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: S7W-00970

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the average daily traffic flow volume has been on the A96 trunk road between Aberdeen and Inverness, in each year since 2020.

Question reference: S7W-00729

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Account Commission's report, Integration Joint Boards: Finance bulletin 2024/25, which was published in February 2026, what its response is to the Commission's warning that, without radical change, the services delivered by Integration Joint Boards cannot be sustained.

We are taking bold and ambitious action to reform and renew our health and care systems in line with our vision where people live longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives while recognising the financial pressures facing the health and social care sector now. The 2026-27 Budget provides almost £22.5 billion investment in health and social care services, exceeding consequentials and providing a real terms uplift to enable more sustainable and resilient services.

Delivering the transformation the people of Scotland need depends on improving prevention and ensuring that health and care services are accessible, high quality, and person led. The Service Renewal Framework provides a structured approach to drive the transformation necessary to realise our vision - responding to today’s pressures but also building the foundations for long-term sustainability and improvement. Renewing Scotland’s essential public services must be rooted in a long-term vision - one that prioritises prevention and early intervention.

The integration of health and social care planning is essential in ensuring services are well-coordinated and responsive to the population's evolving needs, and the report recognises the need for local collaboration in setting budgets. This means that local authorities are responsible for how they choose to invest in those services, not Ministers.

Question reference: S7W-00865

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 05 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the contribution geothermal energy could make to Scotland's energy security.

Question reference: S7W-00864

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 05 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to encourage private investment in geothermal energy.

Question reference: S7W-00730

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide any direction or guidance to Local Government Pension Scheme funds regarding potential investment in affordable housing, and if so, on what statutory basis.

Question reference: S7W-00731

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the total costs incurred by local authorities as a result of the legislative error in the Non-Domestic Rates (Scotland) Act 2020 that provided no legal basis on which to levy rates on unoccupied properties from 1 April 2023.

Question reference: S7W-00732

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many claims for refunds of non-domestic rates paid on unoccupied properties since April 2023 have been received by local authorities, and what the total value of those claims is.

Question reference: S7W-00733

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of local government funding was formally ring-fenced or otherwise directed to national policy objectives in each of the last three years, and what its response is to the Accounts Commission's finding that ring-fencing and directed spending reduce local authorities' flexibility to meet local needs.

Question reference: S6W-44044

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the pledge made by the health secretary in 2018 to prioritise the development of new primary care premises in Banchory.

The financial position remains challenging – to ensure that available capital funding can be directed to best effect, we are working with all health boards to develop an NHS whole system infrastructure plan for Scotland to inform investment priorities. The 2025-26 Budget confirmed our capital investment priorities for the next 5–7 years. The NHS whole system infrastructure planning work will inform our capital investment priorities beyond that.

The first phase of this was identifying immediate building maintenance and equipment replacement priorities to support service continuity. Boards submitted their risk-assessed priorities in January 2025 and, following review, Boards have received confirmation of which items can be progressed.

The next stage will consider long-term investment priorities and Boards – including NHS Grampian – have been instructed to undertake strategic assessments with returns required during 2026-27 and by not later than 31 March 2027.

A key part of this work is the development of an infrastructure investment strategy programme for primary care as announced in the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline on 13 January 2026. An initial tranche of 12 projects has been selected for their health, population demographic and estate needs. Work on three initial projects will start immediately to create and pilot a standardised approach towards design and procurement – this will be used to improve the efficiency of delivery of all future schemes. It is intended that there will be further, future tranches of investment across the primary care estate, which will consider other areas of need.

Question reference: S6W-44012

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 9 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider extending by 28 days the deadline for participation in the public inquiry into the section 37 application for the 400kV Kintore–Tealing overhead line (ECU00005225), in light of reports that several residents who have made submissions to the planning application have not received notification from the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division, and whether it will confirm how many people were invited to take part in the inquiry.

The Scottish Government will not extend the deadline to participate in the public inquiry into the 400kV Kintore –Tealing overhead line. The 14 day period given to confirm participation in the public inquiry accords with the guidance on Priority Applications for Transmission Infrastructure (February 2025). To extend this period would jeopardise Scottish Ministers' ambition to determine the application within 52 weeks.

The Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) notified 10,524 individuals and organisations with a right to take part, including 31 statutory consultees and 10,493 interested parties (10,005 by email and 488 by letter). Records confirm that all notifications were issued. Only one person has reported not receiving the original email, and their response has since been recorded. Anyone who believes they missed correspondence can contact DPEA, and all inquiry information remains available on the DPEA case portal.