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-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-34026

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 of the national flags that it owns have (a) gone missing and (b) been wilfully damaged in each of the last 15 years.

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-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-34181

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 providers have been contracted to deliver media training for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants since 2018, and how much has been paid to each provider.

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

Question reference: S6W-34033

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 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33096 by Ivan McKee on 21 January 2025, what the cost of maintaining the fleet was in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34022

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 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which national flags it owns.

Year	Total maintenance cost
2019-20	£171,492
2020-21	£134,749
2021-22	£186,317
2022-23	£162,212
2023-24	£162,349