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-42650

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 8 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the establishment of an independent national whistleblowing office for education and children’s services.

Protecting children from harm is a key priority for the Scottish Government.

There are already relevant systems in place in Scotland to deal with complaints and whistleblowing. We have a framework in place which includes regulatory bodies which provide ongoing inspection, as well as complaint routes to look into specific cases. Adding another body or process into a system with a range of existing processes and functions risks increasing complexity and undermining understanding and clarity of roles.

We acknowledge however that concerns that have been raised in relation to complaints and whistleblowing processes and we are actively considering this issue. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills raised the concerns at the Education and Childcare Assurance Board in September 2025 and underlined the assurances she required about the robustness of these important processes. This issue has also been discussed by the National Public Protection Leadership Group who acknowledged the challenges with current whistleblowing procedures, especially in terms of clarity and confidence among staff to raise concerns and agreed to support further discovery work on this issue. The National Public Protection Leadership Group will be having a further detailed discussion on the issue at their next meeting on 27 January.

Question reference: S6O-05364

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, as part of the cross-government co-ordination of infrastructure, what discussions the finance secretary has had with ministerial colleagues on when a decision will be made on the design and construction of a new grade separated junction on the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass at Sheriffhall, including what cost revisions have been undertaken.

Question reference: S6W-42649

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 6 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the evidence given by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs to the Education, Children and Young People Committee on 17 December 2025, in which the Cabinet Secretary commented that she had made a "private call" to a person with no officials present, stating that she subsequently made a note of this on the basis that “everything needs to be on the record”, whether it will confirm how many other similar such calls have been made by each minister since May 2021; what the circumstances of each call was, and what subsequent note of the call was recorded by the minister.

All engagements carried out by Ministers where government business was undertaken are published on Scottish Government website three months in arrears, as is required by the Scottish Ministerial Code and the Scottish Government’s Records Management policy. There is no requirement for the origin of any such information to be collated and there is no mechanism for capturing the detail on the number of calls made by each Minister since May 2021.

Question reference: S6W-42593

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the cost of expanding the Young Patients Family Fund’s eligibility to include children and young people with cancer who are (a) day-case patients, and (b) aged 18-25.

The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) is just one of the means of financial support available to patients and their families. YPFF supports families to visit a child or young person aged under 18 while they are an inpatient. Financial assistance for attending hospital appointments, including outpatient and day treatments, is available through the patient travel reimbursement schemes.

These schemes provide financial assistance for eligible patients and authorised escorts, including for outpatient appointments and day treatments, and apply to travel both within and outside Scotland. All eligible patients aged 16 and under automatically qualify for an escort. NHS Boards are responsible for assessing eligibility and have the flexibility to consider individual circumstances and make decision in the best interests of patient care and wellbeing.

Question reference: S6W-42592

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the (a) allocated budget and (b) actual outturn expenditure for the Young Patients Family Fund in each financial year since its introduction.

The first year of YPFF delivery was from July 2021 and there is complete expenditure data up to March 2025. The fund is demand-led and the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring sufficient funding to NHS Boards to support all valid YPFF claims. Actual spend may differ from profiled spend as demand requirements change over time. Budgets for Young Patients Family Fund are as set out in the following table along with the outturn expenditure for each financial year.

Year	Budget	Expenditure
2021-22	£5 million	£1,486,464
2022-23	£4 million	£2,692,814
2023-24	£4 million	£2,923,657
2024-25	£4 million	£3,111,953

Question reference: S6W-42594

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Managed Clinical Network for Children and Young People with Cancer’s (MCN CYPC) transition (from Managed Service Network), what action it is taking to ensure that the MCN CYPC (a) maintains dedicated administrative and data management staffing levels, and (b) has the requisite funding and powers to achieve the actions in the Cancer Strategy for Children and Young People, and whether the upcoming Scottish Budget will support these actions.

The Managed Clinical Network for Children and Young People with Cancer (MCN CYPC) provides clinical leadership and expertise to advise and support NHS Boards, Scottish Government and other stakeholders in relation to the delivery of children and young people’s cancer services.

They are responsible for the implementation and evaluation of the Collaborative and Compassionate Cancer Care The Cancer Strategy for Children and Young People in Scotland 2021–2026 (children and young people’s cancer strategy).

The MCN CYPC are responsible for their own administration and staffing requirements in order to deliver on their remit, and we will always give careful consideration to any new funding required for them to deliver on achieving the best possible outcomes for children and young people with cancer.

Question reference: S6W-42595

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many missed outpatient appointments for children and young people with cancer were recorded in each of the last three years, and whether an assessment has been made of the correlation between missed appointments and the financial cost of travel for any families that have been excluded from the Young Patients Family Fund.

Question reference: S6W-42685

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what recommendations it has made regarding ratings for gas boilers versus electric heaters on EPC reports.

Question reference: S6W-42655

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 14 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Student Awards Agency Scotland regarding the recent audit of student loans by the agency, and what its position is on any additional loan balance adjustments discovered as a result of the audit being added to people’s loans retrospectively, including in cases where it was believed that the loan had been paid off.

Question reference: S6O-05333

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the justice secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding any plans to deliver campus police officers across all schools.