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.

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Question reference: S6F-04163

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 June 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-04162

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 June 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-04161

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 June 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-38201

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measures have been taken to maintain and enhance Scotland's Land Information Service to ensure that it is a comprehensive and accessible resource for property and land data.

Registers of Scotland (RoS) is a non-Ministerial Public Body answerable to the Scottish Parliament.

Scotland’s Land Information Service (ScotLIS) was created and is maintained by RoS, providing online access to information on land and property in Scotland for both public and business users.

The costs of maintaining and enhancing ScotLIS are met by RoS from fee income generated. Potential enhancements to the service are based on the needs of users – both business and citizen. To ascertain user need, RoS is in regular dialogue with customers and periodically run dedicated user research sessions focussed on ScotLIS.

Enhancements since the service first launched have included access to a Crofting Register layer, an Aerial photography map layer, the Sasines Register indicative ownership layer, the Books of Council & Session, the Register of Judgements, the Register of Inhibitions and National Library Scotland’s Historic Maps. In addition, an option for customers to self-serve copy deeds has been introduced along with modern interfaces to enable high-volume customers of RoS data to seamlessly integrate that information with their systems.

Question reference: S6W-38210

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there was a reported reduction of 13% in the installation of air source heat pumps in the first three months of 2025.

Numerous factors will affect heat pump installation rates, including consumer demand, installer availability, and electricity load upgrades by district network operators.

We have allocated £1.63bn of funding through our Heat in Buildings schemes this Parliamentary Session while our planned introduction of a Heat in Buildings Bill later this year will strengthen awareness and understanding about the need to change.

Question reference: S6W-38089

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measurable outcomes or deliverables resulted from its recent summit on “shared values”.

The Scottish Government is committed to working across Scottish society, and the Scottish Parliament, to guard against the threat of polarising forces and ensure we empower people who feel distant from politics or on the margins of society.

The recent Gathering was an important milestone in this work – bringing together more than 50 leaders to assess the robustness of Scotland’s democratic system and examine the root causes that might undermine shared values. It secured a commitment, across civic, faith, and political leaders, to foundational principles which will guide our collective response and to working in a shared endeavour to give life to these principles. But this was only ever a starting point.

As set out in Programme for Government 2025-26, Scottish Government will now work with partners to develop specific, targeted actions in response to these issues, including:

Developing counter interventions to the threats to our democratic system.
Creating positive relationships and engage people across society on the issues.
Working with partners to engage their own networks to strengthen democratic.
Using the Scottish Government’s convening power to advance the dialogue around, and progress the solutions to, the issues identified.

Further detail on the outcomes of this work will be provided in due course.

Question reference: S6W-38091

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the reported £10,000 budget for the recent summit on "shared values" came from core ministerial spending, or a separate fund.

Question reference: S6W-38076

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reported concerns that it has not published a clear and costed plan for supporting oil and gas workers into alternative employment, for what reason it has reportedly not done so.

The judgements and issues in the Scottish Government’s Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan are informed and influenced by ongoing developments in the UK Government’s energy policy and recent court decisions. We are taking sufficient time to analyse and reflect on those developments and their impact on Scotland.

Scotland’s valued and highly skilled offshore oil and gas workforce must be at the heart of a just transition, therefore the Scottish Government is not awaiting a final policy position from the UK Government to take action. We have been supporting workers with the powers available to us, and will continue to do so. We are working with industry partners on an Energy Skills Passport, and with UK Government to develop a Regional Skills Pilot scheme for Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire. Through our Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray we have invested £9.7 million on skills interventions, including the Skills Passport, a Digital Innovation Lab, and an Energy Skills Transition Hub which will open later this year.

Question reference: S6W-38028

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported pause in the work of the Scottish Genomics Test Advisory Group, what process is being followed to ensure that appropriate companion diagnostic genomic tests are available to cancer clinicians when making decisions about treatments for patients.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring equitable access to genomic tests associated with Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) approved medicines.

While the work of the Scottish Genomics Test Advisory Group (SG-TAG) is currently paused, processes remain in place to support test development and implementation.

Requests for new genomic testing can still be submitted via an interim process in place since October 2024. New submissions are regularly reviewed by the Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine (SSNGM) horizon scanning group for consideration of next steps.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in Scotland’s genomic capabilities, and we are working in conjunction with NHS Scotland National Services Division (NSD) on a transformation programme to ensure we can commission and implement additional testing.

Question reference: S6W-37991

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to restore police officer numbers to 2013 levels, and, if so, what its timeline is for achieving this.

The recruitment and deployment of police officers is a matter for the Chief Constable.

Police Scotland’s three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 sets out the Chief Constable’s vision of a thriving workforce which goes beyond an overall officer headcount and that of a police workforce which includes police staff.

The Chief Constable aims to make maximum impact with a workforce that has the right skills and capacity to keep people safe. Through the Chief Constable’s workforce modernisation plan, Police Scotland are developing an operating model that will create capacity to deal with new and increasing threats by moving more officers to frontline roles, to strengthen community confidence.