The Scottish Parliament

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.

Question reference: S6W-44305

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

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of how much it has spent on international development funding in each year since 2021.

The Scottish Government reports its calendar-year official development assistance (ODA) to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) through the UK Government. These figures are published annually as part of the UK Statistics on International Development. Within these statistics, the Scottish Government’s contributions are reported under the category ‘Other contributors of UK ODA’. Provisional 2025 UK Official Development Assistance statistics will be published on 9 April 2026.

The Scottish Government has also separately reported through its regular series of “Contribution to International Development Reports” and its more recent International Strategy Annual Report 2025.

Details of how much the Scottish Government has spent on international development in each year since 2021 are therefore contained within these published ODA figures in the following table:

Individual Contributor	2021 £ Million	2021 % UK ODA	2022 £ million	2022 % UK ODA	2023 £ million	2023 % UK ODA	2024 £ million	2024% UK ODA
Scottish Government	26	0.23%	16	0.12%	16	0.11%	22	0.16%
Total UK Net ODA	11,423	100%	12,786	100%	15,344	100%	14,082	100%

Sources:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68cad7a85e09a4a59af0c01d/Tables-Statistics-on-International-Development-final-UK-ODA-spend-2024.ods (Table 3. Breakdown of UK ODA: by Government Department and Other Contributors of UK ODA, 2020, 2023 and 2024)
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66167f2f56df202ca4ac058e/Excel-tables-Statistics-on-International_Development-Final-UK-AID-Spend-2022.ods (Table 3. Breakdown of UK ODA: by Government Department and Other Contributors of UK ODA, 2018, 2021 and 2022)
Figures may not sum to totals due to rounding.
Notes and definitions: Statistics on International Development: Annexes 1 to 3
Contribution to international development: report 2021 to 2023 - gov.scot
International strategy: annual report 2024 to 2025 - gov.scot(tables 14 and 15 ODA spend).

Question reference: S6W-44298

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many affordable homes have been built in each year since the start of the current parliamentary session in 2021 to date, and whether it is confident that it will deliver on its commitment to build 100,000 affordable homes by 2032.

Progress on the delivery of affordable homes is published through quarterly official statistics –Housing Statistics for Scotland Quarterly Update. Homes delivered through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme include homes for social rent, affordable rent, and affordable home ownership. They also include off the shelf purchases and rehabilitations as well as new builds.

The published data shows the breakdown by year and by build form.

Financial Year	Completed Affordable Homes	Of which new build
2021-2022	9,757	7,854
2022-2023	10,466	8,469
2023-2024	9,515	7,086
2024-2025	7,444	6,071
2025-2026	6,582*	2,127*
Total	43,764	31,607

*Data to end of September 2025

We remain committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, with 70% for social rent and 10% in rural and island areas.

From 23 March 2022 to end September 2025, 31,064 homes have been delivered towards the target with 78% of them for social rent.

Question reference: S6W-44301

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 17 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people who have been eligible for a free electronic device since the 2021 Scottish Parliament election have received one, and how many are still waiting to receive one.

As set out in the response to S6W-43401 on 12 February 2026, the Scottish Government does not collect national data on the total number of devices issued by local authorities to learners. Local authorities manage delivery directly and continue to make progress in improving digital access for learners, supported by record Scottish Government investment.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

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