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-41677

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has consulted the National Drugs Mission Clinical Advisory Group regarding its position on the potential impact of the reclassification of psilocybin on the treatment of people in Scotland with substance abuse disorders.

Question reference: S6W-41676

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work undertaken by the NHS Research Scotland Mental Health Network, sponsored by Compass Pathways, in relation to a trial that commenced in Edinburgh in 2024 as part of a Scottish phase of a worldwide clinical study into the safety and effectiveness of an investigational psilocybin treatment for patients with treatment-resistant depression.

Legitimate use of Controlled Drugs is enabled through scheduling under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, which regulates their availability according to their medicinal value and perceived risk of misuse. Controlled Drugs are placed in one of five schedules, where Schedule 1 has the greatest restrictions on activities and Schedule 5 the fewest. Psilocybin is classed as a Schedule 1 drug. All research in the UK involving Schedule 1 Controlled Drugs requires a Home Office domestic licence.

In this instance study recruitment closed in August 2025, before NHS Lothian's Home Office licence was granted.

Question reference: S6W-41678

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the potential treatment of certain mental health conditions, what its position is on the current scheduling of psilocybin as a class A drug, which means it is illegal to possess, supply or produce it, and whether the current scheduling presents any problems in relation to the NHS conducting clinical trials in Scotland.

The scheduling of psilocybin in the UK is overseen by the Home Office and the regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The Scottish Government has no power to alter this.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is supporting psilocybin research via the NIHR King’s Clinical Research Facility, the NIHR Oxford Health Clinical Research Facility, and the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. This includes developing and evaluating the efficacy and safety of psilocybin therapies.

Question reference: S6W-41674

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any lessons learned, that may be relevant to Scotland, regarding the Australian Government's approval in 2023 for psychiatrists to prescribe MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder, and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.

The regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. As a result, the Scottish Government has not assessed any lessons learned regarding the Australian Government’s approval in 2023 for psychiatrists to prescribe MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder, and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.

Question reference: S6W-41675

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its potential use in Scotland, whether it will assess the reasons for three states in the USA legalising psilocybin for the treatment of major treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance-use disorders and in end-of-life care, and what lessons can be learned to support its potential use in Scotland.

The regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. As a result, the Scottish Government has no plans to assess the reasons for three states in the United States of America legalising psilocybin for the treatment of major treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance-use disorders and in end-of-life care.

Question reference: S6W-41810

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what future commercial opportunities Scottish Water plans, and whether these include selling water for use in England.

Question reference: S6W-41158

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many crimes have been recorded in each month since January 2024 involving male violence against women.

Information on the sex of victims and perpetrators is not held centrally as the data the Scottish Government receive from Police Scotland is a simple count of recorded crimes by crime type. The two exceptions to this are where separate Official Statistics products cover specific types of recorded crime in more detail, namely (i) homicide and (ii) any crime recorded by police as part of a domestic abuse related incident. In this instance domestic abuse is defined as between partners (married, cohabiting, civil partnership or otherwise) or ex-partners.

The first table shows the number of female homicide victims with a male accused during each month from January 2024 to March 2025. Figures for April 2025 to date will be available following publication of the 2025-26 Homicide in Scotland Official Statistics in October 2026.

The second table shows the number of domestic abuse incidents involving a female victim and a male suspected perpetrator, where either a non-sexual crime of violence or a sexual crime was recorded. This covers each month from January to March 2024. Figures for April 2024 to March 2025 will be available following publication of the 2024-25 Domestic Abuse in Scotland Official Statistics by Spring 2026.

Number of female homicide victims with male accused, Scotland, January 2024 to March 2025

Year	Month	Number of homicides
2024	January	2
2024	February	2
2024	March	0
2024	April	0
2024	May	2
2024	June	2
2024	July	0
2024	August	1
2024	September	1
2024	October	1*
2024	November	1
2024	December	1
2025	January	2
2025	February	1
2025	March	0

Source: Homicide in Scotland Official Statistics, 2024-25

Note*: For each female victim there was only one accused, except for October 2024 when there were 2 accused – both male

The number of domestic abuse incidents involving a female victim and male suspected perpetrator, Scotland, January 2024 to March 2024

Month	Total Number of incidents	Number of incidents involving at least one non-sexual crime of violence	Number of incidents involving at least one sexual crime
January	3,013	179	110
February	2,922	183	92
March	3,101	178	96

Source: Domestic Abuse in Scotland Official Statistics, 2023-24

Question reference: S6W-41165

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding what progress has been made in assigning a share of VAT revenues raised in Scotland to the Scottish Parliament, in light of the provisions set aside at section16 of the Scotland Act 2016 to allow this.

VAT Assignment was most recently discussed with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury at a meeting of the Joint Exchequer Committee on 17 October 2025.

The Scottish Government has noted the comments from the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee and the Scottish Parliament Finance and Public Administration Committee on the risks and challenges regarding the implementation of VAT Assignment and the governments will have further discussions on this matter.

Question reference: S6W-41166

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that a number of local authorities are considering increases of around 10% to council tax in 2026-27, whether it will fund a council tax freeze or a cost of living cap.

Council Tax is a local tax, set and administered by individual local authorities. Future local government finance settlements, including any decisions on council tax, will be set out in the usual way as part of the annual Scottish Budget.

The Scottish Government continues to support a national Council Tax Reduction scheme to protect those most in need. Over 450,000 households receive some level of Council Tax Reduction, saving recipients on average over £850 a year.

Question reference: S6W-41169

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many GPs there are, and what the recruitment target is for additional GPs in each of the next five years.

NHS Education of Scotland are responsible for the publication of GP workforce data. GP Headcount data is now published on a bi-annually basis with reference points relating to March and September. While the Scottish Government do not set annual recruitment targets, we do measure our progress against our commitment to increase GP numbers by 800 by the end of 2027 against the September data. The latest figures show an increase of 360 GPs since 2017 against this commitment. The latest data can be found here NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.