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-42268

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comment by the Scottish Retail Consortium in The Herald on 1 December 2025 that if Scotland did not follow England in introducing a retail-specific discounted business rate, it will "become a materially less attractive investment option” and that this could lead to a “shift in investment to other parts of the UK”.

Question reference: S6W-42269

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comment by the Scottish Retail Consortium in The Herald on 1 December 2025 that if Scotland did not follow England in introducing a retail-specific discounted business rate, then it will "be at odds with" the vision of its Retail Industry Leadership Group, which is to make Scotland “the best place in the UK to grow a retail business”.

Question reference: S6W-42270

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has received from representatives of the retail industry following the decision in the UK Budget to implement a retail-specific discounted business rate in England from April 2026.

Question reference: S6W-42265

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to amend the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 to provide additional flexibilities for local authorities during the remainder of the current parliamentary session.

The Scottish Government plans to introduce an amending bill to Parliament early in the new year. If passed, the Bill will still allow local authorities to charge a percentage based visitor levy, but for those that require a different model the Bill will introducing additional flexibility to set either a single fixed amount or a range of fixed amounts for different purposes or areas. It will also include provisions to support the implementation of local schemes, including clarifying how the levy is to be charged in third party sales.

Question reference: S6F-04502

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2025

To ask the First Minister what funding is in place to ensure that the A9 dualling project is completed by the target date of 2035.

Question reference: S6W-41970

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-05099 by Neil Gray on 5 November 2025 regarding patient safety at NHS Grampian arising from faulty sterilising equipment, whether it will provide an update on how it will apply the Scottish Public Finance Manual provisions on redress where maladministration has been established, including what steps are being taken to provide a remedy to Medical Devices UK Ltd.

The advice remains that the complainant seeks a view from the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman on whether maladministration has occurred, and if so, appropriate remedy.

As set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual, Annex 1:

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (the Ombudsman) considers complaints from members of the public claiming that they have sustained injustice or hardship in consequence of maladministration or service failure. The powers and responsibilities of the Ombudsman are set out in the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002.

In the light of the investigation of the case, the Ombudsman will decide whether complainants have suffered injustice because of maladministration; and whether any injustice has been, or will be, remedied.

Question reference: S6O-05247

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the impact of the visitor levy on businesses operating in the hospitality and tourism sectors.

Question reference: S6W-41642

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much money in each local authority area has been raised from sporting rates in each of the last five years, also broken down by how much was then passed to the Scottish Land Fund to help fund community purchases of land.

Table 1 shows the estimated net non-domestic rates income from shooting rights, from 2020-2021 to 2024-2025, broken down by council area. These are based on snapshot data of relief awards from June or July in each year, and on valuation data from 1 October in each year. Estimates for 2025-2026 will be available later in the year.

The figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Where the figure is greater than £0, but rounds to £0, the value is marked as “[low]”. The totals may not sum due to rounding.

Table 2 shows the amounts awarded by the Scottish Land Fund committee to community groups for land purchase from 2020-2021 to 2024-2025. This includes all awards for the purchase of land and/or buildings.

Table 1: Estimated net NDR income (£) from shooting rights, 2020-2021 to 2024-2025

