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: S7W-01214

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 8 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the accountable bodies for the (a) Forth and (b) Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeports regarding compliance by employers in designated tax and customs sites with Fair Work Charter conditions.

Question reference: S7W-01208

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 8 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs have been created in designated tax and customs sites in the (a) Forth and (b) Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeports since March 2024 to date.

The tax sites in Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport were designated in April 2024 and those of Forth Green Freeport in June 2024. Since then, both Green Freeports have been working up their full business cases, which were signed off in autumn 2025, whilst also promoting the tax sites to investors. This has been showing early signs of success, including for example Sumitomo's £350 million new subsea cable factory at Port of Nigg and Quantum Capital Group's £300 million financing for the development of the Ardersier Energy Transition Facility.

The current, early phase of Green Freeports programme is focused on site preparation and construction of facilities, like Sumitomo's factory. This results in the creation of short-term construction job opportunities, with long term job creation expected to follow thereafter.

Job creation by companies located in the tax and customs sites is monitored through bi-annual data collections from the Green Freeports, showing 32 new direct jobs created at Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport and one new direct job at Forth Green Freeport since the designation of the tax sites and 30 September 2025. The Green Freeports also report that construction work, with associated indirect employment (not captured in the formal monitoring), is underway at tax sites in Grangemouth, Rosyth, Nigg and Inverness. At the latter two, Green Freeports advise that approximately 250 construction staff are supporting delivery of the projects on site.

Question reference: S7W-01585

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh North Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing a Scottish statutory instrument to devolve powers to local authorities for determining the location and deployment of speed cameras and speed calming measures within local areas.

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-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.

Question reference: S7W-01557

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 July 2026
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 7 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost of employing special advisers was in 2025-26.

Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers.

The total cost of Special Advisers employed during the financial year 2025-26 was £2,160,036.

Total cost includes all salary costs, employer NI, and employer pension contributions. The level of employer NI, and civil service pension contribution is reserved and is not a matter for the Scottish Government.

The cost of Special Advisers during 2025-26 was based on the following Pay Bands and Pay Ranges:

Pay Band	Pay Range (£)	Number of Special Advisers in Band
2	£67,565 – £81,868	10
3	£84,364 – £107,385	7
4	£114,242 – £121,093	1

Information on current Special Adviser appointments for 2026-27 is available on the Scottish Government website and costs for the year will be reported after the end of the current financial year.

The First Minister has appointed a more streamlined Special Adviser team after the election who are supporting ministers to deliver on the things that matter most to the people of Scotland. As of the date of this response, there are 13 Special Advisers within the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S7W-01042

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh North Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Kirsten Oswald on 7 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents involving possession of a knife or bladed article have been recorded in schools in each of the last five years.

Table 1 shows the number of police recorded crimes of having in a school an article with a blade or point over 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Table 1: Crimes of having in a school an article with a blade or point, Scotland, 2021-22 to 2025-26

Crime category	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Having in a school an article with a blade or point (not used in other criminal activity)	98	112	94	121	99
Having in a school an article with a blade or point (used in other criminal activity)	37	27	35	28	28
Total crimes of having in a school an article with a blade or point	135	139	129	149	127

Source: Accredited Official Statistics Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2025-26