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-40654

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 3 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to guarantee the construction of affordable new homes.

The Scottish Government cannot guarantee construction but can provide multi-annual policy and funding certainty, increased spend and a planning and regulatory environment which is conducive to investment and delivery. Our Housing Emergency Action Plan seeks to deliver against this tripartite approach.

The Scottish Government remains focussed on our target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, with at least 70% for social rent and at least 10% in our rural and island communities.

Local authorities have responsibility for setting out the investment priorities supported through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP), ensuring the delivery of the right homes in the right places. In support of these priorities the AHSP has been increased, with the budget for 2025-2026 now £808 million.

Recognising the importance of multi-year funding for housing and the confidence this brings to the sector, the Housing Emergency Action Plan published on 2 September includes a commitment to deliver up to £4.9 billion investment over the coming four years, with homes delivered through a mixture of public and privately leveraged investment. Further details will be outlined in the forthcoming Scottish Spending Review and Scottish Budget.

Actual progress on all homes delivered through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) are reported via our quarterly official statistics. Official statistics for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are available on the Scottish Government website at Housing statistics - gov.scot.

Question reference: S6W-40708

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 3 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will disregard bids for the two new freight flex vessels to serve the Aberdeen-Kirkwall/Lerwick route from companies from countries that do not have a free-trade agreement with the UK, in line with the provisions in the Procurement Act 2023 and the Scottish regulations.

Question reference: S6W-40959

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the reported 20% real-terms reduction in funding for colleges between 2021-22 and 2025-26 on (a) learners, (b) college staff and (c) the economy.

Question reference: S6W-40974

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has established remediation pathways for all buildings over 18m that were included in the High Rise Inventory and highlighted through other data sources, as set out in the Cladding Remediation Programme: Next Phase Plan of Action, and how many such buildings required direct intervention by the Scottish Government to bring them onto a funded and trackable remediation pathway.

Question reference: S6W-40990

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place to support NHS staff during the roll-out of the MyCare.scot app.

Question reference: S6W-40968

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27536 by Tom Arthur on 28 May 2024, what information it has regarding how many applications have been made in each of the last five years by (a) Scottish Power Distribution Ltd and (b) other utility companies for necessary wayleaves in Scotland, and how many have been granted.

Question reference: S6W-40969

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27536 by Tom Arthur on 28 May 2024, what information it has regarding how many landowners with a voluntary wayleave in place in Scotland in each of the last five years have issued the utility company with a notice to remove, also broken down by how many notices were complied with.

Question reference: S6W-40929

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported concerns by some social care organisations that a shortage of care home places might lead to an increase in the risk of suicide.

Question reference: S6W-40936

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the First Minister's speech on 27January 2025 regarding improving public services and NHS renewal, what impact the introduction of specialist frailty teams is having on (a) A&E waiting times and (b) outcomes for older people; what progress it made toward delivering such teams in every A&E department by the target of summer 2025; what funding and staffing resources were allocated towards this; what steps have been taken to address any recruitment or training challenges faced; what criteria is used to assess whether an A&E department now has a fully functioning team, and how many teams are now in place, compared with summer 2025 target.

Question reference: S6W-40944

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether its commitment set out in the March 2021 paper, Green Datacentres and digital connectivity: vision and action plan for Scotland, to "position Scotland as a leading zero-carbon, cost competitive green data hosting location, which can contribute towards our ambition of achieving net zero emissions by 2045" means that ministerial planning approval will only be given to those centres for AI and related purposes that are zero carbon.