Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-41846

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-24400 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 January 2024, what progress has been made regarding its agreement with the UK Government in principle to proceed with a Section 104 Order relating to changing marriages to civil partnerships covering the reserved law of Scotland only.

Discussions are ongoing at official level between Scottish Government and UK Government officials in relation to the proposed section 104 Order to enable the conversion of a marriage into a civil partnership.

If regulations were made by the Scottish Ministers without a section 104 Order covering matters reserved to Westminster, this could result in conversions not being recognised in the rest of the UK and could negatively impact the pensions of some couples who convert their relationship. Therefore our original policy proposal remains to also proceed with a section 104 Order.

The latest meeting my officials had with the Scotland Office was productive, however it was noted that there would be no progress made on this Order until after the Scottish general election in 2026.

Question reference: S6W-41901

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what key performance indicators it uses to assess performance on west coast ferry routes, and which routes are the (a) best and (b) worst performing under each measure.

The Key Performance Indicators are set out in Schedule 11 of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services Grant Agreement between The Scottish Ministers and CalMac Ferries Ltd. This information is available on the Transport Scotland website by following this link: Grant Agreement - Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS3) | Transport Scotland

The first review meeting between Transport Scotland is scheduled, but yet to take place. Following the meeting, information relating to performance will be published.

Question reference: S6W-41822

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) fatal and (b) serious accidents there have been on each road in the trunk road network covering the Highlands and Islands region in each year since 2021.

The following tables presents the total number of personal injury collisions on the trunk roads in Highland Council Region between 1 January 2021 and 5 October 2025 (latest date for which data is available for serious and slight collisions and 12 November 2025 for fatal collisions), broken down by month and severity.

Personal Injury Accident Statistics: By route as noted in tables

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A82	2021	3	5	2	8	20	38
	2022	2	2	5	2	13	24
	2023	1	6	4	6	20	37
	2024	2	6	8	7	17	40
	2025	2	2	6	4	4	18
	Total	10	21	25	27	74	157

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A828	2021	0	0	0	1	1	2
	2022	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2023	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2024	0	0	0	1	0	1
	2025	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	0	0	0	2	1	3

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A830	2021	0	0	0	2	4	6
	2022	0	1	1	0	3	5
	2023	0	0	1	1	1	3
	2024	0	1	2	3	3	9
	2025	1	1	0	0	1	3
	Total	1	3	4	6	12	26

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A835	2021	0	1	0	1	3	5
	2022	1	0	1	2	4	8
	2023	1	1	1	5	4	12
	2024	0	0	2	1	2	5
	2025	0	1	1	0	6	8
	Total	2	3	5	9	19	38

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A86	2021	0	2	0	2	0	4
	2022	0	1	1	0	1	3
	2023	0	1	0	4	1	6
	2024	0	1	0	2	4	7
	2025	0	0	0	0	3	3
	Total	0	5	1	8	9	23

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A87	2021	1	0	2	6	5	14
	2022	1	0	2	2	2	7
	2023	2	3	1	3	9	18
	2024	1	2	4	6	9	22
	2025	3	0	1	1	7	12
	Total	8	5	10	18	32	73

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A887	2021	0	0	0	0	1	1
	2022	1	0	0	0	0	1
	2023	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2024	0	1	0	1	1	3
	2025	0	0	0	1	2	3
	Total	1	1	0	2	4	8

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A889	2021	0	0	0	1	0	1
	2022	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2023	0	0	0	0	1	1
	2024	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2025	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	0	0	0	1	1	2

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A9	2021	2	6	4	3	14	29
	2022	8	5	3	1	16	33
	2023	2	9	6	7	16	40
	2024	7	12	7	7	16	49
	2025	4	3	3	2	7	19
	Total	23	35	23	20	69	170

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A95	2021	0	1	0	1	1	3
	2022	1	1	1	0	0	3
	2023	0	2	2	0	2	6
	2024	0	0	0	0	4	4
	2025	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	1	4	3	1	7	16

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A96	2021	1	0	0	1	3	5
	2022	1	0	4	0	6	11
	2023	0	3	4	5	5	17
	2024	2	0	1	4	3	10
	2025	2	1	0	0	3	6
	Total	6	4	9	10	20	49

Route	Year	Fatal	Very Serious	Moderately Serious	Less Serious	Slight	Total
A99	2021	1	0	0	0	2	3
	2022	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2023	1	0	1	0	3	5
	2024	0	0	0	0	2	2
	2025	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	2	0	1	0	7	10

*Data up to 5-1-2025 for serious and slight accidents provided from Transport Statistics Injury Road Collision database and fatal accidents up to 12/11/2025 provided from Transport Statistics Injury Road Collision database and Transport Scotland Fatal Accident Register.

Source: Transport Statistics Injury Road Collision database /Transport Scotland’s Fatal Accident Register

Notes:

Statistics for Parliamentary Question

Date Period: 01-01-2021 – 5-10-2025 (for slight and serious) 31-8-25 (for fatal)

Date Extracted – 12-11-2025

Please note that the personal injury accident information provided above is based on the current figures available. The following are potential reasons for an accident not appearing on our system:

Transport Scotland only holds accident information which is provided to us by Police Scotland. Transport Scotland does not hold information relating to damage only accidents (i.e. not involving an injury).

Transport Scotland only holds accident information for the trunk road network. The accident information Transport Scotland holds is subject to change. For example, we receive late returns from Police Scotland, who are responsible for recording details of injury accidents.

