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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-31922

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many special care dentists there are.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on dentists working in NHS dentistry in Scotland who are also registered with the General Dental Council (GDC) as a specialist in special care dentistry.

However, the Public Dental Service (PDS) does provide special care dentistry for their registered patients. Information on the number of PDS dentists in Scotland is available online at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.

Question reference: S6W-31988

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the current policy guidance is on the evidence and processes required by local authorities before making decisions on the demolition of listed buildings under emergency powers.

Guidance on enforcement powers for local authorities in the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 is provided in the Building Standards Enforcement Handbook and the Building Standards Procedural Handbook. The National Planning Framework 4 states that development proposals for the demolition of listed buildings will not be supported unless it has been demonstrated that there are exceptional circumstances and that all reasonable efforts have been made to retain, reuse and/or adapt the listed building.

A local authority will rely on evidence from a survey carried out by a structural engineer to advise on all options that minimise the extent of any demolition work. A local authority may engage an accredited conservation engineer on a case by case basis following advice from the structural engineer.

Question reference: S6W-31799

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04899 by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2021, how many inspections of care homes for adults have been carried out by the Care Inspectorate in each year since 2021, and how many of these were return inspections.

Inspections of care homes for adults and older people completed 2021-22 to 2024-25 (to date)

	Inspection year
	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25 (Apr24 - Oct24)
	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25 (Apr24 - Oct24)
Total number of inspections completed in care homes for adults and older people	848	1151	1034	583
of which: 'Return inspections' completed (i.e. number of second and subsequent inspections)	391	329	346	120

Source: end of year inspection data files 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and 31 October 2024 inspections completed files.

Note: the return inspections are a subset of the total number of inspections completed, not in addition to the total number.

Question reference: S6W-32194

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 8 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30798 by Gillian Martin on 7 November 2024, whether it will provide an update on the current status of Aberdeenshire Council’s application for funding under the flood protection scheme regarding Ballater, and where in the list of applicants it sits in prioritisation for funding.

Question reference: S6W-32110

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Caledonian Sleeper service between Aberdeen and London has been reduced by 50% to three services a week.

Question reference: S6W-32109

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when the Caledonian Sleeper service between Aberdeen and London will return to the regular service of six times a week.

Question reference: S6W-32111

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to mitigate any negative impact on (a) accessibility and (b) travel for (i) residents and (ii) businesses that rely on the Caledonian Sleeper service as a result of reductions to the service.

Question reference: S6W-31800

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of any impact of ticket office closures on rail passenger numbers, and what measures it has put in place to mitigate any accessibility problems caused by closures.

There will be no ticket office closures or job losses further to the adjustments to the ticket office opening hours proposed by ScotRail and Scottish Rail Holdings.

The purpose of these adjustments is to enable ScotRail to provide assistance to passengers, where it is most required, thus enhancing passenger experience.

The Scottish Government’s acceptance to these proposals is predicated on some conditions, including that the arrangements for disabled passengers will not be affected.

Question reference: S6O-04113

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what additional support it will provide to local authorities in relation to holding public inquiries into onshore wind farms.

Question reference: S6W-31260

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will apply the consequentials it receives from any increased funding from the UK Government to children with special educational needs and disabilities directly to ASN services in Scotland.

Scottish Ministers continue to assess the full implications of the Chancellor’s autumn Budget statement and political parties are encouraged to engage with the Scottish Government on the Scottish budget ahead of 4 December 2024.

Funding for schools is provided through the local authority block grant and local authorities have a statutory duty to identify, provide for, and review the ASN support provided for pupils in their local community.

The Scottish Government is making £145.5M available to local authorities to protect teacher numbers. In addition, we remain determined to improve the educational experiences of children and young people with additional support needs with spending on additional support for learning by authorities reaching a record high of £926m in 2022-23.

We published an updated action plan and progress report on 5th November 2024, highlighting progress made to address recommendations from Angela Morgan’s Additional Support for Learning (ASL) Review (2020) and we are committed to delivering the ASL Action Plan.