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: S6W-39323

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 5 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what specific action it will take to ensure seamless communication and collaboration across sectors in relation to young people’s transition to adulthood.

There are a number of existing frameworks and legislative measures that already facilitate better joining up of activities across sectors, including:

the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and associated Regulations
the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014
the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014
the Getting it Right for Every Child and the Getting It Right for Everyone approaches

There are also a number of specific actions within the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy to improve communication and collaboration across sectors which include:

Updating the Additional Support for Learning statutory guidance by the end of this parliamentary term (May 2026), including the section on co-ordinated support plans to provide clarity on the relationship between co-ordinated support plans and other types of child plans.
Delivering an enhanced offer of practical support to Children’s Services Planning Partnership Strategic Leads as they begin to develop their 2026-2029 Strategic Plans. This will include a joint workshop with Children’s Service Planning Partnership Strategic Leads and the Integration Joint Board Strategic Planning and Performance Officers Group focused on best practice for transitions between children’s and adult services as well as the role of planning and commissioning in transitions.
Working with participating areas and the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland to gather a full picture of what local agencies are already doing to collectively improve transitions in their area in order to share effective and innovative practice. This will build on the examples collated within the Principles into Practice Impact Report published in May 2023 and the Spotlight Examples hosted on the Principles into Practice website.

Question reference: S6W-39327

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 5 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what data that it collects will be made available as a result of the new transitions to adulthood strategy.

The Scottish Government and its partners already collect and publish evidence on the outcomes of disabled people. However, we recognise that there are some areas where additional data publication would be valuable. The Data Collection and Measurement section of the recently published National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy outlines the Scottish Government’s actions to address these gaps.

As part of this commitment, we will conduct an audit of existing data collected and published on disabled children and young people. This audit will identify gaps in the data currently published on disabled young people, including instances where data is collected but not published. The findings will inform discussions on priorities for future evidence gathering to support better planning for transitions.

Officials will also engage with UK-wide developments on guidance on disability data collection and harmonisation. This will include considering where and how Scottish Government may adopt revised approaches, where appropriate.

In addition, the Scottish Government is continuing to provide funding to Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland through financial year 2025-26. Part of this funding will support ARC Scotland to maintain and continually improve the Compass tools; to promote the wider implementation of Compass and to publish anonymised evaluation reports with the data generated.

Question reference: S6W-39315

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support young people are entitled to during their transition to adulthood.

The support provided to young disabled people during their transition to adulthood should be person-centred and tailored to the young person and their specific needs and goals.

Young disabled people are entitled to support in planning for transitions through The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and associated Regulations and through the non-statutory Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) Child’s Plan. They may also be entitled to wider support – for example, financial support through the child disability payment and adult disability payment.

The National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy was published on 30 June 2025. Through this Strategy, the Scottish Government has committed to:

continuing to invest in the Independent Living Fund Scotland’s Transition Fund to support young disabled people to make a smoother transition from childhood into adulthood by promoting independence, community participation, social inclusion and confidence, including referring applicants for grant funded person-led planning support where it is needed;
funding the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) in 2025-26 to build on their Time to Talk Next Steps Scotland Pilot to:
- promote and support person-led and relationship-based approaches to planning amongst practitioners; and
- support the wider use of Promoting a More Inclusive Society (PAMIS)’ digital passport in person-led communication and transitions planning to empower young people with complex needs to have their voices heard; and
working with the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland to promote the use of Compass for young people as a tool to support person-led planning within existing planning mechanisms.

Question reference: S6W-39316

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what changes it will make to ensure that there is enough time for the planning process as part of a young person’s transition to adulthood.

Question reference: S6W-39324

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that planning for transition to adulthood is available from age 14, so that children’s plans and assessments are adopted by adult services and that transition planning and support should continue to age 25, as per its national transition to adulthood strategy.

ARC Scotland’s third Principle of Good Transitions states that Planning should start early and continue up to age 25. ARC Scotland also provide the descriptors to this principle which are:

Planning should be available from age 14 and be proportionate to need.
Children’s plans and assessments should be adopted by adult services.
Transitions planning and support should continue to age 25.

The priorities within the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy build on the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland’s Principles of Good Transitions, and as such, it sets out the standards expected in delivery of transitions support for young disabled people across Scotland.

In Priority 1- Choice, Control and Empowerment of the strategy it sets out what is already happening and what else the Scottish Government will do to support and strengthen existing planning mechanisms, including continuing to promote early transitions planning and person-led planning resources and practices.

Question reference: S6W-39318

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support practitioners to adopt person-centred approaches to transition to adulthood planning.

Question reference: S6W-38969

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the announcement of £40 million to support the University of Dundee, from which part of the Scottish Budget this will be allocated.

Question reference: S6F-04201

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 June 2025

To ask the First Minister whether he will provide an update on the Scottish Government’s position on the funding of Scotland’s higher education institutions.

Question reference: S6W-37965

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers to be the purpose and scope of the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s accreditation function.

SQA Accreditation quality assures and regulates qualifications offered in Scotland. It does this by approving awarding bodies and accrediting their qualifications, ensuring that accredited qualifications are of an appropriate standard and meet the needs of learners.

The accreditation model in Scotland mandates the following qualifications are accredited: Scottish Vocational Qualifications, the main qualification in a Modern Apprenticeship Framework, Security and License Trade qualifications and Workplace Core Skills qualifications. All other qualifications that are accredited are on a voluntary basis.

Question reference: S6W-37797

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the £100 million of funding allocated to tackle waiting times by (a) NHS board and (b) specialty.

The funding committed to date in respect of the circa £100 million extra investment to address long waits is shown in Table 1 broken down by health board and in Table 2 broken down by specialty; this is over and above other funding to improve waiting times.

Table 1.

Health Board	Total Cost 25-26
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	5,708,768
NHS Borders	2,550,705
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	772,963
NHS Fife	9,938,616
NHS Forth Valley	3,656,435
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	24,515,664
NHS Golden Jubilee	2,183,118
NHS Grampian	6,987,204
NHS Highland	10,288,772
NHS Lanarkshire	6,606,479
NHS Lothian	22,379,275
NHS Orkney	165,664
NHS Shetland	422,127
NHS Tayside	9,921,322
NHS Western Isles	71,000
Grand Total	106,168,112

Table 2.

Speciality	Total Cost 25-26
Cancer	14,247,846
ENT	9,461,666
General Surgery	5,059,208
Gynaecology	8,879,121
Imaging	21,657,167
Imaging Reports	122,030
Ophthalmology	12,141,912
Trauma & Orthopaedics	25,252,177
Peri-Operative Management (Various Specialities)	60,000
Plastics	3,246,147
Urology	6,040,838
Totals	106,168,112