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

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Question reference: S6W-36794

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the board's reported financial situation, what its position is on how NHS Grampian will repay its reported loan from it of £92.2 million.

NHS Grampian are escalated to Level 3 of the NHS Support and Intervention Escalation Framework for financial management and position and the Board continue to receive tailored support from the Scottish Government.

Outstanding brokerage must be repaid to Scottish Government once an NHS Board has returned to financial sustainability. At present, Scottish Government are working with NHS Grampian to secure a credible path to balance, and outstanding brokerage will be recovered once this has been achieved

Question reference: S6W-36817

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the 2025-26 social care budget will be used to support essential frontline services, as opposed to administrative overheads or bureaucracy.

The 2025-26 Scottish Budget includes almost £2.2 billion for social care and integration – exceeding our commitment to increase funding by 25% by almost £350 million.

However, While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, it is for local authorities and health boards to work with the Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) to ensure that social care support services are in place to provide people with the appropriate support.

Decisions on how best to deliver services to local communities are ultimately for integration authorities and locally elected representatives to make.

Question reference: S6W-36789

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it (a) has carried out and (b) plans to carry out an impact assessment of a potential trade deal between the UK and USA on sectors in Scotland, including farming, food, environmental protection, technology and public services.

The shape of any potential trade deal between the UK and the US remains unclear, which makes analysis of potential impacts challenging.

The Scottish Government is engaging with the UK Government at ministerial and official level to get the details needed to analyse the implications of a potential deal for Scotland. We are also engaging with businesses to understand their views and concerns and, when further details are available, we will closely examine opportunities for Scotland alongside key issues like environmental protection and the protection of our public services.

Question reference: S6W-36781

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider greater community control over established wind turbines to ensure that they are turned off to avoid instances of any negative health impacts from issues such as shadow flicker and low frequency noise emissions.

Question reference: S6W-36770

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with local residents regarding concerns in relation to reports of a goat cull being carried out by Oxygen Conservation, and what assurances have been sought that the existing population will be maintained albeit at lower levels.

As set out in my answer to S6W-35250 on 5 March 2025, as the landowners, it is for Oxygen Conservation Limited to consider how any reduction in the feral goat population should be achieved in practice. I understand that the landowner is not calling for eradication of the feral goats and that all future herbivore management will be informed by monitoring the species.

To address concerns on this issue, Oxygen Conservation have produced a question and answer document as well as a newsletter which has been circulated to all local residents.

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-36771

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what further consideration it has given to the protected status for feral goats in the Eskdale area, in light of media and public interest, including the reported gathering of 4,000 signatures by campaigners.

As set out in my answer to S6W-35250 on 5 March 2025, the Scottish Government does not intend to provide feral goats with protected status. Feral goats are a non-native species and it is an offence to release any non-native species without a licence from NatureScot.

Question reference: S6W-36660

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered reforms to the fitness test for new firefighters.

Question reference: S6W-36690

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency planning it has undertaken to mitigate the economic consequences of any tariffs being placed on Scotch whisky in foreign markets.

The Scottish Government continues to provide support to the entire food and drink sector to help businesses with their economic growth ambitions. This includes £10 million funding for the period 2023-2025 to support the implementation of Scotland's food and drink strategy “Sustaining Scotland, Supplying the World” which outlines how we are driving growth for businesses across various sectors, including the drinks industry. In addition, we have invested over £7 million in the Scotland Food and Drink Export Plan since 2014, helping Scottish businesses to capitalise on key global market opportunities. Specifically in relation to whisky the Scottish Government continues to actively engage with the UK Government to strike a good deal for whisky in the proposed India Free Trade Agreement, which is the largest market for whisky in the world.

Question reference: S6W-36659

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs has had with the (a) Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, (b) Fire Brigades Union and (c) Fire and Rescue Services Association since 29 March 2023, and what was discussed.

Question reference: S6W-36599

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will support social housing providers in complying with greener heat regulations that they find unaffordable.

The social housing sector has been outperforming the housing stock overall in terms of EPC ratings in recent years. The Scottish House Condition Survey found 65% of Scotland’s social housing stock rated EPC band C or better. Scottish Government provides grant funding support to social landlords to implement clean heating systems and energy efficiency measures in their existing stock through the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund.