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: S6F-04001

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-04000

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-04008

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2025

To ask the First Minister, in light of the reported issues arising from proposed rural nursery closures or mothballing, including the potential impact on the sustainability of rural communities and the operation of primary schools, whether the Scottish Government will review the relevant legislation and the guidance on criteria for protecting rural primary schools from closure.

Question reference: S6W-36811

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of a recent UK-wide survey suggesting that 17% of NHS staff did not consider their building to be safe, whether it will commission a similar survey of NHS Scotland staff.

The iMatter Continuous Improvement Programme, which was developed by NHSScotland staff, enables the measurements of staff experience and employee engagement across all 22 Health Boards as well as participating Health and Social Care Partnerships.

This enables Health Boards to ensure that the insights and experiences of staff are captured and acknowledged, helping to influence and shape initiatives to enhance staff support.

Question reference: S6W-36761

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the Single Building Assessment (SBA) to facilitate the delivery of the Cladding Remediation Programme defines the term (a) development, (b) building and (c) stairs, and whether this definition is applied consistently across all cladding-related policies and reporting.

The Single Building Assessment (SBA) is a comprehensive evaluation designed to assess fire safety risks associated with external wall systems in Scottish buildings. However, specific definitions for the terms (a) development, (b) building, and (c) stairs within the context of the SBA are not explicitly detailed in the definitions of the Housing Cladding Remediation (Scotland) Act 2025.

Development: The term development is not specifically defined within the SBA. Generally, in Scottish planning context, development refers to the carrying out of building, engineering, mining, or other operations in, on, over, or under land, or the making of any material change in the use of any buildings or other land.

Building: While the SBA specification does not provide a specific definition of building, it refers to in-scope buildings as those eligible for assessment under the programme.

The Cladding Remediation Programme aims to address risks in domestic multi-residential buildings that meet the following criteria:

have at least one flat
Have cladding
are 11 meters or more in height
were either
- constructed between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022
- developed between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022

Stairs: The term stairs is not explicitly defined in the SBA-related documents. In general construction terminology, stairs refer to a set of steps leading from one floor of a building to another.

Question reference: S6W-36609

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32778 by Ivan McKee on 7 January 2025, what the cost would have been in each year since 2016-17 of bringing the Higher Property Rate into line with that in England, broken down by industry sector.

Table 1 presents the estimated gross cost of setting the Higher Property Rate equal to the Standard Multiplier in England, from 2016-2017 until 2020-2021.

The Higher Property Rate in Scotland was 1.3p higher than the Standard Multiplier in England from 2016-2017 until 2018-2019, and 1.2p higher in 2019-2020 and
2021-2022. The Higher Property Rate and the Standard Multiplier in each year are shown in Table 2.

Figures for years from 2021-2022 until 2025-2026 are available in answers to questions S6W-25972 on 18 March 2024, S6W-25588 on 1 March 2024 and
S6W-32778 on 7 January 2025.

In 2016-2017, the threshold for the Standard Multiplier was £18,000, while the threshold for the Higher Property Rate was £51,000. Both thresholds were set to £51,000 from 2017-2018 until 2019-2020. From 2020-2021, the threshold for the Higher Property Rate was increased to £95,000, while the threshold for the Standard Multiplier remained at £51,000.

All figures are gross estimates, and are not adjusted for any relief. Figures are broken down by property class, as the Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

This table is based on the valuation roll as at 1 October 2016, 1 October 2017, 1 October 2018, 1 October 2019, and 1 October 2020.

Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest £1,000, and may not sum due to rounding.

Table 1: Estimated gross cost of reducing the Higher Property Rate to the level of the English Standard Multiplier (£), broken down by property class

