- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 4 September 2025
To ask the First Minister whether he will provide an update on the steps that the Scottish Government is taking as a result of the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 4 September 2025
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the £756 million in ScotWind option fees that it has received, how much of this revenue has been used to date and for what purposes.
Answer
A total of £756 million was generated from the initial ScotWind leasing round.
To date £96 million of this funding has been spent, all of it in 2022-23. This was used to support the overall fiscal position, with pressures set out as part of the Emergency Budget Review in Autumn 2022.
£364 million of ScotWind revenues have been profiled into 2025-26. Final decisions on formally drawing down the funding will be made at the end of the financial year.
The remaining £296 million has not yet been allocated with decisions on their deployment to be taken at individual Budgets, in line with Scottish Government priorities.
The current profiled utilisation of Scotwind funding in 2025-26 is as follows;
Portfolio | Detail | Scotwind Capital | Scotwind Resource | Total |
F&LG | Responding to COSLA’s ask for funding to respond to the climate emergency by making available £40 million to target local priorities. Additionally, £20 million is allocated for Orkney Islands Council and Shetland Islands Council to enable them to sustain and improve interisland connectivity in the way that best meets local needs. £10 million has been dedicated to reform public services. | 52.0 | 18.0 | 70.0 |
NZE* | Supporting offshore wind capital investment, nature restoration and energy and transition funds. Additionally, £25 million has been allocated to support economic growth at the Grangemouth Industrial Cluster. | 179.9 | 5.0 | 184.9 |
RALRI | £16 million to progress transformation and reform of the agriculture and food and drink industries, including energy efficiency and improved resilience. The remaining funding will be targeted towards peatlands restoration and woodlands creation. | 30.6 | 0.0 | 30.6 |
Transport | Supporting capital investment for sustainable and active travel programmes and low carbon programmes | 78.5 | 0.0 | 78.5 |
| | Total | 341.0 | 23.0 | 364.0 |
*Net Zero and Energy has since been split between Housing and Climate Action and Energy.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 29 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to update the Scottish Government Urban
Rural Classification.
Answer
The Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification will be updated following the release of the next Population Estimates for Settlements and Localities in Scotland publication by National Records of Scotland. This is currently planned to be released in 2028, based on the 2026 mid-year population estimates. A revised version of the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification will then be produced using the new settlement population figures.
The Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification 2022, based on the 2022 Census settlement population figures, was published in December 2024:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-urban-rural-classification-2022/
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work that it is doing to (a) prevent sexual violence in hospitals and (b) accurately record incidents of sexual assault that have been reported across the NHS estate.
Answer
We have recently published a sexual harassment guide to supplement the refreshed Gender Based Violence policy for NHSScotland. The guide has been developed to support employees who are currently experiencing or have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. This includes information on how to report incidents.
Scottish Government officials are continuing discussions with Health Boards, NHS Education for Scotland (NES), and Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to review existing training provisions and reporting methods. This will allow us to share best practice and develop improvements in how we prevent sexual violence from occurring and how it is reported across all Health Boards.
The Scottish Government continues to expect all NHS Boards to be actively committed to protecting staff from sexual assaults. All incidents should be recorded and reported through existing reporting systems and investigated. Where necessary, cases should be escalated to Police Scotland.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 22 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work that it is doing to determine whether it will introduce a standalone offence of non-fatal strangulation.
Answer
As outlined in my letter to the Criminal Justice Committee on 22 July 2025, I remain committed to giving the proposal to introduce a standalone offence of non-fatal strangulation serious consideration. As part of that process our Programme for Government detailed that we will carry out a comprehensive assessment of the relevant law in order to determine next steps. I will keep Parliament updated as this work progresses.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 21 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether a review of the Central Legal Office of NHS Scotland has been undertaken in the past five years, and, if so, what its conclusions were.
Answer
The Central Legal Office is a department within NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). As a sponsored statutory body, NSS is subject to Annual Reviews from Scottish Government. This forms part of the overall monitoring of operational performance, governance and delivery of National Priorities. Since 2020-21, NSS has had ministerial-led annual reviews, with their Annual Review letters made publicly available on their website.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 21 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the Central Legal Office of NHS Scotland (a) provides cost-effective advice and (b) protects the public purse from costly litigation.
Answer
The Central Legal Office (CLO) within NHS National Services Scotland provides in-house legal services to NHSScotland Boards and wider public sector organisations. They provide cost effective advice by having fees that are competitive, flexible and compliant with the requirements for the proper handling and reporting of public funds as laid out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual.
Furthermore, their specialist legal advice and representation supports clients make legally informed decisions to promote cost-efficient practice in litigation matters.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 18 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many Hospital at Home beds have been delivered across
Scotland to date, broken down by NHS board, and whether it is on track to
meet its 2,000 virtual bed target by December 2026.
Answer
Published figures from Healthcare Improvement Scotland estimate that in March 2025, acute and older people’s Hospital at Home services provided care equivalent to approximately 575 beds with an assumed occupancy rate of 80%. This is similar to the size of Western General Hospital and larger than University Hospital Wishaw.
In 2024-25, it is estimated that Hospital at Home services prevented 15,470 people being admitted to hospital, reducing pressure on unscheduled care and delayed discharges.
Officials are working with PHS Scotland to develop a new national data set for Hospital at Home activity and related admission alternative services. Data collection is due to commence later this year and will be expanded to include other Hospital at Home pathways such as heart failure, respiratory, paediatrics and Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT). Public Health Scotland plan to publish figures as this develops during 2026.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 18 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason NHS Grampian was allocated £7,529.48 for
the delivery of Hospital at Home in 2024-25.
Answer
Last year we invested £3.6m into H@H for Older People, this funding was awarded through an application process in partnership with Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Aberdeen City requested and received £7,529.48 for 2024-25 to support the expansion of their Hospital at Home service for older people and acute adults.
This funding enabled the team to focus on improving and standardising processes, and efficiency of their service. This included additional GP input to enable further engagement with primary care and increase direct referrals into their service which now operates 7 days a week. Ensuring those experiencing frailty can be managed at home is the core focus of the service, however further pathways have been developed in respiratory, acute medicine and Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT).
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 18 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking with local partners to ensure that flood defence measures are rigorously tested across Scotland.
Answer
The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 allocates clear roles and responsibilities for managing flood risk in Scotland.
Local authorities are responsible for implementing and maintaining flood protection schemes. It is up to the local authority to determine what defence measures are appropriate as part of implementing any scheme and to consider the most appropriate arrangement for inspecting and carrying out any required work on their flood protection schemes.
Scottish Government regularly works in collaboration with local authorities, and other responsible bodies, to improve flood resilience in communities across Scotland, a significant and growing challenge, especially as climate change brings more severe and frequent flood events.
