 2023 was included in the Care Inspectorate’s 2023_Early_learning_and_Childcare_Statistics.pdf publication. This information is summarised in Figure 9 of the report.

Question reference: S6W-35821

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the total budget allocated to the Scottish Education Exchange Programme (SEEP) is for the financial year 2025-26.

Now in its third year (2025-2026), the SEEP Test and Learn project has been expanded to include Scottish Community Learning and Development (CLD) providers.

In year three, the SEEP Test and Learn Project budget for Scottish college and universities projects is £400,000. It is £100,000 for Scottish Community Learning and Development led projects. The total budget is £500,000.

Additional details are available here Scottish Education Exchange Programme: Test and Learn project - gov.scot

Question reference: S6W-35820

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any funding for the Scottish Education Exchange Programme (SEEP) is provided by external organisations or international partners.

Institutions are able to top up their project fund using additional funding provided by the project’s international partner. Twenty-two of the fifty-six projects funded to date planned to top up their project.

An external evaluation due to be published later in the summer will provide an analysis of the SEEP projects which will include further detail on how institutions used additional funding.

The Scottish Government does not receive any funding from external organisations or international partners for the SEEP test and learn project.

Question reference: S6W-38260

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve outcomes from cardiovascular disease, in light of an analysis from British Heart Foundation (BHF) Scotland, which reportedly shows that Scotland has seen the first sustained rise in heart disease deaths in a generation.

The Scottish Government has launched the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme to improve CVD outcomes with an aim to ‘reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years’. The focus is on improving the identification and management of key risk factors which are; high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking.

We have also established a new GP enhanced service from the 2025-26 Reform Fund to support 100,000 patients who are at risk of developing CVD.

Our Population Health Framework, soon to be published in partnership with COSLA, will support the creation of environments that positively supports health and wellbeing. It will focus on prevention and tackling the building blocks of health—including good early years and education, fair work and income, healthy places, equitable healthcare, and the broader social and economic drivers of ill health.

Question reference: S6W-38239

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the financial sustainability of early years providers, including their current debt levels, any cash flow challenges, and their ability to meet rising staffing and operational costs.

The Scottish Government monitors trends across the whole childcare sector, drawing on data published by the Care Inspectorate. In recent years the Scottish Government has published financial sustainability health checks and the Sustainable Rates Review, which have considered issues relating to the financial sustainability of the sector.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing and monitoring compliance with the National Standard in all funded providers, as part of their contract management arrangements and in their role as guarantors of quality. This includes monitoring the financial viability of these services.

Concerns regarding rising staffing costs have been raised by childcare sector representative organisations, in particular providers’ ability to meet the additional costs resulting from the UK Government’s changes to employer National Insurance Contributions. These changes are estimated to add £5 million per year to funded providers’ costs for the delivery of funded ELC (with higher additional costs expected for the whole of the childcare sector).

To strengthen the evidence base on the costs for private, third sector and childminding providers to deliver funded ELC, and to deliver a key action from the Sustainable Rates Review, a national funded ELC cost survey is currently underway. The findings will inform future rates-setting and Scottish Government and COSLA’s future financial planning.