- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 22 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding Scotland’s participation in the nuclear energy programme, which was announced in the UK Spending Review 2025.
Answer
Answer expected on 22 July 2025
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether the Rural Housing Fund has received any expressions of interest relating to projects in Fife, and, if so, how many.
Answer
The Rural and Islands Housing Fund has received one Expression of Interest relating to projects in Fife since 2016.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to include any provisions in the proposed Heat in Buildings Bill specifically relating to buildings in rural and island areas.
Answer
In April, Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, former Minister for Climate Action, made a statement to Parliament that set out the Scottish Government’s plans to introduce a Heat in Buildings Bill later this session. He outlined that the Bill would include provisions for all buildings to end their use of polluting heat by 2045 (where reasonable / practicable), provisions designed to boost the growth of heat networks and powers to make regulations introducing minimum energy efficiency standards across owner-occupied and non-domestic buildings.
We recognise it may be more challenging for some homes and buildings to decarbonise, especially those in a rural or island setting. We will work with stakeholders to develop approaches and solutions that allow homes in Scotland to transition to greater energy efficiency and cleaner heating systems. Any legislation will be accompanied by the required impact assessments and designed in a way that is fair, proportionate and considers the requirements of buildings in rural and island areas.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the definition of "backlog" as referring to "the outstanding scheduled trials that are above the normal operating capacity of 20,000", as set out in the 2023 Auditor General report, Criminal courts backlog.
Answer
The definition of “backlog” in this context is referred to by the Auditor General report as the increase in criminal court cases waiting to be heard during the Covid 19 pandemic. At its peak, this reached 43,606 cases in January 2022.
The number of scheduled trials across all criminal business types has now returned to below 20,000. This is considered a manageable level of workload by Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service for the justice system.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what metric it would use to determine (a) whether and (b) when any criminal trials backlog has been cleared.
Answer
Court scheduling is a matter for SCTS and as a result there is no metric set by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service publish monthly criminal case data, including volumes, trends, and outstanding trials. They also publish information on criminal court modelling. The latest report can be found here.
Scottish Government continue to support the criminal court recovery programme so that our justice agencies continue to make progress in increasing efficiencies and effectiveness of our courts. It is pleasing to see that significant progress has been made in criminal courts.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what research it has carried out regarding retrofitting traditional or listed buildings in rural and island areas.
Answer
Scottish Government officials have engaged with analytical specialists and key stakeholders, such as Historic Environment Scotland, to ensure that any proposals for retrofitting traditional buildings or listed buildings in rural and island areas are flexible and protect the characteristics of our buildings, as well as considering the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s people.
We have recently published a final report of the Short Life Tenement Short Life Working Group on energy efficiency and zero emissions heating as well as The suitability of clean heating options for challenging dwelling types, which are available on the Scottish Government website. Officials have also attended Hopetoun House and Holyrood Lodge to hear about the challenges of retrofit and what Historic Environment Scotland had done to improve these buildings.
We will continue to engage with stakeholders alongside the Private Renter Sector (PRS) Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) consultation workshops on the proposals. This engagement will be vital in helping us develop and shape cost-effective and feasible solutions to improve the energy efficiency of privately rented traditional and listed buildings in rural and island areas.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done to ensure that owners of traditional and listed buildings will receive sufficient support to retrofit these buildings in advance of any move to higher energy performance certificate (EPC) standards.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to improving energy efficiency and decarbonising heating systems in Scotland’s buildings to support improvements in fuel poverty and to help meet our climate target to reach net zero by 2045.
We have committed to investing over £300m in our Heat in Buildings programme in 2025-26. The support is aimed at reducing emissions from heating and improving energy efficiency in homes and other buildings across Scotland, as well as developing heat networks.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to ensure that palliative care becomes a national priority.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high quality palliative care.
That is why later this summer we will publish our new palliative care strategy, Palliative Care Matters for All. The strategy will set out a series of aims and outcomes designed to help to improve palliative care services across Scotland.
The strategy will be accompanied by a delivery plan which will set out how the actions will be delivered through collaboration with a variety of service providers such as Integration Joint Boards, Health Boards, third sector organisations (including independent hospices) and other independent service providers such as care homes.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) business management teachers there are and (b) schools do not currently offer the subject, broken down by local authority.
Answer
Data on full-time equivalent (FTE) secondary teachers by main and other subject taught is available in the Teacher Census Supplementary Statistics, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/
Information is not held on the subjects offered by individual schools as schools may be able to offer a subject even if they do not have a teacher for that subject in the staff census, for example through school-school or school-college partnerships.
- Asked by: Davy Russell, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the timetable is for the reported downgrading of the Wishaw Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Answer
Improving safety for the babies, families and staff is our utmost priority, which is why we are taking this step and why we have taken phased approach to transition, allowing time to build the right levels of capacity in all areas, with NHS Boards working towards full implementation by 2026.
We are working with Regional Planning Chief Executives to plan and deliver this service change, informed by the testing that has been underway since 2018 in Ayrshire and Fife, and supported by Scottish Government funding of over £6m since 2019.
