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-39994

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many workers made redundant by the closure of the Petroineos refinery in Grangemouth have received skills support from Forth Valley College.

The Scottish Government is working with Forth Valley College, UK Government, Skills Development Scotland and Petroineos as part of the Refinery Skills Intervention, which is currently ongoing.

To date the skills intervention targeted at Petroineos workers has had a high uptake. As of 20 August, 306 workers have enrolled in the reskilling programme and over 200 workers have either completed training or are actively undergoing retraining. The remaining individuals who are registered for training will commence according to redundancy schedule and personal preference.

Question reference: S6W-39877

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many energy consent applications have been lodged with the Energy Consents Unit in each year since 2021 in the (a) Highlands and Islands Region and (b) the rest of Scotland.

Details of applications made to the Energy Consents Unit under Sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act (1989) in the last five years are as follows:

Highlands and Islands planning authorities	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Section 36 applications (electricity generating station)	10	15	16	20	25
Section 37 applications (overhead lines)	21	51	41	33	17

Rest of Scotland planning authorities	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Section 36 applications (electricity generating station)	20	31	39	51	32
Section 37 applications (overhead lines)	34	30	34	29	18

Question reference: S6W-39823

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 3 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has conducted on the issue of the cancellation of police officers’ rest days, which has reportedly had a detrimental impact on officers’ mental health.

The deployment and management of Police Officers are matters for the Chief Constable. However, I am aware that the cancellation of rest days can be due to a number of reasons, including attendance at court and the policing of events.

The Scottish Government is supporting its justice partners in achieving the outcomes described in the Vision for Justice in Scotland by taking forward a programme to drive key areas of reform, including criminal justice efficiency.

One element of this is the Summary Case Management currently being rolled out across Scotland. This initiative aims to improve the management of summary criminal cases in Scotland and reduce the number of unnecessary hearings. A pilot evaluation report published in September shows a significant reduction in the volume of witness citations being issued, this relates to police officers, victims and witnesses. The impact on police witnesses has been positive with a reduction of citations for domestic cases by up to 34% in all pilot courts. This equates to around 5000 citations not being served on operational officers in pilot areas.

Police Scotland are also progressing work to reduce the impact policing of events on officers such as the Force Mobilisation Model.

Question reference: S6W-39694

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered the implications of the High Court decision relating to Northumbria Police participating in Pride marches for the impartiality of school teachers in Scotland.

It is a legal requirement for all teachers in Scottish schools to be registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), the independent regulator for teachers in Scotland.

Registered teachers must adhere to the GTCS Professional Standards and Code of Professionalism and Conduct, which require them to uphold values of integrity, trust, and respect, and to act impartially in their professional practice.

Question reference: S6W-40267

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-40097

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 2 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown showing which organisations secured funding from the Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund in each year since 2021, including how much funding was awarded.

The information requested is available online, please find the details requested as follows:

Year	Reference to website address
2021	https://www.gov.scot/news/sharing-knowledge-innovation-to-tackle-climate-change/
2022	https://www.gov.scot/news/sharing-knowledge-innovation-to-tackle-climate-change/
2023	https://www.ruralpayments.org/news-events/innovative-rural-projects-awarded--240-000.html
2024	https://www.gov.scot/news/agriculture-support/

2025 data is excluded as the fund is currently open for applications and results are pending.

Question reference: S6W-40019

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 2 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether additional resources will be allocated to recruit and retain trained attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) specialists.

Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters – including the recruitment and training of staff – are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant NHS Board.

We continue to work closely with Health Boards and clinical professionals across Scotland to understand any specific challenges they are facing in the recruitment and training of specialist staff needed to support people with ADHD.

We continue to fund NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to deliver professional learning to improve the Scottish workforce’s knowledge and skills about Neurodivergence, including Autism and ADHD.

To address specific challenges in the recruitment and retention of psychiatrists in Scotland we established a Working Group which recently reported to Ministers, 23 June 2025. Funding also continues to be provided to Boards for the additional roles to help mental health pharmacy services including within community mental health pharmacy support to improve medication use and prescribing practices.

Question reference: S6W-39835

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to prevent the permanent closure of Ballantine Castings Ltd, in light of reports that it is Scotland's last architectural ironworks.

Whilst the Scottish Government are aware that Ballantine Casting Ltd is going through liquidation, we were not notified in advance of commercial decisions to appoint the liquidation. The business is not account managed by Scottish Enterprise. The individuals affected by these decisions are always our main priority and the Scottish Government will do everything in its power to help those affected through our initiative for responding to potential redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE). PACE will work with the liquidators [Johnston Carmichael] to offer direct support to affected employees.

Question reference: S6W-40261

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the commitment in its Programme for Government 2025-26 to set out its "priorities for future reform of school education by June 2025, appointing an experienced headteacher to lead this work".

I am pleased to advise Parliament that John Wilson, the recently retired headteacher of Broughton High School in Edinburgh has been appointed as an Independent Professional Adviser to Scottish Ministers to lead on this work.

Mr Wilson will provide advice and recommendations to Scottish Ministers on what further reforms of school education could be made following the passage of the Education (Scotland) Act by the Scottish Parliament to ensure that we have an education system fit for the future to deliver equity and excellence for all.

Drawing on his experience of 30 years of working in the education system, Mr Wilson will be focussed on three key areas - education governance, where he will be assessing the areas where further focus and activity is required to support school leaders; school funding, where he will reflect on 10 years of the Scottish Attainment Challenge Fund; and support for improvement, where he will be looking to establish what more could be done to ensure more consistent outcomes for secondary schools.

He will be guided in his work by an advisory group made up of experienced headteachers and other education system leaders; and by headteacher panels which have been set up and which I will chair.

Question reference: S6W-39894

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 2 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31416 by Neil Gray on 28 November 2024, how many Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM) graduates from summer 2023 have since taken up GPST 1 posts in Scotland following completion of their foundation year 2, broken down by NHS board area.

At the time of response six ScotGEM 2023 graduates have already taken up GPST 1 posts in Scotland, these are broken down by health board in the following table.

Health board	GPST 1 post taken up by 2023 ScotGEM graduate
NHS Borders	1
NHS Forth Valley	1
NHS Grampian	1
NHS Highland	1
NHS Lanarkshire	1
NHS Lothian	1

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking an initial evaluation of the ScotGEM programme, which will include analysis of student destinations following undergraduate study.