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-04213

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-04187

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 June 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-37649

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37209 by Shona Robison on 12 May 2025, in light of this information being sought via a parliamentary question and not via a Freedom of Information request, whether it will provide the information requested regarding how much it has spent on advertising in (a) national and (b) local newspapers, broken down by title, in each of the last five years, and for what reason it considers that exemptions under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 apply to parliamentary questions.

We acknowledge there was an error in sharing an FOI response to S6W-37209 on 12 May 2025.

The information requested is highly commercially sensitive and therefore we are unable to provide the expenditure broken down by newspaper title, as requested.

As per the initial response, disclosure of this information would materially disadvantage the Scottish Government contractor. Providing the specific expenditure for a newspaper or outlet would potentially allow competitors of the media buying agency to calculate the rates negotiated by the appointed media buying agency who work on behalf of the Scottish Government. It would also impact the newspaper titles involved as their competitors (other newspaper titles) would be able to work out the rates they are selling at.

Please see the advertising spend for press, for the last five years, outlined below.

Year	Press advertising spend
2018-2019	£178,785.33
2019-2020	£434,318.41
2021-2022	£465,042.88
2022-2023	£379,348.54
2023-2024	£163,616.55
2024-2025	To be published on 19 June

Scottish Government marketing and advertising spend is published each year and can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

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: S6F-04141

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 June 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-04118

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-04090

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 May 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-37208

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will lay before Parliament the Fitness for Judicial Office Tribunal report relating to part-time sheriff John Halley.

A tribunal was constituted under section 21 of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 to investigate and report on whether Part-time Sheriff Halley is unfit to hold judicial office. Under Section 24(2) of that Act, the First Minister must lay the report of the tribunal before the Scottish Parliament. The First Minister is currently making the necessary arrangements for the report to be laid before the Scottish Parliament within the next two weeks.

Question reference: S6F-04069

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 May 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-37209

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33050 by Shona Robison on 21 January 2025, how much it has spent on advertising in (a) national and (b) local newspapers, broken down by title, in each of the last five years.

We are unable to provide the information requested on advertising expenditure broken down by newspaper title because an exemption under section 33 of FOISA applies. This is because disclosure of the information would (or would be likely to) substantially prejudice the commercial interests of the organisation (section 33(1)(b)).

All Scottish Government media buying and planning is undertaken via agencies appointed through the Media Planning, Buying and Associated Services Framework Agreement – Ref. SP-18-007, and never directly with media owners or channels. Using standard media buying software, common to the sector, media buying agencies can access data showing the volume of media purchased by their competitors. Providing the costs alongside this available data would therefore enable competitors to determine the buying rates (price) for individual media companies. This information is highly commercially sensitive within the sector and disclosure would materially disadvantage the Scottish Government contractor. Providing the specific expenditure for a newspaper or outlet would potentially allow competitors of the media buying agency to calculate the rates negotiated by the appointed media buying agency who work on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Scottish Government marketing and advertising spend is published each year and can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ including a breakdown by media type and includes press expenditure.