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-37942

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the five types of planned NHS operations are that have the highest current average waiting times, and what the current average waiting time is in each case, broken down by patient sex.

Information on the types of planned NHS operations that have the highest current average waiting times is not held by Scottish Government. Public Health Scotland (PHS) uses the national waiting times datamart to collect electronic patient records covering the waits that patients experience waiting for treatment as an inpatient or day-case under the Treatment Time Guarantee.

This data source can be used routinely to identify the specialty of treatment. However, although the records are designed to collect coded information on the procedure that is planned for the patient, this information is often either incomplete, lacking in essential detail and/or its accuracy cannot be assured. Consequently, PHS is not currently able to report accurately on waiting times to this level of detail.

The table below shows the number of ongoing waits along with the median (days) and 90th percentile (days) by sex for the top five specialties that have the largest median wait across NHSScotland for all specialties covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) at 31 March 2025.

The statistics provided include the median wait and not an average. The median is used to indicate that roughly half of patients waited less than the statistic and half of patients waited longer. The median is used because an average (mean) could potentially be skewed incorrectly by a small number of very long waits that may be recorded in error in the national data. The 90th percentile is also included; this is used to indicate that 9 out of 10 ongoing waits at month-end are waiting less than or equal to the number of days shown.

Table 1 – Total number of ongoing waits as an inpatient or day case for NHSScotland, at specialty level broken down by sex for the top five specialties (that have the highest median wait) across NHSScotland, at 31 March 2025

	Male2			Female2			Total
Specialty	Ongoing waits	Median (days)	90th percentile (days)	Ongoing waits	Median (days)	90th percentile (days)	Ongoing waits	Median (days)	90th percentile (days)
Community Dental Practice	967	249	558	799	258	533	1,766	252	545
Paediatric Surgery1	2,361	245	809	321	147	508	2,683	235	775
Gynaecology1	39	287	789	12,784	228	762	12,825	228	762
Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) 1	8,082	213	649	7,720	216	678	15,806	215	662
Neurosurgery	690	209	880	788	203	802	1,478	206	848

1.There were 7 (1 paediatric surgery, 2 gynaecology and 4 ear, nose & throat (ENT)) ongoing waits where the sex was not recorded. This is due to patients that have opted out of sharing their personal information.

2.Please note that the sex of a patient is taken from the Community Health Index (CHI), which is a register of all patients in NHSScotland.

Question reference: S6W-37943

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider a pilot of free swimming lessons for primary school children in the City of Edinburgh Council area, in order to obtain evidence to consider a policy of free swimming lessons for all primary school children across Scotland.

The Scottish Government believes that every child should be given the opportunity to learn to swim, it is a life skill that can save lives.

Scottish Swimming launched their National Primary School Swimming Framework in September 2024. During the development of the Framework, a number of pilots were undertaken across nine local authorities to establish the best mechanism to deliver school based swimming lessons. As a result, the Framework’s key principles and resources have been designed to be flexible and adaptable to meet the many different challenges and circumstances faced by local authorities and schools.

The Framework can be used by education authorities and schools to improve school swimming provision and enhance the existing school swimming experience.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with sportscotland, Scottish Swimming, and various local and national partners, including the City of Edinburgh Council, to consider the best approach for a continued roll out of a National Framework for school swimming in the near future.

Question reference: S6W-37940

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on implementing a ban on surrogacy in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-37932

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it undertook that resulted in it determining that CalMac should be directly awarded the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract without an open tender process, in light of it stating that directly awarding the contract for the Small Vessel Replacement Programme to Ferguson Marine would present a legal risk.

Direct award of public contracts is only possible in strictly limited circumstances under public procurement rules.

The CHFS3 decision was subject to a due diligence process which concluded there was no financial, operational or legal impediment to implementing a Teckal-compliant direct award.

Shipbuilding is a competitive global market and a designated sensitive sector under the UK Subsidy Control Act. For SVRP, it was assessed that a substantial subsidy would have been required to support direct award of the Phase 1 contract to Fergusons, which we did not consider would be capable of being justified. Given no clear path to subsidy control compliance and the risks of legal challenge, Ministers concluded that directly awarding the Phase 1 contract would have been likely to lead to the worst of both worlds - a delay in adding new ferries to the network and the yard ultimately not securing any work from the programme.

Question reference: S6O-04780

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of recent reports regarding the Barnett formula, and its ministers stating a preference for full fiscal autonomy, what discussions it has had with the UK Government in relation to replacing the Barnett formula.

Question reference: S6W-37933

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its policies and guidance for public bodies, what its definition of "woman" is.

Question reference: S6W-37939

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it estimates it would need to provide to local authorities to cover the cost of implementing a national council tax freeze in 2026-27.

Question reference: S6O-04707

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Crown Estate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland being granted borrowing powers so that it can, for example, invest in energy infrastructure, what its position is on similar powers being granted to Crown Estate Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04519

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether its policy position in relation to an independent Scotland seeking to rejoin the EU includes rejoining the Common Fisheries Policy.

Question reference: S6F-03970

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2025

To ask the First Minister, in light of reports of an escalation in gang-related violence in Edinburgh, with recent shootings in Niddrie and West Pilton, what immediate action can be taken to support the emergency services in ensuring the safety and reassurance of communities in the Edinburgh Eastern constituency.