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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-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-39360

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 Highland Council area currently have full staffing complements.

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 the Highland Council area 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.

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-39362

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 Moray Council area currently have full staffing complements.

Question reference: S6W-39356

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 action is being taken to reduce the number of fire stations assessed as being of "bad" or "poor" suitability.

The Scottish Government increased the capital budget from £32.5 million in 2023-24 to £43 million in 2024-25 and £47 million in 2025-26. Decisions on how this budget is spent between fleet, equipment and buildings is a matter for the SFRS Board and Chief Officer. SFRS is currently consulting on a range of possible service delivery changes to better match its assets with the risks present in communities. This will allow SFRS to take decisions on closing, merging or upgrading fire stations over the next 5 years.

Question reference: S6W-39258

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any contingent liabilities becoming due for any purpose are (a) met by departmental or central budgets and (b) more likely to be charged to capital or resource budgets.

The Scottish Government has a number of contingent liabilities, which are disclosed in its consolidated accounts each year. The Scottish Government seeks the prior approval of Parliament, via the Finance and Public Administration Committee, before entering into any specific contingent liability unless it arises in the normal course of business or the sum of the risk is £2.5m or less.

The Scottish Government seeks to manage the impact of contingent liabilities crystallising within existing departmental budgets, in line with portfolio accountabilities. Only where necessary would these be funded centrally.

The budget treatment of crystallised contingent liabilities depends on the nature of the underlying transaction, in line with HM Treasury’s Consolidated Budgeting Guidance and accounting regulations. At present based on the latest contingent liabilities, if these were to crystalise there would be more call on capital over resource budgets.

Question reference: S6W-38836

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 4 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it adopting a mechanism for the carbon contracts pilot to offer to buy a portion of carbon credits at an agreed price, what other options to support investment were considered; for what reasons they were rejected, and whether it will publish its latest assessment of these reasons.

Question reference: S6W-38839

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 3 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many projects have registered an interest in carbon contracts since the launch of the call for interest in the carbon contracts pilot.

Question reference: S6W-38869

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 3 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve the (a) accessibility and (b) affordability of inter-island ferry travel for disabled passengers.

The recently published Strategic Approach of the Islands Connectivity Plan sets Accessibility as one of four priorities for future ferry services and identifies a number of actions to support the delivery of this priority, including development of a Ferries Accessibility Standard and reopening of the Ferries Accessibility Fund.

We have also invested significantly to keep ferry fares affordable for all, including on Road Equivalent Tariff and islander fares, as well as the Older and Disabled Persons Concessionary Travel Scheme. In addition, a number of local authorities already provide concessionary ferry travel for disabled people.

Question reference: S6W-38837

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 3 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported call for the registration of peatland restoration projects for carbon contracts, how many hectares of degraded peatland it anticipates the carbon contracts pilot will restore, and how many tonnes of CO2e reductions it estimates this restoration will deliver.

Carbon Contracts are to be piloted as part of the Peatland ACTON programme. All projects will be required to meet Peatland ACTION quality criteria. Scottish Government has not undertaken modelling to estimate the exact impact of the Carbon Contracts pilot on levels of peatland restoration and CO2 emissions reductions. The pilot itself will play a key role in assessing the potential impact of the Carbon Contracts mechanism on rates of peatland restoration.