Chamber and committees

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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 40655 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-25728

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Court of Session reportedly charges £129.29 per hour to have audio recordings of court cases transcribed.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service outsource the provision of Audio Transcription Services and the provider offers a number of turnaround service levels depending on urgency of the requirement. The standard service used costs £91.23 per hour or £1.52 per minute of audio, plus VAT, and has a turnaround time of 15 days. The figure of £129.29 per hour is for a turnaround of 24 hours and would therefore only be used where a transcript is required urgently.

Question reference: S6W-25694

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the total value is of any (a) contracts and (b) grants awarded to Thermo Fisher Scientific by Scottish public bodies in each of the last five years.

A full breakdown of the total number and value of contracts awarded to Thermo Fisher Scientific for the last five fiscal years covering all Scottish public bodies is provided in the following table.

Year	Number of Contracts	Total Contracts Value
19-20	11	£1,428,668.49
20-21	22	£17,619,595.56
21-22	20	£4,016,757.72
22-23	17	£113,420,984.14
23-24	11	£14,217,082.43
Total	81	£150,703,088.34

No grant payments have been made to Fisher Scientific UK Limited (Thermo Fisher) directly from the Scottish Government in the last five fiscal years. The Scottish Government can only provide their own grant data as the information requested is not held centrally.

Question reference: S6W-25701

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to implementing fully digitalised booking for primary care appointments.

With the ever-growing pressures on General Practice, practices are continually looking for ways to improve access to meet demand and allocate correctly the type of service or advice to meet the needs of each patient.

Digitalised appointment booking and triage products for General Practice have increased in popularity and there are notable examples of individual practices using these technologies to improve practice efficiency and productivity.

Such products are not currently being rolled out nationally and the purchase of these services is a decision for individual practices and/or health boards.

Question reference: S6W-25735

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25234 by Fiona Hyslop on 22 February 2024, in light of the answer to question S6F-02532 not providing the information requested regarding timeframes for the ScotRail consultation on alcohol on trains, whether it will confirm by what date (a) the consultation will be completed and (b) a decision will be made on reallowing alcohol at certain times.

Question reference: S6W-25708

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to Rape Crisis Scotland in each financial year since 2020-21, and how much it will provide in the financial year 2024-25.

Please see below the funding that has been provided to Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) in each financial year since 2020-21. Please note for 2023-24, we have provided the total committed spend for the current financial year, which may change by April 2024.

We cannot confirm the amount of funding which will be provided to RCS for the financial year 2024-25 at this time. However, we can confirm that RCS will receive funding through the Children, Young People and Families Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities fund, through ‘100 days’ funding and the Delivering Equally Safe fund amongst others in 2024-25.

Please note that, in addition to funds provided to Rape Crisis Scotland, we also provide funding to local Rape Crisis Centres through the Delivering Equally Safe fund. Additionally, some of the funds provided to Rape Crisis Scotland are distributed by them to local Rape Crisis Centres.

Financial Year 2020-21 - £3,342,646

Financial Year 2021-22 - £5,654,322

Financial Year 2022-23 - £4,587,738

Financial Year 2023-24 - £4,557,276* (committed spend for financial year)

Question reference: S6W-25738

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the condition in Annex B of its publication, Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (Scotland) Regulations 2021: guidance for dog breeders, which states that "No dog may be kept for breeding if it can reasonably be expected, on the basis of its genotype, conformation, behaviour or state of health, that breeding from it could have a detrimental effect on its health or welfare or the health or welfare of its offspring", has noticeably improved the welfare of brachycephalic dog breeds in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken any targeted work to assess if the welfare of brachycephalic breeds has improved following the introduction of The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (the 2021 regulations), however this is something that we do intend to investigate further with local authorities and relevant stakeholders.

Meantime, the Scottish Government continues to engage regularly with local authorities on the enforcement of the 2021 regulations and work with key stakeholders to promote and encourage ethical and responsible breeding of dogs.

Question reference: S6W-25727

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans there are to digitise audio recordings of court cases that can be easily provided to those involved in a case, if requested.

Question reference: S6W-25697

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the next round of Regeneration Capital Grant funding will open to applications, and how much funding will be made available.

Funding to support place-based regeneration programmes has been set at £45.8 million for 2024-2025, of which £23 million is required to meet contractual commitments for existing Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) and Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) projects.

Ministers are considering options for distribution of the remaining regeneration capital budget allocation for 2024-2025 and we will clarify how this will be allocated in due course.

Question reference: S6W-25706

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-24936 by Jenny Gilruth on 21 February 2024, whether it will provide an update on what stage it is at with the development of its new digital strategy for education.

Question reference: S6W-25705

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-24936 by Jenny Gilruth on 21 February 2024, when it will publish its new digital strategy for education.