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: S6W-40628

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what communication and promotional activity was carried out for the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme in the initial months following its launch on 22 January 2025, and what the communications plan is for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-40615

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many employer accounts there are on the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme, broken down by (a) oil and gas, (b) offshore wind, (c) onshore renewables, (d) construction, (e) defence and (f) any other sector.

The initial version of the industry-led Energy Skills Passport is a tool to support oil and gas workers identify training pathways into key offshore wind roles. Accounts are created by individual workers.

The Energy Skills Passport is an industry-led project, with Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) and RenewableUK (RUK) as the lead bodies.

The latest information available to Scottish Government regarding uptake, which covers the period from launch in January to August 2025, is that around 480 user profiles have been set up on the Passport’s digital system.

For the most up to date figures, we recommend contacting OEUK and RUK directly.

Question reference: S6W-40637

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the implications of projected oil and gas job losses by the early 2030s on the required scale and pace of delivery of the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme.

The Scottish Government is deeply concerned by any planned job losses in the oil and gas sector.

We continue to monitor and consider a range of evidence in relation to Scotland’s energy system. As part of this approach, we review reports on employment from industry, trade unions and other bodies. We have also commissioned and published independent analysis on Scotland’s Energy System and Just Transition. This analysis considers the economic impact of Scotland’s oil and gas industry, including in terms of employment, during the transition to net zero. A partial update of the baseline data underpinning this analysis was published in April 2025.

The Energy Skills Passport is an industry-led tool to support oil and gas workers to identify training pathways into key offshore wind sectors. It is one tool in a wider landscape of support for Scotland’s oil and gas workers. For example, the Passport is complemented by the Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund (launched in July 2025 as a joint initiative from Scottish and UK Governments) which offers tailored careers advice and funded training for eligible workers looking to build the skills needed for work in Scotland’s sustainable energy sectors.

In the unfortunate event of any employees facing redundancy, the Scottish Government will also always offer and provide support through the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE). Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.

Question reference: S6W-40622

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on (a) communications and (b) marketing for the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme since it was launched on 22 January 2025, and what the planned spend is for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-40617

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many website (a) visits and (a) unique users to the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme there have been in each month since it was launched on 22 January 2025.

Question reference: S6O-05055

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent reports of a rise in recorded bullying incidents in schools.

Question reference: S6W-40916

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had since 1 January 2024 with accommodation providers contracted by the UK Government, regarding the accommodation in Scotland of people seeking asylum, including those providing floating accommodation, broken down by the (a) name of provider and (b) dates of engagement.

Question reference: S6O-05025

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £20 million Housing Infrastructure Fund that was launched in 2016, as part of the 10-year Aberdeen City Region Deal, has been spent.

Question reference: S6W-40474

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the original commitment of the Aberdeen to Central Belt Enhancement Project to spend £200 million by 2026 to reduce journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt by 20 minutes, whether it will confirm (a) how much has been spent by the project so far, and on what specific areas of work, (b) what the projected final cost of the project is and (c) by what date (i) work on the project will be completed and (ii) the reduced journey times will be fully operational.

To 19/7/2025, £24.5m has been spent on schemes to reduce journey times between Aberdeen on the central Belt.

This includes £6.8m on the project to improve rail line speeds in the Barnhill area between Perth and Dundee. This was a nine-month programme of alignment work to replace a curved section of track by installing a new single line and also remodelling the junction at Barnhill by replacing switches and crossings.

The remainder of the spend has been on design development of a package of enhancements to improve capacity and journey time including: Signalling works, enhancements at Aberdeen, Montrose, Arbroath and Dundee stations, and freight loops.

The estimated cost of constructing all of the interventions necessary to deliver the project outputs sought by the project reference group is estimated at £242 million.

Delivery timescales for the project remain under review. It is planned that project delivery and thus benefit delivery will be staged to align with planned Network Rail renewals and other enhancement schemes such as Fife Electrification and replacement of ScotRail’s suburban fleet.

Question reference: S6W-40376

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail services have been (a) cancelled, (b) part-cancelled and (c) delayed by at least (i) one minute, (ii) 15 minutes, (iii) 30 minutes and (iv) 60 minutes in (A) each of the last three financial years and (B) 2025-26 to date, and how many of these were attributed to (1) air conditioning/cooling failures, (2) other rolling-stock defects, (3) train crew availability, (4) infrastructure or signalling faults, (5) the weather and (6) other causes, also broken down by ScotRail service group.