Annual Scottish accident figures are published by Transport Scotland on a yearly basis and can be found by entering Reported Road Casualties Scotland into your search engine.

From summer 2019, Police Scotland introduced a new system for recording traffic collisions. Due to improved recording and categorisation processes, it is expected that there will be an increase in the number of casualties and accidents on Scottish roads that are classified as serious.

Statisticians within the Department for Transport have devised a method for adjusting the road casualty figures to ensure that they can be compared over time on a consistent basis. Transport Scotland’s Key Reported Road Casualties and Reported Road Casualties statistics publications will present both adjusted and unadjusted figures.

Question reference: S6W-41409

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is aiming to improve the transparency and accountability of mental health spending, in light of the report by Audit Scotland Adult Mental Health, published in September 2023, which identified a lack of transparency and comprehensive data on mental health spending in Scotland, making it challenging to assess progress against national objectives, and what its response is to the report findings that (a) there is an absence of a clear system to track expenditure across all sectors, including the third sector, (b) monitoring is largely limited to psychological therapy waiting times and (c) this fragmented data landscape and complex delivery system hinder effective evaluation of how mental health budgets are being used and their overall impact.

Through our delivery plan, which supports implementation of our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, we have looked to ensure that the actions set out reflect and respond appropriately to those Audit Scotland recommendations.

We are currently developing a Monitoring Framework and Evaluation Framework, and both are scheduled for publication in early 2026. Both frameworks will identify key gaps in current data sources and set out evaluation questions which will support understanding of progress against the outcomes of the Strategy. The work is being led by the Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) and was developed in collaboration with a range of stakeholders, including the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Leadership Board. Both frameworks will be used to plan monitoring and evaluation activities over the lifespan of the Strategy.

We have made significant improvements to the collection of routine data on the demand for and access to mental health services. PHS have developed an interactive dashboard for the Mental Health Quality Indicators, which will continue to be developed into a “one-stop-shop” for data on mental health services.

NHS Scotland expenditure on mental health is published annually in arrears in the Scottish Health Service Costs book by Public Health Scotland. The Cost Book is publicly accessible and offers a consistent framework for financial data across all NHS Boards. The most recent data published in February 2025 covers 2023-2024.

The Cost Book data shows NHS Scotland expenditure by services where the primary purpose of the service is the care and/or treatment of individuals with mental health conditions. This details expenditure on adult psychiatry, older adult psychiatry, CAMHS and recently added information on clinical psychology as previously recommended by Audit Scotland. This data is used to track progress towards Boards allocating 10% of their budgets to mental health, including 1% on CAMHS.

The Scottish Government continuously monitors NHS Boards’ financial positions through routine finance reporting. This resource provides a standardised approach to collecting detailed financial information, including outturn, spend by specialty, and achievement of efficiency targets. We expect spending on Mental Health between the Scottish Government and NHS Boards, to be around £1.5 billion in 2025-26.

Scottish Government recognises the key role of the third sector in the provision of mental health support, including in enabling early intervention and prevention. We remain committed to delivering against our commitment to increase the stability and sustainability of the third sector by developing a Fairer Funding approach, including offering multi-year funding where possible. For example, the 2025-27 Fairer Funding pilot includes £15 million per annum to grassroots projects through the Communities Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund administered by Third Sector Interfaces.

Our Service Renewal Framework, published in June 2025 sets out wider proposals to develop updated performance metrics and clearly defined outcome measures for all parts of our system, including mental health.

Question reference: S6W-41741

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government to what extent AI was used in the process to determine the awarding of funding from the Future Farming Investment Scheme, and for what reasons.

As was made clear to Jamie Halcro Johnston and Douglas Ross in the Chamber on 5 November 2025, the claims that an AI based system was used to assess applications are not correct. Applications were assessed through a standardised framework that cross checked application data against the Single Application Form (SAF) and other system held data to ensure consistency, transparency, and audit defensibility.

Assessment work was led by the Agricultural Development Team, supported by staff from across the RPID area office network, which is experienced in delivering Scottish Government grant schemes. Independent validation was undertaken by a Project Board, which also included RPID Area Office representatives, as well as being reviewed by Internal Audit representatives.

Question reference: S6W-41749

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2025
Current Status: Holding Answer by Jenny Gilruth on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional support needs professionals have been registered in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-41755

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2025
Current Status: Holding Answer by Jenny Gilruth on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding the evacuation of classrooms due to disruptive behaviour from pupils, and how many times classrooms have been evacuated due to such behaviour in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S6W-41758

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2025
Current Status: Holding Answer by Richard Lochhead on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to investigate and respond to reports that Rockstar Games has dismissed staff for joining a workplace union, and how it can ensure that workers' rights to unionise are protected under Scottish employment law.

Question reference: S6W-41804

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent in total to date on consultancy fees in relation to the development of the MyCare.scot app.

National Education for Scotland (NES) holds the contract with BJSS for the development of MyCare.scot. The estimated value of this contract for 2025–26 is currently between £4.5 million and £5 million, subject to change depending on the pace of delivery.

In addition, the Scottish Government has spent £11,880 to date on QI Consulting. This work supports assurance activity for the wider programme and is not associated with the development of the MyCare.scot application.

Question reference: S6W-41750

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2025
Current Status: Holding Answer by Jenny Gilruth on 21 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many school additional support needs professionals there have been in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

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