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-02275

Asked by: Kayleigh Kinross-O'Neill, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether the reforms proposed as part of its Strategic Compensation Policy will apply to the Seabird Compensation Plan required from the developer of the Berwick Bank offshore windfarm, giving the developer wider access to compensatory measures.

Scottish Government published statutory guidance on compensating for adverse effects from offshore wind in July 2026. The guidance sets out processes for accessing a wider range of compensatory measures, including a requirement to work through a compensation hierarchy. As set out, the guidance should be applied by offshore wind developers when preparing compensation proposals. This includes the developer of the Berwick Bank offshore wind farm.

Question reference: S7W-02313

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the remedial action plan recommended by Environmental Standards Scotland as part of its report Protecting Scotland's seafloor, and whether this plan will include named responsible bodies, measurable outcomes, funding commitments and deadlines.

Question reference: S7W-02320

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Gethins on 24 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish updated Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Onshore Renewable Energy Developments.

Officials are currently considering evidence gathered through the 2025 public consultation on the Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Onshore Renewable Energy Developments and the subsequent stakeholder engagement undertaken in spring 2026 on the Working Paper: Onshore renewable energy - refreshing the good practice principles for community benefits: working paper - gov.scot. Subject to the completion of this work, the Scottish Government plans to publish the refreshed onshore Good Practice Principles before the end of 2026.

Question reference: S7W-02311

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh North Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Peter Hammond of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution has described Scottish Water as the "least transparent" water company in the UK.

Question reference: S7W-02272

Asked by: Kayleigh Kinross-O'Neill, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had during the current parliamentary session with SSE Renewables regarding any impact on seabirds of the Berwick Bank offshore windfarm.

Question reference: S7W-02237

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Flynn on 24 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with East Renfrewshire Council regarding the funding of the proposed Neilston to Uplawmoor link through the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund.

Transport Scotland has not had any discussions regarding funding of the Neilston to Uplawmoor link through the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund.

Transport Scotland did not receive an application from East Renfrewshire Council for the proposed Neilston to Uplawmoor link through the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) Tier 2 since it started.

In addition, East Renfrewshire Council did not allocate any of its ATIF Tier 1 funding to the proposed Neilston-Uplawmoor link in 2025-26.

Question reference: S7W-02193

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 31 July 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many people will not be eligible for the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment in winter 2026-27 because they will reach State Pension age after the qualifying week in September 2026.

To meet the eligibility conditions relating to age for Pension Age Winter Heating Payment, someone must have been born on or before 27 June 1960, for winter 2026-27. People born after this date but before 27 September 1960 would have been eligible under the previous State Pension age, by turning 66 before the end of the qualifying week which ends 27 September 2026. The Scottish Government does not hold details of the number of people who would previously have been eligible. However, National Records of Scotland publish forecasts of the number of people expected to be 66 years old at the mid-point of each year, which could help illustrate an approximate number of people turning 66 between the June and September time-period. These forecast scan be found here https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/projected-population-of-scotland-2024-based/.

Question reference: S7W-02095

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 July 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what revenue will be available for reallocation (a) overall and (b) at Helensburgh Fire Station, as a result of the changes made following the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Review.

The changes approved by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) Board will be delivered over the next 5 years with SFRS developing a change programme.

a) In the short term, there will be no net savings from the review as the total number of wholetime firefighters employed by SFRS will not reduce and there will be additional on-call firefighters (20 new posts) to be recruited. 69 wholetime firefighters in front-line fire stations will be redirected to the essential training and prevention roles. It is expected any savings from building maintenance or future capital expenditure avoided will be invested in other parts of the SFRS estate.

b) With regards to Helensburgh Fire Station, when the changes are implemented, around four wholetime pump crews (17 people), equating to £779,000 salary costs, would be available for reallocation elsewhere in the service, as only one expanded crew would be required for operating the Day Shift Duty System (DSDS). Additional on call staff, costing approximately £109,000 per annum, will be required for providing additional resilience in the evenings and weekends for the DSDS/On-call pump. Costs of approximately £67,000 in relation to training the on call crew and swift water and flood response capability will also be required. This reduced staff footprint will realise property related cost reductions of approximately £23,000 annually. It should be noted that Helensburgh and the wider area will benefit from staff being redeployed into community safety/prevention and training roles.

Question reference: S7W-02620

Asked by: Helen McDade, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Reform UK
Date lodged: Friday, 21 August 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the reported proposal by Stirling Council to outsource its primary and nursery school meals provision, and, in light of reported concerns raised about a similar proposal by Perth and Kinross Council in 2019, whether it plans to have discussions with Stirling Council regarding the potential impact such a proposal could have on food quality and local employment prior to any contract being awarded.

Question reference: S7W-02628

Asked by: Andrew Baxter, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 August 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many individuals who have been discharged from medium- or high-secure psychiatric facilities are currently subject to community-based compulsion orders or restriction orders, broken down by NHS board area, and (b) what information it holds, for each of the last five years, on (i) reoffending, (ii) serious incidents, and (iii) recalls to hospital involving such individuals.