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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-41246

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 7 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many families have waited longer than six months for a child’s social care assessment to be completed since May 2021.

Question reference: S6W-41250

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 7 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been temporarily unable to attend a local authority nursery due to staff shortages in the last 12 months.

Question reference: S6W-41266

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 7 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Disclosure Scotland employees have left their job, including through resignation, within their first year of employment since 2022.

Question reference: S6W-41269

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 7 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that any delays in the processing of Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) certificates by Disclosure Scotland have had on recruitment in the (a) social care and (b) teaching sector in the last year.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland have undertaken priority work to ensure future planning for high application volume periods is informed by internal reviews and stakeholder feedback from managing summer 2025's increased volumes. This work did not include assessment of the impact of delays on recruitment in social care, teaching or any specific sectors.

Question reference: S6W-41264

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 7 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Disclosure Scotland permanent job vacancies have remained unfilled for more than six months since May 2021.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

From January 2022 to September 2025, there have been four permanent vacancies at Disclosure Scotland that were unfilled for more than six months (from when advert went live to start date). We cannot access data for the period May 2021 to December 2021 as the iCIMS system that stored this data has been discontinued.

Question reference: S6W-41727

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-41397

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider extending the scope of the Matthews Second Options Exercise pension remedy to include retained firefighters, who received retaining fees, but served at stations not formally designated as retained stations.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on amendments to the terms of the Matthews Second Options Exercise, the scope of which is contained within the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (Scotland) Order 2007.

The Scottish Government will fully consider all matters raised by respondents to the consultation, which can be viewed at: https://pensions.gov.scot/sites/default/files/2025-09/Retained%20Firefighters%20Pensions%20%28Matthews%29%20-%20Consultation%202025.pdf

Question reference: S6W-41355

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 17 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on piloting a community-only deer management leasing scheme that prioritises residents with appropriate qualifications.

Forestry and Land Scotland is currently developing a community stalking, deer management national agreement which could be applied to pilot sites on Scotland’s National Forests and Land (SNFL). This is consequent to recent discussions between FLS and NatureScot to review the results of the NS community stalking project at Creag Meagaidh

FLS is also in the process of identifying suitable locations for potential pilot sites on SNFL.

The pilot sites will provide suitably qualified and motivated local individuals with opportunity to support FLS in the culling of deer to help protect tree crops, restore nature and to enhance biodiversity and climate resilience across the chosen locations.

Question reference: S6W-41243

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have reported going without adequate food or heating while on a child protection register since May 2021.

The requested information is not held by the Scottish Government.

Eradicating child poverty in Scotland is a national mission and this Government’s top priority.

The Scottish Budget for 2025-26 outlines wide-ranging investment to deliver progress on our national mission to eradicate child poverty. This includes investment in breakfast clubs, to expand the provision of free school meals to around 25,000 more children and to develop the systems to mitigate the two-child limit.

Our action is making a real difference to families. On average, households with children in the poorest 10% of households are estimated to be £2,600 a year better off in 2025-26 as a result of Scottish Government policies. This value is projected to grow to an average of £3,700 a year by 2029-30.

Question reference: S6W-41255

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have had their hearings adjourned due to social work reports not being submitted on time since May 2021.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government as it relates to an operational matter for the children’s hearings system.

The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) publish their annual statistics, which sets out a measure on time taken to progress referrals through the children’s hearings system. The information is available on the SCRA website: Official Statistics - SCRA