- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been allocated to Bikeability training in Lanarkshire since its introduction in 2010–11, and what plans it has to increase uptake among primary school pupils.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing £2.5 million to Cycling Scotland to deliver the Bikeability programme in 2025-26.
Since 2012-13, local authorities have applied for funding distributed by Cycling Scotland, on behalf of Transport Scotland, to overcome barriers and increase participation in Bikeability Scotland on-road Cycle Training.
Between 2012-2013 and 2025-2026 the following has been awarded:
- - South Lanarkshire: £289,153
- - North Lanarkshire: £315,690
In the current academic session (2025-2026) South Lanarkshire has been awarded £41,667 to support additional coordination time and an increase in instructor capacity. Funding will assist South Lanarkshire to reach their target of 55 participating primary schools, with 2,500 pupils participating across Level 1 and Level 2 training.
North Lanarkshire has been awarded £46,641, to support additional instructor time, and to increase the number of bikes available to pupils during training. Funding will assist North Lanarkshire to reach their target of 60 participating primary schools, and 4,000 pupils participating across Level 1 and Level 2 training.
The funding above does not include the value of support that each local authority contributes to the programme, including staff and teacher time. For the last full academic session (2024-2025) Cycling Scotland estimate this is valued at:
- - South Lanarkshire: £43,406
- - North Lanarkshire: £75,752
Bikeability Scotland is delivered in partnership with Scottish local authorities and takes place under the local operating guidelines. Within South Lanarkshire, Bikeability Scotland delivery is coordinated by Traffic and Transport. Within North Lanarkshire, Bikeability Scotland delivery is coordinated by Active North Lanarkshire.
In addition to grant funding, Cycling Scotland supplies training resources for all instructors, pupils and parents, and delivers fully-funded training for all staff and volunteers to become instructors.
Learn-to-ride
To support more children to develop the skills necessary to participate in Bikeability Scotland on-road cycle training, Cycling Scotland has partnered with local early years teams to introduce learn-to-ride activities in the nursery setting.
North Lanarkshire staff helped co-design the original Play on Pedals training resources in 2014. Since 2015, Cycling Scotland has provided funding totally £50,661 to contribute to the Early Years team’s success in providing Play on Pedals in every North Lanarkshire Council run nursery.
Strategy
Cycling Scotland has published the Bikeability Strategy Doc 2025 to 2028. This was agreed by the Bikeability Scotland Delivery Group, following consultation with all local authority coordinators, and sets out the strategic direction that every child should have access to Bikeability, delivered to a high quality and coordinated to meet local requirements.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 8 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address Scotland’s reported shortage of planners, including investment in the planning skills pipeline, the expansion of the Future Planners Programme and greater support for mid-career re-training, in line with the commitments set out in the Autumn Statement by the UK Government.
Answer
Our approach to addressing the shortage of planners is tailored to the Scottish context and pre-dates the Autumn Statement. We are directly investing £850,000 in new talent.
We have secured a path into planning for 48 new student planners through our award winning Future Planners Programme and an additional 30 students are being supported by our bursary scheme as they undertake professionally accredited planning degrees.
In addition, the National Planning Hub is directly supporting planning authorities in the short term to increase capacity. It is providing surge support, expert brokerage and sharing learning and knowledge to bridge any skills gaps. The approach is agile, and designed to be responsive to issues identified by authorities. The National Planning Improvement Champion is also supporting authorities on planning performance.
We will continue to work in partnership with planning authorities and other stakeholders to deliver innovative solutions to increase the capacity and resilience of the Scottish planning service.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that all schools in Lanarkshire can deliver Bikeability training, and whether any additional resources will be provided to local authorities to support this.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing £2.5 million to Cycling Scotland to deliver the Bikeability programme in 2025-26.
Record levels of participation in Bikeability were maintained during the 2023-24 academic year (the latest period for which statistics are available).
Additional resources for local authorities are available on request via Cycling Scotland Bikeability Plus funding. Furthermore, local authorities can utilise Local Authority Direct Award (LADA) funding and People and Place funding via Regional Transport Partnerships to deliver Bikeability training or fund delivery capacity.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 7 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the potential economic impact on patients who may face a prolonged recovery and loss of function due to limited surgical options in NHS Lanarkshire.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises that prolonged recovery and reduced function can have personal and economic implications for patients.
We expect Health Boards to consider these factors when planning surgical pathways and to prioritise patient outcomes, including functional recovery and impact on daily living.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 7 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on (a) recovery times and (b) long-term function of thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery not being offered to patients and fusion surgery being undertaken instead.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not undertake direct clinical outcome assessments.
Health Boards are expected to consider these factors when determining the most appropriate surgical option for individual patients, in line with current clinical guidelines and best practice. Such as the guidance shared in response to S6W-42776 on 7 January 2026.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 7 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements are in place to enable patients in NHS Lanarkshire to be referred to other NHS boards for thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery, and how many such referrals there have been in each of the last five years.
Answer
Referral arrangements exist within NHS Scotland to allow patients to access specialist procedures not available locally. Where thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery is clinically indicated and not provided within NHS Lanarkshire, patients may be referred to another Board offering the procedure if that is appropriate.
Data on the number of referrals over the past five years is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. This information may be obtained from NHS Lanarkshire and other relevant Boards.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 7 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure equitable access to (a) thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery and (b) other surgical procedures across all NHS boards.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring equitable access to all clinically approved surgical procedures, including thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery, across NHS Scotland.
Each NHS Board has a process for assessing and adopting innovative procedures with appropriate safeguards until a procedure becomes standard practice. At present though, there is insufficient long term data to recommend thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery as the routine standard of care.
Health Boards are expected to plan and deliver services in accordance with the needs of their local populations, ensuring that care is safe, effective, person-centred, and aligned with current clinical guidelines and best practice.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 7 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards offer thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery.
Answer
Currently, thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery is offered in: NHS Lothian, NHS Fife, NHS Grampian, NHS Highland & NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (Inverclyde).
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 7 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance exists to ensure consistency in surgical treatment options for patients with thumb arthritis across Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that patients across Scotland receive consistent, evidence-based care for thumb arthritis.
We expect clinicians and NHS Boards to adhere to current guidelines and follow best practice including from authoritative sources such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), including (NICE Guidelines NG226 on osteoarthritis care and NICE Interventional Procedure Guidance IPG111) and specialty groups including The British Society for Surgery of the Hand.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 16 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its definition of rewilding for public bodies, which was published in 2023, what work it has undertaken to develop, apply or review it.
Answer
The definition of ‘rewilding’ in the report ‘Defining Rewilding for Scotland's Public Sector’ prepared for the Scottish Government by the James Hutton Institute, has never been adopted by the Scottish Government.
While the Scottish Government does not use the term rewilding, it recognises that the term includes many interventions which the Scottish Government and NatureScot actively support. For example, our £65 million Nature Restoration Fund has committed over £65 million since 2021 to unlock the full potential that nature restoration projects can bring to communities.
In addition, our Biodiversity Delivery Plan sets out over 100 actions that need to be taken to ensure a nature-positive Scotland by 2030. A key action in the first Delivery Plan is the creation of Nature Networks in each local authority area in Scotland. These create habitat corridors and stepping stones, which help species to migrate in response to our changing climate.
