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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Displaying 2014 questions Show Answers

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Question reference: S7W-01579

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what budget will be allocated to maintain the National Register of Ancient Woodland for the next and future financial years.

Question reference: S7W-01580

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how considerations of the Woodland Carbon Code, green finance initiatives and biodiversity net gain will influence the scope and delivery of the National Register for Ancient Woodland.

Question reference: S7W-01584

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S7W-01094 by Jim Fairlie on 3 July 2026, what stakeholders were involved in considering how to scale payments linked to the size of salmon farm escapes, and whether it will publish the evidence, submissions and correspondence of each.

Question reference: S7W-01577

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to consult on the delivery of the National Register of Ancient Woodland.

Question reference: S7W-01576

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the plan is for the implementation of the National Register of Ancient Woodland.

Question reference: S7W-01575

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its vision is for the National Register of Ancient Woodland.

Question reference: S7W-01139

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will commence section 12 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025.

Question reference: S7W-01225

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-26978 by Paul McLennan on 7 May 2024, how (a) much funding spent through the National Acquisition Programme there has been and (b) many social homes have been delivered in each year since June 2023, broken down by local authority area.

The following table provides a breakdown of spend and homes delivered through acquisitions by local authority area. The National Acquisition Programme operated in 2023-24. In 2024-25 and 2025-26 the Affordable Housing Supply Programme provided targeted acquisition funding as well as supporting acquisitions through core Resource Planning Assumptions.

	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26	TOTAL
Local Authority Area	Spend (£m)	Spend (£m)	Spend (£m)	Spend(£m)
Aberdeen City	4.234	3.128	0.083	7.445
Aberdeenshire	1.131	0.580	1.195	2.906
Angus	1.846	0.546	0.920	3.312
Argyll & Bute	0.182	1.839	0.413	2.434
City of Edinburgh	9.027	11.582	28.816	49.425
Clackmannanshire	1.974	1.235	2.572	5.781
Dumfries & Galloway	0.035	0.000	0.067	0.102
Dundee City	0.520	2.552	0.845	3.917
East Ayrshire	0.925	2.404	4.599	7.928
East Dunbartonshire	2.964	2.128	0.336	5.428
East Lothian	0.186	0.441	3.312	3.939
East Renfrewshire	0.248	0.215	1.359	1.822
Falkirk	3.150	2.910	4.605	10.665
Fife	2.970	1.898	5.761	10.629
Glasgow City	17.068	14.032	20.462	51.562
Inverclyde	0.538	0.307	0.056	0.901
Midlothian	0.195	1.013	4.255	5.463
Moray	0.042	0.321	1.050	1.413
na Eilean Siar	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
North Ayrshire	2.417	0.475	0.976	3.868
North Lanarkshire	7.972	13.759	6.634	28.365
Orkney Islands	0.000	1.212	1.781	2.993
Perth & Kinross	2.498	7.785	6.136	16.419
Renfrewshire	0.897	2.266	1.465	4.628
Scottish Borders	1.450	0.840	0.630	2.920
Shetland Islands	0.228	0.040	1.279	1.547
South Ayrshire	1.455	0.758	1.803	4.016
South Lanarkshire	9.723	7.363	7.220	24.306
Stirling	1.450	0.928	1.058	3.436
The Highland Council	3.932	2.263	3.494	9.689
West Dunbartonshire	3.890	0.562	1.799	6.251
West Lothian	0.000	1.602	3.444	5.046
Total	83.146	86.983	118.426	288.555

	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26	TOTAL
Local Authority Area	Homes Delivered	Homes Delivered	Homes Delivered	Homes Delivered
Aberdeen City	126	58	11	195
Aberdeenshire	16	8	12	36
Angus	26	8	15	49
Argyll & Bute	1	25	9	35
City of Edinburgh	138	221	374	733
Clackmannanshire	57	27	20	104
Dumfries & Galloway	1	0	2	3
Dundee City	13	37	20	70
East Ayrshire	30	3	65	98
East Dunbartonshire	21	41	4	66
East Lothian	34	5	45	84
East Renfrewshire	6	4	21	31
Falkirk	70	54	81	205
Fife	57	38	76	171
Glasgow City	176	131	129	436
Inverclyde	33	8	12	53
Midlothian	38	10	44	92
Moray	1	5	15	21
na Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	7	36	11	54
North Lanarkshire	110	191	196	497
Orkney Islands	0	0	18	18
Perth & Kinross	59	143	143	345
Renfrewshire	27	26	42	95
Scottish Borders	22	14	10	46
Shetland Islands	3	0	0	3
South Ayrshire	37	0	38	75
South Lanarkshire	202	134	136	472
Stirling	37	30	20	87
The Highland Council	65	23	55	143
West Dunbartonshire	41	43	41	125
West Lothian	45	25	16	86
Total	1,499	1,348	1,681	4,528

Please note:

These figures are local authority or housing association acquisitions only.

Figures for 2024-25 and 2025-26 are based on management information and may be subject to minor change. You will note that there has also been a small increase of 1 home reported for 2023-24 since the previous question was answered.

Due to the nature of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP), projects may draw down grant across multiple financial years. Spend, therefore, does not necessarily directly correlate to the number of homes delivered in the same financial year, as homes are only recorded as complete once a project record has fully completed.

Question reference: S7W-01223

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 July 2026

Information obtained from the national landlord registration system indicates that there were 177,870 landlords registered with one property in 2015, 180,971 in 2020 and 156,274 in 2025.

Equivalent information for 2010 is not available from the current data held on the national landlord registration system.

The Scottish Landlord Register is primarily an administrative system and was not designed to produce official statistics. Registrations remain valid for three years and there may be a delay before properties that are no longer available for rent are removed from the register. As a result, the figures should be treated as a snapshot of the register at a point in time.

Question reference: S7W-01107

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support local authorities that run inter-island ferry services, in light of the reported rising costs in global fuel prices as a result of the Middle East conflict.

The Scottish Government recognise the significant pressures facing the four local authorities responsible for ferry services and the importance of ensuring island communities are connected and continue receiving the high quality public services that they expect and deserve.

The 2026-27 Budget provided £77million of funding for inter-island connectivity, including ferry services. The Budget delivers in full the asks of the island Councils by allocating additional funding of £11.4 million of revenue and £15.5 million of capital, to help strengthen resilience.

The Scottish Government is carefully considering the impacts of fuel price volatility across the transport network and will continue to engage constructively with COSLA, individual local authorities and the UK Government.