Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-40894

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the park being managed by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and regulated under the Holyrood Park Regulations 1971, what discussions it has had, or plans to have, with HES regarding by what date Duddingston Low Road in Holyrood Park can be fully re-opened; what work is required to allow it to do so; how much it would cost to carry out this work, and whether it agrees in principle that the road should be fully reopened.

Question reference: S6W-40720

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether it is a requirement for a second angiographic suite to be built at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to enable a 24/7 thrombectomy service, and what plans there are to build such a suite.

A commitment to a round-the-clock thrombectomy service was set out in our Stroke Improvement Plan and this remains our aim for the thrombectomy service.

Work is ongoing to align the governance and delivery of thrombectomy with similar national programmes. This alignment with wider health service planning aims to support oversight of thrombectomy planning, for the NHS Chief Executive Group and encourage greater collaboration between NHS Boards in delivering this vital service.

This work will inform the future expansion of the service, including angiography capacity, and will support consistency across thrombectomy services in Scotland, ensuring the service maximises use of existing resources.

Question reference: S6W-40722

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Public Health Scotland Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme report suggesting that, in the last year, on admission to hospital, only 56% of stroke patients in NHS Lothian received the most basic levels of care for the condition, which is known as "the stroke care bundle".

Question reference: S6W-40698

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Independent
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to expand access to specialist migraine care through community and primary care services.

We recognise the distress and pain that migraines cause and we take the issue of migraine seriously.

The Scottish Government funded £221,176 to the Migraine Trust across 2022-2024 to work upskilling community, primary and secondary care pharmacists across NHS Grampian to help people with migraine manage their condition more effectively. This included funding to partner other health boards to extend the reach of this model and increase care and support for people living with migraine.

An eLearning programme for NHS Education for Scotland’s (NES) platform TURAS was developed through the project, comprising a suite of training materials available for all pharmacists and pharmacy teams in Scotland to access.

Question reference: S6W-40834

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has sought legal advice from the Lord Advocate regarding the legislative competence of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S6W-40835

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the UK Government has indicated, as a response to the correspondence from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care regarding the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, whether it agrees with the Scottish Government position that the Bill is outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-40555

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Independent
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40302 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 12 September 2025, regarding Adult Disability Payment (ADP) reviews, whether it will confirm the financial cost to Social Security Scotland of conducting the 142,100 reviews of claimants transferred from Personal Independence Payment to ADP, in light of the figure showing that 79% of the reviews resulted in no change of award.

Question reference: S6W-40302

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Independent
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 12 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of Adult Disability claimants transferred from PIP have received a reassessment of their claim, and what the outcomes were of any such reassessment, including the percentage of claims that have (a) increased, (b) decreased and (c) remained the same.

Social Security Scotland is committed to transparency and accountability and routinely publishes statistics on its benefits, including Adult Disability Payment reviews in its quarterly Adult Disability Payment Official Statistics publication.

As of 30 April 2025, 345,955 people had their benefits transferred from Personal Independence Payment to Adult Disability Payment. Social Security Scotland has completed reviews for 142,100 of these awards:

20% of awards resulted in an increase in award (28,145 cases)
2% resulted in a decrease in award (2,365 cases)
79% stayed the same (111,590 cases)

It is not possible to directly calculate the percentage of clients who have had a review, as a small number have had more than one review since their benefit was transferred.

The initial review date for transferred Adult Disability Payment awards is based on the Personal Independence Payment review date set by the Department for Work and Pensions, so many transferred Adult Disability Payment awards are not yet due to be reviewed. The next Adult Disability Payment statistics will be published on 16 September 2025, covering up to 31 July 2025.

Social Security Scotland is committed to transparency and accountability and routinely publishes statistics on its benefits, including Adult Disability Payment reviews in its quarterly Adult Disability Payment Official Statistics publication.

As of 30 April 2025, 345,955 people had their benefits transferred from Personal Independence Payment to Adult Disability Payment. Social Security Scotland has completed reviews for 142,100 of these awards:

20% of awards resulted in an increase in award (28,145 cases)
2% resulted in a decrease in award (2,365 cases)
79% stayed the same (111,590 cases)

It is not possible to directly calculate the percentage of clients who have had a review, as a small number have had more than one review since their benefit was transferred.

The initial review date for transferred Adult Disability Payment awards is based on the Personal Independence Payment review date set by the Department for Work and Pensions, so many transferred Adult Disability Payment awards are not yet due to be reviewed. The next Adult Disability Payment statistics will be published on 16 September 2025, covering up to 31 July 2025.

Question reference: S6W-39898

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 5 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason section 8 of the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023 has not yet been implemented.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing all elements of the Bail and Release (Scotland) Act 2023 (“the 2023 Act”).

The sections of the Act are being commenced at different times, with the timeline being influenced by multiple factors, including engagement with stakeholders around resource and readiness, whilst taking account of the wider priorities in the justice landscape.

We have already commenced various sections of the 2023 Act. This includes all of part 1 of the 2023 Act which relates to bail and bail decision making. Section 11 (Emergency Early Release), Section 14 (Prescribed Victim Support Organisations), and Section 15 (Reporting on the operation of Part 2: Release) have all been commenced.

This Government has been leading justice partners in efforts to manage the complex and high prison population, for an extended period of time. Resources within SG, the SPS, justice social work and other partners have been focussed on delivering changes in legislation and prison operations related to safely managing and reducing the prison population in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-39899

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 5 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when section 8 of the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023 will be implemented.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing all relevant elements of the 2023 Act. Section 8 of the Bail and Release From Custody (Scotland) Act 2023 will be implemented as soon as is practicable.

The sections of the Act are being commenced at different times, with the timeline being influenced by multiple factors, including engagement with stakeholders around resource and readiness. Delivery of implementation work has been impacted by the need for collective work to safely manage the complex and high prison population in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39898 on 5 September 2025. 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.

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