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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-42264

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Early Years Speech, Language and Communication Action Plan.

The Scottish Government will today publish the Early Years Speech, Language and Communication Action Plan.

This sets out a bold national vision to ensure every child in Scotland has the strongest possible foundation in speech, language and communication from the earliest stages of life. The Plan reflects our commitment to prevention, equity and partnership, recognising that early support is crucial to improving outcomes for children and reducing inequalities.

Supporting our Programme for Government commitment to reduce developmental concerns at the 27–30 month review by a quarter by 2030, the Action Plan outlines how we will embed speech, language and communication as a national priority, strengthen support for families and communities, and build a skilled and confident workforce across health, education and social care. Together, these actions will help ensure that all children, particularly those in our most disadvantaged communities, benefit from high-quality support for their early development.

The Early Years Speech, Language and Communication Action Plan will be available shortly at: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781806430925.

Question reference: S6W-42265

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to amend the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 to provide additional flexibilities for local authorities during the remainder of the current parliamentary session.

The Scottish Government plans to introduce an amending bill to Parliament early in the new year. If passed, the Bill will still allow local authorities to charge a percentage based visitor levy, but for those that require a different model the Bill will introducing additional flexibility to set either a single fixed amount or a range of fixed amounts for different purposes or areas. It will also include provisions to support the implementation of local schemes, including clarifying how the levy is to be charged in third party sales.

Question reference: S6W-42087

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41713 by Ivan McKee on 13 November 2025, whether it will provide information on what money collected from the Scottish Government carbon levy on its business flights has been spent since the levy was introduced, broken down for each funded project by (a) project name and location, (b) delivery partner, (c) nature and description of the work undertaken, (d) carbon standard or methodology used, (e) cost, (f) verified or estimated CO2 reduction and (g) cost per tonne of CO2.

3 Projects have been funded since the levy was introduced.

1) Project 1

(a) Climate Change Saltire Fellowships

(b) Greener Scotland

(c) The Scottish Government agreed to set up a carbon emissions off-set/reduction fund as part of the bid to secure the 2014 Commonwealth Games for Glasgow. The fellowship scheme targeted resources to students from Commonwealth countries least able to deal with the impacts of climate change.

(d) N/A

(e) £40,000

(f) Not Measured

(g) N/A

2) Project 2

(a) Scotland Lights up Malawi

(b) 2020 Climate Group, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Glasgow Caledonian University

(c) To bring safe, solar energy to rural communities in Malawi replacing paraffin lights with rechargeable solar lighting.

(d) N/A

(e) £200,000

(f) Not Measured

(g) N/A

3) Project 3

(a) Solar PV

(b) Scottish Government

(c) To provide funding to install solar panels on SAH to demonstrate installing renewables on a listed building in a conservation area and world heritage site.

(d) GHG Protocol

(e) £200,000

(f) 39,128 Kg CO2 saved to date.

(g) N/A

Question reference: S6W-42058

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when discussions were held with the (a) British Medical Association, (b) Royal College of General Practitioners and (c) Royal College of Nursing regarding the plans for the network of walk-in GP clinics.

Question reference: S6W-42088

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide information on its policy regarding the use of revenue collected from the Scottish Government carbon levy on business flights, including (a) the objectives of the levy, (b) the criteria and process for selecting carbon reduction projects on the core estate to be funded from the levy, (c) the governance and oversight arrangements for managing the levy funds, including which directorates are responsible, (d) how often the rate and operation of the levy have been reviewed since its introduction and (e) what changes have been made as a result of any such reviews.

(a) The objectives of the levy

The levy is designed to raise money from business flights to be invested in carbon reduction and active travel projects to reduce the impact of business travel and improve health and wellbeing.

In 2018 the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform approved a proposal to focus the money raised from the levy to reduce the Scottish Government’s carbon emissions to help compensate for the carbon emitted from business travel, which was the original purpose of the Levy. This has the benefit of reducing the Scottish Government’s carbon emissions in a measurable and reportable way.

(b) Projects are selected based on the potential for carbon reduction either via fully or partially funding projects, funding behaviour change initiatives, training or promoting active travel options.

(c) The carbon levy is administered by the Environmental Management Team within Workplace Division in the Scottish Procurement & Property Directorate.

(d) The rate of the carbon levy has not been reviewed since it was created in 2009. Officials are currently carrying out a review. The operation of the levy was reviewed in 2018.

(e) A review is currently underway. No changes have been made to the rates since the levy was introduced. The review in 2018 resulted in a change to the way the levy was spent. Agreement was given to support using the levy to fund carbon reduction projects on the Core Scottish Government Estate.

Question reference: S6W-41883

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what the median waiting time at the point of referral was for patients registered with GPs in (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire who travelled to NHS (i) Greater Glasgow and Clyde and (ii) Lothian, in each of the last five years, compared with patients treated in NHS Grampian for the same conditions.

Question reference: S6W-42086

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-41711, S6W-41712 and S6W-41713 by Ivan McKee on 13 November 2025, whether it will provide information on how much has been collected through its carbon levy on business flights in each financial year since the levy was introduced, and what the (a) cumulative total collected to date, (b) cumulative total spent to date and (c) current balance remaining in the carbon levy fund is.

The Carbon Levy was implemented in financial year 2006-7. Historical data on the amount collected each year prior to 2017-18 is not available.

2017-18 - £33,321

2018-19 - £32,211

2019-20 - £40,534

2020-21 - £558

2021-22 - No money collected

2022-23 - No money collected

2023-24 - No money collected

2024-25 £40,512

Between 2021 and 2024 no money was transferred from the travel provider. The money accumulated and was paid in 2024-25

The cumulative total spend to date is £440,000.

The current balance is £147,136

Question reference: S6W-41946

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve processing times for agricultural support payments.

Streamlining and process improvements have been made across a wide range of activities including application assessments, inspections, land maintenance records, and performance monitoring. These processing improvements allow us to continue to make payments at the earliest opportunity, for example commencing Basic Payment Scheme and Greening advance payments in September and achieving the majority of payments in the autumn, well in advance of the 30 June payment window closing in the following year. For example in 2025, by 30 November, we processed and issued payments to 98.04% of eligible businesses totalling 96.63% by value of the total BPS, Greening and Young Farmer Payment value due. In addition we have processed applications for the first LFASS 2025 payment run in early December 2025 to a total of 96.60% of businesses and 95.17% of the total scheme value due.

Issuing payments at the earliest opportunity for each scheme has been a feature of our payment service over recent years. We will continue to review how we administer payments to enhance customer experience and to meet delivery of our regulatory targets and payment strategy timetable, of which both are on course to be met again this year. Consistent delivery of payments aligned to the payment strategy provides farmers and crofters with financial stability and some assurance over cash flow.

Question reference: S6W-41926

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41527 by Kaukab Stewart on 11 November 2025, what the eligibility status is for homelessness support for individuals who have been placed in temporary accommodation in each local authority since April 2025.

Question reference: S6T-02777

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports that private residential childcare providers are making an estimated £10 million a year in profit from publicly funded contracts.