Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-39902

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38059 by Jenni Minto on 9 June 2025, what assessment it has made of whether the subgroup analysis of the 11-18-year-olds from Scotland who participate in the annual ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey is robust with regards to individuals’ (a) years of age, (b) socioeconomic groups and (c) behaviours by those who are (i) regular users and (ii) never users of (A) tobacco, (B) e-cigarettes and (C) nicotine pouches.

The ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey is an annual survey of a representative sample (by age and gender) of 11–18-year-olds across Great Britain, which has been running since 2013. The Scottish Government began purchasing a booster sample since 2024 to achieve representativeness by age and gender specifically for Scotland.

In 2025, the total number of participants aged 11 to 18 from Scotland in 2025 was 856. This is a sufficiently large sample to conduct analysis of age-related differences in prevalence and demonstrate clear patterns of use (a).

The sample is not representative in terms of deprivation as it leans towards higher social grades. The data are not weighted to account for this, and this limitation should be considered when interpreting the results. Data are collected on social grade and grouped into ABC1 and C2DE categories, which are not directly comparable with the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).

Regarding behaviours by regular and never users of tobacco, e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches (c), we report on ‘current use’, which includes both regular (once a week or more) and occasional use. This is because the percentages of young people reporting regular use of tobacco, vapes and other nicotine products is very small. This approach aligns with established statistical reporting standards and reflects the low prevalence – particularly for newer products like nicotine pouches – among adolescents.

To ensure transparency, we do not present percentages for subgroups with fewer than 50 respondents. Instead, we report counts and note the small base to minimise the risk of misinterpretation – see our 2024 report Vaping and smoking among Scottish adolescents.

Purchasing data in the ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey enables monitoring of progress against key indicators 4(i) and 4(ii) of the Tobacco and Vaping Framework (i.e. smoking and vaping behaviours in children and young people). It reflects a considered trade-off between cost, analytical value, and timeliness – ensuring prompt delivery of insights to inform policy decisions and interventions.

Question reference: S6W-39901

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38059 by Jenni Minto on 9 June 2025, whether it can provide details of the total number of 11- to 18-year-olds from Scotland who participate in the annual ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey, and what assessment it has made of whether this sample is representative of children and young people living in areas across the entire spectrum of Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).

The ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey is an annual survey of a representative sample (by age and gender) of 11–18-year-olds across Great Britain, which has been running since 2013.

The total number of participants aged 11 to 18 from Scotland in 2025 was 856.

The sample size is sufficiently large to report overall prevalence and to monitor progress against key indicators 4(i) and 4(ii) of the Tobacco and Vaping Framework (i.e. smoking and vaping behaviours in children and young people).

The sample is not representative in terms of deprivation as it leans towards higher social grades. The data are not weighted to account for this, and this limitation should be considered when interpreting the results.

Data are collected on social grade and grouped into ABC1 and C2DE categories, which are not directly comparable with the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).

Question reference: S6O-04881

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 August 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it is reportedly spending over £1 million every week on agency staff, in light of it having announced plans to reduce corporate costs.

Question reference: S6O-04859

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the new guidance on behaviour in schools addresses pupil-on-staff violence.

Violence towards pupils or staff is unacceptable.

The new consequences guidance, which has been co-created with headteachers and educational experts, is clear that the safety of pupils and staff must always be a priority for attention.

The guidance provides illustrative, non-prescriptive examples to support de-escalation, risk assessment and safety planning. It sets out processes for reporting, monitoring and escalation in situations of violence.

We have also published more detailed guidance on risk-assessments to support school staff responding to violent, aggressive and dangerous behaviour.

Question reference: S6W-38465

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that staff from Stirling Council’s instrumental music service were called to an urgent meeting on 3 June 2025 to be told that education officers are seeking £200,000 of efficiency savings from the service in this financial year, and further to Stirling Council's unanimous motion to safeguard funding for several public services including music tuition, what urgent assistance it can put in place to ensure that this does not have a detrimental impact on music pupils at Stirling, Balfron and McLaren high schools, as well as all associated primary schools.

The Scottish Government has supported councils to eradicate unfair music tuition charges, investing £51.3 million in the policy since 2021. The most recent Instrumental Music Services Survey confirmed that more than 61,000 pupils participated in instrumental music lessons in the academic year 2022-23, which is the highest number since the annual survey began 11 years ago.

In 2025-26, Stirling Council will receive £239 million to support day to day services, which equates to an extra £15.1 million or an additional 6.7% compared to 2024-25.

