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-40304

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its Stabilisation, detoxification and other crisis support in Scotland: Service mapping and capacity survey 2022–2023, what the annual cost is of operating stabilisation centres, broken down by (a) total programme expenditure to date, (b) annual budgeted running costs per centre and (c) average per bed or per service user costs.

Scottish Government does not directly fund any standalone stabilisation centres and so do not hold this information. Facilities that offer stabilisation and detoxification alongside other residential services will often be commissioned and funded locally by Alcohol and Drug Partnerships using baseline of National Mission funding that we provide annually, however they do not provide the breakdown to Scottish Government for which you have asked.

Question reference: S6W-40365

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the costs associated with the production and publication of the paper, Your Right to Decide.

Question reference: S6W-40202

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Holding Answer by Jenni Minto on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37580 by Jenni Minto on 22 May 2025, whether it will provide a breakdown of how the £4.5 million fund it announced in December 2024 to deliver specialist support for long COVID, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and other similar conditions has been allocated and spent.

Question reference: S6W-40305

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many individuals have completed a stay in a stabilisation centre since 2021, and of those individuals, how many subsequently accessed detoxification or residential rehabilitation.

Question reference: S6W-40167

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care last met with the Chief (a) Executive of NHS Grampian and (b) Officer of Health and Social Care Moray.

Question reference: S6W-40244

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, to reduce violence and drug harm, what additional investment it will make in secure accommodation and in-prison rehabilitation.

To maintain a safe and secure prison estate, the Scottish Government increased Scottish Prison Service (SPS) investment by 10% to £481.5m in 2025-26. SPS has invested in a range of initiatives aimed at tackling violence across the prison estate, including body worn cameras, a revised control and restraint model, and body scanners. SPS are also working to mitigate the risks presented by the threat of drones and uses various technologies and intelligence - such as advanced scanners, detection technology, window grilles and sniffer dogs – to prevent illegal substances entering prisons.

The Scottish Government has also increased 2025-26 funding to the Scottish Recovery Consortium to embed a person-centred recovery focused approach in prisons and have supported the National Prison Care Network to develop a Target Operating Model for healthcare delivery in prisons. This sets out a nationally consistent service model for the delivery of the range of clinical services provided in prisons, including drugs and alcohol services.

Future resource and capital funding for the SPS is being considered as part of the annual budget process and the Scottish Spending Review, due to be published alongside the 2026-27 Scottish Budget.

Question reference: S6W-40363

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34957 by Neil Gray on 20 February 2025, regarding the commitment in the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 to recruit 1,000 additional staff in primary care mental health, whether it remains the case that the programme is paused.

The commitment to recruit 1000 additional staff in Primary Care Mental Health remains paused.

We are still committed to the development of mental health and wellbeing workforce capacity in general practice through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027, and the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF).

Action 15 at March 2022, had seen an additional 356 WTE mental health workers recruited to general practice and at March 2025, 179.7 WTE Mental Health workers were in post funded by PCIF.

Question reference: S6W-40239

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated annual cost of targeted lung cancer screening would be at full rollout, and how this compares to the costs of late-stage treatment.

The Scottish Expert Advisory Group on Lung Screening have produced an initial evaluation of costs, which estimated the annual cost of a national screening programme at between £29 million and £39 million. The lower and upper estimates of this cost are dependent on factors such as screening uptake, which impact the total cost of scans and required staffing. The UK National Screening Committee, as part of its considerations of whether to recommend lung cancer, considered a cost effectiveness analysis alongside other evidence for lung screening.

Treatment of individuals with lung cancer is complex, and the type of treatment received by patients, such as surgery or chemotherapy, will vary by type of cancer and stage. It is therefore not possible to provide specific treatment costs for lung cancer in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-40213

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what enforcement action has been taken in response to any breaches of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 in each of the last five years, also broken down by whether the vessel involved was (a) UK-flagged, (b) EU-flagged and (c) non-EU-flagged.

The were nine prosecutions under the 2010 Act reported to the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service of which seven resulted in a conviction. These were by year, 2019 X2, 2020 X0, 2021 X2 plus 1 not guilty, 2022 X1, 2023 X2, 2024 X 1 case dropped by PF.

Additionally, there were five Fixed Penalty Notices and one warning letter issued under Marine Conservation Orders enabled under the 2010 Act. These were by year 2019 3 x FPN, 2020 1 x FPN, 2023 1 x FPN, 2024 1 x Warning Letter.

All vessels were UK vessels because the Marine Scotland Act and associated orders apply to Territorial and Inshore waters where generally only UK vessels are permitted to fish.

Question reference: S6W-40282

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its decision not to proceed with the introduction of the Misogyny Bill, and instead to consult on draft regulations to add the characteristic of sex to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, how it will ensure that it captures the specific experiences of women and girls, particularly by engaging local survivors’ groups, women’s aid services and intersectional advocacy organisations, and what formal mechanisms will help to ensure that their input shapes any statutory guidance.

The draft Scottish Statutory Instrument which seeks to add sex as a characteristic to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 ("the 2021 Act") is subject to super affirmative process and is therefore subject to consultation. Stakeholders, including women’s aid services and intersectional advocacy organisations, were notified of the publication of the draft SSI and the launch of the consultation. They were encouraged to both actively participate in the consultation process and to disseminate the details of the draft SSI and consultation within their wider networks to broaden the scope of outreach.

We will utilise the feedback received via responses to the consultation to inform the final policy of the SSI. Similarly, if the final SSI is passed by Parliament, we will engage with all organisations with on matters relating to implementation prior to the SSI coming into effect.

There is no power contained in the 2021 Act for the Scottish Ministers to publish statutory guidance.