Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-38295

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it expects eligible stroke patients in the NHS Borders area to receive the same standard of care as stroke patients in Edinburgh by being able to receive a mechanical thrombectomy, should they need one, at weekends.

Question reference: S6W-38123

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the £28 million provided to local authorities in 2025-26 to support additional support needs provision in schools has been allocated to Scottish Borders Council.

Question reference: S6O-04732

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will meet with the Equality and Human Rights Commission regarding its recently published consultation on updating the Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations, following the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Question reference: S6W-37355

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its ongoing review of the guidance on mothballing.

Statutory responsibility for decisions about the learning estate, including mothballing, rest with local authorities. The Scottish Government issues guidance to support local authorities’ implementation of their statutory responsibilities.

As the First Minister stated on 24 April, we are reviewing current guidance on the mothballing of schools and nurseries to provide greater clarity on whether it is an appropriate action to take. Scottish Government officials have regular engagement with local authorities and their representative bodies on a range of issues, including mothballing, and Ministers are considering a range of local government and stakeholder views on mothballing through the review process.

We will update Parliament further on this work in due course. While the review is underway, the existing guidance on mothballing (which is included in the Statutory Guidance on the Schools Consultation (Scotland) Act 200) remains in place.

Question reference: S6W-37357

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what communication it has had with local authorities regarding its review of the guidance on mothballing, and whether it has advised any local authorities to pause any mothballing proposals until they receive updated guidance from it.

Statutory responsibility for decisions about the learning estate, including mothballing, rest with local authorities. The Scottish Government issues guidance to support local authorities’ implementation of their statutory responsibilities.

As the First Minister stated on 24 April, we are reviewing current guidance on the mothballing of schools and nurseries to provide greater clarity on whether it is an appropriate action to take. Scottish Government officials have regular engagement with local authorities and their representative bodies on a range of issues, including mothballing, and Ministers are considering a range of local government and stakeholder views on mothballing through the review process.

We will update Parliament further on this work in due course. While the review is underway, the existing guidance on mothballing (which is included in the Statutory Guidance on the Schools Consultation (Scotland) Act 200) remains in place.

Question reference: S6W-37356

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish the outcome of its review of the guidance on mothballing.

Statutory responsibility for decisions about the learning estate, including mothballing, rest with local authorities. The Scottish Government issues guidance to support local authorities’ implementation of their statutory responsibilities.

As the First Minister stated on 24 April, we are reviewing current guidance on the mothballing of schools and nurseries to provide greater clarity on whether it is an appropriate action to take. Scottish Government officials have regular engagement with local authorities and their representative bodies on a range of issues, including mothballing, and Ministers are considering a range of local government and stakeholder views on mothballing through the review process.

We will update Parliament further on this work in due course. While the review is underway, the existing guidance on mothballing (which is included in the Statutory Guidance on the Schools Consultation (Scotland) Act 200) remains in place.

Question reference: S6W-37406

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce information on the dangers of methanol poisoning to the school curriculum.

We are committed to ensuring that children and young people have the opportunity to learn about substance use and its impact on life choices and health. Curriculum for Excellence already provides the opportunity to explore the risks associated with a variety of substances including alcohol, medicines, drugs, tobacco and solvents. We recognise that education alone will not resolve the harmful abuse of substances, but it is an important strand within a broad range of measures across communities that are designed to tackle this issue.

There are no plans to introduce information on the dangers of methanol poisoning to the school curriculum. We do not take a prescriptive approach to the curriculum in Scotland and it is up to individual schools and local authorities to design approaches to help them deliver relevant and engaging learning.

Following the announcement in December 2023, Education Scotland has been leading on development and delivery of the new Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC). This represents a planned and systemic approach to strengthening the curriculum to ensure it remains forward looking, and supports more consistent teaching and learning experiences and improved attainment and achievement of our children and young people. The CIC, which covers all curricular areas including Health and Wellbeing (HWB), is considering all curricular areas and key aspects – including the subject area of HWB, where work is already underway, drawing on robust interrogation of evidence and a co-design process with practitioners and wider stakeholders.

Question reference: S6O-04641

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent report by Scottish Borders Council on the future of Live Borders, regarding any impact on cultural services, community engagement and libraries across the Borders.

Question reference: S6W-36615

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 2 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the National Energy System Operator (NESO) regarding battery energy storage system quotas in Scotland.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the National Energy System Operator (NESO) and the UK Government in relation to the actions set out in the Clean Power Action Plan, as well as the development of the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP), which will set out a long-term view of what energy sources are needed to reach net zero, and their most optimal locations across Great Britain (GB) on a zonal basis.

NESO modelling was a contributing factor to the development of the technology capacity scenarios set out in the Action Plan which includes an outline of GB-wide measures to support the development of energy storage.

Question reference: S6W-36613

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 1 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Borders regarding suicide bereavement support.

Suicide Prevention Scotland, the delivery vehicle for Creating Hope Together, has been engaging with Suicide Prevention Leads in local areas to facilitate the development of local suicide bereavement approaches that meet the needs of their communities.

Specifically, in the Borders region, there has been good engagement with the local suicide prevention lead within the Health and Social Care Partnership to progress work to develop a local Suicide Bereavement Service. It is anticipated this will connect to the existing After a Suicide Working Group and Wellbeing Hub resources.

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Chamber and committees