It is for individual councils to make decisions about education provision in schools on the basis of local needs and priorities.

Question reference: S6W-38144

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported challenges in diagnosing brain tumours, whether it will commit to the creation of an optimal timed diagnostic pathway for brain tumours in the next cancer action plan.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38143 on 13 June 2025.

Following extensive stakeholder engagement and data review, we published the first optimal cancer diagnostic pathways on lung, head & neck and colorectal cancers. Prioritisation of the next optimal diagnostic pathways to be developed in the subsequent Cancer Action Plan(s) will be based on data and stakeholder engagement.

A clinical review of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer has just concluded to help ensure the right person is on the right pathway at the right time. For the first time, the review has ensured the inclusion of a nationally agreed non-specific symptoms referral guideline, as well as an update to the guidance for urgent referral for suspected brain tumours. Publication of the reviewed guidelines is expected this month.

The National Headache Pathway was published by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, has been developed to support the assessment, diagnosis and management of primary headache disorders. This includes the red flag symptoms that indicate the need for urgent and/or emergency assessment to exclude a secondary cause, such as a brain tumours.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-38143

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of reports that over 70% of brain cancer patients are diagnosed in an emergency setting, which is the highest of any cancer type.

Scottish Government recognises that diagnosing brain cancer can be challenging as symptoms are wide-ranging and often vague, contributing to presentations in emergency settings. We continue to work with primary care to improve the earlier diagnosis of brain cancers.

A clinical review of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer has just concluded to help ensure the right person is on the right pathway at the right time. For the first time, the review has ensured the inclusion of a nationally agreed non-specific symptoms referral guideline, as well as an update to the guidance for urgent referral for suspected brain tumours. Publication of the reviewed guidelines is expected this month.

A new primary care cancer education platform, Gateway C, was launched in April 2024. Gateway C provides tailored information to support earlier cancer diagnosis and enable effective decision-making. This platform is accessible to all primary care clinicians and includes a brain tumour course specifically aimed at assisting the effective assessment and management of patients with a potential brain tumour.

A new National Headache Pathway has also been published by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. This pathway, based on presentation at General Practice, clearly lists red flag symptoms that indicate the need for urgent and/or emergency assessment to exclude a secondary cause, such as a brain tumour.

Question reference: S6W-38059

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to obtain robust data to track and identify emerging trends in Scotland regarding children’s use of (a) tobacco, (b) e-cigarettes and (c) nicotine pouches, in light of the reported 21,559 S2 and S4 pupils who answered questions about smoking and vaping in the Scottish School Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) in 2018 and the 25,411 S2 and S4 pupils who replied regarding use of tobacco and e-cigarettes in the Health and Wellbeing Census of 2021-22.

Our Tobacco and Vaping Framework: Roadmap to 2034 committed to tracking and reporting progress towards our 2034 target. This included work to develop further indicators, building on existing baseline data (taken from the Scottish Health Survey and the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study) as part of the first two-year implementation plan.

As part of our ongoing analytical work on the Framework, we identified a need for more regular and more detailed data on children due to the rapidly changing landscape.

Since 2024 the Scottish Government has purchased a booster sample in the ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey. This is an annual survey of 11-18 years olds in Great Britain that has been running since 2013. This has allowed us to achieve representativeness by age and gender for young people age 11 – 17 years living in Scotland.

Data from the Scotland booster sample provides robust and valuable information annually on patterns of use of cigarettes, vapes and novel nicotine products (including nicotine pouches).

Question reference: S6W-37405

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-04594 by Siobhan Brown on 1 May 2025, and in light of reported concerns that battery energy storage system facilities pose emerging fire risks, including potential explosions and toxic gas releases, what its position is on whether Lochgelly Fire Station would be able to deal with such incidents if it were to lose a fire engine and rope rescue unit.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will be conducting a full 12 week consultation on a range of possible service delivery changes in June 2025. SFRS will carefully consider the responses to that consultation before taking decisions on which options for change it will implement.

SFRS continually reviews and develops its response to any new and emerging technology to keep communities safe including in the event of an incident involving battery energy storage sites. Should an incident occur at a hazardous site of any kind, SFRS has the ability to deploy a range of resources that can be utilised by the highly skilled crews to successfully bring the incidents to a safe conclusion. These resources are not drawn from a single fire station.

Question reference: S6O-04747

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the number of serious assaults committed by teenagers has increased in the past five years.

Chamber and committees