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 43085 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-34024

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which national flags it has purchased in each of the last 10 years.

A breakdown of flags purchased since 2017 is shown in the table below. The Scottish Government does not hold information on flag purchases prior to 2017.

Year of Purchase	National Flag
2017	Scotland
2018	Scotland
2019	Scotland
2019	United Kingdom Iceland
2020	Scotland United Kingdom
2021	Scotland United Kingdom
2022	Scotland Ukraine
2023	Scotland Denmark Ireland France Germany Iceland Italy Netherlands Norway Poland Spain Sweden Ukraine
2024	Ukraine

Question reference: S6W-34025

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many flagpoles it has, broken down by height, and what the maintenance costs have been in each of the last 15 years.

Question reference: S6W-34311

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is raising awareness and understanding of uterine cancer as the most common gynaecological cancer.

Our most recent Detect Cancer Earlier campaign – Be The Early Bird – first launched on March 2023, aiming to reduce fear of cancer and empower those with possible symptoms to act early. Following successful independent evaluation, the campaign re-ran in September 2023 and August 2024 to prompt health-seeking behaviour.

In parallel, a Detect Cancer Earlier roadshow visited communities across Scotland in March and September 2024 to reinforce key messages, with further activity planned for March 2025.

We continue to work with NHS Scotland to ensure that the NHS Inform website provides cancer information that best meets patient needs, including symptoms and treatments for uterine cancer.

Question reference: S6W-34183

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what most recent assessment it has made of the value for money of media training provided to (a) ministers and (b) civil servants.

Media training offers Ministers and civil servants skills to represent the Scottish Government professionally and effectively in media appearances. Since 2016, all media training for Ministers or civil servants has been provided by Scottish Government Communications Division staff at no additional cost. Executive Agencies are responsible for their own training provision and information is not held centrally.

Question reference: S6W-34184

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what guidelines it has regarding the provision of media training to (a) ministers and (b) civil servants, including how costs are approved and monitored.

On appointment, all Ministers are offered media training options as part of their induction. Civil servants who may carry out media interviews in the course of their duties can request media training through the Scottish Government’s Communications Division. Courses are provided by Communications Division staff at no additional cost. Executive Agencies are responsible for their own training provision and information is not held centrally.

Question reference: S6W-34354

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working to ensure that (a) local authorities and (b) housing associations provide social housing suitable for families with multiple disabled people.

We want disabled people in Scotland to have choice, dignity and freedom to access suitable homes, built or adapted to enable them to participate as full and equal citizens.

As the statutory housing authority for their area, local authorities are responsible for assessing housing need and demand, including specialist housing requirements, and for setting out how this will be met through their Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans. This includes the location, size and type of housing required.

Local authorities are also required to include all-tenure wheelchair accessible housing targets as part of their Local Housing Strategy.

The Affordable Housing Supply Programme provides a flexible grant system to local authorities and registered social landlords to support the delivery of specialist affordable housing, including wheelchair accessible homes.

In addition, the draft budget includes funding of £20.9 million for 2025-26 to enable registered social landlords to deliver necessary adaptations to ensure disabled people can live independently at home for as long as possible.

Question reference: S6W-34319

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authority planning decisions the Scottish Ministers have overturned in each year since 2021, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S6W-34306

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of postcode areas that would be eligible for house building through funding from the Islands Housing Fund.

The Rural and Islands Housing Fund operates in categories 4, 5 and 6 of the six-fold urban rural classification. We do not publish a list of postcode areas and applicants can check if a proposed project is located within an eligible area by using the National Records of Scotland’s Scottish Postcode Directory (SPD) at Geography products - National Records of Scotland (NRS)

National Records of Scotland publishes an updated SPD every six months and an update is planned for publication in March 2025.

Question reference: S6W-34308

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of postcode areas that would be eligible for house building through funding from the Rural Housing Fund.

Question reference: S6W-34138

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of trends in road traffic offences on each trunk road, with a particular focus on the A90 and its section north of Dundee.

Data on recorded road traffic offences is contained in the annual Scottish Government "Recorded Crime in Scotland" publication. Information on road traffic offences in the 2023-24 publication is at:

Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2023-24 - gov.scot

This publication includes data for 2023-24 as well as data relating to the last ten years. Data is provided at Scotland level as well as being broken down by local authority area. No information is provided broken down by trunk road.