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: S6O-04524

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients in hospital are waiting for a social care package assessment from North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

Question reference: S6O-04521

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress of action 42 in the Cancer Action Plan 2023 to 2026 to carry out a clinically led review on cancer waiting times.

Question reference: S6O-04527

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made regarding the potential impact that community link workers have on the social determinants of health.

Question reference: S6O-04517

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting the breeding of disease resistant ash trees.

Question reference: S6O-04539

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors the effectiveness of Social Security Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-35678

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any staffing shortages in the early years sector that may be impacting the delivery of 1,140 hours of funded childcare.

The single most important driver of quality in a child’s Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) experience and improved outcomes is a dedicated, highly skilled, and well-qualified workforce. The ELC profession is therefore critical to the successful delivery of our 1,140 hours offer. We will continue to support a sustainable, diverse and thriving workforce.

Although staffing of funded ELC services is the responsibility of local authorities and their funded partners, in order to support a sustainable ELC workforce, the Scottish Government has provided local authorities with an additional £9.7 million in 2025-26 to increase the pay of ELC workers in the private and third sectors delivering funded hours, so that they are paid at least the Real Living Wage from April. Building on last year’s recurring investment of £16 million, this funding for the further increase to at least £12.60 per hour demonstrates the Scottish Government’s commitment to the Fair Work agenda.

Joint Scottish Government and COSLA guidance, published on 20 February, confirms that the additional funding will be passed to all funded ELC providers (including childminders) in 2025-26 through a minimum 3.75% increase in sustainable rates. This means an average increase of over £1,000 per year in gross salary for the eligible staff who are working full time.

Beyond pay, the Scottish Government is taking forward a range of actions to support the ELC profession. These include investment in continuous professional learning (CPL) resources and a dedicated CPL portal for the childcare profession, providing funding to Skills Development Scotland to support Modern Apprenticeships in childcare, providing funding for 100 childcare professionals to study for Masters qualifications each year and working with Skills Development Scotland to pilot a new programme to improve staff access to paid time off the floor.

Question reference: S6W-35740

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the support provided to parents receiving cancer treatment.

We take a comprehensive approach to reviewing support provided to people receiving cancer treatment, which includes those who are parents. We published our Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 and initial three year Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 along with a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework in 2023. Our aim is that every person with cancer will have access to the support they need, clinical and non-clinical, reflecting what matters to them.

We are also committed to reviewing patients’ experiences through the Scottish Cancer Experience Survey, Care Opinion and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures Programme.

Question reference: S6W-35645

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce 15 hours of funded childcare per week for children aged nine months to three years, similar to that in England, and, if so, what the timescale will be.

High quality, accessible and affordable early learning and school age childcare is critical to keeping children in Scotland out of poverty. That is why we continue prioritise investment of around £1 billion per year in delivering funded ELC to all eligible children, despite the significant financial challenges facing the Scottish Government as a result of budget choices made at Westminster.

As a result, families across Scotland have been benefitting from the provision of 1140 hours of high quality ELC since 2021. We also committed in the 2024 Programme for Government to work with local authorities to maximise the uptake of funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds.

It is important to recognise that the UK Government’s offer is not an expansion of universal ELC for children under three, as it is only available to working families in England. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has made clear that, despite billions of investment by the UK Government, ‘the poorest one third of families will see almost no direct benefit from the new entitlements’’.

The Scottish Government is committed to taking the time needed to deliver a childcare expansion that is both fair and affordable, giving children the best possible start in life and supporting parents and carers to work, train and take up education opportunities. Our approach is backed by international evidence which shows that high quality ELC is critical to giving children the best start in life, especially those experiencing poverty.

In this Parliament we are working with six councils on childcare early adopter communities (EAC), backed by £16 million over 2024-25 and 2025-26. The EACs are supporting the development of affordable childcare for low-income families with children from the early years through to the end of primary school, and evaluating the difference this can make.

The engagement and targeted delivery that takes place for younger children in the EACs this year will be a key element in developing our evidence base to inform a future expansion. We will also be drawing on research to understand what different approaches to early learning and childcare are best for younger children and piloting new approaches via projects funded by the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund.

Question reference: S6W-35701

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many offenders participated in the Caledonian System rehabilitation programme in 2022-23, and how many local authorities currently deliver the Caledonian System.

On 1 April 2022 there were 134 men actively participating in the Caledonian System, and between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023 a further 482 were given a Caledonian requirement. Currently 20 Local Authorities deliver the Caledonian System within Scotland, with another two areas, Moray and Shetland preparing to roll out this year. The Scottish Government is actively working with and encouraging those remaining local authority areas to consider adopting the Caledonian System over a phased period.

Question reference: S6W-35612

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it anticipates it will spend on disability-related benefits by 2030, and what steps it is taking to ensure the sustainability of Scotland’s devolved social security system.

Based on the latest Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts, the Scottish Government anticipates to spend around £7.1 billion on disability-related benefits in 2029-30.

Of the £7.1 billion, around £6.7 billion (94% of the total) will be covered by the Social Security Block Grant Adjustment received from the UK Government with around £0.4billion (6% of the total)to be met from the Scottish Government’s Budget).

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that finances remain on a sustainable trajectory and that we continue to reach a balanced position each year, as we have done for the last 17 years. We will continue to take forward our programme of work for doing this, which will be updated in the next Medium-Term Financial Strategy due to be published later this year, alongside the Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan.

The UK government’s welfare reform proposals are an attempt to balance the books on the backs of disabled people. It is disappointing that the UK Government decided not to engage with the Scottish Government before this announcement.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

Chamber and committees

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