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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-38760

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of recent media coverage of a video showing discarded fish on the Scottish seabed, what due diligence it carries out regarding any fines or convictions for illegal discard prior to it providing any funding to any fishing companies or vessels.

Applicants to the Marine Fund Scotland (MFS) are subject to scheme rules and eligibility criteria which include, where appropriate, assessment of any previous relevant offences and convictions. This is set out in detail in the MFS scheme guidance Marine and fisheries grants - gov.scot. The assessment of applications prior to funding award decisions includes liaison with Scottish Government Marine Directorate Compliance teams to consider any relevant fines and convictions.

Question reference: S6W-38740

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 3 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what compliance monitoring by NatureScot in relation to grouse shooting licences (a) took place during the 2024 and (b) is planned for the 2025 shooting season.

Desk based compliance checks have been made on all grouse moor licences in respect of ensuring the area covered by the licence is appropriate and the relevant information has been provided by the applicant. Whilst no site visits have specifically been undertaken for compliance for grouse licensing so far, NatureScot staff have been on grouse moors and visited areas in which licences are in place in the course of other casework. NatureScot has produced staff guidance in relation to reporting wildlife crime encountered by its staff, so if any issues had been identified then this would have been progressed through notification to Police Scotland and the licensing teams.

NatureScot have information sharing protocols in place with Police Scotland regarding reported incidents of wildlife crime. They also work closely with other public agencies who have roles in inspection, regulation and enforcement, such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Rural Payments Inspection Division, whereby any issues picked up will be reported to NatureScot.

NatureScot also monitors annual return information as part of their compliance monitoring. Each licence holder is required to submit details on the number of grouse shot under licence and information on how the licence holder and those operating under it have complied with the Code of Practice on Grouse Moor Management. The provision of this annual return data is a condition of licence and a key part of NatureScot’s compliance monitoring process.

For compliance monitoring for 2025, NatureScot will carry out site visits where intelligence suggests it would help understand any compliance issues.

Question reference: S6W-38168

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent action it is taking to address the governance weaknesses in the NHS in Scotland as identified by Audit Scotland in its recent publication, NHS in Scotland: Spotlight on governance.

The Scottish Government recognises the governance challenges highlighted in Audit Scotland’s NHS in Scotland: Spotlight on Governance report and is committed to a continuous improvement approach to strengthening Board effectiveness, transparency and accountability. This includes for example, a refreshed Model Framework and strengthened national oversight mechanisms.

We are also embedding the principles of the NHS Scotland Service Renewal Framework and the Population Health Framework to support more joined-up, preventative, and locally accountable decision-making. These measures aim to ensure NHS Boards are equipped to lead transformational change and deliver improved outcomes for patients and communities.

Question reference: S6W-38169

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will address Audit Scotland’s comment in its recent publication, NHS in Scotland: Spotlight on governance, that "NHS boards operate within parameters set by Scottish Government which impacts on how well they can plan and make decisions to deliver the reform needed".

The Scottish Government acknowledges Audit Scotland’s observation and is committed to ensuring that the governance framework for NHS Boards enables effective planning and delivery of reform. The recently published NHS Scotland Service Renewal Framework and Population Health Framework are key to supporting Boards to take a longer-term, whole-system view, with a greater focus on prevention, place-based care, and service redesign. These frameworks alongside our Operational Improvement Plan and are designed to reduce duplication, support local flexibility and strengthen alignment between national priorities and local delivery.

We continue to work closely with NHS Boards to identify and remove barriers to strategic decision-making that improves outcomes for patients and communities in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-38959

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33389 by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025, whether it will provide an update on the business case for a new pre-hospital emergency critical care replacement service for the east of Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-38944

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 1 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions for group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse there have been since 2010.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government publishes data on individuals prosecuted and convicted in Scottish courts in the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistical bulletin. Although this data set includes information on individual charges prosecuted (e.g., those under Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 Part 4 Children) it does not allow for group-based charges to be identified.

We have been in touch with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, who confirmed that they are unable to provide this information, as group-based crimes cannot be reliably identified from their data either.

Question reference: S6W-39035

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which international markets are currently being prioritised by Scottish Development International, and for what reasons.

