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-41729

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoners have been mistakenly released from Scottish prisons in each of the last five years, including 2025-26 to date.

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

A range of checks are carried out before the release of a prisoner is authorised including but not limited to, an identity check of the person, confirmation of liberation date and a check for any known outstanding warrants.

A liberation in error occurs when an individual is released from a Scottish Prison Service establishment without lawful authority. This situation typically arises due to an administrative or procedural mistake, such as incorrect interpretation of documentation, miscalculation of sentence dates or incorrect data sharing from other partners.

The following table provides the numbers of total liberations and the liberations in error since 2021-2022, up to and including 13 November 2025:

Year	Total Annual Liberations	Recorded Liberations in Error	Liberations in Error as a percentage
2021-22	13934	5	0.04%
2022-23	14769	8	0.06%
2023-24	15732	7	0.05%
2024-25	16387	9	0.06%
2025-26*	9901	3	0.02%
TOTAL	70723	32	0.04%

*up to 13 November 2025

Question reference: S6W-41821

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the effectiveness of drug treatment and recovery programmes in reducing reoffending among former prisoners.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that appropriate and relevant support is available to people when they are released from custody. Individual needs are identified by throughcare support, which allows those with a history of substance use to receive the right support for them. Through collaboration with the third sector, we also aim to ensure that recovery support provided in prisons continues throughout the transition and resettlement process back into the community.

Further integration across services and consistent data collection are essential to fully assess the impacts on post-release re-offending rates.

Question reference: S6W-41857

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of removing peak ferry fares on routes that it supports through public service contracts, including the Northern Isles Ferry Services.

Question reference: S6W-41856

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-05134 by Angela Constance on 12 November 2025, what work has been done to establish a cross-sector coalition aimed at protecting children from online violence and abuse.

Question reference: S6W-41584

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to ensure that SEPA's temporary regulatory position on the landfilling of biodegradable municipal waste is not extended beyond 31 December 2027.

Local authorities and commercial waste operators have made significant progress to prepare for the ban on landfilling of biodegradable municipal waste and the overwhelming majority already have compliant solutions in place. There has been a significant expansion of energy from waste facilities in Scotland in recent years. The Scottish Government will continue working closely with the waste sector and with public and private sector partners to ensure we build on progress and support a smooth transition away from landfill. It will be for SEPA to determine its regulatory position beyond 31 December 2027.

Question reference: S6W-41811

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) legal and (b) illegal sewage discharges there have been in Argyll coastal waters in each of the last five years, and what estimate it has made of the expected number of such discharges by 2030.

Question reference: S6W-41812

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) schools and (b) (i) hospital and (ii) other buildings were damaged during Storm Eowyn in January 2025, also broken down by what assessment it has made of how much it will cost to repair these, and what additional resources it has provided to assist with this.

Question reference: S6W-41816

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the number of prisoners developing drug problems has compared between private and publicly-run prisons in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-41814

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has been reported that not all sewage discharge points in Argyll and Bute are monitored.

Question reference: S6W-41817

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide information on the number of prisoners who have (a) entered custody with a drug problem and (b) developed a drug problem while in custody, in each of the last five years.