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: S6O-04807

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, as part of its policies on managing deer numbers, how it is supporting public bodies such as local authorities and NHS boards to use more Scottish venison in any catering that they are responsible for.

Question reference: S6F-04155

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 June 2025

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that Police Scotland’s national child abuse investigation unit now carries out 700 child sexual abuse investigations a year, representing an increase of 30% since 2015.

Question reference: S6O-04750

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its commitment that no young person under the age of 18 should be imprisoned, what discussions it has had with the Scottish Sentencing Council regarding reviewing the Sentencing young people guideline, which states that all sentencing options, including imprisonment, remain open to the court.

Question reference: S6O-04705

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will take action to deter wildlife crime on beaches, particularly over the summer months.

Question reference: S6O-04581

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the latest Quarterly Economic Indicator from the Scottish Chambers of Commerce and Fraser of Allander Institute, which reportedly shows a business landscape that is characterised by flatlining demand, stalling investment and labour cost pressures.

Question reference: S6W-35712

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reverse the reported decline in the availability of childminding services.

Question reference: S6W-35676

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 28 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the progress made by (a) local authorities and (b) partner organisations in embedding the principles of The Promise in their policies and practices.

The Scottish Government works closely with local authorities and partner organisations to embed the principles of The Promise in their policies and practices.

I regularly meet with Councillor Tony Buchanan, the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, to discuss progress and how we can work together to recognise and share good practice.

There is a large amount of positive work underway across Scotland through local authorities, partnerships and across the public and third sector. During my time in office I have had the honour to meet with children, young people, families and workforce across the country to see and hear of the impact of the projects and initiatives that are underway.

This includes work supported by our multi-year commitment to funding Children’s Services Planning Partnerships to transform family support in their local areas which was recently raised from £32 m to £38 m a year.

Children’s Services Planning Partnerships and local authority Promise teams capture local progress that they are undertaking and for example, I am aware that Renfrewshire recently published their Promise Report for 2025 which highlights all of the activity that they have undertaken over the past 5 years.

Understanding both good practice and the barriers and challenges to change is essential to support the next stages of national and local progress. While there is excellent work happening at local authority level, I am aware that there needs to be more consistency with progress across the country. I continue to encourage local authorities to share and learn from each other to make this happen.

I have asked The Promise Scotland to provide a picture of the activity underway in localities across Scotland to keep The Promise. This will draw on a range of sources as well as being informed by insights.

, which was published in December, will be instrumental in understanding how we are keeping The Promise and I welcome the recent recognition from the Promise Oversight Board of the important role that this will take.

The Framework has been developed by COSLA, The Scottish Government and The Promise Scotland, with input from key stakeholders including local authorities, Public Health Scotland, the Improvement Service, CELCIS, Who Cares? Scotland, the Care Inspectorate, Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The Scottish Government’s Statutory Guidance on Corporate Parenting sets out how local authorities and public bodies consider their contribution towards providing safe, secure, stable and nurturing homes for young people leaving care. As corporate parents, all public bodies have a collective responsibility to help shape lives and provide opportunities for our children living in care and care leavers.

In January, the Scottish Government published the third statutory which outlines the activity across Scotland by the Scottish Government and Executive Agencies, as well as other public bodies, to help uphold the rights and secure the wellbeing of children and young people in care and care leavers.

The Scottish Government provides Who Cares? Scotland with grant funding to deliver support and training to Corporate Parents.

Question reference: S6W-35679

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of eligible children have accessed their full entitlement of 1,140 hours of funded childcare in each of the last three years.

All three- and four-year-olds, as well as eligible two-year-olds, have a statutory entitlement of up to 1140 hours per year of funded ELC.

The most recent shows that uptake of the funded ELC offer for 3- and 4-year-olds was around 95% of eligible children in 2024. For eligible 2-year-olds, the proportion was 59%.

According to Improvement Service data in September 2024, around 98% of children aged 3 or more receiving funded ELC in September 2024 were reported to be accessing more than 600 funded hours, and 89% were reported to be accessing the full 1140 funded hours. This data also shows around 92% of eligible 2-year-olds reported to be receiving funded ELC in September 2024 were reported to be accessing more than 600 funded hours, and around 77% were reported to be accessing the full 1140 funded hours.

Data for previous years on the number of eligible children accessing funded ELC is available from summary statistics, available here: .

Data for previous years (reported quarterly) on the proportion of children accessing funded ELC who have used the full 1140 hours in previous years is available from Improvement Service reports, available here:

Question reference: S6W-35713

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it measures the impact of funded early learning and childcare on children's (a) development, (b) family wellbeing and (c) parental employment.

As outlined in the Scottish Government’s , published in 2022, we have robust plans in place to evaluate the impact of the ELC expansion to 1140 hours on outcomes for children, parents and families. This includes an economic evaluation that will analyse parental employment outcomes.

We are ensuring that individual components of the evaluation are made available as they are ready and that the learning from these is used to inform policy development and delivery. In August 2024 the Scottish Government drew together existing findings to publish the .

The interim evaluation found promising signs that the expansion is delivering improvements for families across Scotland. For example, in 2022, 88% of parents with a 3 to 5 year old were satisfied with the flexibility they have been offered to use their funded hours in a way that meets their family’s needs.

We expect to publish the Final Evaluation Report on the 1140 ELC expansion in December 2025.

Question reference: S6W-35680

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to (a) support childminders in delivering the 1,140 hours of funded childcare and (b) address the reported decline in the number of childminders.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting and growing our childminding sector, which is why we launched the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future in June 2024, in partnership with the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA). The programme is supporting the recruitment of new professional childminders across Scotland, offering a package of funded support and training in addition to a £750 start-up grant, providing everything needed to establish a new childminding business from home.

The programme also includes a range of pilot measures to address the retention of the childminding workforce, and to encourage more childminders to deliver funded early learning and childcare. This includes trials of a mentoring scheme and ‘funded time off the floor’ designed to deliver more practical support to ensure our existing professionals are supported with their workloads and professional development.

The recruitment support is available across 19 local authorities during year 1 (2024-25), and 12 local authorities are currently participating in the retention pilots.