Scottish Development International prioritised 26 international markets as set out in our export strategy, A Trading Nation, which is available on the gov.scot website. At the time of publication in 2019, these 26 markets account for 80% of strongest export growth opportunities.

These priority markets were selected using a comprehensive evidenced based approach that reviewed over fifteen years of Scottish export data, alongside fifteen economic and political variables, to better focus Scottish Development International export support to match Scottish exports strengths with international demand.

The Scottish Government recently concluded further work on updating our priority markets. This revised list will ask SDI to transition towards focusing on twenty priority markets and six Special Interest Markets that have near term potential for export growth. The revised list is as follows.

Americas	Europe	Middle East	Indo-Pacific
Canada USA	Belgium Denmark France Germany Ireland Italy Netherlands Norway Poland Spain Sweden Switzerland	Saudi Arabia UAE	Australia China India Japan

Special Interest Markets include: Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, and Ukraine.

For opportunities in other markets SDI will leverage the international network of the Department of Business and Trade, and the expertise of our Global Scots, Trade Envoys.

The Scottish Government plan to publish the priority market update, including a methodology note, in due course.

Question reference: S6W-38963

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made an assessment of what ear, nose and throat (ENT) and hospital audiology waiting times would currently be had a community audiology service been treating the majority of age-related hearing loss patients since 2021.

The waiting time information available to the Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) does not provide details on the reason an individual has been referred into a NHS service, including if the patient is experiencing age-related hearing loss. It is therefore not possible to make an assessment of what the waiting times for ear, nose and throat (ENT) and hospital audiology would be if a community audiology service had been treating the majority of age-related hearing loss patients since 2021.

Question reference: S6W-38902

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how many small and medium-sized businesses have returned to their pre-COVID-19 pandemic profit levels, and how the value of those businesses compares with pre-pandemic levels.

Data is available on the share of SME employers that report a profit. These estimates, sourced from the Small Business Survey, are shown in Table 1. In 2019, 78% of SME employers in Scotland reported generating a profit, this fell to 70% in 2020, with the latest data for 2023 putting the share back at 78%.

Table 1: Taking into account all sources of income in the last financial year, did you generate a profit or surplus? – SME Employers - Scotland

Business Response	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Yes	78%	70%	74%	82%	78%
No	17%	24%	21%	15%	19%
Don't know	4%	5%	5%	3%	2%
Refused	1%	1%	[low]	1%	1%
Scotland	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

Source: Small Business Survey Scotland

Notes:

1.SMEs are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, that is businesses with fewer than 250 employees.

2.Some shorthand is used in this table: [low] = values between 0 and 0.5.

3.Totals may not sum due to rounding.

Data is also available on private sector SME turnover. These estimates, sourced from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), are shown in Table 2. Note that there is an approximate two-year lag associated with the turnover data on the IDBR so, for example, the turnover data extracted from the IDBR in March 2024 is for 2022. The data in Table 2 puts SME turnover at £143.5 billion in 2022, which is 19% above the pre-pandemic level (£120.5 billion in 2019). However, it’s important to note that the turnover values are not adjusted for inflation. In terms of the SME share of private sector turnover; this fell to around 40% in the pandemic but has since returned to around 42% in the latest years for which data are available.

Table 2: SME turnover – Scotland

IDBR Extract Date	Approx. Turnover Date	SME Turnover (£m)	SME share of private sector turnover
Mar 2019	2017	116,708	41.5%
Mar 2020	2018	119,998	41.2%
Mar 2021	2019	120,515	40.3%
Mar 2022	2020	110,593	40.2%
Mar 2023	2021	122,872	42.4%
Mar 2024	2022	143,491	41.7%

Source: Inter-Departmental Business Register, Businesses in Scotland: 2024 - gov.scot

Notes:

1.Excludes central and local government.

2.SMEs are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, that is businesses with fewer than 250 employees.

3.Turnover for Financial and Insurance Activities businesses are not available on a comparable basis. Totals exclude turnover of such businesses.

4.Turnover values are in current prices, they are not adjusted for inflation.

Question reference: S6W-38788

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it (a) has spent to date and (b) is projected to spend in total on implementing the national strategy for 20mph speed limits.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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