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: S6F-04534

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-42566

Asked by: Dr Alasdair Allan, MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jim Fairlie on 15 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in setting out how it will restore 400,000 hectares of degraded peatland by 2040.

The Scottish Government is committed to protecting, managing and restoring Scotland’s degraded peatlands, as a vital part of mitigating and adapting to the climate and nature emergencies. That is why today we are publishing the first in a series of rolling Peatland ACTION Five-Year Partnership Plans, setting out how we will deliver Scotland’s long-term vision for peatlands by 2040.

Peatlands cover around 2 million hectares of Scotland, roughly a quarter of the country, and are of national and global significance. Two-thirds of all UK peatlands are in Scotland, and our blanket bogs represent around 10% of the global total. However, around two thirds of Scotland’s peatlands are degraded, and releasing rather than storing carbon. Restoring degraded peatlands returns the many benefits they can provide for climate, for nature and for people – including the ability to sequester carbon, support biodiversity and nature, reduce flooding and wildfire risk and improve drinking water quality. It also offers a growing source of skilled jobs for rural communities, and seasonal opportunities for existing rural workers.

Our draft Climate Change Plan sets out the Scottish Government’s ambition to increase peatland restoration by 10% each year to 2030 and maintain levels after that leading to the restoration of more than 400,000 hectares by 2040. Within this, we will look to increase the proportion of the most highly degraded and emitting peat that is restored. These policies reflect an increase in our ambition and acknowledge the work underway to grow this relatively young industry.

The Partnership Plan published today sets out realistic and achievable activity to show what the peatland sector in Scotland has the capacity, skills and capabilities to deliver. It identifies three themes as the partnership’s key priorities over the next 5 years:

Further – Expand peatland restoration in Scotland
Fairer – Support a Just Transition through restoration
Better – Improve how we work and solve technical challenges

The actions set out in the plan aim to address barriers to further upscaling, build delivery capacity and stability in the sector, simplify processes, increase funding certainty, build a long-term pipeline of investible restoration projects, create economic opportunities for rural communities and demonstrate that peatland restoration can, in the right circumstances, integrate with established land-uses.

Engagement with the sector has and will continue to inform peatland restoration planning and delivery. Lessons learned and achievements from this phase of delivery will inform our future approach, ensuring the partnership remains focused on the right priorities, at the right time, as we progress toward the Scottish Government’s proposed 2040 restoration target.

Question reference: S6W-42422

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41814 by Gillian Martin on 25 November 2025, how it is investing in Scotland’s water and sewage network to ensure it is fully able to cope with expected increases of heavy rainfall events in the future.

Question reference: S6W-42415

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Crohn's & Colitis UK's new strategy, Transforming Understanding of Crohn’s & Colitis, which states that around one in seven people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) receive their diagnosis following an emergency admission, and how it plans to work with the charity to improve early diagnosis.

The Scottish Government welcomes Crohn’s & Colitis UK’s new strategy Transforming Understanding of Crohn’s & Colitis, and their strategic ambitions for 2026-2036. We recognise that timely diagnosis is essential to improving outcomes and reducing emergency admissions.

We expect all Boards to follow best practice and adhere to current guidelines and standards for people with suspected IBD. A national IBD pathway for NHS Scotland was published in January 2025: inflammatory-bowel-disease-ibd-pathway.pdf. This pathway is intended to be used by primary and secondary care health care professionals who are concerned that a patient may have undiagnosed IBD.

We will continue to engage with third sector organisations including Crohn’s & Colitis UK as we remain committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with IBD are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

Question reference: S6W-42410

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) specialist nursing workforce to meet the IBD standards, in light of the finding in Crohn's & Colitis UK's research that almost a third of services in Scotland are not meeting safe staffing levels.

The Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland; however, the statutory responsibility for delivering or commissioning services sits with local authorities, NHS boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. Operational decisions, including whether there is a need to increase the IBD specialist nursing workforce, are therefore matters for those public bodies.

The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 places duties on Health Boards to ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent individuals are working in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, wellbeing and safety of patients, the provision of high-quality care and the wellbeing of staff.

If any IBD patient has concerns about their care, these should be taken forward with their local NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-42565

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken, following the National Speed Management Review public consultation, to improve road safety and manage speed limits on roads.

Transport Scotland has published the findings from the National Speed Management Review (NSMR) public consultation, which ran from November 2024 to March 2025 and received over 19,500 responses.

Following close consideration of consultation responses Ministers have decided not to take forward changes in relation to national speed limits on single carriageway. Further work will be undertaken to continue to analyse the impact on road casualties and journey times of a speed limit change on different standards of single carriageways.

In relation to Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) speed limits, work will be undertaken to progress steps to increase speed limits on single and dual carriageways for this vehicle type. This change aims to reduce the speed differential between HGVs and other vehicles, helping to reduce driver frustration and improve journey time reliability.

The consultation findings and additional information are available at: Road Safety | National Speed Management Review | Transport Scotland

Question reference: S6W-42407

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 15 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much Police Scotland paid EY in total for the Your Leadership Matters training programme.

It is for the Chief Constable, under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), to determine Police Scotland's operational approach to policing in Scotland, this includes the allocation of resources to Police Officer and Staff training programmes. Details of costs can be found in the SPA board paper from 4 December 2025 at; item-3-4-bi-annual-joint-thematic-report-leadership-talent-and-learning-training-development.pdf

Question reference: S6W-42421

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41814 by Gillian Martin on 25 November 2025, whether it has carried out a cost analysis of the expansion of the monitoring coverage to all remaining overflow locations in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-42446

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Monday, 08 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current level of uptake of the winter influenza vaccine is in each NHS board area, and how this year compares with the same period in 2024.

Question reference: S6W-42380

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current average waiting time is for audiology services in Inverclyde, and what proportion of patients are seen within target times.