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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-41713

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the money collected from the carbon levy on its business flights has been spent on in each of the last three financial years, broken down, for each funded project, by the (a) project name and location, (b) delivery partner, (c) carbon standard used, (d) cost, (e) verified or estimated CO2 reduction and (f) cost per tonne of CO2.

Question reference: S6W-41696

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of how much each NHS board will receive from the £25.5 million of additional funds for the NHS that it announced on 3 November 2025.

As announced by the First Minister of 3 November 2025, Health Boards have been allocated an additional £25.5 million this year to allow them to deliver more planned activity for the longest waiting patients.

This funding is focused on Health Boards in the most populated areas and targeted at specialties where it can most effectively reduce the longest waiting times, ensuring the greatest benefit for patients.

This brings total additional funding to £135.5 million for Planned Care in 2025-26.

The following table set out the allocation of the £25.5 million funding by Health Board.

Table 1

Health Board	Total Cost 25-26 £000
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	589
NHS Fife	1,333
NHS Grampian	2,034
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	10,250
NHS Highland	495
NHS Lanarkshire	133
NHS Lothian	10,458
NHS Shetland	85
NHS Tayside	106
Total	25,482,000

I have also provided a breakdown of this funding by Planned Care speciality.

Table 2

Speciality	Total Cost 25-26 £000
Cardiology	554
Dermatology	5,930
Diabetes & Endocrinology	502
ENT	476
Gastroenterology	696
General Surgery	2,621
Gynaecology	1,692
Maxillofacial Surgery	58
Neurology	593
Neurosurgery	1,079
OMFS	324
Ophthalmology	331
Orthopaedics	7,587
Paediatric Cardiology	33
Paediatric Surgery	238
Paediatrics	27
Pain Service	140
Plastic Surgery	889
Rheumatology	115
Waiting List Initiatives (various specialities)	725
Waiting List Validation (various specialities)	250
Miscellaneous	622
Total	25,482

Question reference: S6W-41685

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many external telephone calls relating to their work were made by (a) its executive agencies and (b) other public bodies in the last calendar year, broken down by how much was spent on these, and what information it has regarding the number of calls from external sources relating to such work that were received.

Question reference: S6W-41687

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, since the ScotAccount scheme started, how many (a) unique accounts have been created, (b) sign-ins have been made, and (c) times each public service has been accessed via a Scot Account account.

Since ScotAccount’s launch in February 2023, over 540,000 unique accounts have been created with more than 2,200,000 total sign-ins to ScotAccount made.

ScotAccount has been used to access the following services online:

Public service	Number of times accessed
Disclosure Scotland	2,100,000
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Witness Gateway	50,000
Accountant in Bankruptcy’s Debt Arrangement Scheme	25,000
Scottish Government Registers (Tobacco, Funeral Services etc)	2,600
Registers of Scotland – Moveable Transactions	<100

*Figures rounded and accurate as of 10 November 2025. Data does not add to total sign ins due to rounding and sign in to account management settings.

Question reference: S6W-41681

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of (a) its executive agencies’ and (b) other public bodies’ services are (i) fully digitised, (ii) partially digitised, (iii) have a pathway to digitisation and (iv) not digitised.

Question reference: S6W-41604

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Scottish Funding Council regarding a revision of the funding model for colleges to ensure long-term sustainability.

Through the Colleges Tripartite Alignment Group, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), along with Colleges Scotland, regularly discuss issues in the sector, such as the college funding model.

The changes implemented by the SFC aim to deliver a fair and flexible distribution model, and as advised by the SFC at the Education, Children and Young People Committee on 1 October, they are engaging with Colleges Scotland and the wider college sector on the fundamental review of the funding allocation model.

Question reference: S6W-41600

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a plan to more closely link college investment with Scotland’s economic priorities in the technology, engineering and healthcare sectors.

The Scottish Government is delivering a transformation programme to reform the post-school education and skills system, which aims at making the system more responsive to Scotland’s strategic skills needs at national and regional levels.

Alongside reform, we are also taking targeted action to meet urgent skills needs in specific sectors. For example, we are investing up to £2 million to develop engineering skills in the Glasgow City Region through a programme led by Clyde Maritime Cluster, and the defence sector, with Skills Development Scotland. Member authorities, led by Inverclyde Council, are leading on engagement with local employability partnerships to identify individuals who would benefit; and offer training opportunities through interventions including Skills Academies, paid work experience and guaranteed interviews. Companies are also working innovatively with regional colleges and other partners to look at specific interventions that would support candidates with particular upskilling or reskilling needs or with additional barriers.

Operational decisions such as curriculum delivery are the responsibility of individual colleges.

Question reference: S6O-05171

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the demand for neurodevelopmental assessments and treatment for children and adults, what its assessment is of the recommendations by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, such as its four-tiered service model for assessment and intervention.

Question reference: S6O-05176

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the number of repeat shoplifting offenders, in light of reports that 10 individuals have accumulated over 1,500 charges in the last four years.

Question reference: S6O-05177

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address waiting times for gynaecological diagnostic procedures in NHS Fife.