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-00275

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Gethins on 4 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been distributed to (a) local authorities, (b) NHS boards and (c) other public sector bodies in the Highlands and Islands region to decarbonise buildings in 2025-26, broken down by public body.

The Scottish Government introduced Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation to support the public sector in transitioning their current heating systems to low carbon alternatives, and to reduce energy use by utilising a wide range of energy efficiency measures. A breakdown of funding received by public bodies in the Highlands & Islands electoral region in 2025-26, per public body, is set out in the following table.

Organisation	Organisation Type	Scheme	Financial Year	Amount
Shetland Islands Council	Local Authority	Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund	2025-26	£167,873.00
Orkney Islands Council	Local Authority	Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund	2025-26	£120,000.00
Sabhal Mor Ostaig	Further Education Colleges	Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Scheme	2025-26	£1,249,315.50

Additionally, Health Boards in the region have been supported through direct allocations from the Health Portfolio budget. These figures are indicative of overall funding totals for energy efficiency and decarbonisation project from the Health Infrastructure budget.

Organisation	Financial Year	Amount
NHS Grampian	2025-26	£1,614,460
NHS Highland	2025-26	£696,000
NHS Shetland	2025-26	£108,000
NHS Orkney	2025-26	£109,000
NHS Western Isles	2025-26	£80,000

Question reference: S7O-00029

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it will bring forward proposals to reform the non-domestic rates system.

Question reference: S7W-00596

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to projects through the Croft House Grant Scheme, broken down by local authority area, in each year since 2016.

This Government is committed to continuing to help crofters and their families to live on and work their croft, contributing to the sustainability of our rural and island communities.

Area *	Croft House Grant Funding Awarded since 2016 (£)
Argyll	1,169,281.54
Barra	447,442.68
Caithness	509,045.36
Harris	300,473.60
Inverness	468,281.18
Lewis	2,776,910.16
North Uist	728,162.72
Ross-shire	746,022.80
Shetland	1,099,077.61
Skye	2,131,492.36
South Uist	992,556.44
Sutherland	996,751.92

*Figures are broken down by the Rural Payments and Inspections Division by area not by local authority area.

Question reference: S7W-00155

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 3 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the R100 broadband upgrade programme will be completed by 2028.

While delivery under the R100 North contract was previously scheduled for completion in 2028, aligning deployment with Project Gigabit presents a unique opportunity to optimise coverage across some of the most rural communities in the Highlands and Islands.

For instance, coordinating R100 and Project Gigabit delivery in Timsgarry, Na h-Eileanan an Iar, will enable us to connect additional premises, drive efficiencies and minimise disruption for the community.

Maximising these alignment opportunities may, in certain circumstances, require elements of the R100 North contract build to be extended beyond 2028. Where alignment is expected to impact completion timelines in specific areas, this will be communicated at the earliest opportunity via our online address checker.

Question reference: S7W-00398

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish National Party’s 2026 manifesto commitment to establish a private jet tax, whether it will carry out an island communities impact assessment before laying draft legislation.

The Private Jet Tax will be implemented as higher rates of Air Departure Tax (ADT)which will apply to the carriage of passengers by air on private jet flights from Scottish airports.

ADT will replace Air Passenger Duty (APD) from 1 April 2027 and the Scottish Government will implement higher rates of tax on private jet flights from 1 April 2028.

The Scottish Government ran a consultation between January and March 2026 on the implications of applying higher rates of ADT to private jet flights and invited views on how the proposals could impact island communities. The Scottish Government will publish its analysis and response to the consultation in due course. It will also undertake and publish all required impact assessments as part of the secondary legislation which will give effect to this measure.

Question reference: S7W-00339

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 3 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what support it has offered to The Queen's Own Highlanders Regimental Association following its temporary eviction from Cameron Barracks in Inverness.

Question reference: S7W-00156

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 3 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on (a) its commitment to increasing the number of GPs across Scotland by at least 800 by 2027, and (b) the current number of GPs who have been recruited since this commitment was made.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to delivering on its commitment to increase the number of GPs in Scotland by 800 by 2027. Since 2017 GP headcount has increased by 526 and there are 5,423 GPs now working in Scotland.

As part of the 3-year (2026-27 – 2028-29) investment of £531m in core General Practice we will be providing an additional £310m to expand the General Practice workforce with a focus on expanding GP capacity. To further support the GP workforce, we published an update to our 20-point GP Recruitment and Retention plan in March this year.

Public Services Delivery Scotland publishes GP workforce data which sets out net changes to the GP workforce. Data is not available on the number of GPs recruited over this time period. The latest figures, available at: Official Statistics on the workforce of NHS Scotland.

Question reference: S7W-00480

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent article published in Nature Geoscience, Widespread peat carbon losses driven by the 2025 Scottish megafire, which indicates that the summer 2025 Dava Moor wildfire was the UK’s first recorded megafire, what support it is providing for the restoration of the land and peatland damaged during summer 2025.

The Scottish Government’s Strategic Action Plan on Wildfires sets out a coordinated approach to preventing, preparing for and responding to wildfires, including through national initiatives to strengthen resilience to all climate-related hazards as outlined in the Scottish National Adaptation Plan, such as peatland restoration.

Through our world leading Peatland ACTION programme, we have carried out restoration on over 59,000 hectares of peatland since 2020, including a record 15,448 hectares in 2025-26. This work will continue in 2026-27, investing a further £28 million to deliver at least another 10,000 ha of peatland restoration, towards our aim of restoring more than 400,000 ha of peatland by 2040. In the immediate aftermath of wildfire, however, time is required to allow natural revegetation processes to take place before significant restoration interventions can be implemented.

Over time, this will ensure that healthy peatlands will continue to play their significant part in the multi-faceted approach we are taking to managing the increasing risk of these devastating events, with healthy restored peatland providing significant protection against the spread of wildfire.

Question reference: S7W-00373

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Flynn on 3 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish National Party’s 2026 manifesto commitment to bring Transport Scotland back into the Scottish Government, when it plans to do this, and how much it estimates this will cost.

Scottish Ministers are committed to reforming our public sector to ensure the delivery of excellent public services in a fiscally sustainable manner. Delivering such services is core to the government’s mission. The role of Public Service Reform is to deliver that mission, building confidence that the government is on Scotland’s side and can be trusted to take the next step in our constitutional journey.

The current transport system does many things well but it has evolved incrementally into a complex landscape of national bodies, agencies and local actors, with blurred accountabilities, mixed levels of integration and strategic coherence. And it has not been reviewed for almost twenty years. Further incremental change will not deliver the transformation needed or the outcomes the communities and businesses of Scotland expect. The time is now right to review the entire system of how transport is delivered across Scotland and deliver bold reform with a clear focus on ensuring Scotland’s publicly owned transport bodies support better integration of services and maximise the impact of public investment.

Changes to Transport Scotland and other national transport bodies are part of this reform agenda as set out in our manifesto. I will work with senior officials to take forward this commitment while maintaining a strong focus on excellent delivery of public transport services. Preparation is at an early stage and it will be essential to engage trade unions and ensure staff are involved at all levels as this work progresses.

Question reference: S7W-00595

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many croft houses have been built using the Croft House Grant Scheme, broken down by local authority area, in each year since 2016.

County Area *	Number of Croft Houses Built
Argyll	8
Caithness	14
Orkney & Zetland	23
Inverness	93
Ross & Cromarty	64
Sutherland	18