- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) pharmacists and (b) pharmacy technicians have registered with Healthcare Improvement Scotland as independent clinics since the coming into force of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (Independent Health Care) Modification Order 2024 on 19 June 2024.
Answer
This information is not held by the Scottish Government however Health Improvement Scotland (HIS) have advised that since pharmacists and pharmacy technicians were added to the definition of an independent clinic on 19 June 2024, four pharmacists led independent clinics are now registered with HIS and five are in the process of registration. There are no pharmacy technician led independent clinics registered or in the process of registration.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it owns the site of the former hotel at Carrick Castle, and, if (a) so, what its current plans are for the site and (b) not, for what reason the Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey site register states that it does.
Answer
The site of the former hotel at Carrick Castle, Lochgoilhead, is not owned by Scottish Government as per the Vacant and Derelict Land Register. This has been uploaded in error and steps are being taken to update the Register. The site is privately owned.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many green jobs have been created in Scotland since 2021, broken down by (a) sector, (b) region and (c) whether the funding was from public or private sources.
Answer
It is not possible to assess how many new green jobs have been created by region and sector, however the PwC Green Jobs Barometer shows that 5.6% of all job adverts in Scotland in 2024 were for jobs that have a positive impact on the environment, up from 4.0% in 2023. This helped Scotland once again retain first place among 12 nations and regions of the UK in the overall Green Jobs Barometer, once again showing that Scotland is leading the way in delivering a green jobs revolution and unlocking the tremendous potential that our energy transition and wider net zero journey holds.
In 2022 Scotland’s net zero economy (defined narrowly around low carbon and renewable energy) generated an estimated £13bn turnover and supported an estimated 25,700 direct full-time equivalent jobs. This is the most recent ONS data. Sectoral break downs are available via the ONS. These data are based on a UK-wide survey, and so are subject to a 95% confidence interval of between 23,200 and 28,100 at Scotland level. They are not available by region. These figures will include existing jobs which have transitioned over from outside of low carbon and renewable sectors. Looking at the broader impact of the sector, it is estimated that the renewable energy industry supported over £6.6bn of GVA and over 47,000 FTE employment across the Scottish economy in 2022 (Fraser of Allander Institute, 2025).
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether any assessment has been made of any long-term economic benefits of replacing methadone with Buvidal for eligible patients.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not made an assessment of any long-term economic benefits of replacing methadone with Buvidal for eligible patients
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much Baroness Helena Kennedy KC was paid in her role as chair of the Independent Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland.
Answer
In her role as Chair of the Independent Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland, Baroness Helena Kennedy KC was paid £109,117.20.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on how many early learning and childcare settings have withdrawn from the funded provider scheme since 2022, and what analysis it has conducted of the reasons for any such withdrawals.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many providers have withdrawn from offering funded early learning and childcare (ELC), or their reasons for doing so.
Information on the number of private, and third sector childcare services delivering funded ELC in each local authority in September each year is captured through the ELC census. This information is published as part of the Summary Statistics for Schools and is available in Table 1 of the Additional early learning and childcare statistics spreadsheet. It is important to note that there may currently be additional services delivering funded ELC that were not doing so at the time of the Census. Table 1 also includes information on the share of ELC registrations that were in private and third sector services (Partnership Centres) in each year.
Table: Number of Partnership Centres (private and third sector services) providing funded ELC
| | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
Number of ELC Partnership Centres | 985 | 962 | 956 |
Share of registrations in Partnership Centres | 30.3% | 30.5% | 31.0% |
Source: Additional early learning and childcare statistics (as part of the Summary Statistics for Schools) for 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The Care Inspectorate collect data from childminding services regarding the provision of funded ELC places. Figure 23 of the 2023_Early_learning_and_Childcare_Statistics.pdf publication provides data on the number of childminding services approved to deliver funded ELC at the 31 December in each year over the period 2020 to 2023. This reports that 1,220 childminding services were approved to deliver funded ELC as at 31 December 2022. For 31 December 2023 this figure was 1,127.
