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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-35683

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will change the booking system for travel on the Northern Isles Ferry Service, to ensure a continual rolling system, as part of the next Northern Isles Ferry Service contract.

Question reference: S6W-35716

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration has been given to digitalising the M10 Marriage Notice - Scotland form.

I have asked Alison Byrne OBE, Registrar General for Scotland and Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

Statutory forms relating to marriage are prescribed by the Registrar General for Scotland with the approval of the Scottish Ministers. The Marriage Notice form (M10) was last amended in 2023. There are currently no plans to review and amend the Marriage Notice form.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) remains committed to improving and modernising its services, evidenced by the increasing number of birth and death registrations now carried out remotely following implementation of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022. Further digital improvements will be considered by NRS in the future.

Question reference: S6W-35715

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is permissible for private businesses to fund the employment of assistant registrars to carry out marriage ceremonies.

There is no provision in the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965 allowing for the private funding of assistant registrars to carry out marriage ceremonies.

Under Section 7 of the 1965 Act, every local registration authority (which is also the local authority) shall appoint an appropriately qualified district registrar of births, deaths and marriages for their registration district. A local authority may also appoint additional district, senior and assistant registrars of births, deaths and marriages, for its registration district as it considers necessary. The local authority must consult the Registrar General under the 1965 Act when appointing additional district and senior registrars.

Section 17 of the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977 permits the Registrar General for Scotland to appoint as many district registrars as is thought necessary for the purpose of affording reasonable facilities for the solemnisation of civil marriages throughout Scotland. The Registrar General may also appoint assistant registrars to districts where a district registrar has been appointed under Section 17. Under the 1977 Act, only district registrars and assistant registrars employed by the local registration authority may conduct civil marriages in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-36258

Asked by: Evelyn Tweed, MSP for Stirling, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to further support the delivery of Scotland’s health visiting service and health visitor workforce, in light of their role in supporting early child health and development through a focus on prevention, early intervention and parental wellbeing.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all pre-school children and their families can access the support of a Health Visitor.

Today we have published a Health Visiting Action Plan for Scotland. Through committing to deliver the action plan in its entirety, we can realise the full value of our health visiting services across Scotland and improve the health, wellbeing and development of our youngest generation.

The action plan can be found at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836912019.

Question reference: S6W-36042

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-35735

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on anti-smoking campaigns in schools in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Currently children and young people learn about a variety of substances including alcohol, medicines, drugs, tobacco and solvents in the school curriculum. They explore the impact risk taking behaviour has on life choices and health.

Paid for marketing channels are not used within the school setting. There is no recorded spend for Scottish Government marketing for anti-smoking campaigns within schools during this time frame.

ASSIST was a licensed, peer-led, school-based smoking prevention programme that encouraged the dissemination of non-smoking norms. The ASSIST pilot ran between 2014-2015 and 2016-2017.

Financial Year	Spend
2014-2015	£216,599
2015-2016	£65,000
2016-2017	£65,958

Funding was provided to Health Boards to pilot the programme in Glasgow city, across Lothian and Tayside Boards. It is not possible to provide Local Authority funding breakdown.

Question reference: S6W-35784

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the brokerage discussions with NHS Grampian regarding the overspend for 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-35698

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average cost per member of staff was in 2022-23 to manage registered sex offenders in each relevant public body, including Police Scotland and local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-35695

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were convicted of aggravated offences under section 1(1)(a) of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 in 2022-23; of those convicted, how many (a) were given (i) prison sentences of 12 months or longer and (ii) community payback orders and (b) are subject to multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) notification requirements.

Data sourced from the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2022-2023 data set shows that 7807 people were convicted of aggravated offences under section 1(1)(a) of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 in 2022-2023. Of those convicted, 251 were given prison sentences of 12 months or longer and, of those convicted, 2407 were given community payback orders. The remaining 5149, are made up of other disposals which may include: fines, short-term prison sentences (under 12 months) and admonishments.

Sentencing is of course a matter for the independent courts.

We have interpreted part (b) of the question as relating to sex offender notification requirements (SONR). Section 1(1)(a) of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 does not create an offence. It creates an aggravator which is something that is applied to an existing offence. Section 1(1)(a) (or section 1 as a whole) is not listed in Schedule 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (offences which trigger SONR).

Therefore, whether the offender would be subject to SONR would depend on the offence they were convicted of and whether that was on the list in Schedule 3. Schedule 3 of the 2003 Act does also contain paragraph 60 which is a provision which allows the court to trigger SONR where the offence is not on the list in Schedule 3 but the court determines that there was a significant sexual element in the offender’s behaviour.

Data on the numbers of those with this aggravator who are also subject to SONR is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-35696

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost was in 2022-23, per offender, of multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA).

This information is not centrally held.

The Scottish Government funds a number of organisations including Police Scotland, local authorities, NHS Boards and the Scottish Prison Service. The published Scottish Budget for 2022-23 sets out the funding levels of those organisations and is available here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2022-23/

It is for each organisation to determine how they allocate their funding to deliver their broad responsibilities, recognising that in terms of wider public protection, including MAPPA, those responsibilities may be more intensive for managing some individuals than for others.