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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2014 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S7W-01850

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the incident of subsidence in Coalsnaughton Road, Tillicoultry, how much public money has been spent and paid out to various authorities and organisations throughout the construction period and the subsequent recovery period.

Question reference: S7W-01859

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any potential cumulative impact of hyperscale data centres on water supply in Scotland.

Question reference: S7W-01849

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the £1 million funding given to Clackmannanshire Council to support residents of Coalsnaughton Road, Tillicoultry, affected by ground movement in the area, whether this funding was supplied through other agencies to act as grant money and/or security during the construction phases.

Question reference: S7W-01824

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, since May 2024, how many clinical breast cancer patients are estimated to have undergone chemotherapy from which they derived no clinical benefit, and what steps it is taking to prevent such treatment that would be determined to be of no clinical benefit and to protect resources through the immediate expansion of genomic testing.

Question reference: S7W-01830

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what key performance indicators or success measures it established prior to the Caledonian Sleeper entering public ownership in June 2023, also broken down by the targets set for each measure, and whether each target has subsequently been met.

Question reference: S7W-01844

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will publish guidance on the factors that define a green data centre, and whether, pending publication of that guidance, it will invite planning authorities to defer determining applications for hyperscale data centres.

Question reference: S7W-01833

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking, in partnership with other public agencies, to ensure that water treatment infrastructure and sewerage systems are fit for purpose and any associated contamination of rivers and seas is addressed.

Question reference: S7W-01677

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the funding of private specialist assessment or treatment in circumstances where an NHS board is unable to provide the required service and is unable to secure an onward NHS referral within a clinically appropriate timescale.

Service delivery and patient care are the responsibility of NHS Boards and healthcare professionals locally. Clinical decisions on the care and treatment of individual patients are always matters of professional judgement for the responsible practitioner.

In certain circumstances, NHS Boards may make limited use of alternative providers, including independent sector providers, in response to capacity constraints and to improve access to patient care.

Question reference: S7W-01679

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether current cross-board referral arrangements provide equitable access to specialist services across NHS Scotland, particularly in specialties where service provision is limited by workforce shortages.

The Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework and Population Health Framework, published in 2025, set out an ambitious vision for transforming Scotland’s public services.

To support this vision, NHS Boards are introducing a new collaborative, sub-national planning approach through Subnational Planning and Delivery Committees (SPDCs) East and West, which will drive a renewed focus on population-based planning across NHS Scotland.

This approach will shift health service planning beyond organisational boundaries and strengthen accountability for meeting the needs of local populations.

SPDCs East and West will work collaboratively to optimise capacity and ensure equitable access to services based on population need. By doing so, they will place the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s population at the heart of service design and delivery.

Question reference: S7W-01600

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh North Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 July 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) Cross Sector Working Group has not met since November 2024.

The Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) Cross Sector Working Group was established on a limited term basis to support the co-ordination of data collection and information sharing about RAAC across the public sector estate in Scotland. The aims and objectives of the Working Group are now met by the Cross Sector Building Safety Forum which, with a broader remit, meets to discuss a range of building safety issues with representation from across key sectors. Information about the Forum is published here: Building safety: cross sector forum - gov.scot.