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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 MSPs 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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-35624

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35236 by Gillian Martin on 11 March 2025, whether it has had any formal or informal discussion with (a) Ineos and (b) Rolls-Royce regarding the development of a small modular reactor at Grangemouth.

There have been no formal discussions with INEOS regarding the development of a Small Modular Nuclear Reactor for their site in Grangemouth. Scottish Government Officials did approach INEOS in 2022 when the potential use of a SMR was reported in media, and the business subsequently confirmed that the technology does not form part of their roadmap for net zero. There is no record of any conversations between Scottish Government and Rolls Royce on this matter.

Question reference: S6W-35568

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported calls for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) to maximise any potential revenue return from the development of its proposed new fire station at Stewart Street in Cowcaddens, Glasgow, by developing a revised design concept that enables the sale or lease of the air rights above the proposed station to a development partner for a high-density mixed use residential development, instead of an isolated low-amenity two-storey building, and whether it will request that the SFRS adopts this proposal.

To deliver maximum value to the public purse, it is appropriate for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) to attempt to maximise the potential revenue return from any sale of excess assets. It is normal to seek outline planning consent in advance of any potential sale of land and SFRS is working with Glasgow City Council to achieve that.

The development of the proposed new fire station at Stewart Street is a matter for SFRS and Glasgow City Council.

Question reference: S6O-04500

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to incentivise the restoration and reuse of listed buildings in Glasgow that are considered to be at risk.

Question reference: S6W-35446

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the comment by the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport on Scotland Tonight on 28 January 2025, in which she said that such spending has" increased", whether it will publish a breakdown of all direct mental health spending set out in the 2025-26 Budget, including spending outwith the mental health services line.

Alongside the draft budget published 4 December 2024, there was accompanying documents that set out level 4 funding - (https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.scot%2Fbinaries%2Fcontent%2Fdocuments%2Fgovscot%2Fpublications%2Fcorporate-report%2F2024%2F12%2Fscottish-budget-2025-2026%2Fdocuments%2F2025-26-level-4-budget-tables%2F2025-26-level-4-budget-tables%2Fgovscot%253Adocument%2F2025-26-level-4-budget-tables.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK).

Within the Health & Social Care tab the direct Mental Health programme spend is broken down along with a summary of what it is used for. This only refers to the direct programme budget and not wider government spend on mental health.

The direct programme budget for Mental Health will increase by 1.2% (to £270.5m) in 2025-26, and in the last five years has more than doubled, from £117.1m in 2020-21 to £270.5m in 2025-26.

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.

Question reference: S6W-35348

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will engage with Reposit to implement its Borrow Cup scheme on the parliamentary estate.

The SPCB is open to discussions with organisations that may provide a practical improvement to the processes we already have in place. Already, we have embarked on several ways to reduce single use products including disposable cups usage across the Scottish Parliament. The cup levy has been in place since 2019 which has significantly reduced the use of disposables. We actively monitor the usage of disposable cups with our service partner and are working to reduce this further through positive consumer behaviour. We are in the process of installing a customer operated appliance that rinses and dries reusable cups efficiently and hygienically. This will support customers further with using reusables on a return basis assisting us with the goal of disposable reduction. We have also ordered a stock of reuseable cups to be available when personal cups are forgotten or not available.

Question reference: S6W-35482

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Scottish Prison Service has requested an extension of the public consultation period into the proposal to designate the Victorian buildings at HMP Barlinnie as category A-listed.

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

Following discussions with Historic Environment Scotland (HES), SPS has been granted an extension to the HMP Barlinnie public consultation on the proposed listing of buildings.

The extension has been extended until 31 May 2025 to allow SPS to fully consider the extent of the listing and accurately comment on all aspects that are material to the HES decision making process.

HES supported the request and indicated that an extension such as this is normal when considering complex cases such as HMP Barlinnie.

Question reference: S6W-35252

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to Glasgow City Council to renegotiate its reported £449 million in lender option borrower option loans with commercial banks, which have reportedly higher average rates of interest than public works loan board rates.

Local Authority borrowing decisions are a matter for the individual local authority and Scottish Ministers have no locus or powers to intervene.

Local authorities are required by statute to ensure effective and prudent management of their resources, to deliver best value to local residents and to have regard to the CIPFA Prudential and Treasury Management codes of practice which require a local authority to ensure that all borrowing is prudent, affordable and sustainable.

In having regard to the Prudential and Treasury Management codes of practice, local authorities are expected to develop and publish an annual integrated borrowing and treasury management strategy. The CIPFA Treasury Management Code of practice sets out the importance of a local authority having an effective strategy to manage and control risk and specifically advises on the requirement for a local authority to ensure that its treasury management strategy adequately addresses credit and counterparty risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk, inflation risk, and refinancing risk.

Question reference: S6O-04476

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, further to the answer to question S6W-34464, what its position is on whether MSPs should be able to participate in the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme, in addition to the Armed Forces Visits Programme, should they wish to do so, in light of it being a structured 15-day course with one of the armed services, and it also offering the opportunity to enrol on a Royal College of Defence Studies postgraduate degree level course in strategic leadership and international strategic studies, and it therefore being different in nature.

Question reference: S6W-35294

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many building preservation notices have been served by planning authorities in each of the last 20 years.

The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 Section 3 states that it is local authorities who issue building preservation notices. The Scottish Government does not routinely gather information about how many building preservation notices each local authority issues.

The Scottish Government publishes statistics on planning applications determined by planning authorities on a 6 monthly basis on our website at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/planning-statistics/

Historic Environment Scotland considers applications for sites/properties to be designated, and publishes annual statistics on their website through their Planning Performance Framework Reports.

Question reference: S6W-35351

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether Historic Environment Scotland will appoint an accredited pipe organ adviser to ensure that the heritage of the country's pipe organs is properly managed, given the reported growing number that are at risk of being damaged or lost.