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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-04226

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase access to thrombectomies in the Fife region, in light of the reported 1.9% increase in investment in the National Thrombectomy Service.

Question reference: S6O-04244

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete being found in current and formerly council-owned residential properties in Dundee.

Question reference: S6W-33152

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children were hospitalised due to illicit drugs being found in their systems in each calendar year since 2020.

Public Health Scotland publish information on drug related hospital admissions. Data from 1996-97 to 2022-23 is available at https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/drug-related-hospital-statistics/drug-related-hospital-statistics-scotland-2022-to-2023/. The release of data covering 2023-24 is expected in the spring. The accompanying Data Explorer Dashboard provides a more comprehensive breakdown of the statistics, including by age.

Question reference: S6W-32965

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what protocols Police Scotland has in place to manage the discovery of unexploded wartime military ordnance near critical infrastructure, including ports and transport hubs.

Question reference: S6W-32925

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the automated SEPA customer hub will have real-time human oversight to address urgent environmental incidents.

Question reference: S6W-32927

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to evaluate the effectiveness of the automated SEPA customer hub in responding to environmental emergencies.

As SEPA are directly responsible for its day-to-day operations, I have asked Nicole Paterson, Chief Executive of SEPA to respond. Her response is as follows:

As part of the early implementation of the enhanced out-of-hours service, SEPA successfully managed 182 calls that were received outside of working hours during the first four weeks of operation. This included 24 emergency service calls and 158 general inquiries, with a total of 21 calls requiring escalation, all of which were resolved promptly.

SEPA will continue to monitor call performance and customer experience through continuous engagement and involvement of the customer hub team and colleagues across the service, and through customer feedback surveys. A customer experience manager with significant experience of managing contact centres has been appointed to ensure the effective planning and performance management of SEPA’s customer service.

Question reference: S6W-32825

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in Glasgow that have experienced an overflow event in the last six months are not planned investment priorities.

Combined sewer overflows are an essential part of the sewer system, protecting properties from flooding at times of intense rainfall by allowing highly diluted wastewater to spill to the water environment. CSOs must be licensed by SEPA, and any unsatisfactory discharges will be identified so that Scottish Water can invest to reduce the environmental impact.

Scottish Water has already published a list of high priority CSOs to be upgraded at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/-/media/ScottishWater/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Improving-Urban-Waters/150823HighPriorityUIDs.pdf. The prioritisation of future upgrades is under consideration as part of the preparations for the next investment period 2027-33. Ministers commissioned the Strategic Review of Charges process in April 2024 by writing to the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (https://wics.scot/system/files/2024-06/2027-33%20Commissioning%20Letter.pdf).

Scottish Water’s methodology towards prioritisation of investment is available at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflows/Prioritisation-of-Sewer-Overflows-in-Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-32801

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how the Softer Landing, Safer Care programme is working for international medical graduates.

As set out in answer S6W-32799 on 14 January 2025 when the Softer Landing, Safer Care programme was introduced health boards agreed with NES to implement the programme for International Medical graduates (IMGs) starting their first hospital placement in NHS Scotland. The programme is part of a coordinated offer that sits alongside the training pathway and is devolved for local implementation at local board level. IMGs, like other trainees, feedback their experience through established quality assurance processes such as the Scottish Training Survey. As such, the Scottish Government does not formally assess the initiative and it has not yet been formally evaluated.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-32705

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to questions S6W-30147 and S6W-31340 by Ivan McKee on 11 November and 21 November 2024 respectively, what the estimated cost would be in 2025-26, broken down by industry sector.

Question reference: S6W-32820

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there has reportedly been a 24% decrease in solicitors registered for children's legal aid since 2020, what analysis it is undertaking to understand any issues caused by this, and what action it will take to address those issues, including reversing the reported decrease in numbers.

The Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010 gave the Scottish Legal Aid Board the function of monitoring the availability and accessibility of legal services in Scotland, and it has arrangements in place to monitor legal services. However, any assessment of registered solicitor numbers does not offer an accurate measure of the provision or supply of legal aid. This is because there is a large number of registered solicitors who are inactive, so the reduction in the number of registered solicitors, doesn’t necessarily equate to the same size of reduction in active solicitors. Therefore, registered solicitor numbers should not be viewed in the same context as active solicitors. The relevant measure of supply is active solicitors.

However, fluctuations in the numbers of Children’s solicitors occur for various reasons, these are:

Children’s legal assistance volumes are directly related to the numbers of children’s hearings taking place. The volume of hearings is in turn related to the number of Compulsory Supervision Orders (CSOs) being made or reviewed.

There are fewer Compulsory Supervision Orders and therefore less business for solicitors in this field.

At 31 March 2024, 6,490 children were subject to Compulsory Supervision Orders. In 2019-20, the number was 8,875 – a reduction of 27%.

The number of children subject to Compulsory Supervision Orders has decreased for a fourteenth consecutive year.

The Scottish Government recognises that reform is needed to the legal aid system, which is why we are currently developing a legal aid action plan for reform which will be published in early 2025.