Chamber and committees

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: S7W-04294

Asked by: Kate Nevens, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2026
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 12 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the University of Edinburgh proposing reductions in Outdoor and Environmental Education provision, how it plans to support the provision of outdoor education across primary, secondary and tertiary education.

As universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for determining their own academic provision, the Scottish Government has no role in decisions relating to individual courses or programmes. The Scottish government continues to support the provision of outdoor education across primary, secondary and tertiary education by:

Working with partners to implement the Learning for Sustainability (LfS) Action Plan, available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/target-2030-movement-people-planet-prosperity/
Providing £457,400 of funding in 2026/27 to support delivery of programmes and initiatives that help schools provide curriculum linked outdoor learning experiences. This includes the Climate Action Schools programme, maintenance of the Scottish Advisory Panel on Outdoor Education’s Going Out There resource, and roll out of the Nature Discovery Map Scotland tool;
Working closely with Education Scotland as they lead delivery of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle;
Working with key partners to prepare for the commencement of the Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Act 2026; and
Investing over £2.4 billion in 2026-27 in the post school education and skills system, supporting the delivery of outdoor education provision at providers across Scotland.

Question reference: S7W-04292

Asked by: Duncan Dunlop, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2026
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 12 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the 591 young people who were eligible for continuing care but were not receiving it on 31 July 2025, (a) how many declined an offer of continuing care, (b) how many were not offered continuing care, and (c) what reasons were recorded for eligible young people not entering continuing care.

The Scottish Government does not hold any information on the reasons behind why young people, who are eligible for continuing care, do not enter it, or whether they were offered it and declined. This information would be held by the local authority responsible for the young person.

The Scottish Government collates data on the number of young people in continuing care, their care setting, age and local authority. These statistics are published in the annual Children’s Social Work Statistics for Looked After Children.

We are aware our data collection on care leavers could be improved and we are considering how to improve the data collection we receive on continuing care. We know that having a better understanding of the reasons behind a young person not entering continuing care will help us to ensure we are removing barriers to entering continuing care, where they exist.

The Scottish Government is pleased to see an increasing number of care leavers taking up the offer of continuing care, but we know that there is further work to do to improve consistency of implementation. We are engaging with young people, carers, and stakeholders to understand the challenges faced in providing continuing care and how to overcome these.

Question reference: S7W-04826

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the extent to which the Welcome to School Bag scheme will meet the differing needs of families, given that some may already have access to a suitable school bag and stationery.

Question reference: S7W-04814

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Trussell Scotland's latest report, Hunger in the UK 2026, whether it will increase investment in the Scottish Child Payment, Scottish Welfare Fund and targeted welfare rights and income maximisation advice services and, if so, what additional funding it plans to allocate to these areas in 2026-27.

Question reference: S7W-04816

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has (a) allocated and (b) spent on measures to address poverty, food insecurity and hunger in each of the last five financial years, broken down by (i) programme, (ii) funding stream and (iii) portfolio, and how much it has budgeted for such measures in 2026-27.

Question reference: S7W-04809

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce greater flexibility in the Rural and Island Infrastructure Fund’s delivery deadlines to support rapid and ultra-rapid charging projects requiring new grid connections.

Question reference: S7W-04803

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether the assessment by Skills Development Scotland that there is not sufficient demand for a Modern Apprenticeship in farriery took account of the restriction of farriery to registered persons under section 16 of the Farriers (Registration) Act 1975 and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S7W-04836

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many emergency housing accommodation beds provided by the third sector have been unutilised due to the need for repairs in each year since 2021.

Question reference: S7W-04851

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Shelter Scotland's recent report, Building Hope: A route map to ending the use of unsafe and harmful temporary accommodation for children, and following its commitment in its 2023 strategy, Reducing the use of temporary accommodation: actions we are taking to achieve this, what support it is providing to local authorities to introduce common housing registers.

Question reference: S7W-04806

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether an (a) Equality Impact Assessment, (b) Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment or (c) Island Communities Impact Assessment, has been carried out on the policy of not funding Scottish-resident farriery apprentices to train at approved colleges in England.