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-41915

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Highland requires a vaccination distribution licence and, if so, what the reasons are for this, what the cost is of such a licence, and whether the cost requires to be met by NHS Highland.

A Wholesale Distribution Authorisation (WDA) is typically required to legally supply a medicinal product to another legal entity, for example for a Health Board to supply a GP Practice. There is no requirement to hold a WDA where medicinal products are being transferred between different locations within the same legal entity, for example from a Health Board managed pharmacy department to a Health Board managed vaccination clinic.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for the granting of WDAs. The MHRA fees are in the public domain and vary depending on factors such as the number of distribution sites. In addition to the MHRA fees, there are resource implications in meeting the obligations and conditions of a Wholesale Distribution Authorisation, for example appointment of a suitably qualified Responsible Person.

NHS Highland is currently reviewing its distribution arrangements for vaccines. NHS National Services Scotland (National Procurement) and Scottish Government officials are providing assistance.

Question reference: S6W-41924

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether NatureScot is implementing the work that the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity announced it would commit to in his ministerial statement on 1 October 2025; what action he will take if NatureScot fails to implement the work, and whether he will exercise his power of direction to require NatureScot to deliver what he announced it would do.

NatureScot is implementing the work set-out in the statement the I made on 1 October 2025, as well as the issues that arose during the gull summit.

NatureScot is taking the following actions to find practical solutions to gull issues:

NatureScot leading four further regional roundtable events across Scotland to continue to develop a partnership approach with those not able to attend the gull summit in Inverness; A new People and Gulls Forum will be established at a national level to ensure the longevity of summit efforts.
Delivery of £100k funding to local authorities who face the more acute issues in order to develop their area wide gull management approach ahead of Spring next year;
Leading a partnership, including with Zero Waste Scotland and Keep Scotland Beautiful, in developing a national awareness campaign to encourage people not to feed gulls and carry out proper waste management so that the food supply for gulls in towns and cities is minimised;
Accelerating our understanding of gull populations nationally, with increased focus on improving survey techniques for gulls nesting in urban areas so that we can more fully understand the numbers and population dynamics involved;
Lead best practice guidance to include waste management in urban areas to limit food availability to gulls and undertake survey techniques that assess local urban populations, movements, and high impact areas.

Question reference: S6W-41912

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 26 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the overspend by NHS Highland was in the financial year 2024-25, and whether it will provide a breakdown of this overspend.

Question reference: S6W-41914

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on (a) the levels of uptake of the winter flu vaccine and (b) whether there is a significant risk of death as a result of a lack of vaccination.

Levels of uptake of the winter flu vaccine

As of the 16 November, 941,833 adult flu vaccinations have been administered. Around the same point last year (17 November 2024) 861,472 adult flu vaccines had been administered. Therefore, this year 80,361 more adult flu vaccines have been administered at this point.

For week ending 16 November, Boards administered 117,026 adult flu vaccines, an increase from the previous week, where they administered 113,936. Clinics and appointments are continuing and we will continue to monitor uptake. The flu programme will run until Sunday 29 March 2026.

Whether there is a significant risk of death as a result of a lack of vaccination

Vaccination is offered to those at the highest risk of complication from flu on the basis of JCVI recommendations. Public Health Scotland (PHS) advises that it is currently too early in the flu season to understand how circulating strains will affect risk of death among unvaccinated (and vaccinated) populations in Scotland.

To note, it is difficult to estimate the impact of vaccination - or lack thereof - on risk of death in the UK (or in Scotland), even at the end of the season, as there are insufficient events to produce precise estimates of differential risk over one year. Instead, PHS produces Scotland-specific and UK-wide estimates of vaccine effectiveness against severe disease, as measured by hospital admissions due to flu. These vaccine effectiveness estimates are typically published on an interim basis in February and finalised for the following June; however, given the early start to this season, PHS is working on a four-nations basis to provide more timely estimates.

Question reference: S6W-41920

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Highland has run a Hospital at Home programme, and, if so, what the cost has been to date, and how many patients have taken part in it.

NHS Highland operates a Hospital at Home service as part of the Scottish Government’s wider programme to provide acute hospital-level care in people’s own homes. NHS Highland currently have a service running in Argyll & Bute and a new service being developed in Inverness.

The board has been allocated up to £3,513,797 for 2025-26 to support further development of these services.

The Argyll & Bute service managed a median of nearly 20 patients per month in 2024-25. Board level data for the Older Adults pathway is a matter for Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) who collate and manage this data. HIS provide an annual publication on services with information on patients managed here - .

Question reference: S6W-41913

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Public Health Scotland Board (a) currently receives and (b) formerly received regular updates regarding the uptake rates of the winter flu vaccine, and, if it no longer receives these updates, who decided to discontinue this practice, and for what reason.

Question reference: S6O-05145

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will request that the Auditor General conducts an investigation into the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round, in light of the finding in the Future Economy Scotland report, Rethinking ScotWind: Maximising Scotland’s offshore wind potential, that, on a per megawatt basis, a comparable leasing round in England and Wales is projected to raise up to 40 times more than the £755 million raised in one-off fees in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-40556

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 19 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 30 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out any risk assessments, regarding any potential environmental and financial impact in Scotland, of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Ministry of Defence civil defence nuclear cooperation programme and any proposals to transfer defence nuclear liabilities, including Vulcan, into the civil sector in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has not carried out any formal risk assessment regarding Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Ministry of Defence (MOD) civil defence co-operation and the proposal to transfer any defence liabilities to the civil sector as no formal proposal to transfer any such liabilities has been presented to us.

We are aware of technical work being conducted by NDA and MOD to evaluate the potential transfer of the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, near to Caithness, to the NDA when the site reaches the end of its operational life, not expected to be before April 2027, and we will consider the results of this in due course. Under the terms of the Energy Act 2004 any proposal to give the NDA additional responsibilities, including defence liabilities, in Scotland requires agreement from Scottish Ministers and a Designation Direction under the Energy Act 2004 would require to be to be laid in the Scottish Parliament.

Any transfer of Vulcan to the NDA would also require the relevant authorisation under the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 issued by SEPA and so would be subject to robust independent scrutiny.

Question reference: S6W-40558

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 19 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 30 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any potential environmental impact in Scotland, whether it (a) can give and (b) has given the (i) Ministry of Defence and (ii) Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) any mandate to transfer defence nuclear liabilities, including Vulcan, into the civil sector in Scotland.

A) Under the terms of the Energy Act 2004 any proposal to give the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) additional responsibilities in Scotland, including defence liabilities, requires agreement from Scottish Ministers and a Designation Direction under the Energy Act 2004 would require to be laid at the Scottish Parliament.

B) Scottish Ministers have not agreed any transfer of defence liabilities in Scotland from the Ministry of Defence to the NDA as no formal proposal to transfer any such liabilities has been presented to us.

Question reference: S6W-40559

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 19 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 30 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any potential environmental impact in Scotland, whether it will propose the scheduling of time for a parliamentary debate on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s draft strategy and any proposals to transfer major defence nuclear liabilities, including Vulcan, into the civil nuclear sector in Scotland, in light of the concerns expressed in the Parliament on 11 March 2014 by the then Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment regarding a culture of secrecy at the Ministry of Defence and Vulcan.

The NDAs are currently updating their 5 year strategy to cover the period 2026 to 2031. This is a routine exercise and so we do not intend to propose a parliamentary debate on this issue.

We will consider the requirement for a parliamentary debate on any proposals to transfer major nuclear defence liabilities, including the potential transfer of the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, near to Caithness, to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) if and when any such formal proposal is received.