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-38204

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Additional Support for Learning: Findings Report, published by the Scottish Assembly of Parents and Carers on 27 May 2025.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that parents and carers are central to shaping the development of Additional Support for Learning (ASL) policy. As part of a wider review of ASL, Ministers will consider this publication and its recommendations in addition to other recent reports, which identify areas for improvement.

I have committed to a cross party roundtable with local government to discuss a wider review of the delivery and support for Additional Support Needs in Scotland’s schools. The scope and detail of the review will be informed by the outcome of the roundtable.

Our inclusive approach to education in Scotland is supported by a broad consensus that all children and young people should receive the support they need to thrive. Since the 2020 Morgan Review of ASL, we have delivered over 50 actions to improve educational experiences for children and young people with additional support needs (ASN), empowering them to become directly involved in decision making, increasing learning opportunities for educators and creating parent support groups.

We will continue to work at pace to deliver the remaining actions by the end of this Parliamentary term, including ensuring that parental voice informs the development of ASL policy.

Question reference: S6W-38514

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to address any challenges associated with patient travel to in-centre dialysis appointments, in light of Kidney Care UK’s report, In-centre Dialysis Transport in Scotland, which was published in February 2024.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living with kidney diseases are able to access the best possible care and support and that they benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective, and put people at the centre of their care.

We are aware of the findings of Kidney Care UK in their 2024 report, and Ms Minto met with the group shortly after publication. In 2024 we published the transport to health plan to support work across Scottish Government, Health Boards and Transport partners.

Following engagement between Scottish Government and NHS Boards, a Short Life Working Group is set to be established across NHS Boards to consider in more detail the issues relating to transport access for patients attending for kidney care treatment. We look forward to the outcomes of this work.

Question reference: S6F-04173

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 June 2025

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government is working to ensure that patients are accurately informed of waiting times for NHS treatments following referrals to a specialist.

Question reference: S6O-04788

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working to ensure that schools are tackling racism and racist bullying.

Question reference: S6O-04763

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it is working to reduce the average time families spend in temporary accommodation.

Question reference: S6W-37588

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) adults and (b) children with type 1 diabetes it expects to onboard to closed-loop systems in 2025.

We expect to provide hybrid closed loop systems to at least 2500 people in the financial year 2025-2026. This builds on the more than 2100 people who received a hybrid closed loop system in 2024-2025.

The approach of this programme allows boards to manage their own financial allocation, but we expect children and young people to be prioritised, including those newly diagnosed across the year. This means it is not possible to provide an exact breakdown between adults and children but reporting across the year will allow us to track this nationally.

However, any child or young person living with Type 1 diabetes in Scotland should now have had, at minimum, a referral to receive a closed loop system.

Question reference: S6W-37589

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-36792 by Jenni Minto on 7 May 2025, how much funding it has allocated to expanding access to diabetes technology for people with type 1 diabetes in the financial year 2025-26, broken down by NHS board.

The Scottish Government will be allocating an additional £6,252,000 to territorial boards in 2025-26 specifically to fund insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors (CGM). Additional funding of around £800,000 will be used to fund the National Onboarding Service and make improvements to digital infrastructure, including SCI-Diabetes and MyDiabetes MyWay.

A breakdown of funding being provided to each territorial Board can be found in the following table. Some additional funding has been provided to support development of digital infrastructure.

Health Board	Total Funding
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	£437,640
NHS Borders	£125,040
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	£187,560
NHS Fife	£437,640
NHS Forth Valley	£389,640
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	£1,202,400
NHS Grampian	£687,720
NHS Highland	£423,120
NHS Lanarkshire	£827,280
NHS Lothian	£923,280
NHS Orkney	£62,520
NHS Shetland	£62,520
NHS Tayside	£423,120
NHS Western Isles	£62,520
Total	£6,252,000

Question reference: S6F-04110

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 May 2025

To ask the First Minister, in light of recent reported incidents, how the Scottish Government is working to prevent knife crime.

Question reference: S6W-36792

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to provide additional financial support for NHS boards to allow more adults with type 1 diabetes access to closed-loop systems.

The Scottish Government is committed to expanding access to diabetes technology. Since 2016, we have invested almost £30 million to support expansion. Last year, we established a national programme aiming to provide over 2000 more people with access to hybrid closed loop technology.

We are pleased to confirm that further funding has been secured for this year and we will continue to expand access to a significant number of people.

Progress made last year means that most children and young people will now have access to Closed Loop Systems(CLS). Funding this year will support a significant number of adults, plus any under 18s that have recently been diagnosed and wish to use a CLS.

Question reference: S6W-36657

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to NHS boards to ensure that patients currently on a waiting list are able to access the new digital dermatology pathway.

The scope of the digital dermatology pathway is for new referrals from primary care into secondary care dermatology services. The Scottish Government’s NHS Operational Improvement plan has set out that no one is waiting longer than a year new outpatient appointments and committed an additional £100 million in 2025-26 to target long waits for procedures that include diagnostic tests, resulting in an extra 150,000 appointments. The Scottish Government has been working closely with NHS health boards to target this investment and coordinate effective delivery to identify and address their own waiting lists.