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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-39362

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the retained duty system fire stations in the Moray Council area currently have full staffing complements.

Question reference: S6W-39363

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the retained duty system fire stations in the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar area currently have full staffing complements.

Question reference: S6W-39361

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the retained duty system fire stations in the Argyll and Bute Council area currently have full staffing complements.

Question reference: S6W-39364

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the retained duty system fire stations in the Orkney Islands Council area currently have full staffing complements.

Question reference: S6W-39260

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38841 by Jim Fairlie on 3 July 2025, what the items of expenditure are that capital expenditure is expected to cover within the pilot, and what level of capital spending the pilot expenditure of up to £1 million is expected to lever by way of private capital.

Capital expenditure is solely for the purchase of Peatland Carbon Units at a set rate as they mature within each project. However, awardees may sell their units on the open market where they can achieve an improved price.

A key aim of the pilot is to assess whether Carbon Contracts are likely to reduce the cost of restoration work for government by leveraging private capital.

For more information on the pilot see Carbon Contracts Pilot – Application Guidance | NatureScot.

Question reference: S6W-39261

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38840 by Jim Fairlie on 3 July 2025, whether it anticipates it will incur any contingent liability in either capital or resource commitment as a result of the carbon contracts pilot.

Question reference: S6W-39357

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any emergency measures introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic period to operate with reduced manpower in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have been reversed and staffing levels returned to pre-pandemic minimum safe levels.

The operational guidance used to keep firefighters safe is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). SFRS generally operates with a crew of 5 on the first appliance deployed to an emergency and this was reduced to 4 during the COVID-19 pandemic. SFRS has a range of options to ensure the availability of its appliances, which on occasion may include appliances being crewed with 4 rather than 5 firefighters.

Question reference: S6W-39358

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all firefighters who are tasked with fighting wildfires are provided with wildfire kit as an alternative to wearing kit that is designed for fighting structural fires.

The allocation of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) resources to respond to wildfires and indeed to respond to any emergency incident that requires its attendance, is an operational matter for SFRS.

Since the launch of its Wildfire Strategy in 2023, SFRS is investing £1.6 million in vehicles and operational equipment including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The provision of wildfire PPE has been focused on the specialist fire stations which deal with the majority of wildfire incidents. Firefighters from non-specialist wildfire stations who respond to support operations continue to wear standard structural PPE.

The Chief Fire Officer has provided assurances to the Scottish Government that firefighter safety is an absolute priority, that all specialist wildfire PPE and existing standard PPE in place is safe and that SFRS remains fully prepared and equipped to respond to wildfires.

Question reference: S6W-39355

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to reduce the reported 29% vacancy rate in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The recruitment and retention of staff is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as the employer. The 29% vacancy rate refers to on-call establishment figures. SFRS is taking action to recruit more on-call firefighters though the use of 50 full time on-call support officers and in providing targeted assistance to potential candidates. In addition more flexible contracts have been introduced which can reduce the time commitment needed to be an on-call firefighter.

Question reference: S6W-39350

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the retained duty system fire stations in the Shetland Islands Council area currently have full staffing complements.

The recruitment of staff is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. There are challenges in recruiting and retaining on-call firefighters in some rural areas of Scotland and there are currently no on-call fire stations in Shetland with a full staffing complement. However, a full staffing complement is not required for an on-call fire appliance to be deployed because it can attend emergencies if there are 4 crew available at any given time. When an appliance is not available, a response will be provided from the next nearest available location.