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-35039

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the most recent data it has regarding the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils leaving the independent sector and enrolling in state schools, broken down by local authority.

Scottish Government continues to engage with local authorities to understand the impact on the Scottish state sector to date.

Scottish Government does not routinely collect this information.

As part of ongoing work to receive assurance from local authorities that they have the capacity to support increased school rolls, a small number of local authorities have provided indicative figures for the number of pupils enrolling in state schools from independent schools. This information is limited and is not broken down by primary and secondary for all areas.

Local Authority	Total pupil enrolments from independent to state sector in 2024-25	(a) Of which are primary pupils	(b) Of which are secondary pupils
City of Edinburgh Council (January 2025)	58	22	36
East Dunbartonshire (February)	9	(not provided)	(not provided)
East Renfrewshire (January)	12	(not provided)	(not provided)

Question reference: S6W-35270

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 5 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints regarding quadbikes and off-road vehicles have the police received in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-35034

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average primary (a) 1, (b) 2 and (c) 3 class size has been in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S6W-34443

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many shared headteacher roles have been in place in schools in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

Following clarification, this question refers to multi-establishment leadership models.

The following table shows the number of schools which share a headteacher with at least one other school, known as multi-establishment leadership models, by Local Authority. This does not include Grant-Aided schools or centrally employed headteacher posts. Data from before 2007 is not available.

Table 1. Schools in a multi-establishment leadership model, by Local Authority, 2007-2023.

LA Name	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Aberdeen City	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	4	2	0	2	0	0	2	2
Aberdeenshire	4	12	10	16	12	8	8	8	16	12	12	14	16	18	16	18	25
Angus	5	7	7	8	6	12	12	12	10	6	6	8	8	8	10	10	12
Argyll and Bute	6	6	12	4	6	8	16	19	21	26	29	32	28	28	32	32	38
City of Edinburgh	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	2	3	2	0	0	2	2	2	4	2	2	2	2
Dumfries and Galloway	4	6	17	9	15	13	15	64	69	64	68	68	61	64	67	69	64
Dundee City	1	1	1	1	2	0	2	2	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	2
East Ayrshire	2	2	13	10	4	6	2	4	4	4	4	4	6	4	6	4	0
East Dunbartonshire	2	2	4	4	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	2
East Lothian	1	1	1	1	2	2	4	4	2	3	5	6	8	9	4	6	6
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	2	0
Falkirk	0	0	0	0	0	2	7	11	8	8	12	12	6	4	4	4	8
Fife	4	4	10	10	8	11	7	9	20	29	35	38	32	40	42	48	48
Glasgow City	4	2	5	3	3	0	0	3	2	2	4	6	4	6	6	6	10
Highland	28	50	47	59	62	67	72	71	66	72	87	90	95	96	90	83	91
Inverclyde	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	4	6	6	2	4	0
Moray	2	4	4	4	4	6	4	6	6	10	8	8	8	8	8	8	6
Na h-Eileanan Siar	13	10	10	18	16	10	6	12	12	10	12	12	14	22	18	18	15
North Ayrshire	1	0	0	2	4	8	11	13	11	12	12	10	10	6	6	10	12
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0	4	6	4	8	10	4	4	4	9	7	7	13	13	13
Orkney Islands	6	6	6	4	6	4	9	9	8	8	6	6	7	6	10	5	8
Perth and Kinross	0	0	4	8	8	8	10	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	10	8	8
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	18	22	45	43	41	38	42	42	42	38	36	36	32	32	27	28	29
Shetland Islands	6	6	2	4	4	4	6	4	2	4	5	5	4	4	8	2	2
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	2	2	6	8	8	10	12	14	12	12	14	10	12
South Lanarkshire	14	14	16	16	18	16	16	12	14	14	14	14	16	14	14	14	14
Stirling	8	12	12	10	13	17	17	16	14	10	10	10	12	13	12	12	12
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	6	4	4	6	4	6	8	8	8	12
West Lothian	4	6	8	8	8	8	10	8	10	8	6	4	10	10	10	10	16
All Local Authorities	134	173	236	248	257	264	296	364	369	374	409	426	426	437	445	442	469

Question reference: S6W-34891

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the number of incidents in schools that Police Scotland have attended in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-34888

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many afterschool clubs have been funded in each local authority area since 1999.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Local authorities make their own decisions about how to prioritise the provision of after school clubs based on local need.

Through our School Age Childcare (SACC) Programme, the Scottish Government is currently investing in designing and testing funded school age childcare services within targeted communities across Scotland, in order to understand what it takes to deliver SACC that supports those families most at risk of living in poverty. This includes our Early Adopter Communities in 6 Local Authority areas, our Extra Time Programme in partnership with the Scottish Football Association, and our Access to Childcare projects.

Question reference: S6W-34453

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates that it will deliver on its commitment to allocate 10% of NHS spend to mental health and 1% to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

Latest data published by Public Health Scotland on 25 February 2025 shows total spend on mental health in Scotland has increased by £179.6 million to £1.486 billion in 2023-24. That is 9.03% of total net NHS expenditure, up from 8.53% in 2022-23. Spend on child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) has increased by nearly £19.4 million to over £134 million. This is 0.82% of total spend, up from 0.75% in 2022-23.

We remain committed to delivery of the commitment and the latest data shows good progress is being made, however, as we all know, there are continued and unprecedented challenge to the public finances.

That means that achieving the targets in practice will depend on the outcome of future budgets. It is also dependent on the financial decisions taken by NHS Boards, and their partners, on the continued local investment needed to achieve the targets.

We will continue to closely monitor our progress towards both the 10% and 1% over the remainder of the Parliamentary term.

Question reference: S6T-02391

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report, In Their Own Words: Children's Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, which was commissioned by Shelter Scotland and shows the impact that a stay in temporary accommodation can have on children's safety, health and education.

Question reference: S6W-35040

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the implementation of the pavement parking prohibitions introduced by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, and how it ensures that local authorities enforce these effectively.

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 places a duty upon all local authorities to enforce the new parking prohibitions. It is for each local authority to determine how best to enforce these prohibitions in their area. Transport Scotland annually collates figures on income and expenditure and Penalty Charge Notices issued, which now includes pavement parking. The most recent report was published in December 2024 and can be found at the following link:

Question reference: S6W-35041

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has received from local authorities regarding any barriers that they have identified in enforcing the pavement parking prohibitions introduced by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, and what support it has provided to them to assist with dealing with these.

Transport Scotland facilitated a Parking Standards Group with representatives from all 32 local authorities, in advance of the 2019 Act becoming law. During these meetings, in depth discussions were held around the enforcement of the new parking prohibitions. Transport Scotland also issued detailed guidance to all local authorities providing them with a procedure to follow to enforce the prohibitions This guidance also addressed any subsequent queries raised by local authorities.

Officials are in ongoing discussions with SCOTS and COSLA in respect of the funding mechanism for the relevant costs associated with the new prohibitions. Once those discussions have been concluded we will be in a position to reimburse any further eligible costs incurred by local authorities.