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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

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Question reference: S6W-43514

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40593 by Natalie Don-Innes on 30 September 2025, when it will publish a full report on the evaluation of the early learning and childcare expansion to 1140 hours for the period 2018-25.

Question reference: S6W-43285

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support people with Raynaud's phenomenon and other cold-related conditions; whether it provides any guidance to people affected by these conditions, and whether it has engaged with the UK Government regarding protections for medically vulnerable people in relation to energy market regulation.

Question reference: S6O-05446

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that newly qualified teachers are able to secure stable, long-term employment, in light of recent reports that only one in four newly qualified teachers secured permanent posts in 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-43036

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that expertise in criminal law is represented among those appointed as Scottish Law Commissioners.

When a Commissioner vacancy arises at the Scottish Law Commission, the skills and experience sought will be informed by the skills and experience needed to deliver their Programme of Law Reform. The Programme of Law Reform is the subject of extensive consultation by the Scottish Law Commission and is agreed by the Scottish Ministers and laid in the Scottish Parliament. The current Programme of Law Reform includes the law of homicide and a Report on Homicide was published at the end of 2025.

Commissioner appointments are regulated by the Ethical Standards Commissioner who ensures that appointments are made on merit and reflect the diversity of Scottish society.

Question reference: S6W-42751

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to bring forward regulations to bring section 75 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 into force.

Section 75 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 was commenced through commencement regulations and came into force on 12 January 2026.

Separately, the Scottish Government intends to lay regulations later this month which, subject to Parliamentary approval, will remove the existing legislative cap on Council Tax premiums. If agreed, this would meet the Programme for Government 2025 commitment and enable local authorities to determine the level of Council Tax premium that applies from 1 April 2026 to second homes and long-term empty homes, reflecting local housing pressures and circumstances.

Question reference: S6O-05395

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent action is being taken to improve whole-system patient flow, including seven-day discharge services, social care capacity, and shared responsibility across hospital departments, rather than focusing on redirecting patients away from A&E departments.

Question reference: S6W-42294

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many households received support from the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme, broken down by local authority area, in the financial year 2024-25.

The following table gives the number of households who received support through the Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) scheme in the financial year 2024-25, broken down by local authority area.

Local Authority Area	WHS2
Aberdeen City	193
Aberdeenshire	218
Angus	213
Argyll and Bute	166
City of Edinburgh	498
Clackmannanshire	98
Dumfries and Galloway	247
Dundee City	260
East Ayrshire	195
East Dunbartonshire	159
East Lothian	136
East Renfrewshire	114
Falkirk	172
Fife	549
Glasgow City	807
Highland	269
Inverclyde	198
Midlothian	134
Moray	121
Na h-Eileanan an Iar	38
North Ayrshire	229
North Lanarkshire	515
Orkney Islands	20
Perth and Kinross	140
Renfrewshire	303
Scottish Borders	201
Shetland Islands	59
South Ayrshire	182
South Lanarkshire	449
Stirling	82
West Dunbartonshire	93
West Lothian	276
Total	7,334

Question reference: S6O-05266

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the economy secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding support for the workforce and local economy of Mossmorran, in light of ExxonMobil's announcement that the Fife Ethylene Plant will be closed.

Question reference: S6W-41946

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve processing times for agricultural support payments.

Streamlining and process improvements have been made across a wide range of activities including application assessments, inspections, land maintenance records, and performance monitoring. These processing improvements allow us to continue to make payments at the earliest opportunity, for example commencing Basic Payment Scheme and Greening advance payments in September and achieving the majority of payments in the autumn, well in advance of the 30 June payment window closing in the following year. For example in 2025, by 30 November, we processed and issued payments to 98.04% of eligible businesses totalling 96.63% by value of the total BPS, Greening and Young Farmer Payment value due. In addition we have processed applications for the first LFASS 2025 payment run in early December 2025 to a total of 96.60% of businesses and 95.17% of the total scheme value due.

Issuing payments at the earliest opportunity for each scheme has been a feature of our payment service over recent years. We will continue to review how we administer payments to enhance customer experience and to meet delivery of our regulatory targets and payment strategy timetable, of which both are on course to be met again this year. Consistent delivery of payments aligned to the payment strategy provides farmers and crofters with financial stability and some assurance over cash flow.

Question reference: S6W-41954

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support vocational courses offered by Perth College that provide training in skills which support the rural economy.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the current and future skills needs of the rural economy. We are integrating consideration of skills for rural Scotland into mainstream skills policy development and delivery, including the Post School Education and Skills Reform (PSESR) programme. This approach follows the delivery of the Skills Action Plan for Rural Scotland (2019) that produced better alignment of skills delivery to skills needs in the rural economy.

The Scottish Government funds Lantra Scotland to contribute to increasing the number and diversity of skilled employees in the land-based, aquaculture and environmental conservation sectors.

Operational decisions such as course provision are a matter for individual colleges. However, in recognition that Scotland’s colleges are a vital part of our economy and wider society, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) allocations provide a 2.6% sector increase in teaching funding for 2025-26 compared to last year, with an increase of almost 5% in capital maintenance funding over the same period.

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