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-34291

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the current proposals from ScotRail, regarding a reduction of booking office opening hours in stations, address the preference of women and girls, highlighted in the recent Transport Scotland qualitative research, for an increase in a visible staff presence in the evenings and at weekends when using public transport, in light of reported concerns that the proposals would lead to a significant decrease in stations with facilities open in the evenings.

Following a conclusion of proposals mentioned by the Member, ScotRail stations will continue to offer access to station facilities as they do at present.

Staff will be more visible either on station platforms or on train to meet passenger aspiration of a more visible staff presence. There will be no job losses which means that staff no longer scheduled to be in the ticket office will be providing a more direct assistance to passengers on the network. Further information can also be found in S6W-34292 on 27 February 2025.

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-34192

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to ensure that patients requiring community audiology services in rural areas are not disadvantaged compared with those in urban centres.

Question reference: S6W-34197

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what additional resources have been allocated to support the delivery of community audiology services in (a) NHS Grampian and (b) NHS boards with longer waiting times.

Question reference: S6W-34188

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve access to community audiology services in rural and remote areas (a) in NHS Grampian and (b) across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-34196

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is addressing any recruitment and retention challenges in community audiology services, particularly in rural and remote areas.

Question reference: S6W-34189

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients are on waiting lists for community audiology services in (a) Aberdeen and (b) each NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-34125

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on any legal advice sought from external counsel in each year since 2018, broken down by (a) its department and (b) the legal firm or provider.

As Scottish Government functions have increased and matured, the volume and complexity of outsourced work has also evolved. This work is procured and we are now utilising the third iteration of a framework providing Legal Services to the Scottish Government and the wider public sector. The figures provided in the table set out how much the Scottish Government has spent through those frameworks and the breakdown of costs to each legal firm. We do not centrally gather information on the department spend as there is no business requirement to do. We have interpreted the question as legal costs incurred for outsourced legal work.

Firm Name	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	Totals
Anderson Strathern	£1,900,928.93	£1,635,689.76	£1,799,347.52	£1,560,748.19	£1,297,861.88	£1,098,811.49	£9,293,387.77
DWF	£323,090.40	£135,029.76	£26,191.20	£76,576.80	£24,085.20	£25,039.80	£610,013.16
Harper Macleod	£1,057,309.35	£1,195,130.08	£734,278.09	£488,325.52	£923,382.89	£518,041.75	£4,916,467.68
CMS	£0.00	£63,755.88	£252,009.40	£227,258.54	£362,216.52	£193,524.30	£1,098,764.64
Brodies	£0.00	£46,552.80	£80,414.40	£180,273.40	£6,492.00	£3,240.00	£316,972.60
Morton Fraser	£1,212,007.39	£1,341,386.37	£948,274.31	£539,551.91	£532,099.87	£0.00	£4,573,319.85
MacRoberts	£0.00	£3,778,320.61	£2,570,972.55	£1,407,057.36	£678,349.75	£0.00	£8,434,700.27
MF MAC	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00	£149,383.20	£989,900.14	£1,139,283.34
Total	£4,493,336.07	£8,195,865.26	£6,411,487.47	£4,479,791.72	£3,973,871.31	£2,828,557.48	£30,382,909.31

Question reference: S6W-34131

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on external legal advice in relation to judicial reviews, broken down by case since 2018.

The Scottish Government has spent the following amount in relation to judicial reviews. We are unable to provide a breakdown by case name due to GDPR considerations. Some case names will be in the public domain because the judgments have been published with the full name. However, some cases have been name anonymised and others will not be in the public domain due to being disposed of without a judgment.

We have therefore provided a breakdown by the number of cases.

Prior to the introduction of a new Case Management system on 1 March 2024 the information was not recorded in way that would enable us to answer the full timeframe covered by the question. The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Therefore, we have provided the information on judicial reviews from 1 March 2024.

Please note that the figures contained in the following table are the total case costs and the expenditure has been incurred over multiple financial years.

Case numbers	Cost
71	£1,260,089.99

Question reference: S6W-35132

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34488 by Ivan McKee on 19 February 2025, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding for what reason its partial island communities impact assessment (ICIA) for the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill did not recommend carrying out a full ICIA on the basis that the measures in the Bill were "not likely to have an effect on an island community which is significantly different from its effect on other communities", in light of the assessment also noting that "the geographical remoteness of islands can generate a number of particular challenges".

As set out in the answer to question S6W-34488, the responsibility of undertaking a full Island communities impact assessment is on local authorities. Additionally, Local authorities have the power to charge different rates and exemptions for different geographical areas. Each local authority has a responsibility to publish assessment of the impacts of introducing a Visitor Levy, and they have a statutory requirement to consult with local communities, businesses, and the public, prior to the introduction of a Visitor Levy.

We formed an Expert Group made up of key representatives from the tourism industry and local government, chaired by Visit Scotland. The Group developed Guidance for local authorities on introducing and administering a visitor levy. Chapter 18 of guidance published October 2024 has further details of what is required of local authorities when implicating a Visitor levy Visitor Levy Guidance I VisitScotland.org.

Question reference: S6W-34955

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34287 by Neil Gray on 27 January 2025, whether the commitments on increasing capacity for appointments relate to, or replace, the targets in the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 for additional inpatient and day case activity, and outpatient activity.