Questions and answers

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 ��˿�� 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-41888

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the total estimated cost to it of its delegation attending the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, broken down by (a) travel, (b) accommodation, (c) subsistence and (d) any other associated costs, and, for each of these categories, what the estimated cost is for (i) ministers, (ii) special advisers and (iii) officials.

Question reference: S6W-41889

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with travel by the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy and accompanying officials to and from the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, and how this aligns with its policies on reducing emissions from ministerial and official international travel.

Question reference: S6W-41892

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its priorities are for using its platform at the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, to contribute to international discussions on (a) climate finance, (b) climate justice and (c) the global debt crisis, and what specific outcomes it is seeking to achieve in each of these areas.

Question reference: S6W-41891

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its objectives are for engagement at the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, with (a) activists, (b) civil society partners from the Global South and (c) partners in its Climate Justice Fund programmes, and how it will evaluate the outcomes of this engagement.

Question reference: S6W-41887

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its (a) ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials are attending the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, as part of its delegation, and for how many days each category of attendee is scheduled to be present at the summit.

Question reference: S6W-41894

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to use the discussions and outcomes from the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, to inform the finalisation and implementation of its draft Energy Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-41886

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the patient (a) feedback and (b) complaints recorded by NHS boards regarding travel for planned care outwith a patient’s board area in each of the last five years, and what main themes were identified.

NHS Health Boards are required to provide the Scottish Government with Complaints and Feedback Annual reports and complaints statistics on an annual basis, and these are published by Public Health Scotland. There are specific indicators that Boards must use when reporting their statistics, including total numbers of complaints received and closed, outcomes and timescales for completion. Complaints and Feedback Annual reports must cover, learning from complaints, complaints process experience and staff awareness and training. However, these do not include the specific themes areas requested about which complaints are made.

The most recent publication, which also includes links to each Board’s Complaints and Feedback Annual reports, was in January 2025 for the reporting year 2023/24 and can be found at the following link: .

Question reference: S6O-05256

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting skills development to promote the future of the north east fishing industry.

Question reference: S6W-41714

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40762 by Gillian Martin on 9 October 2025, what indicators it uses to evidence “a deeper level of engagement” at international events, and what evidence it will publish from the September 2025 programme in (a) Japan and (b) New York to demonstrate progress against those indicators, including baselines, targets and timescales.

I refer the Member to the answer detail for question S6W-40762, which sets out the key objectives for participation and engagements undertaken during Scotland’s programme in Osaka and Tokyo across the 6 months and also confirms the intention to publish an evaluation of Scotland’s Expo Osaka programme. We are currently working on the evaluation, which we aim to publish in early 2026.

With regard to indicators used to evidence a deeper level of engagement, I once again refer the Member to the answer to S6W-40762, particularly the stated objectives identified for the Scottish Government’s attendance at Climate Week NYC. As an example of impact, opportunities at NYCW lead directly to Ms. Martin receiving invitations to a wider range of opportunities to engage, especially at UN-sponsored events at COP30. Detail on the Scottish Government programme at COP30 will be published in due course.

Question reference: S6O-05204

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making on reducing audiology waiting lists at NHS Grampian.