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-37434

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-04661

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with charitable and third sector organisations regarding the decision not to introduce legislation to end conversion therapy practices, and other equalities-related legislation, during the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6O-04637

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what further consideration it has given to increasing or removing the earnings limit for recipients of the Carer Support Payment.

Question reference: S6W-36494

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 28 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to increase the uptake of abdominal aortic aneurysm screening in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, in light of recently reported local health warnings.

The Scottish Government is unaware of any particular concerns regarding uptake of abdominal aortic aneurysm screening in NHS Ayrshire and Arran. The social media posts reported in the press were routine reminders posted by NHS Ayrshire and Arran as part of a targeted campaign to raise awareness of all national screening programmes.

The latest shows that 83.5% of men in Ayrshire and Arran attended abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening by the age of 66 years and 3 months for 2023/24. This exceeds the acceptable standard of 75%, and the national average of 77.3%. In addition, uptake was above the acceptable standard for men in all of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintiles.

Question reference: S6W-36495

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been prosecuted for online sexual extortion (sextortion) in the last year; how many were subsequently convicted, and whether it will provide an update on its campaign to deal with this crime and support victims.

Where a reported sextortion-related crime involves the perpetrator making demands for money or other valuables, it will be recorded and investigated under Threats and Extortion. Where it involves a motive other than financial gain (for example a demand of a physical sexual nature or some other attempt to exert control over the victim), Police Scotland will record it under Threatening to disclose an intimate image.

Whilst statistics are available on the number of people prosecuted and convicted for both Threats and Extortion and Threatening to disclose an intimate image, these do not specifically identify cases that happened online and may include non-sextortion type incidents.

SEXTORTION CRIMESTOPPERS’ FEARLESS CAMPAIGN

The campaign was prompted by discussions between the SG and Police Scotland to explore what more can be done to address growing concerns about the complexity and level of incidence of sextortion activity, and the avenues open for younger people and parents to report these incidents safely and in the knowledge that their concerns will be handled sensitively.

The Fearless campaign targets young people of all genders aged 13 – 21 living in Scotland, but a large proportion of cases have involved male victims aged between 14-18. Ninety-one per cent of victims in UK sextortion cases dealt with by the Internet Watch Foundation in 2023 were male.

Phase 1 – launched 18 November 2024

In partnership with Fearless and Police Scotland, the Scottish Government funded a 4-week campaign, focused on raising awareness of the topic of sextortion amongst young people aged 13 - 21 years old and adults who work with and look after young people Scotland wide.

The campaign is trauma-informed and reassuring and puts victim impact and empathy at the heart of the campaign and link with UNCRC.

Co-designed by teenagers, the campaign targeted young people through various social media platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram and emphasises that absolutely any young person can be affected. They’re encouraged to know that if this happens to them, it’s not their fault, they are not alone, and that help is there for them.

An awareness video has been filmed with Fearless, Police Scotland and NSPCC specifically for adults who work with and look after young people. This short film aims to increase their own awareness of sextortion whilst reassuring them that help is available should this happen to their young person.

Regular meetings have taken place over the last few months to ensure that the campaign is focused, that it can be evaluated and to ensure there is a longer-term strategy going forward.

Phase 2 – launched 7 February 2025

Phase 2, developed to build on the significant achievements of Phase 1, sees an increased focus on outreach activity and will provide more vital information to parents and carers. Young people will also continue to be encouraged to learn more about sextortion through social media ads designed by their peers.

Phase 2 is only the next step in raising awareness and reducing the considerable harm sextortion causes. It forms part of a range of future activity to ensure awareness and support remains clear and accessible. This includes the development of educational tools and the establishment of a national strategic group to ensure that Scotland’s approach to sextortion is coordinated and informed by the most up to date information and trends in criminality.

Campaign Evaluation

Since its initial launch on 18th November 2024, Fearless has seen very positive engagement with the campaign, including:

?Over 8.9 million social media impressions of the youth ads targeted at young people with 61,387 swipes to the sextortion youth landing page at Fearless.org to learn more

?Over 1.3 million social media impressions of the adult ads, with 6,399 clicks to the adult focused landing page at Fearless.org to learn more

In addition to the significant social media reach, webinars were delivered to 399 youth professionals from Health, Education and Youth Work across Scotland. More than 95% of the attendees felt the campaign increased their knowledge of sextortion, with the majority going on to share their learning with colleagues and making plans to highlight to young people.

A full evaluation of the campaign is expected by summer 2025 in which Fearless will be able to share the level of engagement from the campaign including reach, impressions and swipes to their website Fearless.org.

They will also continue to monitor, engage and respond to partner and young people feedback.

We will work with partners to publish this information when it is available.

Question reference: S6W-36496

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many victims of crime have been notified of their perpetrator's release from prison in a timely manner as part of the automatic early release rules under the Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Act 2025, and what steps it is taking to ensure that all victims are informed of such releases.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS and Scottish Government worked directly with Victim Support Organisations including, Victim Support Scotland ahead of automatic early release under the Prisoners (early Release) (Scotland) Act 2025, to raise awareness and encourage those who were eligible to sign up to the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS).

All registered victims, where the offender’s release date changed as a result of the above legislation, were notified of the new release date ahead of the offender’s release from SPS custody. In total SPS’ VNS team notified 33 registered victims.

Question reference: S6O-04509

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it or its agencies next plan to build CalMac ferries in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-35214

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-04318 by Fiona Hyslop on 19 February 2025, on what date it instructed Transport Scotland and Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd to progress discussions around its potential purchase of Ardrossan harbour.

We did not expect to consider a change of ownership as part of the business case work, and this alternative approach has not been taken lightly. Transport Scotland and CMAL were formally advised to take forward initial discussions with Peel Ports Group in November 2024.

These initial discussions had progressed to a more advanced stage which allowed for the recent update to Parliament. Intensive commercial negotiations are ongoing.

Question reference: S6F-03906

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government is considering to further support Scotland's universities, in light of reports that the University of the West of Scotland reported a multi-million pound deficit in the last financial year, with other universities across Scotland in a similar financial position.

Question reference: S6W-34901

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans there are to extend the emergency department opt-out blood borne virus testing pilot to areas of higher prevalence.

Improving access to testing for blood borne viruses (BBV) plays an important role in achieving the Scottish Government’s hepatitis C elimination and HIV transmission elimination goals. However it is vital that we carefully consider which interventions are likely to be most effective in Scotland. This is why we have funded emergency department (ED) opt-out testing pilot projects in NHS Lothian, Grampian and Highland.

Whilst there are no imminent plans to expand ED opt-out testing, the Scottish Government is using evaluation data from the pilot projects, combined with evidence from the programme in England and Scottish Government-funded academic research, to determine whether further roll-out would be acceptable, deliverable and cost-effective.