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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: S6O-04419

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline its funding strategy for health and social care partnerships in the North East Scotland region.

Question reference: S6O-04421

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what additional focus areas it has identified, following the publication of the Women’s Health Plan 2021 to 2024: Final Report.

Question reference: S6O-04422

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on NHS pay negotiations for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6O-04412

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether seagulls should continue to be protected in law.

Question reference: S6O-04411

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the new deal for agriculture and its agricultural support schemes will aim to support the dairy sector.

Question reference: S6W-35358

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 5 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the Natural Capital Market Framework and further to the answer to question S6W-30678 by Mairi Gougeon on 29 October 2024, whether it considers offshore private finance investments as ethical investments under the terms of the Framework.

The Scottish Government’s Natural Capital Market Framework applies only to investment within Scotland and, where relevant, to governance within the wider UK for UK emissions and impacts.

Responsible private investment in Scotland’s natural capital through the Peatland Code (PC) and the Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) is already supporting our response to the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. The WCC and PC generate high-integrity, independently verified carbon units from woodland creation and peatland restoration respectively. Companies can use these units to support appropriate neutrality or net zero claims on their UK-based carbon emissions.

Question reference: S6W-35169

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 5 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) contractors and (b) sub-contractors received funding from the £3.7 million it has provided for the Offshore Skills Energy Passport.

Question reference: S6W-35186

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients were on waiting lists for physiotherapy (a) in total and (b) for over three months, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-35184

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients were on waiting lists for orthopaedic surgery (a) in total and (b) for over a year, in each of the last five years.

Public Health Scotland's (PHS) Stage of Treatment (SoT) publication provides statistics on the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case. The latest publication release contains data up to quarter ending 31 December 2024

Statistics relating to the total number of ongoing waits and the number of waits with a wait length over 52 weeks by specialty from 31 December 2019 can be found in the ‘Waits over 52 weeks’ data table in sheets ‘Table 3.1.1’ for new outpatient appointments, and ‘Table 3.2.1’ for inpatient or day case admissions:

Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients quarter ending 30 December 2024 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Longer trend information can be found in the following tables:

New outpatient appointments (‘1.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/31761/newop_mar25.xlsx

Inpatient or day case admission (‘2.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/31760/ipdc_mar25.xlsx

Question reference: S6W-34849

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the money that it allocates to local authorities is ring-fenced, and how this compares with (a) 1999-00 and (b) 2006-07.

While ring-fenced funding is provided to support increased investment in services such as our schools, inter-island connectivity and criminal justice social work, this represents only 2.7% or £0.4 billion of the overall Local Government Settlement in 2025-26.

Comparisons prior to the historic Concordat agreement in November 2007 do not represent a like for like comparison as Local Government funding changed significantly in 2008-09 when the majority of the former ring-fenced grants provided in the previous year were baselined into to the settlement.

Whilst not directly comparable, the best available data, as published in the Local Government Finance Circular 19/1998 indicates that specific grants worth £543 million were allocated to councils in 1999-00. This was equivalent to 8.29% of ‘Total Aggregate External Finance’.