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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 47721 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-33833

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 22 January 2024, Early learning and childcare (ELC): provision for 1 and 2 year olds in Scotland, whether it will provide an update on progress with the implementation of this commitment, and by what date this will be fully implemented.

Keeping children in Scotland out of poverty is the First Minister’s and this government’s top priority and we recognise how important both early learning and school age childcare are in supporting families. That is why we continue prioritise our investment of around £1 billion per year in delivering funded ELC to all eligible children. And as a result, families across Scotland have been benefitting from the provision of 1140 hours of high quality ELC since 2021. We also committed in the 2024 Programme for Government to work with local authorities to maximise the uptake of funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds.

We are now working with local authorities and the Improvement Service on a National Improvement Project which will take focussed action in five local authorities as well as seek out and promote good practice to increase uptake for eligible two year olds across all local authority areas.

We are also progressing our early adopter community (EAC) work in six local authorities, backed by £16 million between 2024-25 and 2025-26. The EACs are expanding access to affordable childcare for low-income families with children from the early years through to the end of primary school and evaluating the difference this can make.

This expansion includes continued investment in four EACs established in 2022 in Dundee, Clackmannanshire, Glasgow and Inverclyde, as well as further expansion into new communities in Fife and Shetland.

Ultimately, it will help us to understand what it takes to design and deliver local childcare systems that support those families most at risk of living in poverty.

We have undertaken two key pieces of research, which were published last year. The first was work to map current ELC provision for younger children in Scotland and the second a literature review undertaken by Public Health Scotland. The purpose of this work was to help us understand and identify what models of ELC are best for younger children.

The evidence suggests that attending high quality formal childcare can have benefits for children’s cognitive development. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds were found to benefit most from early access to formal childcare. However, the evidence of benefits for social, emotional and behavioural outcomes is more limited and mixed. The findings from this research supports taking a considered approach to policy development so that we understand what is right for families with children under three.

We will continue to build on this early insights work by piloting new approaches via funding from the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund to test models of holistic family support, learning from our EACs and reviewing current evidence.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving our existing funded ELC offer and to taking the time needed to deliver a childcare expansion that is both fair and affordable, giving children the best possible start in life and supporting parents and carers to work, train and take up education opportunities.

Question reference: S6W-33828

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many tests have been performed to date in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde by the capsule sponge diagnostic service.

As part of the Scottish Government’s Endoscopy Recovery and Remobilisation Plan (2021) nurse led Oesophageal Cell Collection Device services were rolled out across NHS Boards. To date, 11 Mainland Boards have active services with over 6,000 procedures delivered to August 2023. The OesophagealCell Collection Device is an alternative to endoscopy for diagnosis of pre and early oesophageal cancer as part of Upper GI Endoscopy Recovery Planning. The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) continue to support the roll out, and evaluation of OesophagealCell Collection Device across Scotland.

Since starting in September 2020, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde have performed 1,680 oesophageal sponge cytology tests.

Question reference: S6W-33922

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions the current (a) Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and (b) Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity has met with the Clyde Fishermen’s Association since they were appointed to their role.

Question reference: S6W-33825

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the proposals in the draft Budget 2025-26 might impact on the college sector.

Despite the increase in resource funding for 2025-26, the Scottish Government recognises the challenges across the college sector.

The Scottish Government has increased investment in the college sector, with more than £750m allocated in the 2025-26 draft budget to support the delivery of high-quality education and training.

The £13.2m (2.1%) increase in the 2025-26 net college resource budget allocation includes funds of £4.5m to support the college lecturer pay settlement and funds to cover increased pension costs.

In addition to this, as negotiations progressed around the budget agreement, we have now agreed a proposal to invest a further £3.5m in targeted support for the College sector. This will be used to create an Offshore Wind Skills Programme and College Care Skill Programme, supporting a pipeline of skilled workers.

Colleges continue to deliver exceptional learning to students while driving forward reforms, and the Scottish Government and the SFC will continue to work closely with the sector to diversify funding opportunities and deliver more flexible funding arrangements.

The Scottish Funding Council will now work closely with the college sector to identify the best split of the available resources, taking into account Government priorities and the college sector’s needs.

Question reference: S6W-33827

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation of the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Skills Delivery Landscape.

The Post-School Education and Skills Reform Programme, developed in light of the recommendations of James Withers’ Independent Review of the Skills Delivery Landscape and the Scottish Government’s own report on the Purpose and Principles for Post-School Education, Research and Skills, is progressing well.

I provided the latest update on the progress made by the projects within this programme in the annex to my letter of 20 December 2024 to the Public Audit Committee.
Response to Public Audit Committee from Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Minister for Veterans.

Additionally, on 22 January 2025 I announced, as the next step in delivering our plans for post-school education reform, that we will consolidate all post-school provision funding within the Scottish Funding Council and all student support funding. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-33842.

I will update the Parliament in due course on plans for the Bill announced in the Programme for Government 2024-25.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-33774

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of lost or stolen government-issued mobile phones have been reported in the last five years, and what actions were taken in response.

Question reference: S6W-34029

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) plastic, (b) paper, (c) metal and (d) glass straws it has procured in each of the last 10 years, and what the average cost was.

Question reference: S6W-33829

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to ensure that there is access to capsule sponge diagnostics for all who require this in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) continues to support the roll out, and evaluation of the Oesophageal Cell Collection Device (CytoSponge) across Scotland.

However, whilst Scottish Ministers are responsible for determining the strategic policy of the NHS in Scotland, neither Scottish Ministers or officials are able to intervene directly in matters relating to clinical decision making as this is the sole responsibility of Healthcare professionals and Boards.

To specifically support scope based diagnostics we have published an Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan backed by £70 million. The plan focuses on key areas such as: Balancing Demand and Capacity; Workforce Training and Development; Infrastructure; and Innovation and Redesign. This plan has delivered:

Four mobile endoscopy units across Scotland, providing 5-6 additional endoscopy rooms.
A national endoscopy surveillance framework, introduced in February 2022, which has been implemented in all Health Boards and holds near-real time information for patients in Scotland having regular endoscopy checks (surveillance).
Triage tools such as qFIT, and endoscopy alternatives such as Cytosponge, and Colon Capsule Endoscopy have also been introduced.

Question reference: S6W-33823

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with (a) the college sector and (b) Ayrshire College regarding its draft budget 2025-26.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with the college sector on a range of issues, including the 2025-26 budget, via Colleges Scotland.

The Scottish Government has had no direct engagement with Ayrshire College on the 2025-26 budget.

With the publication of the 2025-26 budget, it is now the role of the Scottish Funding Council to engage closely with colleges to identify the best split of available resources, taking into account Government priorities and the needs of the college sector.

Question reference: S6W-33916

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions the current (a) Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and (b) Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity has met with the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation since they were appointed to their role.