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-43992

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government regarding the budget for Police Scotland, whether it will provide information on what it would have been if it had it kept up with inflation measured (a) using Consumer Price Index (b) by Retail Price Index, in each year since the creation of Police Scotland.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of inflation faced by consumers, and is not an appropriate comparison for the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) budget. Retail Price Index (RPI) is not an Accredited Official Statistic, and the Office for Statistics Regulation advises against its use as a measure of inflation. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deflator is the broadest measure of economy-wide inflation, and is the standard measure when considering real terms government spending.

Using the GDP deflator, the 2026-27 SPA Budget has increased in real terms compared to the opening 2025-26 budget. We will invest record funding of over £1.7 billion in policing in 2026-27, a total budget increase of £81.5 million or 5% compared to the published 2025-26 Autumn Budget Revision (ABR) budget. It is for the SPA, working with the Chief Constable, to determine how to allocate this budget to meet policing priorities.

Question reference: S6W-43996

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many assaults on police officers have been recorded by Police Scotland in each year since the creation of Police Scotland.

The production of the Accredited Official Statistics on recorded crime in Scotland was amended to allow the separate identification of assaults against police officers/staff from the reporting year of 2024-25 onwards. These can be further broken down into Serious assault, Common assault (with injury) and Common assault (without injury).

The number of these crimes recorded in 2024-25 is provided below. The next full year will be available in June 2026 as part of the Recorded Crime in Scotland 2025-26 Accredited Official Statistics.

Police recorded crimes of assaults on police officer/staff, by type, 2024-25, Scotland.

Crime; assault on police officer/staff	2024-25
Serious assault	20
Common assault (with injury)	1,123
Common assault (without injury)	6,098
Total	7,241

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2024-25 - gov.scot

Question reference: S6O-05624

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent reports that police officers are attending up to 700 mental health-related calls per day.

Question reference: S6O-05484

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what financial or practical support is being made available to poultry producers affected by the latest avian influenza outbreak.

Question reference: S6W-43194

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 3 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many men completed the Caledonian System programme in 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-42904

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what activities have been (a) stopped permanently, (b) suspended and (c) reduced as part of the Focused Day initiative by the Scottish Prison Service.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Following constructive and collaborative discussions with our partners, SPS have moved away from the national concept of a ‘Focused Day’ and instead have introduced a Regime and Roster Review which is designed to ensure that staff are available to an establishment when and where needed the most.

It is our intent that any changes adopted as part of this review, will not compromise a person’s time out of cell or access to purposeful activity, therefore no activities have been stopped or suspended. Changes are expected to create a more consistent and reliable regime for those in our care whilst protecting opportunities to maintain family contact either through in person visits or via in-cell telephones.

Question reference: S6W-42905

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government which prisons are currently operating a restricted regime; when these regimes at each prison are planned to come to an end, and what activities have been (a) stopped permanently, (b) suspended and (c) reduced in each prison as a consequence of the restrictions.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Regime restrictions can be applied by a Governor-in-Charge in order to maintain a safe and secure environment for those who live and work in our prisons. These are only ever used as a short-term response to establishment specific pressures. Due to the high prison population we are currently experiencing, we are having to implement local regime restrictions in restricted cases.

SPS recognise the impact that a regime restriction can have on those in our care, and that is why any restrictions are only applied by decision of the Governors in Charge and for as short a period as possible. Due to their often-spontaneous nature and short-term period of application, SPS do not routinely formally record their frequency, length or reason.

I can confirm that there has been no permanent removal of any scheduled activity and that all restrictions remain compliant with the Prison and Young Offenders Rules (Scotland) 2011.

Question reference: S6W-42488

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the article in The Herald on 4 December 2025, So who is leading Scotland’s grooming-gang review?, whether it will confirm who will lead the review into grooming gangs.

Question reference: S6W-42487

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comment by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 3 December 2025 that “the national review [of group-based sexual harm] will provide a more accurate and focused picture of the scale of and response” to the issue, whether it will confirm who the members of the review will be; on what basis they will be selected, and when they will be in place.

The Independent National Review of Group-Based Sexual Abuse and Exploitation will be jointly undertaken by the Care Inspectorate, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education, and Health Improvement Scotland. The four statutory Inspectorates are independent of government and the organisations which they scrutinise. They have powers to compel public authorities to provide information they request.

Professor Alexis Jay will provide expert advice on the Review’s design and at key stages of the process given her extensive knowledge and experience of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Question reference: S6O-05344

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Centre for Social Justice's Lost Boys campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the issues that boys and young men are facing, including in Scotland.