Chamber and committees

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.

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Question reference: S7F-00019

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 June 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 June 2026

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S7F-00009

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 June 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 June 2026

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S7F-00004

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2026

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-44296

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of any work it has undertaken in relation to the remit and anticipated timescales of the recently announced public inquiry into grooming gang activity in Scotland.

The Inquiry is currently in its early set-up phase, and the detailed Terms of Reference for the Inquiry will be developed over the coming months with Professor Jay. I need to be clear that it is not for Ministers to direct an independent inquiry chair on costs and duration.

Through my discussions with Professor Jay so far, she has said she wants to ensure the Inquiry delivered at pace while ensuring it has the flexibility to investigate any areas it deems necessary. My officials continue to work at pace on the initial set-up of the inquiry.

Mr Findlay was amongst cross-party MSPs invited to a briefing session which I chaired on 16 March to engage with Professor Jay and the Inspectorates leading the National Review into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation to hear more about progress on these matters.

Post-election, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills will provide an update to the Scottish Parliament as work to formally establish the Inquiry advances.

Question reference: S6W-44304

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 25 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a detailed breakdown of all costs that it has incurred to date on all aspects of the Deposit Return Scheme.

The Scottish Government has spent £234,285.95 in setting up the Deposit Return Scheme since 2018. This includes the costs associated with consultation, publication of regulations and associated documents, evaluations, independent reviews and assurance.

In addition, as of January 2026, the costs incurred by the Scottish Government in the legal challenge from BIFFA Waste Services Ltd in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme is £447,092.

Civil Servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of their work at any given time. They do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of their time spent working on particular matters. It is therefore not possible to provide an expenditure figure regarding how much the Scottish Government has spent on work by Civil Servants involved with the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-44303

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish National Party’s 2021 election manifesto pledge to provide free breakfasts to every primary school pupil, how many primary school pupils are not yet in receipt of a free breakfast at school.

Breakfasts in Scotland are currently being delivered through a range of provisions, including Scottish Government, Local Authority and schools funded services as well as private and third sector services. Mapping carried out by the Improvement Service in 2024 demonstrates that almost 50% of primary schools in Scotland already deliver a breakfast offer.

This builds on our Programme for Government 2021 commitment to “develop plans to deliver free breakfasts to all primary and special school children and to start pilot provision.

The school age childcare Programme has invested in delivery of funded breakfast clubs, after school clubs, and holiday clubs across this Parliamentary term to learn and understand what parents need to support work, and what children need to thrive with a strong focus on tackling poverty.

In 2025-26, we invested £3 million in our Bright Start Breakfasts fund which is currently supporting 20,000 children access breakfast across 490 clubs. In our 2026-27 Scottish Budget, we confirmed that we will continue to invest in the Bright Start Breakfasts Fund for delivery across the 2026-27 academic year.

As part of that delivery we will provide an additional £15 million in 2026-27 to expand breakfast club provision and help schools, councils and third sector partners prepare for the introduction of a national breakfast club offer. Further, from 2027-28, we will invest £44 million each year to ensure that there is a free breakfast club universally available to all children in primary and special schools across Scotland from August 2027.

Question reference: S6W-44302

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time equivalent teachers (a) were employed in 2021 and (b) are currently employed.

Question reference: S6F-04775

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 March 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 March 2026

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-44329

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of all fixed penalty notices issued for breaches of the Register of Tobacco and Nicotine Vapour Product Retailers since 2020-21, broken down by (a) year and (b) local authority area.

The tables below set out fixed penalty notices for breaches of the Register of Tobacco and Nicotine Vapour Product Retailers covering the period you request.

Nicotine Vapour Products	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26	Totals
Aberdeen							0
Aberdeenshire							0
Angus							0
Argyll & Bute							0
City of Edinburgh					1 (b)		1
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar							0
Dumfries & Galloway							0
Dundee City							0
East Ayrshire							0
East Dumbarton							0
East Lothian							0
East Renfrewshire							0
Falkirk							0
Fife							0
Glasgow City							0
Highland			1(c)	1(b)			2
Inverclyde							0
Midlothian						1(c)	1
Moray							0
North Ayrshire				1(b)		1(b)	2
North Lanarkshire							0
Orkney							0
Perth & Kinross				2 (b)			2
Renfrewshire							0
Scottish Borders						1 (b)	1
Shetland							0
South Ayrshire							0
South Lanarkshire							0
Stirling [and Clackmannan]						1 (b)	1
West Dumbartonshire					1 (b)		1
West Lothian							0

Total			1	4	2	4	11

a. Failure to notify a change of detail

b. Carrying on a business whilst unregistered

c. Carrying on a business from premises for which that person is not registered

Tobacco	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26	Totals
Aberdeen							0
Aberdeenshire							0
Angus		(1 x a) & (1 x c)					2
Argyll & Bute			1 (b)			1 (b)	2
City of Edinburgh					1 (b)		1
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar							0
Dumfries & Galloway							0
Dundee City							0
East Ayrshire							0
East Dumbarton							0
East Lothian							0
East Renfrewshire							0
Falkirk							0
Fife		1 (b)	3(b)	7 (b)	2 (c)	2 (b)	15
Glasgow City							0
Highland			1 (c)				1
Inverclyde							0
Midlothian						1 (b)	1
Moray			1(b)	1(b)			2
North Ayrshire						1 (b)	1
North Lanarkshire							0
Orkney							0
Perth & Kinross				(1 x b) & (1 x c)			2
Renfrewshire							0
Scottish Borders							0
Shetland							0
South Ayrshire						3 (c)	3
South Lanarkshire
Stirling [and Clackmannan]						(4 x b) & (1 x c)	5
West Dumbartonshire			2 (a)				2
West Lothian							0

Total	0	3	8	10	3	13	37

a. Failure to notify a change of detail

b. Carrying on a business whilst unregistered

c. Carrying on a business from premises for which that person is not registered

Question reference: S6W-44297

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 18 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a (a) detailed update of any work undertaken since the start of the current parliamentary session in 2021 to introduce the proposed NHS Scotland digital app and (b) timescale for when the app will be fully operational.

Work on the Health and Social Care app—developed through the Digital Front Door programme and now branded MyCare.scot—has progressed since 2021, including technical development, secure digital identity work, and early service design. The initial MVP is live for dermatology patients in NHS Lanarkshire to support testing and MyCare.scot will be available across Scotland from April 2026. Further services will be developed and expanded as already set out in our rollout plan, published in September 2025, with further information to be published this Spring.