Since 2021, the Care Inspectorate has given all services who are in the process of cancelling their registration the option to provide them with the reasons why they are cancelling. An analysis of the reasons given by day care of children and childminding services (regardless of whether they offer ELC or not) for cancelling their registration over the period 2021 to 31 December 2023 was included in the Care Inspectorate’s 2023_Early_learning_and_Childcare_Statistics.pdf publication. This information is summarised in Figure 9 of the report.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken or commissioned any national reviews or audits of youth centre provision since 2019, and, if so, whether it will publish the findings.
Answer
An independent review of the Community Learning and Development (CLD) landscape was commissioned in December 2023.
Following the review, the Learning: For All. For Life. report was published in July 2024 which set out 20 recommendations varying in complexity and scope. The report can be accessed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/learning-life-report-independent-review-community-learning-development-cld/.
In December 2024, the Scottish Government and CoSLA accepted the first recommendation of the report to set up a CLD Strategic Leadership Group (SLG). The SLG are collectively considering the remaining recommendations of the report, including those relating to youth work.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reviewed the impact of the national guidance on reimbursement for home dialysis costs to include utility costs, including water and electricity, following its introduction in March 2024.
Answer
In January 2024, we implemented a Scotland-wide policy reimbursing home dialysis patients for their extra electricity costs incurred in their treatment. At the time of implementation, there was a commitment to undertake a review 6-12 months later to ensure that the Policy had been fully applied across all NHS Boards. This Review has been completed and concluded that all Boards had reimbursement policies for eligible patients. This removes the financial disincentive to making a choice for home dialysis over in-centre treatments, allowing personal choice in where and how to receive treatment.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received any reports from local authorities or representative bodies regarding financial distress, debt accumulation or insolvency risk among early years providers in the past three years.
Answer
The Scottish Government monitors trends across the whole childcare sector, drawing on data published by the Care Inspectorate. In recent years the Scottish Government has published financial sustainability health checks and the Sustainable Rates Review, which considered issues relating to financial sustainability.
As part of the evidence gathering phase of the joint Scottish Government and COSLA Sustainable Rates Review, local authorities reported that “they had seen very little evidence of funded services in the private, third or childminding sectors reporting to them that they had been under financial duress or of services closing due to financial sustainability pressures”.
Under the Business Sustainability criteria in the National Standard for funded ELC, providers are required to demonstrate to the local authority that they are financially viable. If a service delivering funded ELC was at risk of closure due to financial difficulties, they would therefore be obliged to make their local authority aware.
The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the sector representative organisations and as part of this engagement we regularly receive updates from these organisations regarding pressures faced by their members. The representative organisations will often highlight any concerns in reports which draw on the responses from members to surveys (and these reports are usually available on the organisations’ website). For example, Early Years Scotland recently published a report highlighting the potential impact on providers as a result of the UK Government’s changes to Employer National Insurance Contributions.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the number of applicants that were (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful in applying for a Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme payment for 2025-26, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The application window for the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (SUSSS) scheme year 2025 does not open until 1 September 2025.
In the following table, details are provided of the number of businesses that had a successful or unsuccessful application under the SUSSS in 2024, broken down by local authority area. Applications included as unsuccessful are those applications which were rejected as they did not meet the scheme eligibility criteria.
Local Authority | Successful | Unsuccessful |
Aberdeenshire | 9 | 1 |
Angus | 8 | 0 |
Argyll and Bute | 78 | 1 |
City of Edinburgh | 1 | 0 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 6 | 1 |
East Ayrshire | 10 | 0 |
East Lothian | 2 | 0 |
Highland | 478 | 8 |
Inverclyde | 2 | 0 |
Midlothian | 1 | 0 |
Moray | 7 | 0 |
North Ayrshire | 8 | 0 |
Orkney | 6 | 0 |
Perth and Kinross | 36 | 1 |
Renfrewshire | 1 | 0 |
Scottish Borders | 10 | 0 |
Shetland | 53 | 4 |
South Ayrshire | 2 | 0 |
South Lanarkshire | 6 | 1 |
Stirling | 19 | 0 |
West Dunbartonshire | 1 | 0 |
Western Isles | 370 | 11 |
Total | 1114 | 28 |
