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

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Question reference: S6W-30945

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 12 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what digital solutions are being explored to improve the reading age in schools.

Question reference: S6T-02182

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland's call for it to introduce "legal protection for children on the use of physical restraint and seclusion in all situations where children are in the care of the state".

Question reference: S6F-03527

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reported concerns that its proposed formula for calculating rent controls in the Housing (Scotland) Bill will require above-inflation rent rises for hundreds of thousands of renters, thus not tackling unaffordable rents.

Question reference: S6F-03534

Asked by: Evelyn Tweed, MSP for Stirling, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the First Minister what engagement the Scottish Government has had with the UK Government regarding reports from BBC Panorama that smart meters in Scotland are experiencing a disproportionate number of operational issues compared with elsewhere in the UK, due to differences in connection type used to send data to energy providers.

Question reference: S6F-03538

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that its spending on private consultants has almost doubled in the space of five years.

Question reference: S6F-03526

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6F-03519

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03520

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-30941

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many university students have graduated in information and communications technology (ICT) courses in each of the last 10 years.

Information on university student qualifiers is collected and published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

It should be noted that prior to 2018-19 academic year, data was collected using a different subject classification. As such, figures prior to 2018-19 are not directly comparable.

The number of qualifiers (covering all levels of study) and the number of full-time first degree qualifiers (all domiciles) from either Computing or Computer Science courses at Scottish universities, over the last 10 Academic Years, can be found in the following tables. These are taken from published data.

Student qualifiers on ‘Computer Science’ courses at Scottish Universities

Subject classification based on JACS code = computer science

Academic year	All Qualifiers	Full-time first degree qualifiers
2013-14	3,150	1,710
2014-15	3,285	1,785
2015-16	3,450	1,905
2016-17	3,495	1,865
2017-18	3,855	1,975

Source: HESA Student dataFigure 14 - HE student enrolments by subject area and sex 2013/14 to 2017/18 | HESA

Student qualifiers on Computing courses at Scottish Universities

Subject classification based on HECOS code = Computing

Academic Year	All Qualifiers	Full-time first degree qualifiers
2018-19	4,165	2,050
2019-20	4,320	2,045
2020-21	4,335	2,125
2021-22	5,950	2,300
2022-23	5,160	2,050

Source: HESA Student data - Figure 13 - HE student enrolments by CAH level 1 subject and sex 2018/19 to 2022/23 | HESA

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5 and are based on full-person equivalents.

Question reference: S6W-30935

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the number of core staff that it employs has risen by 80% over the past decade.

The most recent workforce publication shows that in June 2014 the workforce comprised of 5,101 FTE directly employed staff, and 1,249 contingent workers.

For June 2024 showed the core Scottish Government workforce comprised of 8,911 FTE directly employed staff and 1,214 contingent workers.

This represents an increase of 75% in the directly employed workforce and a reduction of -3% in the contingent workforce.

The growth in the directly employed workforce in the last ten years has supported the devolution of new powers to the Scottish Government, for example Social Security and Exchequer functions. The growth in the core Scottish Government has also supported the response to exiting the European Union and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since March 2022 the Scottish Government has increased its permanent workforce while prioritising the reduction of the more expensive contingent workforce such as contractors and consultants. The number of contingent workers is now 40% lower than in March 2022.

The number of core Scottish Government staff is available at Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).