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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-41102

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Scottish Prison Service continuing its membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme, in light of the decision by organisations such as Police Scotland and the Scottish Parliament to withdraw from the scheme.

Question reference: S6W-41104

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on Police Scotland’s decision to withdraw from the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme.

Question reference: S6W-41103

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the Scottish Prison Service paying an annual membership fee of £3,090 to the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme represents value for money for the taxpayer.

Question reference: S6W-41101

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether its membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme represents value for money for the taxpayer.

Question reference: S6W-40520

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation of the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023.

The Scottish Government (SG) is committed to implementing all elements of the Bail and Release (Scotland) Act 2023 (“the 2023 Act”).

The SG has already commenced various sections of the 2023 Act. This includes all of Part 1 which relates to bail and bail decision making, which came into effect on 14 May 2025.

Part 2 Section 11 (Emergency Early Release) and Section 14 (Prescribed Victim Support Organisations were brought into force on 26 May 2024, and Section 15 (Reporting on the operation of Part 2: Release) has also all been commenced.

The implementation of Part 2 of the Act is progressing, with commencement of further elements planned in the coming year. The remaining sections of the 2023 Act are being commenced at different times, with the timeline being influenced by multiple factors, and notably the required resource and readiness across our delivery partners in the justice sector. Work is already underway on work to develop throughcare standards (section 13), with stakeholder engagement planned from November 2025 and public consultation in summer 2026.

Development of measures to implement s8 (release on specific days) and s9 (release on licence) have been delayed due to other priority developments in prisons legislation, but will be implemented as soon as is practicable. Implementation of s10 (Review of Parole Board directions and recommendations) will be incorporated into wider work on parole that is currently underway .

Question reference: S6W-40451

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what factors are considered when allocating investment for research on what are considered less survivable cancers, and whether any measures are in place to respond to any reported underfunding for such conditions.

Within the Scottish Government, funding of Health and Care Research comes under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

CSO funds research projects via its Translational Clinical Studies (TCS) Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research (HIPS) Committee CSO also funds capacity building research via its Fellowship Funding programmes.

Research funding is not allocated to any particular condition and CSO funds research across the clinical spectrum. All applications go through a process of independent expert review to allow funding decisions to be made. Applications on all cancer types are welcomed and CSO's role is well known across the Health and Care research community in Scotland

In addition, CSO provides infrastructure funding to support the delivery of clinical studies in the NHS in Scotland. This includes funding for the NHS Research Scotland Cancer Research Network and the CSO component of funding for the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow (co-funded 50:50 with Cancer Research UK). The purpose of this funding is to support the delivery of early and later phase cancer clinical studies, including those which are less survivable cancers.

Through UK-wide funding arrangements, the majority of funding programmes administered by the National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR) are open to applications led by researchers based in Scotland

Scottish Researchers to be able to access further NIHR research funding – Chief Scientist Office

Question reference: S6W-40330

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to colleges seeking to reduce costs or increase income in order to remain financially viable.

With public finances at their most strained since devolution, this government has made a long-term commitment to supporting the college sector by increasing teaching funding by 2.1% and capital maintenance by 4.9% compared to 2024-25.

In addition, £3.5 million of targeted support for skills pathways in offshore wind and social care has been provided.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) continuously monitors the college sector to ensure sustainable and coherent provision, engaging with institutions as needed. The Scottish Government also works collaboratively with the SFC and Colleges Scotland through the Tripartite Alignment Group to identify and implement flexibilities to support colleges.

To date, the Group has created the conditions to improve the financial sustainability of the sector with the introduction of the SFC’s College Transformation Framework and new asset disposals process; and is supporting colleges to maximise commercial income.

Question reference: S6W-40329

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to colleges in relation to financial sustainability.

Question reference: S6W-40328

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to colleges that are facing a material reduction in income following changes of policy in relation to the transfer of funds between revenue and capital departmental expenditure limit budgets.

In 2024-25 the Scottish Government worked with the Scottish Funding Council and enabled a £13.4m ‘swap’ of capital for resource funding, recognising that colleges required additional resource funding for maintenance purposes.

Aware of the maintenance pressures colleges continue to face, actions are underway through the College Tripartite Alignment Group, comprising of Scottish Government, the SFC and Colleges Scotland, to consider options for a current year and longer term solution. These discussions sit in the context of SFC’s ongoing work with the sector to develop a College Infrastructure Investment Plan, due to publish in autumn 2026.

The Tripartite Alignment Group provides strategic direction on the pressures and opportunities facing colleges. More can be found about its work here on the Scottish Government’s website. For example, the Group has increased the flexibility in the system with the introduction of the SFC’s College Transformation Framework in Academic Year 2025-26 which offers options around bespoke funding arrangements between colleges and the SFC to enable colleges to plan their curriculum more effectively over a number of years. The Group has also agreed a new asset disposals process which enables most colleges to retain a significant proportion of the value of any sale to invest locally.

Question reference: S6W-40138

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people it anticipated, before the passage of the legislation, could be eligible to have their convictions overturned under the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act 2024, and how that compares with to the number that it has so far identified as eligible.

As part of the financial memorandum accompanying the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Bill 2024, the Scottish Government provided a low, central, and high estimate for the potential number of individuals with convictions that may be quashed through the operation of the legislation. These estimates were given with a significant degree of uncertainty given the nature of the issues covered by the Act. The low estimate was 100, the central estimate was 200, and the high estimate was 300. To date, the Scottish Government has identified 64 individuals with convictions quashed by the Act, and one alternative to prosecution within the scope of the Act.