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-41855

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answer expected on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards its commitment to review the law on abortion to ensure that abortion services are a healthcare matter.

Question reference: S6O-05161

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the UK Government's Pride in Place Programme in relation to its impact on devolved issues.

Question reference: S6O-05072

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with local authorities regarding their implementation of Scottish Government legislation.

Question reference: S6W-41302

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 October 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Neil Gray on 13 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to explore every avenue to support the sector and bring new care workers into social care roles in Scotland.

The UK Government’s hostile and restrictive migration policies are damaging Scotland’s health and social care sector.

In Scotland we need a migration system that works for our NHS, our social care sector, our businesses and third sector. Until we have the full powers over migration that will come with independence, we will do all we can within the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament to mitigate the UK Government’s harmful approach to migration.

I am therefore pleased to confirm today that the Scottish Government will create a bespoke offering to help social care workers who have been displaced to come to Scotland and contribute to our care sector.

We will provide £500,000 to mitigate the devastating impact of the UK Government’s closure of the care worker visa route and provide targeted support to help displaced social care workers.

This will support international social care workers already in the UK who have lost their social care jobs as a result of their employer losing their visa sponsor licence, to come to Scotland and contribute their valuable skills to our social care sector. It is our intention for this work to begin immediately so that social care workers can settle into new jobs before Christmas.

Question reference: S6O-05029

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the implementation of its international strategy, how and by what mechanisms it is engaging with the governments of other European nations.

Question reference: S6W-40758

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 September 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Neil Gray on 26 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the planned launch and subsequent roll-out of the digital front door for health and social care.

The Digital Front Door programme has progressed over the summer to ensure we launch the Health & Social Care online app this year. In recent months, the programme has worked collaboratively with stakeholders on technical delivery, organisational readiness and branding of the service.

Following the conclusion of the work on branding, I am pleased to confirm Scotland’s app will be called MyCare. Like any digital service, good practice means the first version of MyCare will be evaluated thoroughly in Lanarkshire before it is rolled out across Scotland for the population from April 2026. With the delivery of MyCare, Scotland’s app will go further than other models proposed elsewhere in the UK and will support services in both health and social care.

Furthermore, today the Scottish Government has published an update on our approach to rolling out MyCare.scot across Scotland and the anticipated timelines. Members can read this publication at: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781806431717

Question reference: S6O-05010

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the UK Government regarding the closure of any Jobcentres in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04984

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports youth employment in the Rutherglen constituency, including through employability services.

Question reference: S6W-39788

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have received support from school counsellors in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority area.

The total number of children and young people that have accessed school counselling services in the last three years can be found in the following table:

Local Authority	July 2023 – March 2024	January – June 2023	July 2023 – December 2022	January – June 2022
Aberdeen City	328	344	285	295
Aberdeenshire	562	444	330	195
Angus	190	240	145	306
Argyll and Bute	453	258	203	150
Clackmannanshire	78	90	89	142
Dumfries and Galloway	401	315	242	263
Dundee City	298	484	302	553
East Ayrshire	813	713	576	734
East Dunbartonshire	566	443	274	236
East Lothian	325	150	50	160
East Renfrewshire	151	142	65	178
Edinburgh City	745	421	597	354
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	120	121	112	-
Falkirk	721	71	496	519
Fife	600	722	722	456
Glasgow City	140	210	1318	1459
Highland	929	814	743	879
Inverclyde	173	142	74	95
Midlothian	201	196	181	179
Moray	617	534	460	458
North Ayrshire	379	447	302	364
North Lanarkshire	2114	1830	1366	1561
Orkney Islands	-	-	77	107
Perth and Kinross	300	385	273	364
Renfrewshire	1232	1081	858	997
Scottish Borders	746	556	642	493
Shetland Islands	44	47	26	111
South Ayrshire	354	380	348	564
South Lanarkshire	1411	1162	765	929
Stirling	928	364	295	364
West Dunbartonshire	487	357	207	381
West Lothian	1215	917	727	662
Total	17621	14290	13150	14508

- Orkney Council and Eilean Siar did not submit any data during this period, resulting in gaps in the dataset. However, due to the size of these authorities, this does not impact the overall results.

A summary of the latest data for the period April 2024 to March 2025 is scheduled to be published in the coming weeks.

Question reference: S6W-39787

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many emergency mental health assessment units are operational (a) nationally and (b) in each NHS board.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of emergency mental health assessment units available nationally or in each Health Board.

This notwithstanding, we can report that all Health Boards have a 24/7 mental health unscheduled care pathway in place for anyone in need of urgent mental health assessment or urgent referral to local mental health services. These pathways enable local mental health clinicians to receive referrals from the national NHS 24 Mental Health Hub and provide advice and support to frontline services such as Police Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service. They also avoid the need to attend the Emergency Department unless that is where the person needs to be cared for.