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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-37038

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) regarding political neutrality among publicly funded charities, and whether it is aware of any concerns that have been raised regarding so-called boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) advocacy.

We have not held specific discussions with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator on the political neutrality of charities that receive public funding.

We are not aware of concerns about any charities in relation to ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions advocacy’. As the Regulator is a non-ministerial office and independent of government, concerns about a charity’s conduct should be raised with them to determine their validity.

Question reference: S6W-37919

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many GP practices are not currently participating in the national digital dermatology pathway.

Question reference: S6W-37949

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider removing non-suspicious deaths from the remit of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

COPFS understands the impact that the loss of a loved one can have on bereaved families.

The Procurator Fiscal will investigate every death reported to us thoroughly and independently to establish what happened and consider whether criminal proceedings or a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) would be appropriate.

It is a strength of the Scottish system, which reflects a common European model, that death investigations are undertaken by a public prosecutor. That investigation may, depending on the circumstances, disclose a basis for criminal proceedings.

More than 13,000 deaths are reported to COPFS each year. In 2024-25, 98% of deaths where no investigation was required were closed within 6 weeks and 71% where further investigation was required were concluded within 12 weeks.

COPFS has significantly reformed its processes in recent years to improve the quality of death investigations and reduce the time taken to investigate deaths and bring FAIs to court. We are committed to identifying further improvements that can be made. A Death Investigations Improvement Board has been established to oversee all ongoing pieces of work and new proposals to achieve greater public confidence, improve the service delivered to bereaved relatives and reduce the journey time for concluding investigations.

Question reference: S6W-37932

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it undertook that resulted in it determining that CalMac should be directly awarded the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract without an open tender process, in light of it stating that directly awarding the contract for the Small Vessel Replacement Programme to Ferguson Marine would present a legal risk.

Direct award of public contracts is only possible in strictly limited circumstances under public procurement rules.

The CHFS3 decision was subject to a due diligence process which concluded there was no financial, operational or legal impediment to implementing a Teckal-compliant direct award.

Shipbuilding is a competitive global market and a designated sensitive sector under the UK Subsidy Control Act. For SVRP, it was assessed that a substantial subsidy would have been required to support direct award of the Phase 1 contract to Fergusons, which we did not consider would be capable of being justified. Given no clear path to subsidy control compliance and the risks of legal challenge, Ministers concluded that directly awarding the Phase 1 contract would have been likely to lead to the worst of both worlds - a delay in adding new ferries to the network and the yard ultimately not securing any work from the programme.

Question reference: S6W-37950

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to expand the use of non-invasive post-mortem technologies, such as CT scanners, for non-suspicious deaths.

COPFS rely on pathology providers as the medical experts to determine the nature and extent of the examination required to establish a cause of death.

COPFS would support any proposals where evidence is provided that a particular approach would fully meet the requirements of our investigation in a timely and cost-effective manner, whilst reducing distress to families from the post mortem examination process.

The potential further use of CT scanners has formed part of regular discussions with the current pathology providers. From May 2025, Glasgow University Pathology and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board will undertake a service development pilot to investigate the potential benefits of incorporating CT scanning in Procurator Fiscal-instructed post mortem examinations taking place at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Mortuary in Glasgow. The findings of the pilot will be considered by COPFS as part of its future planning.

Question reference: S6W-37813

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its reported commitment to recruit 12,000 people into the early learning profession by 2021, how many people were recruited by the end of 2021.

In 2016, prior to the expansion, it was estimated 11,000 people (9,000 full time equivalent workers) would be required to deliver the transformative early learning and childcare (ELC) expansion.

Audit Scotland set out in their Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Progress Report (June 2023) that “the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) council staff working in ELC increased by almost 8,000 between 2016/17 and August 2021. Councils reported employing over 17,500 FTE ELC staff by August 2021. Based on this number of staff and the places available in funded providers, councils were able to confirm to the Scottish Government that they could offer funded ELC to all children who had applied for a place of up to 1,140 hours.”

Question reference: S6W-37817

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish an updated cost-benefit analysis of its policy to provide 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare, since its roll-out in 2014.

Working with our Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group, the Scottish Government has set out a multi-year (2018-2025) strategy for evaluating the impact of the ELC expansion to 1140 hours on outcomes for children, parents and families. We expect to publish the 2018-2025 Evaluation Final Report in December 2025. This will draw together findings from across all the strands of the evaluation work.

As set out in our Evaluation Strategy, alongside the evaluation of outcomes, an economic evaluation is being undertaken to assess the economic costs and benefits of the 1140 expansion. The economic evaluation will include an element of standard economic appraisal technique using Cost-Benefit analysis. But we also recognise that it will not be possible to capture all of the possible impacts of the ELC expansion by focusing purely on benefits that can be expressed as a monetary value (i.e. in £). Therefore, this will be accompanied by a “Cost-Consequence analysis” – a type of analysis most commonly used in health-economics, which will allow the economic evaluation to draw on a wider range of data than monetary impacts and present a more comprehensive picture of the impacts of the policy intervention by reporting outcomes separately from each other.

Question reference: S6W-37822

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when the Mother and Baby Unit options appraisal report from NHS National Services Scotland will be published.

Question reference: S6O-04790

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Strategic Defence Review's emphasis on a "whole society" approach to national security, what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding work to contribute to a comprehensive national resilience strategy.

Question reference: S6O-04785

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when GP vaccination services will be fully restored to GPs in NHS Highland, in light of reported concerns that the proposed hybrid model is less safe and more expensive.