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: S6O-04216

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the net zero secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding whether unused funds from energy efficiency area-based grant schemes could be reallocated, including to reduce fuel poverty in the coming financial year.

Question reference: S6O-04161

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 8 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will improve access to legal aid.

The Scottish Government remains committed to providing legal aid for a wide scope of actions. The draft Scottish Budget includes a proposed further investment of £14.2 million for the Legal Fund in 2025-26 which is an increase of 10% on this year’s budget (to £155.5 million).

Despite financial constraints, the Scottish Government continues to focus on building a more inclusive Scotland for all, investing in services and support that will help our communities during these difficult times.

Our budget, if passed by Parliament, will ensure that this government can continue to prioritise action to eradicate child poverty, protect our public services including improving access to legal aid and grow Scotland’s economy, while addressing the inequalities that many in our communities still face.

Question reference: S6W-32398

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its financial plans for the funding of NHS boards to implement the reconfiguration of neonatal services.

The Scottish Government recognises that funding will be required to support Boards to make the transition to a reformed maternity and neonatal service. We are continuing to provide transitional funding to Boards, as we have done for NHS GGC and NHS Lothian since 2019, with additional support for NHS Grampian now being included. This funding is focused on supporting Boards through the transition process.

We have been working with the regional implementation leads on development of plans for implementation to include a business case (or equivalent operational financial plan) with costs, with the expectation that a phased transition to the new model will begin in the new year.

To date, we have provided over £30 million of funding to NHS Boards to support implementation of the Best Start recommendations, and we are currently looking at future funding for maternity services in the next financial year.

Question reference: S6W-32070

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people graduated from the BSc Paramedic Science course in Scotland in each of the last five academic years, also broken down by academic institution.

The BSc Paramedic Science course launched in 2020 with the first cohort of paramedic students graduating in 2023, and the most recent cohort graduating in September 2024. Data for the last five academic years is therefore not available as only two cohorts have completed the three-year degree programme. Data for the 2020 intake who graduated in 2023 is the only publicly available data at this time and this is outlined in the following table:

HEI	Named degree	No. of graduates from Annual Year intake 2020
Robert Gordon University	BSc Paramedic Practice	56
Glasgow Caledonian University	BSc Paramedic Science	44
University of Stirling	BSc Paramedic Science	36
University of West of Scotland	BSc Paramedic Science	40
Queen Margaret University	BSc Paramedic Science	46
TOTAL		222

Question reference: S6W-32098

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) placements were available and (b) people (i) applied, (ii) were accepted and (iii) had their initial acceptance withdrawn for a Newly Qualified Paramedic (NQP) induction course place in Scotland in each of the last five calendar years, also broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S6W-32145

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the Out-turn report for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme between 2022 and 2024 will be published

The Out-turn report for the 2022-23 Affordable Housing Supply Programme will be published early in the New Year. The 2023-24 out-turn report is still in progress and we do not, at present, have an identified publication date.

Statistics relating to the progress of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are published quarterly on the Scottish Government website. These figures relate to the number of approvals, site starts, and completions of homes. They can be accessed using the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-for-scotland-new-house-building/

Other Affordable housing programme data is also available on our webpage Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot

Question reference: S6F-03665

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2024

To ask the First Minister what consideration the Scottish Government has given to what the potential impact might be on Deaf and Deafblind people of the termination of its contract with Contact Scotland BSL.

Question reference: S6W-31676

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Minister for Public Finance on 12 November 2024 that more than 164,000 homes have planning permission but have not yet been built, how many of these homes are part of developments containing four homes or fewer.

Question reference: S6W-31671

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Minister for Public Finance on 12 November 2024 that more than 164,000 homes have planning permission but have not yet been built, what the difference is, for each local authority area, between the number of such homes and the area's Minimum All Tenure Housing Land Requirement figure.

The Minimum All Tenure Housing Land Requirement (MATHLR) for each planning authority in Scotland is set out in Annex E of National Planning Framework 4.

The table below provides the difference between the MATHLR and the figures that contribute to the 164,000 units.

Authority	Remaining capacity (units of housing) of land included in Housing Land Audits with planning consent	MATHLR (as set out in National Planning Framework 4, Annex E)	Difference
City of Edinburgh	20,593	36,750	-16,157
Glasgow City	20,388	21,350	-962
North Lanarkshire	14,859	7,350	7,509
Fife	13,181	7,300	5,881
West Lothian	12,298	9,850	2,448
Aberdeen City	11,406	7,000	4,406
Aberdeenshire	10,822	7,550	3,272
Perth & Kinross	9,724	8,500	1,224
South Lanarkshire	9,005	7,850	1,155
East Lothian	7,019	6,500	519
Midlothian	6,886	8,850	-1,964
Renfrewshire	6,569	4,900	1,669
Stirling	5,562	3,500	2,062
Dumfries & Galloway	2,499	4,550	-2,051
Dundee City	2,154	4,300	-2,146
Falkirk	2,090	5,250	-3,160
West Dunbartonshire	1,896	2,100	-204
Argyll & Bute	1,683	2,150	-467
Angus	1,527	2,550	-1,023
Clackmannanshire	1,461	1,500	-39
East Renfrewshire	1,036	2,800	-1.764
Inverclyde	1,015	1,500	-485
East Dunbartonshire	711	2,500	-1,789
Total	164,384	166,450	-2,066

The 164,000 homes is a broad estimate of the remaining capacity across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-31672

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Minister for Public Finance on 12 November 2024 that more than 164,000 homes have planning permission but have not yet been built, for each local authority area, how many of these homes are programmed in housing land audits to be completed (a) prior to and (b) after any new local development plan is adopted.