- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2026
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Current Status:
Due to be taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Fund to Leave initiative, following reports that funding has not been made available to families since June.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2026
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Simita Kumar on 29 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the additional £875,000 in funding that the Scottish Rape Crisis Alliance called for to prevent waiting lists for specialist rape crisis support from growing from April 2028.
Answer
The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting specialist services that provide vital support to victims and survivors of gender based violence.
Our Programme for Government 2026 to 2031, sets out our commitment to tackling violence against women and girls and the significant action we will take, including that we will act to support rape crisis centres providing justice advocacy who have closed their waiting lists for that form of support.
We will also enhance arrangements for the Delivering Equally Safe Fund, which benefited from a 5% increase in 2026-27 and a two-year funding agreement, and will develop a new multi-year fund to ensure vital services are sustainable and can respond flexibly to need.
Officials will be progressing conversations with organisations soon to ensure delivery of these commitments.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2026
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 23 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what measures it will introduce as part of the Programme for Government to improve additional support needs provision in schools.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 23 September 2026
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 August 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 1 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to fulfil the recommendation in its report, Best Start Five-Year Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care 2017–2024, regarding the three units that will provide neonatal intensive care, and on what date it plans to remove level 3 neonatal provision from (a) Ninewells Hospital, (b) University Hospital Wishaw, (c) University Hospital Crosshouse, (d) Victoria Hospital and (e) the Princess Royal Maternity Unit.
Answer
The University Hospital Crosshouse, Kilmarnock and Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, and Victoria Hospital, Fife and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary have been working under this model as early implementers since 2019. It is important that we assure a managed transition to the new model taking learning from the early adopters, to allow safe and effective implementation within Scotland.
To support governance and consistent implementation of the Neonatal Service Change in Scotland national work has moved to the Sub National Planning and Delivery Committee. They are actively considering ongoing actions to deliver the change in practice, following further modelling work. We continue to work with the Regional Chief Executives and NHS Boards to continue to implement this service change.
I must be absolutely clear, the vast majority of sick babies will continue to be cared for in local neonatal units. Local Neonatal Units will continue to provide a level of intensive care and be able to care for singleton births over 27 weeks gestation.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 July 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 19 August 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the finding of the Family Fund Trust's The Cost of Caring 2025 report that only 6% of parent carers with unpaid caring responsibilities in Scotland are able to work as much as they would like, (a) what action it will take to ensure that affordability of childcare is not a barrier to parent carers of disabled children securing and sustaining paid work, (b) how it intends to ensure that high quality, affordable Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) is available for families of disabled children, including children with complex additional support needs, (c) how it plans to ensure that the ELC workforce are equipped with the skills, support and resources they need to practice with confidence when caring for disabled children, (d) what work has been undertaken to ensure that local authorities are identifying children with complex additional support needs including intensive health needs at an early stage, so that they can plan for ELC provision that meets the needs of those children, and (e) what work is planned to ensure that the expansion of childcare is fully costed and funded so that the needs of disabled children and their families are met.
Answer
Under the Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act 2004, education authorities are responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of children in early learning and childcare (ELC) settings. In line with the National Standard, local authorities and settings are expected to work together to support children with additional support needs to access their funded ELC entitlement. Settings must provide appropriate support, including reasonable adjustments, to ensure that children’s disabilities or additional support needs do not present a barrier to participation.
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) has recently reviewed the National Occupational Standards for Early Learning and Childcare. This work is informing the redevelopment of qualifications and learning resources to help ensure that the workforce has the knowledge and skills required to support children with diverse and additional support needs.
As we take forward our approach to childcare expansion, we will continue to build on evidence and experience to ensure that the needs of children with additional support needs, and their families, are understood and reflected in future delivery.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 25 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what annual targets it has set to achieve the commitment to deliver 150,000 apprenticeships over the current parliamentary session.
Answer
Plans to deliver this commitment will be set out in due course. In 2026-27, the Scottish Government has provided funding to support around 25,500 new modern apprenticeship starts and 1,500 graduate apprenticeships starts. Funding for apprenticeships in 2027-28 will be considered as part of preparation for the Scottish Budget 2027-28. Funding for subsequent years will be a matter for future budgets.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that a number of secondary schools are reducing subject choice from the curriculum due to a lack of specialised teachers.
Answer
Teacher employment practices are matters for local authorities as employers however Local Government is responsible for providing a complement of teachers and all the necessary staff that best meets the needs of each school and its pupils within the resources available.
However, we know there are challenges in some places and in subject areas and that is why we are working to encourage more students to pursue teaching careers through the Teaching Bursary Scheme, which offers £12,500 to individuals undertaking graduate teacher training in hard-to-fill subjects including Maths, Technical Education and Science.
We also recently ran a recruitment campaign, delivered between January to March, was aimed at encouraging more students to take up a career in teaching, specifically in hard to fill subjects and rural areas. Priority subjects that were covered include STEM, Modern Languages and Home Economics.
Where a subject cannot be offered by a school, national guidelines encourage flexibility, enabling schools to work collaboratively with other local schools or colleges or through online, digital approaches.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to maintain pupil teacher-ratios over the course of the current parliamentary session.
Answer
The 2026-27 Budget continues to provide local authorities with an additional £186.5 million to protect teacher numbers. We will work in partnership with local government to agree delivery of the commitment to maintain pupil-teacher ratios.
There are now 2,700 more teachers in Scotland's classrooms than a decade ago, as a result of sustained investment by the Scottish Government. Scotland also continues to have the lowest pupil-teacher ratio in the UK.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 25 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils will receive support from the expanded tutoring programme by the end of the curremt parliamentary session.
Answer
During the previous parliamentary session, funding was provided for academic year 2025-26 whereby 475 pupils across a number of schools and Local Authorities received support from the tutoring pilot. The tutoring programme aims to support individuals from deprived backgrounds to improve their attainment and potentially go on to participate in higher education, where they can access the opportunities and outcomes made available via post-school education.
The Scottish Government has made a commitment to build on this pilot and ensure more young people can access bespoke support to raise their grades and attainment.
We will consider the end-of-project evaluation and impart report post-August 2026 exam results to inform our approach for this parliamentary session.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 25 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to enact legislation designed to address violence against women and girls that has already been passed by the Scottish Parliament.
Answer
The Scottish Government remains committed to implementing legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament to tackle violence against women and girls.
We are working closely with stakeholders to ensure the effective implementation of the Female Genital Mutilation (Protection and Guidance) (Scotland) Act 2020. Progress to date includes the development of court rules proposal papers, preparing statutory guidance and reviewing existing training provisions and awareness raising approaches. We aim to implement the Act by the end of 2026, although this timeline is also dependent on the readiness and capacity of partner organisations.
Despite the implementation challenges in relation to Part 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021, the Scottish Government and associated partner agencies are committed to working together to consider how the protection notice and order scheme could be implemented.
A working group was established in 2025 to consider possible legislative changes to the 2021 Act to enable the protection notice and order scheme to be implemented in a way that is sustainable, deliverable and affordable.
The working group has met five times and has identified a number of potential changes to the legislation, with the intention of these informing a consultation in 2026. Following the election we will now look to refine the potential legislative changes further, with a view to a targeted consultation later in 2026. Following any such consultation and analysis of responses I will be able to provide a more detailed update on timelines for bringing forward the necessary legislative changes to enable the domestic abuse protection notice and order scheme to be operationalised.
