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-43233

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 29 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the impact of local authority budget decisions on dementia and community care services, including care at home, respite, day care and post-diagnostic support, to ensure that people living with dementia continue to receive the support that they need.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that people living with dementia and their families have access to consistent, high-quality care and support throughout every stage of their condition.

To support these ambitions, the 2026-27 budget includes record funding of £22.5 billion to health and social care, including supporting the pay uplift for our valued adult social care workforce. The budget also delivers a real terms increase of £700m in the Local Government Settlement between 2025-26 and 2026-27, taking this to over £15.7 billion. This includes an investment of over £2.3 billion for social care, exceeding our commitment to increase funding by 25% by the end of this Parliament.

As part of the national Dementia Strategy and first two-year Delivery Plan, which is jointly being taken forward with COSLA, the voices of lived experience, local and national delivery partners, we have prioritised efforts to ensure the right supports are available in our communities. This helps people living with dementia to access care in the setting of their choice and helps reduce the need for more intensive health and social care interventions for any longer than is clinically necessary. To support these ambitions, we have invested across the lifetime of the Delivery Plan around £1.45 million to increase direct support to dementia community groups and settings nationally, and £7 million via Health and Social Care Partnerships to increase the number of people who benefit from our commitment to a minimum of 12 months’ Post-Diagnostic Support.

The Scottish Government also recognises the invaluable role of care partners and unpaid carers, including those supporting people living with dementia. To help sustain and improve the health and wellbeing of carers across Scotland, we are progressing the Carers Act to further enhance and extend the rights of adult and young carers by investing £88.4 million per year in local carer support through Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 funding; £600,000 in 2025-26 for local carers centres in addition to local authority funding; and £13 million this year for the voluntary Short Breaks Fund.

While the commissioning of local services appropriately sit with local authorities, so that they can best respond to and meet local need, we are focused on wider social care reform and the National Care Service to improve people’s lives. The Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 and the new National Care Service Advisory Board, alongside other national programmes including GIRFE, Coming Home, the Self-directed support improvement plan and Support in the Right Direction funding, are all playing a part to improve services across Scotland and will be vital pillars in the National Care Service going forward. These programmes all work towards ensuring that people living with dementia receive the support they need.

Question reference: S6W-43389

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 11 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what support is in place for people with postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS).

Question reference: S6W-43361

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the transplant pathways for people who have received the Fontan procedure and/or who are complex congenital heart disease patients, and what steps it is taking to help ensure that they do not need to travel outside Scotland to access what can be life-saving care.

Question reference: S6O-05419

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to the Outdoor Arts, Circus and Spectacle sector.

Question reference: S6W-42854

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the most recent figures for the average Council Tax Band D bill in Scotland, and how that compares with (a) England and (b) Wales.

The 2025-26 average Band D Council Tax rates are published at the following locations:

Council tax datasets - gov.scot (Council Tax by Band 2025-26, Scotland)
Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2025 to 2026 (revised) - GOV.UK (England)
Council Tax levels: April 2025 to March 2026 [HTML] | GOV.WALES (Wales)

A summary table is as follows:

	2025-26 average Band D Council Tax rates
Scotland	£1,543
England	£2,280
Wales	£2,170

It should be noted that approaches to Council Tax differ across the nations, so full coherence is not possible and caution should be taken when making statistical comparisons. Property prices differ across the nations and have diverged since the 1991 valuations. The Council Tax bill in England contains additional elements, and special factors are taken into account when setting Council Tax levels. Properties in Wales have undergone a more recent revaluation than the other nations, and there will usually be other authorities levying Council Tax in addition to local councils. These are all factors which are likely to affect comparability in the statistics. Further details can be found in this paper:

Council Tax Rates: Comparing Scotland to other UK nations - gov.scot

Question reference: S6W-42915

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of one in three men in Scotland reportedly being diagnosed with prostate cancer at a late stage, whether it will commit to exploring alternative interventions to support earlier identification of the condition, irrespective of the final recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee on it.

The Scottish Government, along with all other UK nations, takes advice from the UK NSC, an independent expert advisory group that informs screening policy across the UK. The Scottish Government will consider this guidance regarding any screening interventions.

We continue to take action to diagnose prostate cancer earlier. A clinical refresh of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer was published in August 2025. For this first time this now includes guidelines for key groups who should consider speaking to their GP about PSA testing from age 45. These are:

Men with a family history of prostate cancer,
Black men, who are around three times more likely to develop prostate cancer than white men, and may develop it up to five years earlier
and those with a genetic predisposition, such as BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

The guidelines now also explicitly mentions the prostate cancer risk management pathway, noting that GPs should have an informed conversation with anyone regardless of age if the individual is concerned about prostate cancer.

The primary care cancer education platform – Gateway C – supported by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is providing innovative, and tailored information to support earlier cancer diagnosis efforts and enable effective decision-making. This resource includes specific modules on prostate cancer to support GPs.

Question reference: S6W-42855

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many affordable homes have been built in each local authority area since 2007, and how many of those have been for social housing.

A total of 141,730 affordable homes have been delivered between 1 April 2007 and 30 September 2025 and these include new build, rehab and off the shelf purchases. This includes 101,266 homes for social rent (71%), 14,201 homes for other affordable rent (10%), and 26,263 homes for affordable home ownership (19%). The Scottish Government publishes quarterly housing statistics on the Affordable Housing Supply Programme covering approvals, starts and completions by local authority area split by social rent and other affordable. These can be found here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/affordable-housing-supply-programme-quarterly-updates-on-approvals-site-starts-and-completions/.

We report on all homes delivered through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) via our quarterly official statistics, and this includes approvals, starts and completions. We also report on all sector new build starts and completions by local authority including social homes. Official housing statistics are available on the Scottish Government website at Housing statistics - gov.scot.

Question reference: S6O-05358

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage young people to be involved in the Gaelic language and culture.

Question reference: S6W-42372

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to review and assess the need for widening the scope of regulation of independent medical services, such as private baby scans.

The Scottish Government wants all healthcare provided to people in Scotland to be safe, appropriate, and carried out by those with the right qualifications.

The Scottish Government are engaging with Healthcare Improvement Scotland regarding the next phase of regulation of independent healthcare. Any proposals for widening the scope of regulation of independent healthcare will be based on intelligence of potential risks and patient safety concerns.

Question reference: S6W-42240

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to introduce routine prostate cancer screening for (a) the whole population and (b) people in higher risk groups.

The Scottish Government, along with all other UK nations, takes advice from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). The UK NSC does not currently recommend prostate screening for the whole population. The UK NSC will consider whether to extend their recommendation for prostate screening should evidence support this, including from existing trials like TRANSFORM. The Scottish Government will consider any future recommendations made by the UK NSC in this regard.

Evidence shows that prostate cancer is both more common and aggressive in men with BRCA variants compared to the general population. Following a recent review of evidence, the UK NSC has launched a public consultation which focuses on the UK NSC’s draft recommendation to offer a targeted national prostate cancer screening programme to men with confirmed BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene variants every 2 years, from age 45 to age 61. The consultation will close on 20 February 2026, following which, the UK NSC will consider the results and agree a final updated recommendation.

In anticipation of a potential recommendation for targeted prostate cancer screening, a clinician-led short-life working group, chaired by the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, will assess Scotland’s readiness to respond to any future advice from the UK NSC on prostate screening.