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-41849

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce a multi-year funding model for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS), in light of SCTS stating in its 2025-26 business plan that its current budget is insufficient to increase court capacity to meet demand.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of sustainable funding for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) and is committed to supporting its work. While budgets are currently set annually through the Scottish Budget process, Scottish Ministers are committed to engaging with Parliament and stakeholders to shape our multi-year spending plans. In line with the approach taken last year, we aim to build broad support across Parliament for the 2026-27 Scottish Budget and will listen to stakeholders to ensure their views inform future spending plans.

We remain committed to improving the sustainability of the Scottish public finances, and our Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan published in June sets out how we plan to close the fiscal gap by the end of the forecast period in 2029-30.

We will provide further detail on this when we publish our multi-year Spending Review in January alongside the 2026-27 Budget. Our Public Service Reform Strategy published earlier this year sets out our commitment to public services over the longer term, ensuring people experience high-quality services while also ensuring they remain fiscally sustainable.

Question reference: S6W-41847

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers have been promoted to a senior leadership position within secondary schools, including (a) headteachers, (b) deputy headteachers and (c) principal teachers, who have completed a formal management training programme to support them in the discharge of their increased responsibilities, in (i) each of the last three full financial years and (ii) 2025-26 to date, broken down by local authority.

Statistics on the overall number of teachers in promoted posts are published as part of the teacher census statistics, available on the Scottish Government website here:

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the number of teachers promoted to a senior leadership position within secondary schools.

While the Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of teachers who have completed a formal management training programme, we provide funding of over £800,000 per year for the Into Headship programme which aims to ensure aspirant head teachers are supported to develop and build the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding required in senior leadership roles, and the In Headship programme for headteachers early in post to support them to build the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding required of headteachers.

Question reference: S6W-41836

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 26 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Retail Consortium’s suggestion in its Scottish Budget 2026–27 recommendations paper that the business rate levied on shops liable for the higher property rate makes it more expensive for them to operate and trade profitably on high streets in Scotland than for similar sized stores in England.

In its 2025-26 Budget, the Scottish Government maintained a competitive non-domestic rates regime delivering the lowest property rate in the UK for the seventh year in a row, ensuring that over 95% of non-domestic properties continue to be liable for a lower property tax rate than anywhere else in the UK.

The retail sector continues to be one of the main beneficiaries of the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) with 30,000 shops receiving SBBS relief, reducing their collective rates bill by £86 million as at June 2025. Overall, 34,000 shops receive rates relief, worth over £110 million and half of all shops in Scotland pay no rates.

These figures relate to the ‘shops’ property class, as defined by the Scottish Assessors. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property and does not necessarily accurately reflect the actual use of a property.

Tax policy decisions are made annually at budget in line with prevailing economic decisions and Government priorities.

Question reference: S6W-42134

Current Status: Withdrawn

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-41859

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) scientific and (b) other advice led to the decision to license at least 26 vessels in each of the last five razor clam electro-fishery trial seasons.

Scientific advice has underpinned the decision to authorise derogations permitting licensed fishing vessels to catch, land and sell razor clams while participating in the trial.

The biological and ecological goals describe the areas in which the scientific trial has sought to further our knowledge. These are:

1.to gather local level information on razor clam populations and stocks, including collating accurate data gathered by trial participants to supplement stock survey work;

2.to ensure sustainable harvesting levels; and,

3.to gather further information about the impacts of the electrofishing method on target and non-target species.

A summary of this advice for each of the last five trial seasons is provided below.

2021-2022:

Authorising fishing was necessary to gather data to understand trends in landings per unit effort, work that was planned for the previous season but was hampered by the COVID pandemic.

2022-2023:

To gather data to understand size at maturity and time of spawning.
To allow scoping development of stock assessments.
To understand the benefits of REMand to inform applicability to other fisheries.

2023-2024:

The trial was extended for a two-year period from 1 February 2022 and the advice for 2022-23 applied to 2023-24.

2024-2025:

To gather data and publish stock assessments. These were published in the Progress Report on the Biological and Ecological Goals of the Trial in September 2024.
To study the effect of introducing a seasonal closure during the spawning period.

2025-2026:

To gather data to refine published stock assessments and to publish further assessments for other trial areas.

A range of factors were considered when assessing the merits of all options for the trial. This included the socioeconomic impact of these options, as well as the impact on The Scottish Government and our public sector partners as regulators.

Ultimately however, these decisions rest on the scientific advice.

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-41903

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many board meetings of Architecture & Design Scotland the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture has attended since May 2021, and on what dates.

Scottish Ministers do not routinely attend Architecture & Design Scotland board meetings and I have not attended any board meetings of the body since May 2021. Most recently, I met with the Architecture & Design Scotland Chair and Chief Executive in November 2024. A senior official in the sponsor directorate attends the Architecture & Design Scotland AGM on behalf of Scottish Ministers. Officials also regularly attend A&DS board meetings as requested as an observer.

Question reference: S6W-41952

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many units of affordable housing have been constructed in the (a) Stirling, (b) Fife, (c) Perth and Kinross and (d) Clackmannanshire local authority areas in each year since 2015, and how many were delivered compared with local delivery plans.

Statistics relating to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) by local authority are published quarterly on the Scottish Government website. These figures relate to the number of approvals, site starts, and completions of social and affordable homes, and can be accessed using the following link:

The homes provided through the AHSP comprise homes for social rent, for mid-market rent and for low cost home ownership. These homes take various forms including; new build homes, rehabilitation projects, conversions and off-the-shelf purchases of both new and second hand homes.

The following table provides a breakdown of the number of homes completed in the (a) Stirling, (b) Fife, (c) Perth and Kinross and (d) Clackmannanshire local authority areas in each year between 2015-2016 and 2024-25:

Local Authority	Clacks	Fife	Perth and Kinross	Stirling
2015-2016	50	386	318	164
2016-2017	72	611	251	118
2017-2018	117	960	446	68
2018-2019	63	547	465	98
2019-2020	90	500	486	73
2020-2021	78	495	235	231
2021-2022	118	405	408	171
2022-2023	98	721	294	103
2023-2024	60	524	260	77
2024-2025	28	414	262	119
TOTAL	774	5563	3425	1222

Local authorities, as the strategic housing and, in most cases, planning authority are responsible for assessing housing need and demand in their area and setting out their investment priorities in their annual Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs).

Question reference: S6W-42019

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many controlled parking zones have been introduced by each local authority in each year since 1999, also broken down by how many parking permits have been sold for these each year, and how much has been raised by these sales.