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-38744

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered the reported commercial benefit of producing chlorine gas alongside hydrogen and oxygen when producing green hydrogen from sea water, and what its position is on whether that would help to reduce the projected price of green hydrogen.

The Scottish Government recognise that lowering the production cost of green hydrogen is a key factor in the development of the hydrogen economy in Scotland. We are supportive of innovation and technological advances that could support this aim.

Innovation within the hydrogen space will be critical to help us reach our hydrogen ambitions. To support this the Scottish Government launched the Hydrogen Innovation Scheme to drive technological process and advance innovation to support the development of the hydrogen economy in Scotland. The Scottish Government remains fully committed to helping the Scottish hydrogen sector develop and grow.

Question reference: S6W-38750

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 June 2025

The Scottish Government is committed to helping the Scottish hydrogen sector develop and grow to realise an ambition of generating 5GW of green and low-carbon hydrogen by 2030 and 25GW by 2045. Working with our Enterprise Agencies, we are actively engaging with developers to support and encourage hydrogen production projects across Scotland. Given the nascent nature of the sector, and the pace of the developing global hydrogen economy, future production capacity levels are subject to many factors and are challenging to forecast.

Question reference: S6W-38723

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates that the new zero-emission ferry that it has part funded will begin transporting passengers on Orkney Ferries routes.

Question reference: S6W-38724

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to any recent discussions by members of the Ferry Replacement Task Force, whether it will list the scheduled replacement dates for the nine vessels in the Orkney Ferries fleet.

Question reference: S6W-38700

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 13 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 27 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many care homes have closed in each of the last 10 years, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) how many residents were affected by any closures.

In regards to part A of the question, there is no definitive list of closed care homes. The Care Inspectorate publish information relating to ‘Service Cancellations and Registrations’ in their quarterly statistical reports. The most recent version was published on 9 May 2025, which can be accessed via the following link:

https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/publications-statistics/182-statistics-and-data/statistics/quarterly-statistical-reports

This includes “care home services for older people, children & young people, mental health, alcohol & drugs misuse, learning disabilities and respite services.” The number of services that have been cancelled are available in the cancelled services column in the publication table.

It is important to note that in some cases the services listed as cancelled may have been re-registered under a different business name and care service number.

This data does not provide a breakdown to local authority or regional level, this is not available.

As regards part B of the question, no data is available on the number of residents affected by cancelled services. For more information we would suggest contacting Health and Social Care Partnerships to request this data for each area.

Question reference: S6W-39041

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there are regional enterprise agencies for the South of Scotland and the Highlands and Islands, but not for any other regions.

Question reference: S6W-39023

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with the Scottish Funding Council to ensure that colleges can continue to deliver any animal care, agriculture and rural skills training that is considered critical to Scotland’s rural economy.

Question reference: S6W-39022

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to (a) protect and (b) promote access to land-based and rural education courses, in light of reported reductions in college course offerings in these areas.

Question reference: S6W-39028

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many probationary teachers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools have not started their placement in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-39020

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to providing funding for rural and animal care education in colleges to support skills development in Scotland’s land-based industries.