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-04209

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 October 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its initial response is to the October 2026 report by the Scottish Human Rights Commission, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the South of Scotland.

Question reference: S7W-04218

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 October 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what mandatory training NHS nurses receive regarding the care, communication needs and reasonable adjustments required by people with learning disabilities, and whether such training is consistent across NHS boards.

Question reference: S7W-04215

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 October 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the effectiveness of transition arrangements for young people with learning disabilities moving from children to adult services.

Question reference: S7W-04216

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 October 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many learning disability specialist nurses are employed and what their role is in supporting the training of other nursing staff, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S7W-03845

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it is giving to women’s poverty as part of its public service reform agenda, and what engagement it is undertaking with stakeholders to ensure that women’s poverty and child poverty are at the forefront of this reform.

Public services are fundamental to the Government’s ambitions, including tackling poverty, and reform is about strengthening those services now and into the future.

Our Public Service Reform Strategy recognises that better joined-up, preventative public services can improve outcomes for people while supporting fiscal sustainability, including by ensuring people can access the right support when they need it.

We recognise that women, particularly those experiencing poverty, can be disproportionately affected where services are difficult to access or do not work effectively together. Reform and efficiency are therefore not about doing less with less, but about strengthening services through prevention, better integration and reducing unnecessary duplication and administrative costs.

Our approach includes ambitious work on Whole Family Support and the development of a new Prevention Unit, which will help address the drivers of demand, support greater collaboration across sectors and strengthen investment in preventative approaches. The Government is also developing preventative budgeting arrangements to improve our understanding of investment in prevention and its contribution to improving outcomes.

We continue to listen carefully to the views and evidence of stakeholders, including evidence provided through parliamentary scrutiny of Public Service Reform and its equality impacts. This engagement will continue as individual reform programmes are developed and implemented, ensuring that equality considerations, including the experiences of women and families experiencing poverty, inform delivery.

Eradicating child poverty remains the Scottish Government’s foremost priority, and Public Service Reform has an important contribution to make through earlier intervention, more holistic support and public services designed around the needs of people and families.

Question reference: S7W-03846

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 12 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has published an easy read version of the Programme for Government 2026-31.

Accessibility considerations are central to the drafting and design of the Programme for Government, and the final web publication meets the Government Communication Service Accessibility Standards and Web Content Accessibility Guideline requirements.

While there is not an easy read version of the Programme for Government 2026-31, these standards mean that digital content and services are available to more people in Scotland through, for example, Alt Text on images and content that supports assistive technology like screen readers.

Question reference: S7W-03710

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Alison Thewliss on 12 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to increase the support available to people who are awaiting the outcome of investigations into social care budget decisions made by their local authority, particularly where a complaint has been escalated to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and may face an extended waiting period before a determination is reached.

Local Authorities, NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships are responsible for ensuring effective arrangements for the delivery, commissioning, management and monitoring of social care packages.

While the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman provides independent scrutiny of social work decisions, Local Authorities must follow established complaints procedures designed to resolve issues quickly and close to the point of service delivery.

We want to ensure people make informed choices about how their social care support is provided to them, and that their needs, rights and preferences are at the heart of the decision-making process. This year, we are providing £3.3 million through the Support in the Right Direction programme to ensure individuals across Scotland can access independent information, advice and support regarding their social care.

Question reference: S7W-03711

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Alison Thewliss on 12 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to ensure that the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman is prepared to deal with an increasing number of challenges to individual social care budgets, in light of higher numbers of people escalating complaints from local authorities.

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is independent of the Scottish Government and operates under the SPSO Act 2002. The Scottish Government remains committed to protecting the Ombudsman’s independence, in line with the Venice Principles.

The SPSO’s budget is funded through the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB), and it is for the SPCB and the Ombudsman to plan and resource its services to meet demand.

The SPSO has published information on delays and actions being taken to improve performance and reduce waiting times: https://www.spso.org.uk/detailed-information-delays

Question reference: S7W-03873

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2026
Current Status: Answered by Kirsten Oswald on 9 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) local authorities, (b) Police Scotland and (c) animal welfare organisations regarding promoting responsible dog ownership and reducing problems arising from irresponsible ownership in communities and public spaces.

The Scottish Government hosted a ‘Responsible Dog Ownership’ Summit in September 2024. The summit was an opportunity to bring together experts from a range of organisations, including Police Scotland, local authorities, animal welfare organisations, public health and third sector organisations to consider how dog control and public safety can be improved upon.

The Summit Report is available on the Scottish Government website: Responsible dog ownership summit: report - gov.scot

The Scottish Government subsequently established an Expert Advisory Group to look at the various issues raised at the Summit to help determine what steps can be progressed in the short, medium, and long term. For example, this includes what positive action can be taken that does not require legislation through, say, improvement to how laws are enforced.

Members of the expert advisory group include bodies such as Police Scotland, COSLA, Scottish SPCA, Dogs Trust and the National Dog Warden Association.

A number of sub-groups of the Expert Advisory Group have also been set up. The sub-groups are currently looking at specific areas of work, covering issues such as enforcement of dog control laws and dog welfare.

That work is ongoing, and the Scottish Government looks forward to seeing the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group in due course.

General laws in relation to dog control are also kept under review to help ensure they continue to help keep communities safe.

Question reference: S7W-04162

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 October 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 5 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent statements from the chief executive of NHS Dumfries and Galloway that around a quarter of beds at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary were occupied by patients who were medically fit for discharge but remained in hospital awaiting support elsewhere.