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

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 3953 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-38015

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to identify any errors in reports on chronic pain that it has commissioned and supervised, in light of reports that one such report did not make it clear that it was based on accounts of commercially recruited people who were paid £200 each to participate, and that, when these people were interviewed, they were not asked whether their condition had been diagnosed by a health professional.

The Scottish Government takes the accuracy of its commissioned reports seriously and aims to ensure that work carried out on its behalf is appropriate.

The report referenced was produced by an independent research organisation using established qualitative research methods. Participants were recruited and offered reimbursement for their time, which is standard practice in lived experience research.

The research intended to explore experiences of people living with chronic pain rather than to verify clinical diagnosis. As such, participants were not asked to provide a confirmation of diagnosis.

Question reference: S6W-38820

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many weapons have been seized and recorded as being carried by pupils in schools in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-38824

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to draw on already-qualified counsellors and psychotherapists, who are not currently practising, to reduce any long waiting times for psychological therapies.

Question reference: S6W-38615

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to ensure that palliative care becomes a national priority.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high quality palliative care.

That is why later this summer we will publish our new palliative care strategy, Palliative Care Matters for All. The strategy will set out a series of aims and outcomes designed to help to improve palliative care services across Scotland.

The strategy will be accompanied by a delivery plan which will set out how the actions will be delivered through collaboration with a variety of service providers such as Integration Joint Boards, Health Boards, third sector organisations (including independent hospices) and other independent service providers such as care homes.

Question reference: S6W-38608

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many classroom assistants have been employed in schools in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

Information on the number of classroom assistants for the years 2003-2020 was provided in answer to question S6W-01069 on 14 July 2021 which is available on the Scottish Parliament website at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers

Data on classroom assistants by sector and local authority is available from 2019 to 2023, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-management-information/

Question reference: S6W-38613

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that blood cancer patients from Scotland's most deprived areas have equal access to CAR T-cell therapies, following the findings in Public Health Scotland's recent report on CAR-T for haematological malignancies from 2020 to 2023.

The Scottish Government welcomes the finding that eligible patients are increasingly accessing CAR-T therapies.

NHS Board Chief Executives have endorsed a three-centre regional service model for delivering CAR-T therapies across Scotland, in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Grampian and NHS Lothian, to expand capacity and provide easier access for people requiring this treatment. This service delivery model fully commenced on 1 April 2025.

Question reference: S6W-38616

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that palliative care is considered and reflected in other relevant policy areas.

The development of our new palliative care strategy – Palliative Care Matters for All - has been informed throughout by ongoing collaboration with relevant policy areas across Scottish Government, such as health and social care, housing, equalities and social security.

This co-design approach across Scottish Government will help ensure that palliative care is considered and reflected in other relevant policies, delivery plans and standards, and supports their outcomes.

Question reference: S6W-38609

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much "clawback" has been returned to and received by the Scottish Government in each year since 1999, broken down by individual (a) college and (b) university.

In referring to "clawback", Scottish Government assumes the question relates to differences in funding provided by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) via its annual allocations process to institutions based on forecast uptake of places at colleges and universities, and any subsequent adjustment made by the SFC to that funding on the basis of reduced take up of college and university places. While there are regular funding reconciliation exercises between the Scottish Government and public bodies, no funds have been returned to the Scottish Government for that specific reason.

Question reference: S6W-38610

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what value of financial penalties on colleges and universities for recruiting above their allocated funded places has been returned to and received by the Scottish Government in each year since 1999, broken down by individual (a) college and (b) university.

Question reference: S6W-38612

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the findings laid out in Public Health Scotland's recent report on CAR-T for haematological malignancies from 2020 to 2023.

The Scottish Government welcomes the findings from Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) report on chimeric antibody receptor therapies (CAR-T) for haematological malignancies. The report, which is a collaboration between PHS and the Cancer Medicines Outcomes Programme (CMOP), describes the impact and clinical outcomes of cancer medicines in the real world and can be used to both analyse the outcomes from CAR-T therapies across Scotland and assist with planning future treatment pathways.

The report demonstrates that by developing, and refining, a robust and reliable process cancer medicines intelligence may be routinely generated to support informed decision making at individual, local, and national levels. The data assists healthcare professionals to understand the real-life impact of cancer medicines, supports clinical decision making by enabling a more individualised approach to the provision of cancer care using CAR-T therapies and helps ensure the safe and effective use of these complex medicines.