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: S7F-00030

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh North Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2026

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S7F-00026

Asked by: Malcolm Offord, MSP for West Scotland, Reform UK
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2026

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S7F-00028

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2026

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S7F-00027

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2026

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S7W-02283

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 1 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish the consultation on proposed fisheries management measures for inshore Marine Protected Areas and Priority Marine Features, and whether it will provide stakeholders with advance sight of the consultation documents before publication.

The consultation on proposed fisheries management measures for inshore Marine Protected Areas and Priority Marine Features will launch in the coming weeks.

Extensive engagement with all stakeholders has been undertaken throughout this process. We have worked closely with the fishing industry to refine the proposals and to understand the potential socio-economic impacts. This engagement will continue throughout the consultation period with 26 in person events across Scotland and 15 online sessions.

Question reference: S7W-02385

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 1 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government if, as part of its assessment of the case for issuing Scottish Government bonds, as set out in the document, Scottish Government Bonds Programme: Summary Outline Business Case, it considered whether, by mitigating against potential interest payment leakage from the domestic economy, issuing retail bonds would be more beneficial to the Scottish economy and its Community Wealth Building goals than issuing wholesale bonds.

Question reference: S7W-02382

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 1 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider re-evaluating the assessment set out in its document, Scottish Government Bonds Programme: Summary Outline Business Case, to include (a) within the Critical Success Factors for assessing the case for bond issuance the potential economic benefits to Scottish businesses, investors and pension funds, and (b) consideration of the benefits to smaller, domestic investors of issuing retail bonds rather than wholesale bonds.

The Scottish Government Bonds Programme was developed following a recommendation from the independent Investor Panel that Scotland should consider issuing debt in capital markets to diversify funding sources, strengthen investor engagement, raise Scotland's profile with investors and establish a market track record.

The Critical Success Factors in the Outline Business Case were developed to assess options against these aims, as well as requirements relating to affordability, deliverability and achievability.

The Scottish Government has no plans to revisit the Outline Business Case or revise the Critical Success Factors. A wholesale issuance aimed at institutional investors remains the most cost-effective approach for an inaugural transaction and best supports the programme's objectives.

Future issuances may consider alternative structures where these offer value for money and support the programme's strategic objectives.

Question reference: S7W-02436

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 1 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many GP practices have reported operational difficulties following migration to the Vision 3 GP clinical system, broken down by (a) NHS Board area and (b) the nature of the issue reported.

Migrations began in 2022 and we do not hold information on service desk contacts for the full period of the migration programme.

We have provided data from 9 December 2025, when OneAdvanced took over support desk arrangements, to 23 August 2026 showing the number of calls logged to the service help desk broken down by Health Board area.

There were 2,658 issues logged with OneAdvanced .These ranged from routine requests, such as password resets, to more significant issues, including system slowness and disconnections, and include reports from long-term Vision users, new users and recently migrated practices.

The highest numbers of issues were recorded in NHS Lothian (580), NHS Grampian (483), NHS Lanarkshire (469), NHS Tayside (403), NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (372) and NHS Highland (196). Other NHS Boards reported NHS Forth Valley (70), NHS Dumfries and Galloway (59), NHS Orkney (10), NHS Borders (5), NHS Western Isles (4) and NHS Ayrshire and Arran (3) issues. No issues were recorded for NHS Fife, while Public Services Delivery Scotland recorded 2 issues.

Question reference: S7W-02435

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 1 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many GP practices have migrated to the Vision 3 GP clinical system, broken down by NHS Board area.

As of July 2026, 492 practices (around 55% of the total in Scotland) have successfully migrated. 91% (372 of 408) of practices using the previous version of Vision have migrated to the Cloud hosted version, and 25% (120 of 480) of practices previously using EMIS have migrated.

This is broken down by Boards as follows:

NHS Ayrshire and Arran (1), NHS Borders (4), NHS Dumfries and Galloway (25), NHS Fife (1), NHS Forth Valley (10), NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (68), NHS Grampian (66), NHS Highland (49), NHS Lanarkshire (97), NHS Lothian (103), NHS Orkney (5), NHS Shetland (0), NHS Tayside (60), NHS Western Isles (1), The State Hospital (1) and Scottish Prison Service (1).

Question reference: S7W-02383

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 August 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 1 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what is its response to the conclusion of the report Scottish Government Bonds and Investing in Ourselves that its wholesale bonds programme will result in approximately £170 million leaking out of the Scottish economy.

The Scottish Government notes the conclusions of the report, including its estimates regarding capital flows, but does not agree that they provide a robust assessment of the Scottish Government Bonds Programme or its economic impacts.

The Scottish Government Bonds Programme was developed following a recommendation from the independent Investor Panel that Scotland should consider issuing debt in capital markets.

The Outline Business Case concluded that a multi-year bond programme could represent value for money and deliver a number of strategic and economic benefits, including strengthening investor engagement, raising Scotland’s profile with investors, supporting investment in Scotland and establishing a market track record.