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 42752 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-23832

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-23288 by Gillian Martin on 8 December 2023, what proportion of the estimated private investment in peatland restoration is carbon units that are (a) confirmed as sold and (b) expected to be sold.

Question reference: S6W-23689

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22410 by Jenni Minto on 7 November 2023, what data it has on any variation in practice regarding reimbursement policies for electricity costs relating to home dialysis in the financial year (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22 and (c) 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-23646

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an update on the publication of the review of highly specialised pain services that was completed through work carried out by National Services Division (NSD).

Question reference: S6W-23645

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many volunteer pain patient representatives with known conditions have been appointed to its Pain Management Task Force and to each of its itemised seven sub-committees since 2022.

A member of the third-sector community was identified to join the Pain Management Task Force in October 2022 to represent the needs of people with lived experience.

We are committed to increasing the representation of the needs of people with lived experience in our work and that is why we are currently about to begin the process of recruiting additional lived experience representatives as outlined in the recently published Pain management service delivery framework: implementation plan update.

Question reference: S6W-23688

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22410 by Jenni Minto on 7 November 2023, within what timescale it will publish the outcome of the work that it is undertaking with NHS boards on national consistency regarding reimbursement policies for electricity costs relating to home dialysis.

Question reference: S6W-23638

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it will allocate from its Budget for the piloting of universal free school meals in secondary schools.

Question reference: S6W-23637

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government on what date(s) it has met with local authorities to discuss the piloting of universal free school meals in secondary schools, and which local authorities or schools it expects will be participating in any such pilot.

The Scottish Government has met with several Local Authorities to discuss their delivery of Free School Meals during which views on being involved in any future pilot were sought. These meetings took place; on the following dates;

Western Isles Council – 5 July 2023
Inverclyde Council – 26 July 2023
North Ayrshire Council – 9 August 2023
COSLA – 16 August 2023
Edinburgh City Council – 16 August 2023

Most recently, on 11 October 2023, ADES and COSLA were invited to ask members if they would be interested in taking part in the pilot of universal free school meals at secondary.

Question reference: S6W-23561

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what public finances have been committed, in each of the last five years, to using green hydrogen in industrial decarbonisation.

The Hydrogen Action Plan, published in December 2022, set out a clear commitment to support renewable hydrogen production.

In May 2023, a funding award totalling over £7 million to thirty-one projects via the Hydrogen Innovation Scheme was announced, which supports innovation in the production, storage, and integration of renewable hydrogen. Thirty of these projects are now underway.

The Energy Transition Fund and the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund were launched in June and September 2020 respectively.

Question reference: S6W-23588

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33611 by Mairi Gougeon on 4 December 2020, whether it will provide the information for (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24 to date regarding the number of offences recorded by Police Scotland under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953.

Information on the number of offences recorded by Police Scotland under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 for 2021-22, 2022-23 and April to September 2023 is provided in the following tables. Data for the full year of 2023-24 will be published in June 2024.

Offences of Protection of livestock from dogs, by local authority, 2021-22 to 2022-23

	2021-22	2022-23
Aberdeen City	3	2
Aberdeenshire	9	9
Angus	6	2
Argyll & Bute	8	14
Clackmannanshire	3	1
Dumfries & Galloway	22	17
Dundee	-	-
East Ayrshire	5	7
East Dunbartonshire	-	1
East Lothian	1	4
East Renfrewshire	-	3
Edinburgh City	9	3
Falkirk	-	3
Fife	3	11
Glasgow City	-	1
Highland	17	24
Inverclyde	-	-
Midlothian	3	8
Moray	7	3
Na h-Eileanan Siar	4	6
North Ayrshire	6	1
North Lanarkshire	7	7
Orkney Islands	1	2
Perth & Kinross	5	8
Renfrewshire	2	1
Scottish Borders	14	10
Shetland Islands	4	-
South Ayrshire	1	2
South Lanarkshire	5	8
Stirling	10	9
West Dunbartonshire	2	2
West Lothian	2	2
Total	159	171

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics, 2022-23

Offences of Protection of livestock from dogs, by local authority, April to end September 2023

	Apr - Sept 2023-24
Aberdeen City	1
Aberdeenshire	6
Angus	2
Argyll & Bute	7
Clackmannanshire	1
Dumfries & Galloway	12
Dundee	0
East Ayrshire	3
East Dunbartonshire	0
East Lothian	0
East Renfrewshire	0
Edinburgh City	2
Eilean Siar	0
Falkirk	1
Fife	2
Glasgow City	0
Highland	11
Inverclyde	0
Midlothian	2
Moray	5
North Ayrshire	4
North Lanarkshire	2
Orkney Islands	0
Perth & Kinross	5
Renfrewshire	2
Scottish Borders	6
Shetland Islands	1
South Ayrshire	1
South Lanarkshire	3
Stirling	0
West Dunbartonshire	1
West Lothian	4
Total	84

Source: Recorded crime in Scotland: year ending September 2023

Question reference: S6W-23566

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the in-year budget reprofiling of spend under the Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund and the Mental Health Transformation Fund will impact any resources earmarked for the delivery of the (a) Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and its (i) workforce plan and (ii) delivery plan, (b) Suicide Prevention Strategy and (c) Self-harm Strategy.

The vast majority of spending on mental health is delivered through NHS board budgets – and this is not directly affected by the budget reprioritisation. Between the Scottish Government and NHS boards we expect spending on Mental Health to be well in excess of £1.3 billion in financial year 2023-24.

The 2023-24 direct mental health budget of £260.3 million is still more than double the 2020-21 mental health budget of £117.1 million and supports delivery of the new ten-year Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and recently published delivery and workforce plans, the Suicide Prevention Strategy and action plan and Scotland's first Self-Harm Strategy and action plan. These Plans have been produced with affordability and deliverability within that overall financial envelope as a primary consideration.