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-39033

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the findings in the Royal College of Radiologists report, Clinical Oncology: Workforce Census 2024, how it plans to reduce the number of clinical (a) oncologists and (b) radiologists under the age of 50 leaving the NHS workforce.

Question reference: S6W-39032

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the reported finding in the Royal College of Radiologists report, Clinical Oncology: Workforce Census 2024, that the age at which clinical (a) oncologists and (b) radiologists are leaving the NHS workforce is decreasing.

Question reference: S6W-39031

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any merits of investing in more clinical (a) oncology and (b) radiology speciality training places in order to reduce any reliance on outsourcing to private firms.

Question reference: S6W-39026

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been charged in total for education services for children and young people while in hospital in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-39027

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many probationary teachers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools have not completed their placement in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

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-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-38607

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 25 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on counsellors in schools in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government. Since 2021, we have continued to support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding to ensure that all school pupils aged 10 and above and all secondary schools in Scotland have access to school counselling services.

Funding for school counselling services was established in the 2019-20 financial year and therefore the table below outlines the distribution and allocation of funding since 2019-20. The funding for the years 2019–20 to 2022–23 was ring-fenced for the provision of counselling services. From 2023–24 onwards, this funding has been baselined in the overall local government settlement.

The following figures represent funding provided to local authorities for the provision of counselling services. The Scottish Government does not hold information on how much has been spent on counsellors in schools as local authorities are responsible for the delivery of education. Local authorities may hold this information.

Funding distribution and allocations - Scottish Government funding for delivering access to counsellors in schools

Local Authority	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26

Aberdeen City	350,000	466,000	466,000	466,000	466,000	466,000	466,000
Aberdeenshire	574,000	774,000	774,000	774,000	774,000	774,000	774,000
Angus	264,000	346,000	346,000	346,000	346,000	346,000	346,000
Argyll and Bute	286,000	377,000	377,000	377,000	377,000	377,000	377,000
Clackmannanshire	131,000	164,000	164,000	164,000	164,000	164,000	164,000
Dumfries and Galloway	385,000	514,000	514,000	514,000	514,000	514,000	514,000
Dundee City	299,000	395,000	395,000	395,000	395,000	395,000	395,000
East Ayrshire	287,000	378,000	378,000	378,000	378,000	378,000	378,000
East Dunbartonshire	308,000	407,000	407,000	407,000	407,000	407,000	407,000
East Lothian	242,000	317,000	317,000	317,000	317,000	317,000	317,000
East Renfrewshire	311,000	411,000	411,000	411,000	411,000	411,000	411,000
Edinburgh City	705,000	955,000	955,000	955,000	955,000	955,000	955,000
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	140,000	177,000	177,000	177,000	177,000	177,000	177,000
Falkirk	352,000	468,000	468,000	468,000	468,000	468,000	468,000
Fife	738,000	1,000,000	1,000,000	1,000,000	1,000,000	1,000,000	1,000,000
Glasgow City	955,000	1,300,000	1,300,000	1,300,000	1,300,000	1,300,000	1,300,000
Highland	754,000	1,022,000	1,022,000	1,022,000	1,022,000	1,022,000	1,022,000
Inverclyde	195,000	251,000	251,000	251,000	251,000	251,000	251,000
Midlothian	220,000	286,000	286,000	286,000	286,000	286,000	286,000
Moray	208,000	270,000	270,000	270,000	270,000	270,000	270,000
North Ayrshire	329,000	437,000	437,000	437,000	437,000	437,000	437,000
North Lanarkshire	765,000	1,037,000	1,037,000	1,037,000	1,037,000	1,037,000	1,037,000
Orkney Islands	146,000	185,000	185,000	185,000	185,000	185,000	185,000
Perth and Kinross	328,000	436,000	436,000	436,000	436,000	436,000	436,000
Renfrewshire	389,000	519,000	519,000	519,000	519,000	519,000	519,000
Scottish Borders	263,000	345,000	345,000	345,000	345,000	345,000	345,000
Shetland Islands	197,000	255,000	255,000	255,000	255,000	255,000	255,000
South Ayrshire	253,000	332,000	332,000	332,000	332,000	332,000	332,000
South Lanarkshire	709,000	961,000	961,000	961,000	961,000	961,000	961,000
Stirling	262,000	344,000	344,000	344,000	344,000	344,000	344,000
West Dunbartonshire	226,000	294,000	294,000	294,000	294,000	294,000	294,000
West Lothian	429,000	574,000	574,000	574,000	574,000	574,000	574,000

SCOTLAND	£12,000,000	16,000,000	£16,000,000	£16,000,000	16,000,000	£16,000,000	£16,000,000

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.