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-43463

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it or its agencies, including through Sustrans, (a) have provided and (b) plan to provide to support the Trowan-Comrie all-abilities core path project.

Support has been provided to the Comrie paths project through Transport Scotland and its delivery partner Walk Wheel Cycle Trust (formerly Sustrans). The sum of £171,788 has been awarded across three separate projects;

Invermilton to Baird’s Monument: £78,038

Baird’s Monument to Crieff: £56,250

Comrie link: £37,500

These projects provide improvements along National Cycle Network Route 775 between Comrie and Crieff, which supports and contributes to the all abilities path corridor.

In addition to this Perth and Kinross Council has received £796,000 funding through the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund Tier 1 and £132,313 through the Local Authority Direct Award for Active Travel in 2025-26, both funds allow the Local Authority autonomy to invest in the region.

Question reference: S6W-43464

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on to what degree investment in local core paths and all-abilities routes remains a priority within its active travel and outdoor access policies.

Access authorities, that is our local and National Park authorities, have a duty under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 to uphold access rights and to draw up a plan for a system of paths, a Core Path network, which is sufficient to give local users and visitors reasonable access throughout their area. As a local authority responsibility, the Scottish Government supports this duty primarily through the provision of the annual block grant to local authorities.

Funding to support access was devolved in the Local Government concordat reached in 2008 and remains the responsibility of Local Authorities. Local government funding for access is distributed through a Grant-Aided Expenditure Land Access £8.1 million block grant allocated based on proportions of population and path lengths, with a minimum allocation of £70,000.

However, the funding is not ring-fenced. It is the responsibility of individual Local Authorities to manage their budgets and allocate the total financial resources available on the basis of local priorities, once they have met their statutory obligations. The Scottish Government provided record block grant funding of over £15 billion to local authorities in 2025-26, an increase of £1 billion or 4.7 per cent in real terms compared to last year’s budget.

In addition, access may be improved through active travel infrastructure. The Scottish Government supports Local Authorities to deliver active travel infrastructure through Tier 1 of the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund which Local Authorities receive directly and can use with the flexibility to meet their own local priorities.

For larger scale projects to promote everyday journeys, these can be funded through Tier 2 of the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund for which applications are invited annually from Local Authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships and National Park Authorities. Projects funded though Tier 2 should ensure that they improve the quality of access for all abilities, supported by Equality Impact Assessments. Where required, there is also a suite of other guidance and best practice that delivery partners should use in developing projects to ensure that accessibility is considered at the outset.

Question reference: S6W-42903

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the eligibility criteria for funded early learning and childcare for two-year-olds, and what action it is taking to increase uptake among eligible families.

We do not have plans to review the legislation or statutory guidance for the current offer of funded ELC.

We provide statutory guidance for local authorities on their duties and powers in relation to funded ELC: Introduction - Early learning and childcare: statutory guidance - July 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Local authorities also have a discretionary power to provide access to funded ELC to any child residing in their area, as they see fit.

The 2024 Programme for Government (PFG) set out a commitment to work with local authorities to maximise uptake of our existing offer for eligible two year olds, with a focus on families most at risk of poverty and on areas with some of the lowest take up rates.

Through our National Improvement Project, we are working with local authorities and the Improvement Service on focused action in five local authorities as well as promoting good practice to increase uptake for eligible two-year-olds across all local authority areas.

Question reference: S6W-42902

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that the funding rates set for the delivery of funded early learning and childcare are sustainable for providers across all local authorities, including in rural and island communities.

Local authorities are responsible for setting sustainable rates that reflect the costs of delivering funded early learning and childcare (ELC), in line with guidance published annually by the Scottish Government and COSLA. Guidance for 2026-27 will be published by the end of March. We will also publish findings from an independent national survey of funded ELC providers’ costs undertaken by the Diffley Partnership, intended to improve the evidence base available to inform rate-setting processes.

In addition, the draft 2026-27 Budget confirmed that we will provide a further £11 million each year to support local authorities to set sustainable rates that enable staff delivering ELC in private and third sector services to continue to be paid at least the real Living Wage.

Question reference: S6W-42901

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what conclusions it has drawn from recent evaluations of the expansion to 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare, particularly in relation to accessibility, flexibility of provision and outcomes for children and families.

As a result of the priority that the Scottish Government has placed on investing in funded ELC, families across Scotland have benefitted from the provision of 1140 hours of high quality funded ELC since 2021.

Our interim evaluation published in 2024 showed that uptake of the expanded hours is high, and there are promising signs that the expansion is delivering improvements in flexibility, accessibility and affordability of provision.

We expect to publish our overall evaluation on the outcomes of the expansion to 1140 hours for children, parents and families over the 2018 to 2025 period in February.

Question reference: S6O-05368

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the request from the Scottish Retail Consortium, Go Forth Stirling BID, and other business improvement districts for Scotland to follow England and introduce a permanent business rate discount for all retail, hospitality and leisure premises.

Question reference: S6W-42811

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-05341

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns from businesses across Scotland that have recently received letters confirming a revaluation of their non-domestic rate liability.

Question reference: S6O-05285

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish further details of the estimated true cost of its net zero policies for households in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-42018

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding was allocated by its Health Directorate to eye health research in each year since 2019-20.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) supports open competitive grant and fellowship schemes for applied health research in Scotland across a wide remit. This remit is inclusive of consideration of applications for funding for research on eye health. Applications submitted to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees.

Funding awarded through these schemes in the years from 2019 - 2025 for research relating to eye health has included:

Competitive grant and fellowship schemes

Year funding committed	Total funding awarded (£)
2021	73,000
2022	237,062
2024	699,466
2025	97,000

CSO also provides funding to support NHS Research Scotland (NRS) infrastructure, enabling NHS Boards to host and participate in clinical studies and trials funded by public, charitable, and industry sectors. This includes dedicated support for a NRS Ophthalmology Research Network, which facilitates the setup and delivery of Ophthalmology clinical studies across Scotland. Annual funding for this network is shown in the following table:

NRS Ophthalmology Research Network

Financial Year	CSO Funding (£)
2019-20	14,404
2020-21	14,404
2021-22	14,821
2022-23	18,000
2023-24	19,000
2024-25	20,000
2025-26	21,000

In addition, CSO contributes financially to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in order that NIHR research programmes are open to applications from researchers in Scotland. These programmes also provide research funding opportunities for eye health research.