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-34037

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

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33011 by Fiona Hyslop on 22 January 2025, what oversight or guidance it provides to railway station owners and operators to ensure the safety of passengers and staff, and how it monitors the effectiveness of these measures.

Question reference: S6W-34028

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 it ensures value for money regarding hospitality provision for visitors to its buildings.

As part of wider catering provision in Scottish Government buildings, a catering contract is in-place to ensure value for money for taxpayers. In-line with Scottish Government spending controls, visitor hospitality is only provided in limited circumstances.

Robust contract management arrangements are in place and this includes an annual review of tariffs and costs which are scrutinised by an independent catering specialist to ensure costs are in-line with industry standards and the Consumer Price Index.

Question reference: S6W-34105

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many cat’s eyes are installed on the A90, broken down by the (a) section north of Dundee and (b) other sections.

Question reference: S6W-34137

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what enforcement measures are in place to address road traffic offences on each trunk road, including any specific measures on the A90 and its section north of Dundee.

Enforcement of road traffic offences is the independent responsibility of Police Scotland. Alongside general enforcement activity by Police Scotland, there is also the operation of safety cameras in some stretches of trunk roads.

The Scottish Safety Camera Programme supports enforcement through national operational prioritisation and deployment of safety camera resources in accordance with the Scottish Safety Camera Programme Handbook. Safety Camera enforcement locations can be found at Safety Camera Locations — Police Scotland Safety Cameras.

Average speed cameras on the A90 became operational over a 51 mile stretch between Dundee-Stonehaven in Oct 2017, including 15 cameras in each direction. Prior to their installation 3 in 5 drivers were exceeding the speed limit on the A90, that is now 1 in 100.

Question reference: S6W-34130

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure transparency in the use of public funds for media training.

Since 2016, all media training has been carried out internally by staff in the Scottish Government Communications Division at no additional cost. Through the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, all requests for information related to media training, including expenditure, are published on the Scottish Government’s website. Executive Agencies are responsible for their own training provision and information is not held centrally.

Question reference: S6W-34109

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how often cat’s eyes are inspected and tested on (a) the A90 in the (i) section north of Dundee and (ii) other sections and (b) other trunk roads.

Question reference: S6W-34143

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 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average time taken for Police Scotland to report a speeding offence to the procurator fiscal (a) is and (b) has been in each year since 2018.

Since April 2023, the Scottish Government has published the median journey time from offence date to verdict date, and the median times for each of the stages the criminal justice system, including the median police known to Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) report. The most recent data covering 2023-24 is reported in the Journey times in the Scottish Criminal Justice System: 2023-24 bulletin. The bulletin provides the median police known to COPFS report by crime type for the main 5 crime groups.

The median police known to COPFS report for speeding offences can be extracted from the data used to compile the Journey times in the Scottish Criminal Justice System interactive dashboard, an interactive tool which complements the information available in the published bulletin. The median police known to COPFS report times for speeding offences have been extracted and are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Median police known to COPFS report time for speeding offences.

Median police known to COPFS report time for speeding offences
Financial Year	Median time (days)
2017-18	48
2018-19	47
2019-20	51
2020-21	43
2021-22	65
2022-23	77
2023-24	86

Source: Journey times in the Scottish Criminal Justice System interactive dashboard.

Question reference: S6W-33617

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 10 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an update on the implementation of MyNHS Digital, and what assessment it has made of its potential impact on patient care.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34287 on 27 January 2025. 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

We are bringing forward delivery to December 2025, starting in Lanarkshire. Further detail will be contained in the Operational Improvement Plan in March 2025.

A robust equalities impact assessment is underway, and benefits will be proactively tracked as per good practice for a digital service development. This will be crucial in achieving the intended benefit of giving people more control of their care and allow us to continually assess the impact on patient care.

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.

Question reference: S6W-34139

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 the estimated cost of road traffic offences on trunk roads is regarding (a) enforcement, (b) legal processes and (c) accidents, broken down by trunk road.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34138 on 7 February 2025 for information on recorded levels of road traffic offences in Scotland. No information is held centrally relating to the costs associated with enforcement activity, legal processes and accidents arising from road traffic offences in Scotland.

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