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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: S6W-44216

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with SEPA regarding its guidance on flood defences and the wider flooding risk in the Langholm area.

Question reference: S6O-05558

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Recent changes and the future outlook for Scottish Government funding.

Question reference: S6W-43772

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact on the lack of funding for rural bus transportation on the provision of competitive sports, including rugby in schools in rural areas.

Question reference: S6W-43770

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact of poor local transport connectivity on the ability of school-aged children in rural areas to access grassroots sport.

Question reference: S6W-43771

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is in place to provide access to bus transportation to sporting clubs that support school-aged children in rural areas.

Question reference: S6O-05519

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how much it anticipates it will spend on matters relating to constitutional policy and strategy in 2025-26 and 2026-27.

Question reference: S6W-43271

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether removing in-year funding provided to local authorities in 2025–26 from the baseline used for comparison has the effect of increasing the apparent real-terms growth rate for 2026–27.

The Scottish Budget includes 2025-26 Autumn Budget Revision (ABR) to 2026-27 Budget comparisons across portfolios, including Finance and Local Government, at the request of the Finance and Public Audit Committee.

While such comparisons can provide useful context for most portfolio areas, comparing ABR to Budget for Local Government can be misleading due to the number of portfolio transfers administered at ABR or Spring Budget Revision (SBR). For example, since Budget 2026-27 was published, Parliament’s agreement to SBR will see a further £280 million of transfers into the Local Government Settlement and at least £908 million of transfers are anticipated to be processed at ABR or SBR in 2026-27.

Table 4.15 of the Scottish Budget 2026-27, ‘Revenue Funding within Other Portfolios to be Transferred In-Year’, including details of the £908 million referenced above, provides a direct like with like comparison of the Local Government Settlement in each of 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27.

That table, which is unique to the Local Government Settlement, mitigates the risks acknowledged by the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre that “that comparing portfolio allocations from the Budget to allocations from the 2025-26 ABR might be misleading” by providing a consistent comparison over time.

Table 4.15 has been included in the Budget document since 2017-18 to provide a transparent and comprehensive summary of the funding allocated in the total Local Government Settlement and then subsequently published in the relevant Local Government Finance Circular. For completeness, a full breakdown of funding that has been baselined into General Revenue or Capital Grant is also provided in Table 4.16 and this funding is restated in previous years to again ensure a like for like comparison.

An estimate of funding provided to Local Government outwith the Local Government Finance Settlement is also included in Table 4.17 of the Budget as a supporting document.

In 2025-26, the Local Government Settlement was £15,035.2 million. This was set out in Table 4.12 in the 2025-26 Budget and is repeated in Table 4.15 in the 2026-27 Budget. In 2026-27, the equivalent figure is £15,686.1 million and is published in Table 4.15 of the 2026-27 Budget. The figures in both years include all the funding planned to be transferred from other portfolios, as anticipated at the time of the budget, and the detail of those transfers is set out at the bottom of Table 4.15 in the 2026-27 Budget.

Those figures represent a cash increase of £650.9 million or 4.3 per cent. In real terms, that is equivalent to an increase of £293.7 or 2 per cent. Although the real terms figures for the Local Government Settlement are not set out in the Budget document itself, they can easily be derived from the cash figures set out in Table 4.15 and replicated using an independent real terms calculator such as that published by the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre.

As requested by COSLA Leaders, the Scottish Budget provides local authorities with full discretion over decisions on council tax, with no freeze and no cap. With over a quarter of a billion of additional General Revenue Grant in the Settlement, the Budget should enable councils to minimise any proposed increases in council tax.

Where increases in Council Tax are necessary, the Scottish Government’s means tested Council Tax Reduction Scheme continues to protect household budgets from the impact of those changes.

Question reference: S6W-43274

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it would expect independent analysts to be able to replicate its real-terms funding comparisons using published budget documents, and what steps it has taken to ensure that the calculation of the claimed 2% real-terms increase of its draft Budget 2026-27 can be independently verified.

Question reference: S6W-43278

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reported suggestions from independent analysts of significant council tax rises, what assessment it has made of any impact on public understanding of local government finances of its presentation of a headline 2% real-terms increase in its draft Budget 2026-27.

Question reference: S6W-43279

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what value of in-year funding provided to local government in 2025–26 has been excluded from the baseline used to calculate the real-terms change in funding in its draft Budget 2026-27.