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-34185

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 the average waiting time is for community audiology services in (a) NHS Grampian and (b) Aberdeen, and how this compares with the national average.

Question reference: S6W-35099

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to provide an update to the paper, Decarbonising Scotland’s Industrial Sectors and Sites, published in April 2019.

Question reference: S6W-34433

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress made towards the affordable housing supply targets outlined in the Housing to 2040 strategy.

The Scottish Government's ambition is for everyone to have a safe, good quality and affordable home that meets their needs in the place where they want to be. Housing to 2040 remains our key overarching long-term strategy that sets out a vision and roadmap to ensuring everyone in Scotland has a safe, good quality and affordable home by 2040, and as part of that we remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, with at least 70% of these for social rent and 10% in rural and island areas.

Between 23 March 2022 and end of September 2024, we have delivered 24,382 affordable homes towards the 110,000 target, of which over 18,000 (76%) have been homes for social rent. Based on management figures, we have delivered over 12,000 affordable homes in rural and island communities, between April 2016 and March 2024.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes figures on homes delivered, which can be found online at:

Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Statistics to end December 2024 are due to be published on Tuesday 25 March 2025.

Question reference: S6W-34421

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) have been rejected in each year since 2021, and what the reasons for rejection have been.

Question reference: S6W-34356

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Engineering report, Engineering Skills Gap Analysis for Scotland.

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic, myself, and Scottish Government officials have held several meetings with Scottish Engineering to discuss the report Engineering Skills Gap Analysis for Scotland. We will continue to engage with the sector in the coming weeks to assess options and expect to finalise an action plan by April.

We will also continue to drive agility and efficiency in the post school education and skills system through our programme of reform. This includes work on skills planning that will put in place a mechanism to collectively agree and prioritise Scotland strategic skills needs, to meet our economic, social and environmental aims

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.