- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 28 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential psychological trauma that they might cause, whether it will treat online sexual offences with the same seriousness as similar activity offline.
Answer
Answer expected on 28 October 2025
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 28 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much public money has been spent on emergency accommodation as a result of any breaches of homelessness laws in each of the last five financial years.
Answer
Answer expected on 28 October 2025
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 28 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will deliver statutory consent and digital harm education in all schools, to help children to understand and respect boundaries.
Answer
Answer expected on 28 October 2025
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 30 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of concentrated woodland ownership on (a) community wealth building, (b) sustainable development, (c) local democracy, (d) environmental quality and (e) biological diversity.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40457 on 30 September 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.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 30 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of concentrated land ownership on (a) community wealth building, (b) sustainable development, (c) local democracy, (d) environmental quality and (e) biological diversity.
Answer
The Policy Memorandum for the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill highlights concentrated land ownership and the associated lack of supply of land can lead to many important social, economic or environmental objectives being more difficult to achieve. The Memorandum highlights Scottish Land Commission research into concentrated landownership in Scotland which has helped inform a number of the ambitious proposals the Bill.
The Government is committed to driving forward land reform and increasing diversity of land ownership in a way that is fair, proportionate and within the terms of the current devolution settlement.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 30 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government on what date section 7 of the Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Act 2024, which deals with the removal of a trustee by the court, will come into force.
Answer
Section 7 of the Act was brought into force on 26 June 2024 but only insofar as for the purpose of section 8 (removal of certain trustees by court: unfitness). The Scottish Government’s preferred approach is to allow the remaining provisions of the Act to be brought into force at the same time as a Scotland Act Order extends relevant provisions to pensions trusts and officials are working closely with UK Government colleagues to progress this work.
- Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 September 2025
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Current Status:
Initiated by the Scottish Government.
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when the next Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract (CHFS3) will commence.
Answer
I am pleased to confirm that the suite of CHFS3 documentation has been signed by all parties and the new arrangements will come into effect on 1 October 2025 for an initial duration of 10 years.
This is the culmination of a significant amount of work over a number of years including a robust due diligence exercise and extensive stakeholder engagement to inform the approach taken.
The new contract will fundamentally change the ethos of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services by moving from a commercial arrangement to a model which is more focused on the delivery of a public service, and which is fully engaged and responsive to the particular needs of the communities served.
The flexibility afforded under these new arrangements, along with our commitment to ongoing stakeholder engagement, will help deliver continual improvement throughout the duration of the contract.
Alongside the Scottish Government’s ongoing significant investment in new vessels and infrastructure, I fully expect CHFS3 to be a catalyst for positive change across the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services network.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 30 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what funding is available to support Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) in delivering the next steps of its franchise framework assessment, and whether it will commit to ensuring that adequate resources are provided to support this work.
Answer
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) approved the Final Draft of the Strathclyde Regional Bus Strategy on 19 September. A costed programme and timeline for delivery of a Franchise Framework Assessment as required by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019) will be considered at a future partnership meeting.
As this work develops, SPT will be required to undertake more detailed appraisals to determine which of the various bus options they want to progress with. In a climate of increasing fiscal pressure, it is important that the business cases for improving bus services are made robustly and in an evidenced based way to support future decision making on funding.
In 2025-26 the Scottish Government provided record funding of over £15.1 billion to local authorities, a real terms increase of 5.5%. It is, however, the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available, including on support for bus provisions such as franchising in their region, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled its statutory obligations. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 30 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what further evaluation it is carrying out of the 1,140 hours early learning childcare expansion, and by what date any reports regarding this work will be published.
Answer
Working with our Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group, we published our Evaluation Strategy on the impacts of the 1140 expansion on outcomes for children, parents and families over the 2018-2025 period in October 2022.
The Scottish Study of Early Learning and Childcare (SSELC) is the main vehicle for collecting evaluation evidence on child and parent outcomes. Baseline data for the SSELC were collected during 2018 and 2019 from children and their parents accessing up to 600 hours of funded ELC. Reports on the first three phases were published in 2019-20. Data collection for the post-expansion phases of the SSELC took place during 2023 and 2024 with reports published across 2024-25. Independent contractors ScotCen are now analysing this data and preparing their overall report.
In August 2024 we published the ELC Expansion to 1140 hours: Interim Evaluation report, which considered progress against the intermediate outcomes of quality, flexibility, accessibility and affordability. I previously informed Parliament that a full report on the ELC 1140 expansion evaluation for the period 2018-2025 would be published in late 2025, however we now expect to publish this in early 2026. This report will draw together findings from across all the strands of the evaluation, including the SSELC and parent and carer surveys carried out before, during and after the ELC expansion.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 30 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoners have been transferred from closed to open prisons in each year since 2021.
Answer
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
It is the aim of SPS to prepare people in custody for their eventual release and return to communities as contributing citizens. Whilst part of this preparation for release, progression to less secure conditions is an option, however, not an automatic entitlement.
We currently have 3 establishments which are classed as ‘open’, HMP Castle Huntly, and the Community Custody Units, Lilias and Bella.
The following table shows the number of individuals in SPS care that have transferred from a ‘closed prison’ to those 3 sites:
Year | Number of individuals transferred to HMP Castle Huntly | Number of individuals transferred to HMP Bella | Number of individuals transferred to HMP Lilias |
Jan – Dec 2021 | 153 | - | - |
Jan – Dec 2022 | 162 | 13 | 6 |
Jan – Dec 2023 | 241 | 19 | 32 |
Jan – Dec 2024 | 204 | 33 | 35 |
Jan – Sept 2025* | 158 | 19 | 35 |
*Data up to 18 September 2025.
