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-39197

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37919 by Neil Gray on 5 June 2025, whether it will provide an update on the roll-out of the digital dermatology pathway to (a) GPs and (b) NHS boards, including how many GP practices are currently participating in the system.

Question reference: S6W-39199

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement in Scotland’s Population Health Framework 2025-2035, which was published on 17 June 2025, that it will pilot a lung screening programme in Scotland’s most deprived areas, what areas the programme will cover; how many people it will include; on what date it will start; how long it will last; what its aims are compared with the previous pilot programme, and for what reason a further pilot is required in light of the previous pilots in Scotland, Wales and England.

Question reference: S6W-39196

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27865 by Maree Todd on 13 June 2024, whether it will provide an update on whether it has commenced the recruitment for the additional roles to ensure that every GP practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service, and, if so, how many have been recruited, and what training is in place for them.

Question reference: S6W-39200

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on what dates the Scottish Screening Committee met since January 2023, and on what dates it will publish the minutes for any such meetings.

Question reference: S6W-39201

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Welsh Government's announcement on 28 June 2025 that it will introduce a national lung cancer screening programme at a cost of £13 million per annum once fully implemented, what it would cost to roll out an equivalent programme across Scotland, and what the requirements would be for (a) staff and (b) equipment, such as mobile scanning units capable of providing low dose computed tomography.

Question reference: S6W-39214

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what plans it has to increase funding for early years childcare provision to increase the number of childcare hours for those under the age of three, in light of the UK Government's plans to increase provision in England.

Question reference: S6W-39202

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding the reported comments of Professor David Weller that a nationwide lung cancer screening programme has the potential to be a game changer when it comes to reducing the burden of lung cancer in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-39203

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reportedly not introduced targeted lung cancer screening, in light of the UK National Screening Committee's recommendation in June 2022, and whether it holds any information regarding an estimate of how long it would take to roll out such a national programme.

Question reference: S6W-39198

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all NHS boards have received the new theatre scheduling tool that was due to be rolled out by end of June 2025.

Question reference: S6W-38729

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 4 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Act 2019, including whether it is aware of any data setting out (a) the views of children and families on the impact of the Act, (b) the views of professionals with responsibility for child protection on the impact of the Act, (c) whether the Act has led to an increase in referrals of families to social work or other family support services, and (d) whether the Act has led to an increase in parental prosecutions for assault.

The Scottish Government has not yet carried out an assessment of the impact of the Children (Equal Protection from Assault) Scotland Act 2019.

The Implementation Group for the Act continues to meet on a yearly basis. Minutes of these meetings are at: Children (Equal Protection From Assault) (Scotland) Act 2019 implementation group - gov.scot.

We are not aware of any data on the views of children and families on the impact of the Act itself. However, the Policy Memorandum for the Bill which became the 2019 Act summarised information on the incidence of physical punishment and on children and young people’s views of physical punishment. Please see Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill Policy Memorandum (paragraphs 46 to 51).

On the views of professionals, the Scottish Government is aware of a recent open letter by a range of health bodies calling for the removal of the “reasonable punishment” defence in England: Thirteen leading public health organisations call on Government to outlaw physical punishment | RCPCH.

The Scottish Government does not have data on changes in relation to the number of referrals to social work or other family support services. The Child Protection Statistics for Scotland only started including data on inter-agency referral discussions (IRDs) from 2023-24: Children’s Social Work Statistics: Child Protection 2023-24 - gov.scot In any event, the reasons for IRDs taking place are varied.

Data on the number of people convicted for common assault as a main charge is available at criminal-proceedings-scotland-2022-23-main-tables.xlsx (see table 4b). If there are multiple charges proven against an accused in a single proceeding, the main charge is the crime or offence receiving the most severe penalty. The data is not split to show whether the person being prosecuted is a parent: this information is not held in the Criminal Proceedings data. The figures for 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 are likely to reflect the impact of the pandemic and should not be considered indicative of longer-term trends.

Information on crimes recorded by the Police is available at Recorded+Crime+-+2024-25+-+Bulletin+tables.xlsx (see table A1 for information on common assault). Again, this does not show information on whether a person recorded as committing a crime is a parent.