Questions and answers

Question reference: S6F-04053

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-04057

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2025

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to water scarcity alerts issued by SEPA for the east of Scotland, in light of low rainfall and warm temperatures.

Question reference: S6F-04052

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-37247

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-36190 by Angela Constance on 22 April 2025, when the peer review is expected to (a) commence and (b) conclude, and whether the final report will be published before the end of 2025.

Question reference: S6W-37131

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent steps it is taking to address the reported significant shortfall in Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) secondary teacher training enrolments for the 2024 intake.

The Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group figures are indicative and are provided by universities at the start of the academic session. Official Statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, covering 2024-25, will be available in early 2026. These will provide the most accurate figures on enrolments into Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes.

We are taking action to encourage more people into teaching, including in the hardest to fill teaching subjects.

Local authorities are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of teaching staff and we are providing them with £186.5 million this year as part of an agreement to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels. We will continue to support local authorities to maximise the number of teaching of jobs available, including through the joint Education and Childcare Assurance Board.

Our Teaching Bursary Scheme provides a £20,000 bursary to career changers wishing to undertake a one year Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) in the hardest to fill teaching subjects, including STEM subjects and modern languages.

We have asked Strategic Board for Teacher Education to develop advice on how to encourage more people into teaching, particularly in subjects that are challenging to fill.

Targets for secondary ITE PGDE courses have also been maintained at 2,000 for the 2025-26 academic year and are published on the Scottish Funding Council website - Intake Targets for Initial Teacher Education in AY 2025-26 - Scottish Funding Council

Question reference: S6W-37139

Asked by: Elena Whitham, MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to reduce any barriers for patients with advanced or complex Parkinson’s disease to access Scottish Medicines Consortium-approved treatments.

The provision of healthcare services, including medicines, is the responsibility of local NHS Health Boards, and it is for individual Health Boards to consider the implementation of any new treatment within their services in order to meet their local population needs.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery are having initial conversations about the potential to undertake Parkinson’s Disease pathway work, which we understand would help to explore and articulate pathways for therapies for advanced and complex Parkinson’s Disease.

Health Boards have 90 days from first receiving Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) advice in which to determine whether to make an SMC-recommended medicine (or an equivalent) available locally. This provides Health Boards with time to consider any issues associated the implementation of the medicine, such as changes to the care pathway and staff training.

We are also committed to supporting the national implementation of SMC advice and we have several ongoing programmes to address some of these implementation challenges further upstream of SMC decision making.

Question reference: S6W-37130

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent analysis it has conducted of the amount of higher education funding per student in Scotland compared with other UK nations, and what steps it will take to close any identified gap.

It is not appropriate to undertake such analysis given Scottish and rUK education systems are not comparable due to several key reasons, including but not limited to:

Higher education is 'free' at the point of delivery in Scotland, and not in the rest of the UK (rUK) and hence student numbers and cost per student are not comparable.

Scottish Colleges provide a higher proportion of Higher Education in Scotland than rUK equivalents.

Degrees are typically longer in Scotland (4 years versus 3 in rUK) and Scottish students start university at a younger age.

The English landscape changed following the Higher Education & Research Act 2017 which meant that the way in which Higher Education Institutions and Alternative Providers were funded, badged and treated changed. The governance and funding of HEIs and Alternative Providers in Scotland have remained unchanged over the same time period.

Question reference: S6W-37142

Asked by: Elena Whitham, MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any financial or service constraints that impact on patients with advanced or complex Parkinson’s disease accessing Scottish Medicines Consortium-approved treatments.

The provision of healthcare services, including medicines, is the responsibility of local NHS Health Boards, and it is for individual Health Boards to consider the implementation of any new treatment within their services in order to meet their local population needs.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery are having initial conversations about the potential to undertake Parkinson’s Disease pathway work, which we understand would help to explore and articulate pathways for therapies for advanced and complex Parkinson’s Disease.

The Scottish Government has committed to investing rebates from the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines, Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG) to fund the New Medicines Fund (NMF), which provides additional top-up funding to territorial Health Boards to support the cost of introducing new medicines.

Question reference: S6W-37117

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the long-term viability of Scotland’s livestock sector, in light of the finding that 68% of lowland cattle and sheep farms were operating at a loss in 2023-24.

Question reference: S6W-36913

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many additional school places local authorities may need to provide as a result of pupils transferring from the independent to the state sector, and what the cost will be.

A small number of local authorities have provided indicative figures for the number of pupils enrolling in state schools from independent schools.

However, the annual fluctuation of pupil rolls in those local authorities is typically significantly larger than the increase in the number of pupils enrolling in schools from the independent sector that has been reported. We do not therefore anticipate the number of pupils transferring representing a significant issue for Local Authorities.

In terms of funding, the Scottish Government collects information on the number of pupils in state schools every September as part of the pupil census. The distribution methodology for calculating the Local Government Settlement is agreed with local authorities and is informed by a number of indicators including pupil numbers from the latest annual school census.

Local authorities have the statutory responsibility to provide education for children and young people in their area.

Chamber and committees