Council area	2020-2021	2021-2022	2022-2023	2023-2024	2024-2025
Aberdeen City	6,000	7,000	5,000	4,000	4,000
Aberdeenshire	206,000	114,000	89,000	105,000	140,000
Angus	72,000	69,000	67,000	103,000	108,000
Argyll and Bute	316,000	194,000	257,000	219,000	253,000
City of Edinburgh	[low]	4,000	1,000	3,000	2,000
Clackmannanshire	3,000	3,000	4,000	3,000	9,000
Dumfries and Galloway	202,000	175,000	154,000	94,000	103,000
Dundee City	[low]	[low]	[low]	1,000	[low]
East Ayrshire	32,000	34,000	27,000	64,000	36,000
East Dunbartonshire	5,000	3,000	3,000	4,000	4,000
East Lothian	3,000	4,000	4,000	4,000	4,000
East Renfrewshire	2,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000
Falkirk	3,000	3,000	2,000	12,000	2,000
Fife	30,000	23,000	19,000	43,000	19,000
Glasgow City	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	597,000	485,000	404,000	935,000	587,000
Inverclyde	1,000	1,000	3,000	2,000	[low]
Midlothian	6,000	11,000	6,000	8,000	7,000
Moray	125,000	102,000	73,000	184,000	123,000
Na h-Eileanan Siar	28,000	19,000	16,000	44,000	13,000
North Ayrshire	20,000	13,000	12,000	5,000	4,000
North Lanarkshire	7,000	5,000	6,000	5,000	5,000
Orkney Islands	5,000	7,000	4,000	3,000	3,000
Perth and Kinross	141,000	131,000	104,000	299,000	308,000
Renfrewshire	2,000	5,000	1,000	1,000	1,000
Scottish Borders	135,000	110,000	81,000	141,000	182,000
Shetland Islands	7,000	7,000	6,000	38,000	20,000
South Ayrshire	32,000	29,000	46,000	24,000	25,000
South Lanarkshire	49,000	38,000	41,000	30,000	48,000
Stirling	76,000	68,000	64,000	66,000	68,000
West Dunbartonshire	6,000	3,000	6,000	4,000	3,000
West Lothian	5,000	5,000	2,000	3,000	2,000
Scotland	2,121,000	1,676,000	1,509,000	2,452,000	2,084,000

Source: SG estimates, based on NDR billing data as at 1 July 2020, 1 June 2021, 1 July 2022, 1 July 2023, and 1 June 2024; NDR valuation data as at 1 October in each year.

Table 2: Amounts awarded (£) by the Scottish Land Fund committee to community groups for land purchase, 2020-2021 to 2024-2025

Financial year	Amount awarded
2020-2021	4,798,849
2021-2022	6,811,695
2022-2023	6,173,340
2023-2024	9,698,394
2024-2025	5,685,325
Total	33,167,603

Question reference: S6O-05099

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reported concerns regarding patient safety at NHS Grampian arising from faulty sterilising equipment, whether an independent investigation into the procurement practices will be held.

Question reference: S6W-40946

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Innovation Investment Programme, which was announced in the National Innovation Strategy and expected to be delivered in early 2024, is not in place.

The Scottish Government is committed to establishing Scotland as a leading start-up nation that fosters innovation, creates jobs, and accelerates economic growth.

Scotland’s National Innovation Strategy noted the importance of investing in innovation and since its publication in 2023, the Scottish Government has delivered the following as part of its investment in innovation:

Invested almost £3 million in a Proof of Concept Fund to support university researchers to develop their innovative ideas and technologies and bridge the gap between groundbreaking research and commercial applications.
Continued to invest in the Techscaler programme which now in its third year has supported member companies to collectively raise over £195 million to date - demonstrating Scotland’s growing reputation as a leading tech hub.
Since 2023, the Ecosystem Fund has invested £2.4 million across 70 projects that strengthen the infrastructure supporting innovators and entrepreneurs to commercialise their ideas and access the resources, knowledge and capital needed to bring innovations to market.

The Scottish Government has also provided £5 million to support accelerated growth of Scotland’s innovation clusters and launched our AI Scotland programme, including a pilot scheme for SMEs that positions Scotland as a creator and supplier of AI technologies.

In line with their scaling innovation mission Scottish Enterprise(SE) has also supported industries where Scotland has global strengths to convert and scale innovation into growth. During 2024 – 2025 SE invested £43m into approximately 100 innovative, high-growth potential, early-stage companies leveraging £111m of external investment. Additionally, SE has supported 66 companies to raise
£132 million in growth funding, supported 46 innovative spinout projects, including the creation of three new spinouts, and backed ten female academic founders through market explorer programmes.