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-39807

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many children and young people have received treatment for an eating disorder in private healthcare facilities in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-39805

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have received treatment for an eating disorder in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-39806

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been placed in adult services to receive treatment for an eating disorder in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-39240

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent from Pupil Equity Funding on additional staffing in schools since its introduction, broken down by local authority.

Specific data on staffing expenditure from Pupil Equity Funding in schools, broken down by local authority, is not held centrally.

Since Pupil Equity Funding’s introduction in 2017-18, over £1billion has been allocated to Scotland’s schools, empowering headteachers to take the best approaches that suit the needs of their pupils, including using it to support significant numbers of additional staff, to help close the poverty-related attainment gap. Scottish Attainment Challenge funding, which includes annual Pupil Equity Funding of £130 million to 97% of schools, supports up to 3,000 additional staff, including up to 700 FTE teachers.

Across the country we continue to trust and empower Scotland's headteachers to use this extra funding to support their pupils - whether through extra support staff, family link workers or through support for mental health, for example. The recently published PEF Report highlights some of the ways Headteachers are investing their funding to improve outcomes for children impacted by poverty:- pupil_equity_funding_report_2025_.pdf

Question reference: S6W-39239

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how much has been spent on agency staff in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools, in each year since 1999, also broken down by local authority.

Data on how much each local authority spends on agency staff is not held or collected by the Scottish Government. It is the responsibility of local authorities to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including setting school budgets, on the basis of local needs and priorities, after fulfilling their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Data on local authority expenditure on teachers is available from the Local Government Financial statistics data collection. The latest figures are available from LFR01 at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2023-24-workbooks/.

Teachers in Scotland are employed by local authorities, not agencies. This includes supply teachers and teachers on short term contracts.

Question reference: S6W-39242

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 5 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many recorded (a) closures and (b) delays there have been on the Edinburgh City Bypass in each year since 1999.

Since August 2020 there have been 123 Critical Incidents and 1041 Disruptive Incidents on the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass section managed by Transport Scotland. This period covers approximately 1688 days. Critical Incidents cover the most significant incidents where there are full closures. Disruptive Incidents include these closures but also where the road has remained open but there have been significant delays caused, for example by breakdown or collisions. Unfortunately we are unable to confirm the delays associated with these incidents.

Question reference: S6W-39698

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many postgraduate study places have been offered at Scottish universities in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-39697

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Scotland-domiciled students have accessed doctoral loans in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-39696

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review doctoral level funding in Scotland, in light of access to repayable doctoral loans being available to students residing in England and Wales, but not to those in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-39123

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what safeguards have been put in place to ensure transparency in the reform of the school inspection system.

To ensure transparency in the reform of the school inspection system, HM Inspectors introduced a revised approach to stakeholder engagement in November 2024. This approach is designed to support continuous improvement and ensure that inspection activity remains purposeful and inclusive of all stakeholders, including children and young people.

A key safeguard is the establishment of a Stakeholder Forum in December 2024. This forum plays a central role in testing ideas and informing the ongoing review of school inspection. Between December 2024 and May 2025, HM Inspectors engaged with over 1,300 adult stakeholders and 500 children and young people through targeted sessions, national online events, and questionnaires, ensuring a wide range of perspectives were considered.

To further strengthen transparency, professional legitimacy, and system-wide ownership, a public consultation will be launched in Autumn 2025. This will provide an open platform for feedback and help shape reform of the school inspection system.