John Swinney to face final FMQs before Scottish election

John Swinney is to face his final First Minister’s Questions before the Holyrood elections.

The First Minister will take questions from the opposition before the Scottish Parliament enters recess until April 8. It will then be dissolved on April 9, ahead of the election on May 7.

The Scottish Government has this week been accused of “catastrophic neglect” by the Liberal Democrats after figures showed the number of children in temporary accommodation for more than a year rose by more than a third between 2020 and 2024.

Stats obtained by the party via a Freedom of Information request show that in 2024, 3,504 children had spent more than a year in temporary accommodation across 30 out of Scotland’s 32 local authorities.

This compares with 2,529 recorded in 2020 – an increase of 38%.

The First Minister could also be asked about a new report showing that drug abuse could be costing Scotland almost £6 billion a year.

Ministers have been told that the “price of inaction is too high to ignore” as research by the Social Market Foundation set out the financial impact of the country’s drugs crisis.

It has called for a rollout of safer drug consumption rooms, such as the Thistle Centre pilot in Glasgow, which was the first of its kind in the UK.