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-38040

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received any data on the inclusion of accessible or inclusive equipment in play parks renewed using its renewal funding, and whether this data will be published.

Question reference: S6W-38036

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what specific data it has received from local authorities on the (a) number and (b) condition of play parks renewed using the £60 million national play park fund since 2021.

Question reference: S6W-38016

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what review it has undertaken of the provision of school security measures across the school estate.

Question reference: S6W-38202

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its £30 million Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund.

I can advise Parliament that the Scottish Government’s £30 million Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure Fund has now been fully allocated to local authorities to enable them to work in partnership with the private sector to attract matched investment and deliver approximately 6,000 additional public charge points across Scotland by 2030.

Scotland currently has over 6,800 public charge points and is on track to meet its commitment of enabling approximately 24,000 additional public EV charge points by 2030, the majority of which will be funded and delivered by the private sector.

This fund prioritises the delivery of new public EV charging infrastructure in those parts of Scotland less likely to benefit from stand-alone private sector investment in public charging infrastructure.

I can further advise that through the fund, the Scottish Government has provided the North of Scotland partnership, consisting of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Highland and Moray councils, with over £7 million to transform charging infrastructure across the North of Scotland.

Our investment has enabled this partnership to leverage over £4.9 million of additional matched private sector investment over the next three years to ensure that drivers of electric vehicles in the North of Scotland experience the availability, accessibility and reliability of public EV charging they need and deserve.

Question reference: S6W-37736

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average time has been between receiving a social care assessment and delivery of a social care package in each year since 2018, also broken down by NHS board.

The Scottish Government does not hold data which would answer this question.

However, data up to 2022-23 on Social Care eligibility and waiting times is publicly available at Local Authority level via the following weblink:

Social care: eligibility criteria and waiting times Scotland 2022-2023 - gov.scot

Data showing the time waited between completion of a community care assessment and delivery of a new personal care service in the final quarter of each financial year can be found in the ‘Waiting times new personal care clients’ worksheet of the Excel workbook accompanying the publication.

However there are a number of caveats with these data:

The data return template sent to LAs is aggregate, and only grouped time periods are collected. Therefore it is not possible to calculate an average waiting time – only a distribution of time periods is possible.
Many local authorities have reported difficulty in providing the information asked for in this data collection and therefore not all data is available for every year.
Due to the gaps in the Local Authority level data, we cannot effectively aggregate to Health Board. Completeness levels for each LA can be found within the ‘Data completeness’ tab of the Excel workbook accompanying the publication.

Due to the issues faced in collecting this data from LAs and due to the lack of completeness, this data collection has been paused while we explore alternative methods of obtaining higher quality information on eligibility criteria and the length of time people wait for services. Therefore the most recent data available is for
2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-37738

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is addressing any regional disparities in waiting times for assessed social care packages, and whether it will provide a breakdown of what efforts are being made by each NHS board to reduce waiting times.

The Scottish Government understands the pressures faced and have invested a record £21.7 billion in health and social care in 2025-26, which includes almost £2.2 billion for social care and integration

However, it is important to note that while the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care support policy in Scotland, decisions on how best to deliver services to local communities are ultimately for integration authorities and locally elected representatives to make.

While service delivery is ultimately a local responsibility, it is worth noting that the Scottish Government is taking action to reduce waiting times on a national level. On 31 March 2025 we published the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan which sets out a clear plan to reduce waiting times and delayed discharges.

The Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework, which is scheduled to be published in June 2025, will also focus on the key reform areas that will drive our model of service to be more preventative, to find risk factors sooner and raise the level of early intervention and proactive care.

Question reference: S6W-37924

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the sale of Prestwick Airport to a new owner or the timescales around its potential return to the private sector.

I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.

Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.

This process is continuing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.

Question reference: S6W-37765

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to increase the role of registered (a)(i) district, (ii) school and (iii) general practice nurses and (b) health visitors to help reduce health inequalities.

Tackling health inequalities is a key part of the preventative care role for school nurses, general practice nurses and health visitors and is aligned to public health priorities to improve health and wellbeing outcomes, particularly for women and children. District nurses have a role in disease management in populations affected by health inequalities, delivered in community settings, and support people to stay healthy at home.

Question reference: S6W-37823

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether legislation will be required to deliver an integrated social care and health record, as referenced in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2024-25.

The Scottish Government are committed to delivering a digital health and care record and can confirm that legislation is not required to create such a record. However, Part 2 of the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, if passed, will create the enabling conditions for success of a digital health and care record by improving information sharing and usage between individuals and organisations within the health and social care system. The Scottish Government is listening to the views of MSPs presented at Stage 2 of the parliamentary process and considering what amendments may be useful in delivering a record that improves outcomes for people in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-37832

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the NHS pay deal will affect resource allocation to frontline services.

The Scottish Government recognise that workforce and pay costs driven by a period of prolonged high inflation are now contributing to significant budget pressures across health and social care, the wider Scottish Government budget and the whole of the public sector. This Government has been clear that the extent of these challenges will not be addressed in a single year and we will continue to make the tough choices necessary to support sustainable public finances, whilst also seeking to minimise the impact on frontline services as far as possible.