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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 3242 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-38148

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports of some women who experience significant delays to their ovarian cancer treatment seeking private treatment in England, what agreement is in place between NHS boards to help address this.

Question reference: S6W-38149

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to undertake a review of current ovarian cancer surgery provision, and, if not, how it plans to address the reported concerns about access to ovarian cancer surgery without undertaking such a review.

The Scottish Government is not planning to review ovarian cancer surgery provision nationally at this time as we see improvements following positive action taken by regional cancer networks and NHS Boards. The Scottish Government continues to monitor the improvement activities and support progress in improving overall care for patients experiencing ovarian cancer.

According to the most recent published data (October-December 2024), 98.4% of women are receiving their first treatment for ovarian cancer within 31 days of a decision to treat. The maximum wait during this quarter was 43 days, a decrease from 90 days in the same quarter in 2023. This includes a range of treatments, such as surgery.

I will be meeting with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde board members and clinicians in September to seek further clarity in terms of progress they have made. Officials continue to seek regular updates from all the regional cancer networks on the improvement work being undertaken.

Question reference: S6W-38388

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the UK Government committing £10 million of new funding in 2025-26 for trading standards in England to tackle underage sales of tobacco and vapes, prevent sales of illicit tobacco and nicotine products, and fund up to 80 more apprentice enforcement officers, how much funding it is committing to (a) support trading standards teams in Scotland with the ban on single-use disposable vapes, which came into effect on 1 June 2025, and (b) address any challenges in stopping sales of illicit tobacco and nicotine products in communities.

Enforcement of Tobacco and Vapes legislation, including the Single Use Vape (SUV) regulations is a local government issue, and in line with the Verity House Agreement we do not ring-fence or direct local authority funding.

Funding is provided annually to Local Government and they have responsibility for working to ensure local budget decisions deliver local and national priorities, including those on the enforcement of existing legislation, including on underage sales and illicit tobacco and vapes and the single use vape ban.

In addition, the Scottish Government has made £300k available for transitional costs associated with the ban on SUVs, and to support recycling and responsible disposal of SUV’s seized by local authorities.

We work closely with the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS) to support enforcement of existing legislation, including on underage sales and illicit tobacco and vapes. This includes providing funding of £46k for the SCOTSS national co-ordinator role for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-38199

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what alternative environmental taxes, such as those related to incineration, have been considered to replace the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund.

The Scottish Landfill Communities Fund remains operational. A public consultation closed on the 6 June, which will inform decisions on the future of the fund. There are no current plans to introduce a new incineration tax. However, the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Authority, made up of the Scottish Government, UK Government, Welsh Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in the Northern Ireland has announced the intention to expand the ETS scheme to cover waste incineration from 2028.

Question reference: S6W-38200

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in the event that the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund is not continued, what assessment has been undertaken of any impact that this will have on the ability to deliver against the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy delivery plans.

Question reference: S6W-38201

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measures have been taken to maintain and enhance Scotland's Land Information Service to ensure that it is a comprehensive and accessible resource for property and land data.

Registers of Scotland (RoS) is a non-Ministerial Public Body answerable to the Scottish Parliament.

Scotland’s Land Information Service (ScotLIS) was created and is maintained by RoS, providing online access to information on land and property in Scotland for both public and business users.

The costs of maintaining and enhancing ScotLIS are met by RoS from fee income generated. Potential enhancements to the service are based on the needs of users – both business and citizen. To ascertain user need, RoS is in regular dialogue with customers and periodically run dedicated user research sessions focussed on ScotLIS.

Enhancements since the service first launched have included access to a Crofting Register layer, an Aerial photography map layer, the Sasines Register indicative ownership layer, the Books of Council & Session, the Register of Judgements, the Register of Inhibitions and National Library Scotland’s Historic Maps. In addition, an option for customers to self-serve copy deeds has been introduced along with modern interfaces to enable high-volume customers of RoS data to seamlessly integrate that information with their systems.

Question reference: S6W-37498

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Programme for Government 2025-26 has reportedly reduced peatland and woodland restoration targets.

The commitments for peatland restoration and woodland creation have not reduced for 2025-26.

The 2025 Programme for Government commits to restoring 12,000 hectares of degraded Scottish peatlands and creating at least 10,000 hectares of woodlands, including at least 4,000 hectares of native woodland.

The 2024 Programme for Government committed to restoring 10,000 hectares of degraded Scottish peatlands. The woodland creation commitment in 2024-25 was the same as for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6F-04140

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2025

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to maintain its policy aim of keeping pace with the EU on environmental protection.

Question reference: S6W-37454

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the effectiveness of BMI as an indicator of health in (a) general and (b) relation to access to IVF treatment.

The Scottish Government is aware of the limitations of BMI as an indicator of obesity and its links to health outcomes and of NICE updated guidance (January 2025) section 1.9 Identifying and assessing overweight, obesity and central adiposity | Overweight and obesity management | Guidance | NICE

Whilst BMI still remains a useful population level indicator, discussions are in progress to include waist circumference to height ratio data in the future Scottish Health Survey Reports.

In relation to access to NHS IVF treatment, I refer you to the answers to written parliamentary question numbers S6W-37455 and S6W-37456 on 27 May 2025.

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

Question reference: S6W-37457

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measures, other than BMI, are available to clinicians when making decisions about the health of a woman seeking access to NHS-funded IVF treatment.