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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: S6F-04462

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government will take in response to reported figures from the road safety charity, Brake, which show that over the last year road deaths and serious injuries rose by 2.8% nationally, with Moray recording the highest increase with a rise of 83%.

Question reference: S6F-04459

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-04460

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-41417

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has made to the UK Government regarding the release of reserve funds to pension scheme members of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-41415

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will instruct Glasgow City Council and all of the city’s registered social landlords to establish a common housing register, either on a single city wide or on a district basis.

The Scottish Government supports the establishment of a Common Housing Register in Glasgow either city wide or on a district basis, where Glasgow City Council and housing associations involved are in agreement that this is the best way to manage their allocation policies.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 provides Ministers with powers to require the establishment of common housing registers (to be exercised where appropriate). However, reflecting the role of local authorities and housing associations in determining the most effective way to manage allocations in their area, since 2001 CHRs have been developed on a voluntary basis, with 16 currently in operation.

Question reference: S6W-41405

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government of the 21 transfers of engagements of housing associations approved and actioned across Scotland since 2010, which of those involved (a) the transfer of a community-based housing association (CBHA) to a neighbouring CBHA, thereby retaining local accountability and (b) the transfer of a CBHA to a larger registered social landlord.

Question reference: S6W-41617

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 31 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30681 by Paul McLennan on 8 November 2024, how many live homeless applications there were in each local authority area on Christmas Day in 2024, and how many (a) adults and (b) children these related to.

The following table gives the number of live homelessness applications at 25 December 2024 for each local authority, along with the number of adults and children these applications refer to.

Live homelessness applications, refer to applications that have a recorded application date but no closure date, implying that these applications are open and not yet resolved.

	Live cases at 25 December 2024	Number of adults	Number of children
All	31,583	36,730	17,211
Aberdeen City	497	535	190
Aberdeenshire	242	287	112
Angus	668	721	156
Argyll & Bute	359	428	179
Clackmannanshire	333	375	156
Dumfries & Galloway	503	567	123
Dundee City	772	827	274
East Ayrshire	292	323	162
East Dunbartonshire	290	333	182
East Lothian	637	701	203
East Renfrewshire	633	796	448
Edinburgh	7,710	9,351	4,390
Eilean Siar	80	87	39
Falkirk	1,123	1,229	420
Fife	1,684	1,862	653
Glasgow City	6,605	8,019	4,652
Highland	867	975	388
Inverclyde	202	219	79
Midlothian	787	857	639
Moray	173	189	43
North Ayrshire	551	651	211
North Lanarkshire	923	1,029	499
Orkney	209	246	144
Perth & Kinross	182	197	28
Renfrewshire	412	450	87
Scottish Borders	503	607	289
Shetland	110	119	17
South Ayrshire	381	416	151
South Lanarkshire	1,592	1,797	1,102
Stirling	572	640	265
West Dunbartonshire	421	475	200
West Lothian	1,270	1,422	730

Question reference: S6W-41592

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will work with criminal justice stakeholders to develop standards that set out what must happen when someone with an alcohol use disorder comes into contact with the criminal justice system.

The Scottish Government is engaging with a wide range of stakeholders including those involved within the criminal justice system on the creation of a new approach to care and support for people impacted by alcohol. That new approach will include plans for a national specification setting out the interventions required to reduce harm as well as improved standards for implementing those. Standards for alcohol care and support in the criminal justice system are the same as standards in the community.

The Scottish Government has oversight groups in place to help provide national and local leadership with a clear steer on the services which need to be in place in all settings.

Question reference: S6W-41456

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to meet the goals outlined in the 2018 Climate Change Plan, notably those set for before and in 2030, many of which are reportedly not on track to be met in time.

Our commitment to achieving net zero by 2045 is unwavering, and we are taking bold and decisive action to implement the necessary policies to reduce emissions in line with our new statutory carbon budget targets. On 6 November we published a draft Climate Change Plan which sets out our intended action across key sectors over the next 15 years. A revised monitoring and evaluation framework is being developed to support this work. The framework will continue to monitor key emissions sources and evaluate delivery of the key actions required to achieve our Carbon Budgets. The indicators used to evaluate delivery are currently being reviewed, it is anticipated some will be retained where they remain relevant, while new indicators will be introduced to reflect new or changed activities and where data availability allows.

Question reference: S6W-41648

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent direct engagement it has had with Retailers Against Crime regarding measures to reduce shoplifting and improve safety for retail staff.

The Scottish Government sits alongside Retailers Against Crime (RAC) in the Scottish Partnership Against Acquisitive Crime (SPAACE) and are working collectively with other agencies to deliver upon the SPAACE Strategy 2023-2028. To date there have been three meetings of the SPAACE steering group, chaired by Police Scotland, where retail crime has consistently been top of the agenda.

Police Scotland’s Retail Crime Task Force (RCTF) have been working closely with RAC as they jointly aim to reduce the impact of retail crime across Scotland. Part of the Scottish Government’s additional £3 million funding to tackle retail crime has been used to support local policing divisions to work closely with RAC, with numerous joint days of action taking place in locations across Scotland including Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Furthermore, some of the funding has been granted to RAC to allow them to increase their operational capacity which will support retailers and police to prevent and detect crimes, thus reducing the financial impact of retail crime while protecting workers from crimes of violence and abuse.

While RAC are not members of the Retail Industry Leadership Group (RILG), representatives of key industry groups such as the Scottish Grocer’s Federation (SGF) and Scottish Retail Consortium are members of both SPAACE and the RILG. Police Scotland has also given regular updates on its work to tackle retail crime, ensuring joined up working across a number of sectors.

The Scottish Government is grateful to its partners for the continued efforts to tackle retail crime across the country.