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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: S6W-33389

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress the Scottish Ambulance Service has made on commissioning a new pre-hospital service to cover the east and south east of Scotland, to replace Medic One.

Following the withdrawal of medic 1 by NHS Lothian the Scottish Ambulance Service, working with other Health Boards, has put in place contingency arrangements to provide a prehospital Emergency Critical Care response across the east of Scotland.

Working through the National Trauma Network the Scottish Ambulance Service has agreed to take the lead in writing the business case for this replacement service. This work is ongoing recognising this is a complex undertaking with multiple stakeholders involved and there is a requirement to ensure that options within the business case are evidenced based, sustainable and meet the needs of patients in the East of Scotland and our population as whole.

The current project plan is working to have this business case completed by summer 2025. This will then need to be presented and reviewed through the appropriate governance processes.

Question reference: S6W-33287

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates that it will publish the next paper in the Building a New Scotland series.

Question reference: S6W-33342

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will expand the Young Patients Family Fund eligibility criteria to (a) those attending day treatment and (b) under-25s.

There are no plans to expand eligibility of The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) at this time.

In addition to support available under the YPFF, financial support for travel to hospital is available via the patient travel expenses reimbursement schemes. Under those schemes, patients and authorised escorts can reclaim reasonable costs of travel associated with attending a hospital appointment, in line with eligibility criteria and medical requirements.

Question reference: S6W-33286

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it plans to spend in 2025-26 on work related to Scottish independence.

Question reference: S6W-33231

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has evaluated what positive or negative impact the Bright Start Breakfasts programme may have on breakfast clubs within schools that are organised by not-for-profit providers for primary school pupils.

The Draft Scottish Budget on 4 December 2024 announced plans to invest £3m in 2025-26 in Bright Start Breakfasts.

At this stage the Budget remains subject to Parliamentary approval and therefore, more detail about Bright Start Breakfasts will be provided ahead of the fund launching in Spring 2025.

Recent mapping work carried out by the Improvement Service and Assist FM shows that nearly half of all primary and special schools in Scotland are already providing breakfasts at the start of the school day, with a range of delivery models and service providers supporting delivery. Bright Start Breakfasts aims to enhance and expand provision across Scotland, building on this existing local delivery.

Question reference: S6W-33222

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-04138 by Gillian Martin on 19 December 2024, and its statement that the new hub for offshore wind "is not going to be a training hub as such", how much of the £150 million of public funding will be used to fund the cost of retraining offshore oil and gas workers to transition to the offshore wind sector.

Offshore wind offers a significant opportunity to create thousands of good jobs in Scotland, and the Scottish Government will drive forward skills development for the sector, including supporting the transition of workers from oil and gas.

We are almost tripling our capital funding to £150 million for 2025-26, year two of our five-year commitment to invest up to £500 million in critical infrastructure and manufacturing and fabrication facilities to support the growth of the offshore wind sector. Our Offshore Wind Focus paper sets out the priorities for investment, underpinned by a strategic assessment of current market opportunities that will have a catalytic effect and maximise the economic value to Scotland.

In addition, we remain committed to our ten-year Just Transition Fund, which has allocated £75 million to date supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future. This involves a dedicated package of skills interventions, including £4.5 million over 5 years for the Energy Skills Transition Hub which aims to support 1,000 people into energy transition roles, £3.7 million for the development of the Energy Skills Passport (an initial version of which was launched by industry partners on 22 January) and £1 million for a National Energy Skills Accelerator pilot scheme to better understand future energy skills needs and deliver workforce training.

Question reference: S6W-33232

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to integrate the Bright Start Breakfasts initiative with breakfast clubs operated in primary schools by not-for-profit providers.

Question reference: S6W-33153

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its resonse is to reported concerns that elements of the new Parkhead Hub facilities in Glasgow are not a friendly environment for dementia patients.

It is the responsibility of local authorities, health boards and health and social care partnerships to manage and provide appropriate services in their area, and to engage with their communities on how this is provided.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the dementia experience, and the 10-year Dementia Strategy for Scotland recognises the critical role of community services and supports in enabling people to live well for longer following a dementia diagnosis. We are now working to realise the ambitions of this Strategy through initial activities set out in the first 2-year Delivery Plan. This includes efforts to deliver the SIGN dementia guidelines, which provides evidence-based guidance on where and how care and support should be provided across primary and secondary care settings.

Question reference: S6W-32368

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential impact on passenger numbers in Scotland, what discussions it has had with National Rail regarding its current Railcard terms and conditions, including that tickets must be bought before boarding the train.

The terms and conditions of all GB-wide railcards are set by National Rail, part of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) under UK Government rail industry rules. There have been no recent specific discussions concerning changes to railcard terms. ScotRail has confirmed with officials at Transport Scotland that National Railcards can be used to buy tickets online, via the app, or at TVMs. Where ticket purchasing facilities are not available at a station, passengers can use their National Rail card when purchasing a ticket from a member of staff on-board of ScotRail trains.

Question reference: S6W-33397

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33091 by Ivan McKee on 14 January 2025, for what purposes the (a) heavy goods lorries and (b) light commercial vehicles in its fleet are used.