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: S7W-00733

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of local government funding was formally ring-fenced or otherwise directed to national policy objectives in each of the last three years, and what its response is to the Accounts Commission's finding that ring-fencing and directed spending reduce local authorities' flexibility to meet local needs.

Question reference: S6W-44044

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the pledge made by the health secretary in 2018 to prioritise the development of new primary care premises in Banchory.

The financial position remains challenging – to ensure that available capital funding can be directed to best effect, we are working with all health boards to develop an NHS whole system infrastructure plan for Scotland to inform investment priorities. The 2025-26 Budget confirmed our capital investment priorities for the next 5–7 years. The NHS whole system infrastructure planning work will inform our capital investment priorities beyond that.

The first phase of this was identifying immediate building maintenance and equipment replacement priorities to support service continuity. Boards submitted their risk-assessed priorities in January 2025 and, following review, Boards have received confirmation of which items can be progressed.

The next stage will consider long-term investment priorities and Boards – including NHS Grampian – have been instructed to undertake strategic assessments with returns required during 2026-27 and by not later than 31 March 2027.

A key part of this work is the development of an infrastructure investment strategy programme for primary care as announced in the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline on 13 January 2026. An initial tranche of 12 projects has been selected for their health, population demographic and estate needs. Work on three initial projects will start immediately to create and pilot a standardised approach towards design and procurement – this will be used to improve the efficiency of delivery of all future schemes. It is intended that there will be further, future tranches of investment across the primary care estate, which will consider other areas of need.

Question reference: S6W-44012

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 9 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider extending by 28 days the deadline for participation in the public inquiry into the section 37 application for the 400kV Kintore–Tealing overhead line (ECU00005225), in light of reports that several residents who have made submissions to the planning application have not received notification from the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division, and whether it will confirm how many people were invited to take part in the inquiry.

The Scottish Government will not extend the deadline to participate in the public inquiry into the 400kV Kintore –Tealing overhead line. The 14 day period given to confirm participation in the public inquiry accords with the guidance on Priority Applications for Transmission Infrastructure (February 2025). To extend this period would jeopardise Scottish Ministers' ambition to determine the application within 52 weeks.

The Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) notified 10,524 individuals and organisations with a right to take part, including 31 statutory consultees and 10,493 interested parties (10,005 by email and 488 by letter). Records confirm that all notifications were issued. Only one person has reported not receiving the original email, and their response has since been recorded. Anyone who believes they missed correspondence can contact DPEA, and all inquiry information remains available on the DPEA case portal.

Question reference: S6W-43797

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Grampian about infection control at the Baird Family Hospital and Anchor Centre.

Question reference: S6O-05577

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how the recent Court of Session ruling on the Wull Muir scheme in the Borders will impact on its energy policy and strategy.

Question reference: S6W-43630

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21946 by Michael Matheson on 25 October 2023, whether it will provide an update on NHS Grampian's (a) (i) NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula target and (ii) actual funding allocation, and (b) distance from NRAC parity in each year since 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-43676

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the (a) prevalence of respiratory disease and (b) number of emergency hospital admissions for respiratory conditions in NHS Grampian compared with national averages.

Question reference: S6W-43675

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to implementing Modern Service Frameworks, as introduced in England.

Question reference: S6W-43473

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the prevalence of faulty installations linked to the ECO4 scheme for energy-efficiency upgrades.

The Energy Company Obligation is a UK Government scheme. They have advised us that external wall insulation (EWI) was installed in 421 properties in Scotland as part of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) and Great British Insulation (GBIS) schemes. In Scotland a Building Warrant is required before external wall insulation can be installed, this provides additional safeguards compared with England and Wales.

Where these EWI installs have subsequently been audited by the UK Government, they have not reported any serious faults (e.g. health and safety risks due to poor ventilation). They reported non-compliance with scheme requirements as being 34% of the audited EWI cases in Scotland.

We anticipate that a small number of Scottish homes may have been affected by poor quality installation of external wall insulation with ECO4 and GBIS finance. We have requested that the UK Government provides further information about these cases to relevant local authorities and the Scottish Government.

The UK Government report that internal wall insulation (IWI) was installed in around 6,100 properties in Scotland as part of these schemes. This work does not normally require a Building Warrant but local authority consents may be required in some cases. The UK Government has advised us about 410 properties with IWI that were referred for auditing (i.e. this includes cases where a concern had already been raised). Non-compliance was reported in 31% of audited IWI cases. The UK Government reports that serious problems were identified in 12 properties and that all of these were successfully remediated.

The number of Scottish properties affected by poor quality or faulty installation of internal wall insulation is likely to be higher. However it seems likely that these issues have affected a minority of homes and can be successfully remediated in most cases. We have requested that further information about these properties continues to be provided to relevant local authorities and the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-43472

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what oversight is in place to ensure that installers operating under the ECO4 scheme for energy-efficiency upgrades remedy defective or damaging works.

The Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) is a UK Government scheme based upon Westminster regulations and administered by Ofgem, the independent regulator. The obligation requires energy suppliers to achieve energy bill savings by funding the installation of energy efficiency improvements in domestic properties. The design of the scheme and any requirements to undertake remediation are reserved to the UK Government.