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

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Question reference: S6O-04494

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the finance secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding the allocation of additional funding for health and social care, in light of the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board's reported plans to end funding for its third sector grant programme.

Question reference: S6O-04482

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what immediate and longer-term actions it can take to support businesses, including in the seafood processing sector, to compete effectively in a UK and global market.

Question reference: S6O-04493

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated in its Budget for revenue and capital funding for Strathclyde Partnership for Transport for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6O-04481

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the steps that it is taking to encourage investment in Scotland's green economy.

Question reference: S6O-04509

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it or its agencies next plan to build CalMac ferries in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04511

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-04506

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-35454

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to increase the availability of good quality temporary accommodation for households with children.

We have taken action to increase supply of social homes, with a focus on larger family homes, through increasing funding to local authorities for voids and acquisitions as set out in the answer to S6W-35453 on 19 March 2025.

We continue to support local authorities to transition to rapid rehousing, which is the best way to reduce the use of temporary accommodation in the longer term. Where temporary accommodation is required, it should meet the needs of the household.

Local authorities need to ensure that all temporary accommodation is of a high quality and meets the needs of the people that are living there. The Temporary Accommodation Standards Framework, published in 2023, sets out the physical, location, service and management standards to ensure consistency in standards across all local authority areas. All local authorities are expected to work towards meeting these standards to ensure that temporary accommodation is of good quality and is safe, warm and affordable.

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-35443

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the third sector early intervention fund.

The third sector plays a critical role in the Scottish Government’s ambition to improve outcomes for children, young people, families and adult learners particularly given the ongoing cost of living crisis. Since 2016, the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) third sector fund has supported 122 organisations with just over £112m in funding. Since 2022, the Scottish Government has supported a further 22 organisations, providing core funding of over £6m, through the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learners (CYPFAL) third sector fund. Core funding delivered through these funds has helped to support a range of action to deliver on priorities including tackling child poverty, supporting Children’s Rights, Keeping the Promise and promoting positive mental and physical health and wellbeing.

The Scottish Government appointed a fund administrator – the Corra Foundation – to work closely with all 137 organisations to support delivery of the funding outcomes that were set out in grant offers. As part of the conditions of grant, funded organisations are required to report on their progress towards delivery of the agreed funding outcomes. In the most recent reporting period from April to September 2024 around 1.3 million people – children, families and adult learners - across Scotland were directly supported as a result of this funding. Some of the key benefits of the funding identified by the Corra Foundation through their support for organisations include high quality support for children and families; improved knowledge and confidence in children, families and adult learners; improved outcomes for families, and enhanced partnership working across the third sector.

Question reference: S6W-35446

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the comment by the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport on Scotland Tonight on 28 January 2025, in which she said that such spending has" increased", whether it will publish a breakdown of all direct mental health spending set out in the 2025-26 Budget, including spending outwith the mental health services line.

Alongside the draft budget published 4 December 2024, there was accompanying documents that set out level 4 funding - (https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.scot%2Fbinaries%2Fcontent%2Fdocuments%2Fgovscot%2Fpublications%2Fcorporate-report%2F2024%2F12%2Fscottish-budget-2025-2026%2Fdocuments%2F2025-26-level-4-budget-tables%2F2025-26-level-4-budget-tables%2Fgovscot%253Adocument%2F2025-26-level-4-budget-tables.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK).

Within the Health & Social Care tab the direct Mental Health programme spend is broken down along with a summary of what it is used for. This only refers to the direct programme budget and not wider government spend on mental health.

The direct programme budget for Mental Health will increase by 1.2% (to £270.5m) in 2025-26, and in the last five years has more than doubled, from £117.1m in 2020-21 to £270.5m in 2025-26.

Latest data published by Public Health Scotland on 25 February 2025 shows total spend on mental health in Scotland has increased by £179.6 million to £1.486 billion in 2023-24. That is 9.03% of total net NHS expenditure, up from 8.53% in 2022-23. Spend on child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) has increased by nearly £19.4 million to over £134 million. This is 0.82% of total spend, up from 0.75% in 2022-23.