Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-40587

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding local authority officers instructing external legal counsel to defend decisions in which they are directly involved, and what conflict-of-interest protections are in place.

Local authorities are entirely separate entities from the Scottish Government and their powers are set out in statute. It is up to each local authority to manage its own day to day business. The Scottish Government does not have a role in the operations of councils, including decisions to instruct external legal counsel. The Scottish Government expects all councils to have robust internal procedures in place to manage conflicts of interest and to ensure decisions are taken in a transparent and accountable manner.

Question reference: S6W-40485

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 30 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether, in the First Minister's recent meetings with the President of the United States, the issue of the Open Championship golf tournament being held possibly at the Trump Turnberry course in Ayrshie was discussed.

Question reference: S6W-40588

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on conducting an independent review of local authority contract enforcement practice to best ensure transparency, fairness and compliance with procurement law.

Local authorities are autonomous corporate bodies, accountable to their electorates, and are responsible for managing their own procurement processes in line with statutory duties and national procurement legislation.

The Scottish Government does not independently review local authorities. The Accounts Commission and Audit Scotland provide independent scrutiny of local government performance. These bodies can consider concerns raised by the public or elected members and use this information to inform their audit work. Parties which have suffered, or risk suffering, loss as a result of an alleged failure to comply with the procurement legislation also have the option of bringing action under that legislation in the courts.

There are a variety of targeted capability and improvement programmes at national and sectoral level to review, support and underpin local performance against agreed national standards and policy aspirations, helping to strengthen the systems, skills and processes that support audit and governance.

Question reference: S6W-40586

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what safeguards there are to ensure that local authority officers do not exercise their delegated powers to waive contract terms or financial obligations without democratic oversight.

Local authorities are entirely separate entities from the Scottish Government and it is the responsibility of each local authority to manage its day-to-day business, including meeting statutory obligations in relation to procurement processes.

The rules public bodies, including local authorities, must comply with in relation to procurement in Scotland are set out in the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016, the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, the Utilities Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016 and the Concession Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016. Parties which have suffered, or risk suffering, loss as a result of an alleged failure to comply with the procurement legislation may bring action under that legislation in the courts.

Question reference: S6W-40585

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, what discussions it has had with the City of Edinburgh Council regarding the handling of Contract CT2978, which has been referred to Audit Scotland and relates to the provision of services for the Edinburgh Winter Festivals, and whether these discussions included the reported failure, without elected member approval or any clear delegated authority, to (a) apply mandatory temporary traffic regulation order parking compensation charges and (b) enforce Clause 37 of the contract, following the reported non-payment by the contractor by the specified deadline.

Local authorities are autonomous corporate bodies, accountable to their electorates, and they are responsible for managing their own procurement processes in line with statutory duties and national procurement regulations. As such, I am not aware of any such discussions.

The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 provide for parties which have suffered, or risk suffering, loss as a result of an alleged failure to comply with any duty in those regulations to bring action under that legislation in the courts.

The Scottish Government is not responsible for ensuring local authorities’ compliance with legal obligations.

Question reference: S6T-02701

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 29 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason patients across Scotland will reportedly not be able to fully access the new MyCare NHS app until 2030.

Question reference: S6W-40743

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Neil Gray on 25 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how the £4.5 million fund that it announced for NHS boards as part of the budget for 2025-26 will deliver specialist support for long COVID, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome and other similar conditions.

Further to Parliament’s approval of the 2025-26 Scottish Budget on 25 February 2025, the Scottish Government has been engaging closely with NHS boards to support the allocation of resource for new specialist support for Long COVID, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and other similar conditions.

Boards told us that having funding only for a single financial year would be a barrier to their ability to develop new support. Therefore, following further assessment in line with Scottish Government spending controls, we wrote to NHS Board Chief Executives on 18 September to confirm that this funding will now be made available on a recurring basis. This commitment provides the longer term assurance necessary to enable boards to plan on a sustainable basis, and support the recruitment and retention of the skilled members of staff required for the delivery of services.

NHS Boards’ shares of the available 2025-26 funding will be allocated in full on an recurring basis. From the financial year 2026-27 onwards NHS Boards will receive the £4.5 million resource annually.

In 2025-26 the £4.5 million funding is being provided in addition to remaining resource of approximately £3 million from the £10 million long COVID Support Fund (established 2022). The £10 million fund will be fully disbursed by the end of the 2025-26 financial year.

A breakdown is as follows:

NHS Ayrshire and Arran	£327,482
NHS Borders	£99,208
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	£133,076
NHS Fife	£307,495
NHS Forth Valley	£246,390
NHS Grampian	£437,038
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	£957,544
NHS Highland	£300,399
NHS Lanarkshire	£561,378
NHS Lothian	£676,576
NHS Orkney	£21,985
NHS Shetland	£21,466
NHS Tayside	£346,825
NHS Western Isles	£29,138

Total	£4,466,000

We will also provide funding of £33,366 to Action for ME to support their Learn about ME online CPD module for health & social care professionals.

Question reference: S6W-40533

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans there are to provide fire evacuation equipment to fire services to accommodate all levels of accessibility need.

Question reference: S6W-40482

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on what date VisitScotland agreed to support the DP World Tour Nexo Championship, which was held at the Trump International Golf Links, Aberdeenshire, in August 2025.

An agreement in principle to support the Nexo Championship was discussed between VisitScotland and DP World Tour at this year’s Genesis Scottish Open, which took place 10-13 July. The final decision to support the event was taken following contract review and negotiations that same month.

The tournament was a late addition to the DP World Tour schedule, announced midway through the season on 6 May 2025. It followed the cancellation in December of a DP World Tour event which had been originally scheduled for the week of 7-10 August 2025.

Question reference: S6W-40484

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which UK departments it has held discussions with regarding the possibility of the Open Championship being held at Trump Turnberry, in Ayrshire, and what future meetings are planned.

The Scottish Government has not engaged directly with any UK departments regarding the possibility of the Open Championship being held at Trump Turnberry and it has no future meetings planned.

Although the Scottish Government has a funding relationship with the R&A to support their events in Scotland, all venue decisions are solely at the discretion of the R&A and the Scottish Government is informed of venue selection after the decision has been made. The Scottish Government is not involved in the decision-making process.

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