Property class	2016-2017 (£)	2017-2018 (£)	2018-2019 (£)	2019-2020 (£)	2020-2021 (£)
Shops	16,118,000	14,275,000	14,139,000	12,898,000	10,783,000
Public houses and restaurants	802,000	881,000	860,000	733,000	390,000
Offices	11,314,000	9,156,000	9,171,000	8,222,000	6,689,000
Hotels	2,072,000	2,824,000	2,886,000	2,686,000	2,334,000
Industrial subjects	11,080,000	11,145,000	11,184,000	10,374,000	8,814,000
Leisure and entertainment	2,262,000	2,292,000	2,310,000	2,126,000	1,848,000
Garages and petrol stations	518,000	538,000	536,000	499,000	351,000
Cultural	458,000	489,000	496,000	494,000	443,000
Sporting subjects	149,000	143,000	139,000	128,000	113,000
Education and training	6,461,000	6,846,000	6,973,000	6,394,000	5,735,000
Public service subjects	3,244,000	3,406,000	3,420,000	3,161,000	2,741,000
Communications	282,000	294,000	378,000	275,000	249,000
Quarries, mines, etc.	215,000	177,000	168,000	151,000	110,000
Petrochemical	1,533,000	1,579,000	1,565,000	1,442,000	1,432,000
Religious	179,000	99,000	102,000	95,000	41,000
Health and medical	2,360,000	2,473,000	2,531,000	2,345,000	2,120,000
Other	941,000	1,221,000	1,244,000	1,136,000	1,098,000
Care facilities	1,070,000	1,048,000	1,075,000	993,000	611,000
Advertising	29,000	44,000	45,000	43,000	34,000
Statutory undertaking	9,275,000	11,952,000	12,096,000	11,195,000	10,953,000
All	70,361,000	70,881,000	71,320,000	65,392,000	56,889,000

Table 2: The Standard Multiplier in England and the Higher Property Rate in Scotland, 2016-2017 to 2020-2021, pence per £1 of rateable value

Rate	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021
Higher Property Rate (Scotland)	51.0	49.2	50.6	51.6	52.4
Standard Multiplier (England)	49.7	47.9	49.3	50.4	51.2
Difference	1.3	1.3	1.3	1.2	1.2

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

Question reference: S6W-36565

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what accountability mechanisms are in place for ministers when NHS performance targets are missed.

NHS Boards are separate entities with their own local governance and performance management arrangements in place, in line with national guidance, such as the ‘NHS Scotland Blueprint for Good Governance.’ This can be accessed at: www.gov.scot/publications/blueprint-good-governance-nhs-scotland-second-edition/.

There is also an ongoing cycle of routine engagement, scrutiny and support between the Scottish Government and NHS Boards. This helps ensure the latter are delivering on local and national priorities, and are being held to account for the significant public investment in the NHS. This evidence-based approach to monitoring performance and managing risk across the NHS in Scotland is underpinned by the ‘NHS Scotland Support and Intervention Framework’, which consists of five stages in a ladder of escalation that provides a model for support and intervention by the Scottish Government. NHS Boards can be escalated on the Framework as a result of significant and persistent performance issues; informing further scrutiny, support and intervention, as required. Further details can be accessed at: www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-scotland-support-and-intervention-framework/.

Question reference: S6W-36589

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been reported missing in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-36432

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure the continuity of public services in the event that any proposed local authority industrial action goes ahead.

The Scottish Government values the contribution of Local Government workers to delivering essential public services across the country and urges all parties to work together to avoid disruptive industrial action.

The Scottish Government respects the independence of Local Government and has no formal role in pay negotiations which take place between COSLA and Scottish Joint Council (SJC) trade unions. It is also the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and workforce, including any contractual changes regarding terms and conditions.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with Local Government, including through COSLA, to mitigate the impact of any industrial action that does take place.

Question reference: S6W-36470

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its target to increase the amount of heating and cooling supplied by heat networks, what recent discussions ministers have had with the UK Government regarding the affordability of heat networks for consumers.

I recently wrote to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero regarding the introduction of consumer standards for heat networks. I sought assurance about the use of pre-payment meters, recommending that their installation is banned where householders are identified as vulnerable, and that affordable repayment plans are offered as a prior step.

Implementation of the Great Britain wide consumer protection regime is progressing. Consumer Advocacy and Advice functions and a new Consumer Redress scheme started on 1 April 2025. Consumer Scotland is the new statutory advocacy body for heat network consumers in Scotland. Heat network consumers are now able to access direct support through Advice Direct Scotland either via Energy Advice | Energy Advice | energyadvice.scot or through the helpline (0808 196 8660). The Energy Ombudsman also started its statutory role in providing a dispute resolution service across Great Britain.

New heat networks consumer protection regulations across Great Britain will give Ofgem powers to investigate and intervene where prices appear to be disproportionate or unfair. Further detail of the forthcoming regulation can be found on Ofgem’s website: Heat networks | Ofgem.

Scottish Government officials regularly engage with their UK Government counterparts about consumer regulations, pricing and technical standards on heat networks and other energy policy.