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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-39353

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all firefighters are provided with wearable tracking devices for use during incidents to record their heart and breathing rates, in order to provide early warning signs of potential health issues to those monitoring from outside the risk area.

The operational guidance used to keep firefighters safe is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Firefighters in Scotland do not currently have wearable tracking devices to record their heart and breathing rates. SFRS is exploring whether the specification for replacement Breathing Apparatus can monitor breathing rates as part of the integrated communication capability.

Question reference: S6W-39354

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all fire stations are stocked with a spare thermal imaging camera.

Question reference: S6W-39351

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all firefighters who are tasked with entering a burning building are provided with a breathing apparatus set that has built-in radio communications with the incident commander and others, to ensure that all are able to communicate their whereabouts or status in the event that they become separated.

Question reference: S6W-39352

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether all firefighters are provided with wearable tracking devices for use during incidents to track their location.

Question reference: S6W-39259

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-38838 and S6W-38841 by Jim Fairlie on 3 July 2025, whether there is any capital or resource budget implication for the Peatland ACTION budget in 2026-27 and subsequent years as a result of the carbon contracts pilot.

There are no implications for the Peatland ACTION budget in the year 2026-2027 as a result of the carbon contracts pilot.

At this point in time, it is not possible to say how future costs of the pilot will impact on specific budgets. Budgets in respect of 2026-27 and future financial years have not yet been set by the Scottish Parliament.

For more information on the pilot see Carbon Contracts Pilot – Application Guidance | NatureScot.

Question reference: S6W-39261

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38840 by Jim Fairlie on 3 July 2025, whether it anticipates it will incur any contingent liability in either capital or resource commitment as a result of the carbon contracts pilot.

Question reference: S6W-39260

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38841 by Jim Fairlie on 3 July 2025, what the items of expenditure are that capital expenditure is expected to cover within the pilot, and what level of capital spending the pilot expenditure of up to £1 million is expected to lever by way of private capital.

Capital expenditure is solely for the purchase of Peatland Carbon Units at a set rate as they mature within each project. However, awardees may sell their units on the open market where they can achieve an improved price.

A key aim of the pilot is to assess whether Carbon Contracts are likely to reduce the cost of restoration work for government by leveraging private capital.

For more information on the pilot see Carbon Contracts Pilot – Application Guidance | NatureScot.

Question reference: S6W-39359

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many fire stations had firefighting staff that exceeded the permitted maximum of 24 hours of overtime per month in 2024.

Question reference: S6W-39357

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any emergency measures introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic period to operate with reduced manpower in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have been reversed and staffing levels returned to pre-pandemic minimum safe levels.

The operational guidance used to keep firefighters safe is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). SFRS generally operates with a crew of 5 on the first appliance deployed to an emergency and this was reduced to 4 during the COVID-19 pandemic. SFRS has a range of options to ensure the availability of its appliances, which on occasion may include appliances being crewed with 4 rather than 5 firefighters.

Question reference: S6W-39350

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the retained duty system fire stations in the Shetland Islands Council area currently have full staffing complements.

The recruitment of staff is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. There are challenges in recruiting and retaining on-call firefighters in some rural areas of Scotland and there are currently no on-call fire stations in Shetland with a full staffing complement. However, a full staffing complement is not required for an on-call fire appliance to be deployed because it can attend emergencies if there are 4 crew available at any given time. When an appliance is not available, a response will be provided from the next nearest available location.