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: S6O-01733

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to supporting the gaming industry in Scotland during the cost of living crisis.

Question reference: S6O-01664

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-12412

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 18 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the First Minister's statement to the Parliament in June 2022 that changes would be made to the procedure for handling complaints by civil servants about current or former ministers and to the Ministerial Code in order to improve the transparency and reporting of the outcome of complaints, whether it will provide an update on the progress of these changes.

The procedure for handling complaints by civil servants about a current or former minister’s behaviour will be updated to improve transparency. The Deputy First Minister will discuss the updates to the procedure and the Ministerial Code with the Finance and Public Administration Committee on 22 November 2022.

In future, where the outcome is upheld or partially upheld, Ministers will be named and the outcome of the complaint published, together with an appropriately redacted version of the decision report.

The privacy and confidentiality of complainants and witnesses remain fundamental to the process. Any information that could lead to their identity being disclosed will be redacted.

The procedure applies to all Scottish Government staff and civil servants working in the Scottish Government’s executive agencies. Information on the number of formal complaints will be proactively published on the Scottish Government website every six months.

In cases where a complaint is not upheld, the Minister's name and the outcome will be published for a period of six months.

Changes to the Ministerial complaints procedure will come into effect by the end of the year.

The Scottish Ministerial Code is being updated to take account of the updated procedure and will be published in due course.

Question reference: S6O-01568

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported proposals from the Carnegie Trust to strengthen the National Performance Framework and make it Scotland's Wellbeing Framework.

Question reference: S6O-01460

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government which elements of the Cumberford-Little report it sees as relevant for its forthcoming review of the skills landscape, and particularly in relation to the stated purpose of "optimising the system for upskilling and reskilling."

Question reference: S6W-11002

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Angus Robertson on 23 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm the costs associated with the production and publication of the paper, Renewing Democracy through Independence.

The external costs associated with the production and publication of the Building a new Scotland paper, ‘Renewing democracy through independence', are set out in the following table.

Costs
Task	VAT %	VAT	Net Price
Formatting and Online Publication (including HTML Web Conversation)	20.0	589.97	2,949.85
Printed Copies	0.00	0.00	1,782.59
Summary Document	20.0	57.28	286.38
Summary Document – Language Translations	20.0	482.73	2,413.64
Summary Document – BSL Translation	20.0	137.85	689.24
Summary Document – Audio Translation	20.0	14.16	70.81
Summary Document – Easy Read Version	20.0	93.24	466.22
Total (GBP)		£1,375.23	£8,658.73
Total including VAT (GBP)			£10,033.95

Papers in the Building a New Scotland prospectus series are available at the following link: www.gov.scot/newscotland.

Question reference: S6W-11001

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Angus Robertson on 23 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm the costs associated with the production and publication of the paper, Independence in the modern world. Wealthier, Happier, Fairer: Why Not Scotland.

The external costs associated with the production and publication of the Building a new Scotland paper, 'Independence in the modern world. Wealthier, happier, fairer: why not Scotland?', are set out in the following table.

Costs
Task	VAT %	VAT	Net Price
Overall Prospectus Design	20.0	883.35	4,416.74
Formatting and Online Publication (including HTML Web Conversation)	20.0	1,130.50	5,652.49
Printed Copies	0.00	0.00	2,124.12
Summary Document	20.0	114.58	572.91
Summary Document – Language Translations	20.0	415.85	2,079.24
Summary Document – BSL Translation	20.0	108.85	544.24
Summary Document – Audio Translation	20.0	14.84	74.22
Summary Document – Easy Read Version	20.0	143.47	717.37
Total (GBP)		£2,811.44	£16,181.33
Total including VAT (GBP)			£18,992.76

Papers in the Building a New Scotland prospectus series are available at the following link: www.gov.scot/newscotland .

Question reference: S6O-01228

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it will align its priorities for local government services with future projects by local authorities that are funded through the UK Government's Shared Prosperity Fund.

Question reference: S6O-01194

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether its target of generating 50% of energy use from renewables by 2030 is sufficiently ambitious in light of new opportunities arising for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-07515

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the most recent data on levels of income tax paid at the UK median wage level for all employees in Scotland, and how that compares with the rest of the UK.