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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 48032 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-38962

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve safety in maternity settings and prevent avoidable death and injury to babies, in light of reports of NHS boards awarding £74 million in compensation in cases of baby death or injury since 2019.

The Scottish Government has commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to develop a set of maternity standards designed to drive improvements in care at a local level, expected to publish in Spring 2026. Further to this, HIS introduced its Safe Delivery of Care in acute settings maternity inspection programme in January 2025. These inspections provide independent assessments of maternity services and can provide reassurance to all parents and families, as well as identifying opportunities for improvement and learning for NHS Boards.

In parallel, our Scottish Patient Safety Perinatal Improvement Programme continues to work with maternity services across Scotland to drive improvements in care for mothers and babies. The Programme supports NHS Boards to improve outcomes in a number of ways, including a focus on reducing stillbirth, neonatal mortality and morbidity.

In the last 20 years, our infant mortality rate has fallen by 28%, our neonatal death rate by 22% and our stillbirth rate by nearly 40%. We recognise that there is always more we can do, however, and the Scottish Government remains committed to continuous improvement in maternity services and to learning from adverse events and outcomes. We expect all NHS Boards in Scotland to use the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool (PMRT) to review all stillbirths and neonatal deaths. Undertaking robust, high quality reviews in a timely manner, in line with the standardised approach laid out in the Maternity and Neonatal (Perinatal) Adverse Event Review Process for Scotland will improve understanding at a local and national level of where improvements in care need to be made.

Question reference: S6W-38956

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish the revised Heat in Buildings legislation.

Question reference: S6W-38935

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out an economic impact assessment of its policy against the building of new nuclear power stations under current technologies.

Question reference: S6W-38961

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce preventable baby deaths, particularly in relation to early-onset infections such as group B streptococcus (GBS), and whether it will consider implementing universal GBS screening for pregnant women as part of routine antenatal care, in light of the recent reported rise in infant mortality in Scotland and ongoing concerns about maternity care standards.

Scotland is guided by the recommendations of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent expert advisory group which advises all four nations of the United Kingdom on screening policy. Following their last review in 2017, the UK NSC currently does not recommend introducing a screening programme for GBS. However, they are closely monitoring the GBS3 trial, which is investigating whether testing pregnant women for GBS reduces the risk of infection in newborn babies compared to the current strategy in place in the UK. Results are expected towards the end of 2025 with a review of recommendations.

All pregnant women in Scotland are provided with a copy of Ready, Steady, Baby! in the antenatal period through their midwifery care and can choose to access the information online, if they prefer. This is a comprehensive guide to pregnancy, labour, birth and early parenthood up to eight weeks and contains specific information for women on Group B Strep (GBS). The Scottish Government has also provided funding to Group B Strep Support (GBSS) through our Improving Health and Wellbeing grant scheme in 2023-24 and 2024-25 to support the development of an online learning module on GBS for health professionals and GBSS’s public awareness and education campaign.

More broadly, the Scottish Government has commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to develop a set of maternity standards for Scotland, designed to drive improvements in care at a local level, which are expected to publish in Spring 2026. We also welcomed the introduction of the HIS Safe Delivery of Care in acute settings maternity inspection programme in January 2025. These provide independent assessments of maternity services in acute settings and can provide reassurance to all parents and families, as well as identifying areas for improvement.

Question reference: S6W-38994

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many new build homes have been (a) started and (b) completed in the Scottish Borders in each year since 2003.

The Scottish Government publishes quarterly figures on all homes started and completed throughout Scotland, which can be found online here: Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot

Figures specific to new build homes started and completed, broken down by local authority area and by financial and calendar year, can be found in the table ‘New house building – All sectors starts and completions’

Question reference: S6W-38984

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38295 by Jenni Minto on 18 June 2025, how much of the £39 million has been awarded to NHS Borders.

Question reference: S6W-38934

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding the role of nuclear energy in supporting industrial growth and reducing energy costs.

Question reference: S6W-38933

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding Scotland’s participation in the nuclear energy programme, which was announced in the UK Spending Review 2025.

Question reference: S6W-38909

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any additional Barnett consequential funding is available as a result of the UK Government’s reported additional investment for dealing with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in English schools, and whether it has profiled any capital spend for dealing with RAAC in school estates in Scotland.

Although it is the statutory duty of all local authorities to manage and maintain their schools, the Scottish Government continue to provide them with significant funding towards improving the school estate. For example, the £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP) is being delivered in partnership with local authorities and will benefit tens of thousands of pupils across Scotland.

Schools that still have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) are taking appropriate measures to manage it and have longer term plans to address it. Furthermore, through the LEIP, the Scottish Government will provide funding support to replace a number of schools which contain RAAC.

The proportion of schools in “good” or “satisfactory” condition has increased from 62.7% in April 2007 to 91.7 % in April 2024, and our investment through the LEIP will build on this remarkable progress.

Question reference: S6W-39044

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) university training placements for dental therapists there currently are across Scotland in total and (b) students are currently studying dental therapy.

The dental therapy degree, BSc (Oral Health Science), is delivered by Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Dundee, University of Highland and Islands and University of Edinburgh. The Scottish Government had an agreed annual target of 40 dental therapists across Scotland in a year with all four institutions. The University of Edinburgh indicated in December 2023 that it no longer wished to offer this qualification after 2027. We are continuing to look at how we can expand the capacity in other universities to make up for this future loss of places.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on current student numbers.