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-40408

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to accelerate planning approvals for affordable housing.

It is an important principle of the planning system that each application is determined on its own merits, in line with the Development Plan and taking account of material considerations.

As part of the Development Plan, National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) includes a strong policy position regarding affordable housing provision and provides more flexibility for affordable housing proposals, explicitly as one of the circumstances where proposals can be supported on sites not allocated in a Local Development Plan.

A letter, I co-signed with the Scottish Government's Chief Planner in June 2024, stresses how NPF4 policy can be used to support proposals that improve affordability and choice to address recognised priorities of an area.

Everyone involved in planning has a role to play in supporting a national push to deliver more homes, including affordable homes. To address capacity and performance issues in planning services, we have raised planning fees and continue to invest in the resourcing, skills and resilience of the planning system, for example, through the National Planning Hub and the role of the National Planning Improvement Champion, to improve consenting timescales and support faster delivery of new homes where they are needed.

Question reference: S6W-40490

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what further analysis it has made of the recommendations in the Patient Safety Commissioner report, The Hughes Report: Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, published on 7 February 2024, for mesh injured women to receive compensation through (a) an interim and (b) a main scheme, and what engagement it has had with the UK Government regarding the possibility of financial redress.

Question reference: S6W-40486

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what process is in place for a complainant to make representations to the Scottish Ministers following a report from the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) regarding a property factor’s failure to comply with a Property Factor Enforcement Order, and whether it will consider extending the same right of representation to complainants as is currently afforded to property factors under the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011.

Question reference: S6W-40502

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will (a) reach and (b) announce its decision on the infrastructure investment plan refresh review for the years beyond 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-40487

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish Rugby report, Breaking the silence: why breast health matters in rugby, which was published in September 2025 and highlights research concerning the difference in performance made by having a proper fitting for a sports bra, how it will raise awareness among women and girls of the potential damage to health that can be caused by ill-fitting sports bras, including informing them of the potential damage that might arise in sporting settings.

Question reference: S6W-40499

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) governance meetings its officials have attended in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-40488

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many self-sufficient information and communications technology (ICT) structures with dedicated data centres and professional staff exist within the Scottish public sector, including non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), NHS boards and local government.

Question reference: S6W-40114

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many clinical trials have taken place in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

NHS Research Scotland holds a record of the number of clinical studies that Health Boards participate in each year. These data are held from 2014 to present and indicate a range of study numbers from 1464 to 1711 over this time period.

Noting that clinical studies can be carried out across multiple Health Boards at the same time, Table 1 reports the total number of unique clinical studies per year, and Table 2 reports the number of clinical studies per Health Board per year.


	Financial Year
	14/15	15/16	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24	24/25
Unique Studies	1567	1606	1668	1711	1694	1652	1464	1558	1627	1568	1540

Table 1. Total number of clinical studies.

	Financial Year
	14/15	15/16	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24	24/25
National Waiting Times Centre Board	60	60	56	63	67	56	49	50	62	77	83
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	130	122	118	110	101	89	53	60	62	59	51
NHS Borders	57	57	44	38	39	37	33	31	28	20	25
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	74	65	61	49	48	43	32	34	29	28	19
NHS Fife	133	129	137	124	119	114	83	89	74	80	75
NHS Forth Valley	101	75	89	75	70	56	49	67	72	70	54
NHS Grampian	316	338	332	329	329	325	297	331	337	312	284
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	792	806	869	896	908	881	822	789	833	819	788
NHS Highland	113	110	117	114	106	95	94	85	79	67	68
NHS Lanarkshire	142	139	132	130	128	111	98	122	134	135	123
NHS Lothian	604	612	620	664	665	631	531	610	613	613	585
NHS Tayside	319	344	360	340	336	311	261	314	306	283	278

Total	2841	2857	2935	2932	2916	2749	2402	2582	2629	2563	2433

Table 2. Number of clinical studies per Health Board.

Question reference: S6W-40069

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consultation it has carried out regarding updating the School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967, and when it expects any new regulations to be introduced.

Question reference: S6W-40253

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 11 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its plan is to address the reported capital backlog of more than £800 million across the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service estate and fleet.