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-35998

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of so-called "fire-and-rehire" practices in the public sector in Scotland, in light of the proposed Employment Rights Bill by the UK Government.

The Scottish Government has been consistently clear that it opposes fire and rehire practices.

The vast majority of employers consult and reach agreement with their employees when they have to consider making changes to contracts and will only consider using fire and rehire practices as an exceptional and pressing business necessity. In such cases, we are clear that there must be meaningful dialogue between employers and employees and their trade unions, to ensure transparency and that employees are treated fairly.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Employment Rights Bill, which is an opportunity to put on a statutory footing some of the progress we have made already in Scotland through our Fair Work approach with the levers at our disposal. Scottish Ministers are clear, however, that the best way to provide long term protection for Scotland’s workers is by devolving employment law.

Question reference: S6W-35739

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on school bus transport by each local authority in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-35616

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted any review of workforce planning within the Scottish civil service to ensure that staffing levels are appropriate and offer value for money to taxpayers.

Our workforce plans remain under regular review as we deploy the workforce in line with Ministerial priorities, providing public services as efficiently and effectively as possible, and operating within the direction set out in the Budget.

Since 2022 enhanced recruitment controls have been in place to manage total workforce numbers. From March 2022 to December 2024, the total workforce has reduced by 4%.

Question reference: S6W-35622

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to backdating the 36-month time limit to claim an Additional Dwelling Supplement repayment to 1 October 2022.

Increases to the timelines relating to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax Additional Dwelling Supplement were introduced with prospective effect from 1 April 2024, following a process of consultation.

The Scottish Government made clear in the initial December 2021 call for evidence and views on the Additional Dwelling Supplement that any changes arising from the process would not be made retrospective. The subsequent consultation on draft legislation published in February 2023 confirmed that the proposed changes, including to the relevant timelines, would have prospective effect only.

In this context, the Scottish Government has not considered backdating the 36 month time limit to claim an Additional Dwelling Supplement repayment to 1 October 2022.

Question reference: S6W-35731

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people have received music tuition in schools in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

Whilst data from 1999 is not held by Scottish Government, the Improvement Service’s annual Instrumental Music Survey of local authorities contains data on the number of pupils that participated in instrumental music lessons from academic year 2013-2014 to 2023-24.

The most recent Instrumental Music survey published in January 2025 confirmed that uptake in 2023-24 was the highest proportion of the school roll participating in IMS since 2017. Page 9 of the document contains a table with the number of instrumental music pupils per authority from 2016-17 until 2023-24.

In order to access data from 2012-13 you can access the 2021 Instrumental Music survey report.

Question reference: S6W-35639

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the pilot suicide bereavement service, and whether it will roll it out across all NHS boards.

Every suicide is a tragedy, with far reaching impacts on family, friends and the wider community. Providing support to people bereaved by suicide is a core part of our aim to ensure ‘everyone affected by suicide has access to high quality, compassionate, appropriate, and timely support’.

The commitment to expanding the provision of support for people bereaved by suicide is set out in Creating Hope Together – Scotland’s suicide prevention strategy and action plan, which is jointly owned by Scottish Government and COSLA.

Since 2021, the Scottish Government has provided funding of over £1 million to the Suicide Bereavement Support Service pilots in NHS Ayrshire & Arran and NHS Highland. These pilots have evaluated positively and the report was published in April 2024.

Since then, we have been working closely with partners to design and plan the expansion of suicide bereavement support across Scotland; which takes account of the evaluation findings and existing local provision. We are on track to fulfil the commitment to provide suicide bereavement support in 50% of Health Boards by April 2026, and have made recent progress in identifying the Health Board areas and commencing detailed planning. Further details will be shared over 2025.

The expansion of suicide bereavement support beyond April 2026 will be considered as we develop our next three-year Creating Hope Together action plan. That process will begin later this year.

Question reference: S6W-35582

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many official visits by a First Minister have been made to each Scottish Parliament constituency since the start of the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6W-35633

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that unpaid carers have (a) timely access to social care support and (b) breaks from caring.

Local authorities have duties under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 to provide adult carer support plans or young carer statements for any carer that wants one and to provide support to carers according to their eligible needs. These responsibilities are set out in the Carers’ Charter.

We are working to establish a right to breaks from caring through the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, to support people to protect their wellbeing and sustain caring relationships. The Bill creates a right to personalised breaks support for any carer who is not currently able to access ‘sufficient breaks’ – accessed via their personalised plan under the Carers Act. It ensures that being able to take sufficient breaks from providing care is an “identified personal outcome” of every carer – and that where a carer is unable to take such breaks, the need for support is an “identified need” of the carer. This amends the Carers Act to require local authorities to determine whether a carer is able to take sufficient breaks from their caring role; and if not, to provide support to enable them to take sufficient breaks.

The Bill (as amended at Stage 2)sections 38A and 38B creates new requirements for Ministers to make regulations setting timescales for local authorities to prepare adult carer support plans and young carer statements for all carers .Statutory guidance states that these should be delivered in “an efficient and timely manner.” Local authorities already have a duty to provide such plans within 10 working days for carers looking after someone with a terminal illness. The intention of sections 38A and 38B is to enable all carers to access support under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 – including under the proposed right to breaks - in a timely fashion and ensure more consistent national delivery.

Ahead of the new legislation, the Scottish Government is increasing the voluntary sector short breaks funding by £5million to a total of £13million for 2025-26. This is expected to support up to 15,000 additional people to be able take short breaks away from their caring responsibilities.

Question reference: S6W-35655

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when the joint visits by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland to all adolescent in-patient units and the national child in-patient unit will begin, and how often these joint visits will be carried out.

The Scottish Government has asked Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) and the Mental Welfare Commission (MWC) to undertake joint inspections of all child and adolescent inpatient units in Scotland as a matter of priority.

Neil Gray, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and myself met with both organisations in March to discuss this. HIS and the MWC are working jointly to establish these inspections. The inspections will start once a robust plan has been agreed, ensuring effective oversight of the quality and safety of these services. We expect that this will become a regular programme of inspections depending on the recommendations made from the initial round.

Question reference: S6O-04534

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the potential impact of the UK Government’s Spring Statement on the Scottish Budget.