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-37440

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how noise detection equipment is being deployed by Police Scotland in relation to motorbikes that break noise limits.

Question reference: S6O-04656

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will issue a formal public apology to members of the Gypsy/Traveller community, in light of reports of the harm caused by what was known as the Tinker Experiment.

Question reference: S6W-37416

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will update the 2003 guidance, Local Authority Powers to Require Drivers to Switch Off Engines When Parked, to enable local authorities to more effectively enforce the ban on engine idling.

Question reference: S6W-37413

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether there is a need to improve enforcement of the ban on engine idling to achieve its vision for Scotland to have the cleanest air in Europe and to protect human and environmental health.

Question reference: S6W-37415

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will amend regulation 8(b) of the Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (Scotland) Regulations 2003 to increase the level of fines from £20 to £80, in order to deter engine idling, in light of reports that fines have not increased in line with inflation.

Question reference: S6W-37414

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will adopt the recommendations set out in the letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Transport of 11 March 2025, which was signed by over 20 councillors and environmental and public health groups, regarding the reported lack of enforcement of the ban on engine idling, in order to support its aim for Scotland to have the cleanest air in Europe.

Question reference: S6W-37417

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to protect marine life currently at risk from bottom-trawling, and whether these actions will include further enforcement of requirements to release unintended bycatch immediately, reinstating spatial limits on bottom-trawling in coastal areas, and improving vessel monitoring to identify hotspots of harm.

Question reference: S6W-36941

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support households in rural areas with energy costs, in light of the 6.4% increase to the Ofgem price cap.

Energy price setting and regulation is fully reserved to UK Government and the Scottish Government has limited powers to intervene. However, we continue to do what we can, within devolved competence, to support households in rural areas with their energy costs.

Our energy efficiency delivery programmes – Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based Schemes – support households across the entirety of Scotland who are living in, or at risk of, fuel poverty.

Households in extreme fuel poverty in rural and island areas are able to benefit from energy efficiency improvements worth up to £21,100 as part of our local Area Based Schemes. These councils can apply a higher maxima of grant-in-kind for zero/low carbon heating measures of £9,000, which reflects the greater delivery costs in rural and island areas.

Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) is our national fuel poverty scheme, designed to help those living in fuel poverty or at risk of fuel poverty through installing insulation and heating measures into individual properties. The scheme is delivered by Warmworks and applications are assessed by Home Energy Scotland (HES) under eligibility criteria based on “proxies” such as Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) which are an indication of the likelihood of the household living in or being at risk of fuel poverty. To ensure that customers have access to the same set of measures in rural and island areas we use a National Customer Price, this ensures measures are charged at the same level whether they are in rural and remote areas or in the central belt.

We are also aware that island communities, in particular, experience acute financial pressures due to often higher costs of fuel, a colder climate, and a lack of consumer choices compared to the UK mainland. Since 2022, our Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund (ICCEF) has distributed £3.4 million, through local authorities, to support islanders most impacted by the cost of living. The 2024 Programme for Government commits the Scottish Government to continue delivery of this fund and we anticipate that it will be worth a further £1 million in 2025-26. This is in addition to our Winter Heating Benefits which provide guaranteed support to people who have an identified need for additional heat over the winter months, including low-income households, families with disabled children and young people, and pensioners.

However, the fundamental fiscal and policy levers to make a real difference lie with the UK Government. The Scottish Government has recently led and concluded a Social Tariff Working Group with energy suppliers and consumer organisations. We repeatedly called on the previous UK Government to introduce a social tariff mechanism as a means of targeted support for those who need it most and have written to the UK Government seeking urgent delivery of an automatic and targeted discount on energy bills to address unaffordable bills at source. We believe that a sophisticated set of metrics should be developed to determine eligibility, including rurality, recognising the additional costs faced by these households.

We have been clear that market reforms need to deliver tangible benefits and ensure Scotland’s communities feel the benefit of the energy transition. Rural households face a particular set of challenges and we will continue to advocate for their interests through our engagement with the UK Government, Ofgem, and wider industry.

Question reference: S6O-04620

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what pathways are available to obtain a child ADHD assessment for those who do not have a co-existing mental health disorder that meets the CAMHS mental health criteria and who cannot afford a private assessment.

Question reference: S6W-36963

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 29 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any unintended consequence of the public procurement process that may have resulted in small businesses being disadvantaged, including losing out on freelance contracts to large internationally owned firms.

Procurement legislation requires public bodies to treat suppliers equally and without discrimination irrespective of size when buying goods, services and works.

Through the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, we introduced a legal requirement for public bodies to consider and act on opportunities to facilitate the involvement of small or medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’), third sector organisations and supported businesses in the procurement process, and also to advertise regulated contract opportunities openly and transparently on Public Contracts Scotland, helping SMEs to identify opportunities in the supply chain.

We continue to focus on making it easier for SMEs to participate in public supply chains, including publishing an SME and Third Sector Procurement Action Plan in 2024 as part of our New Deal for Business.

We continue to test, challenge and inform procurement approaches through industry engagement, such as round tables with SMEs, to underpin continuous improvement.

The ‘annual report on procurement activity in Scotland 2022 to 2023’ (our most recently published report) shows that 61 pence in every pound of known procurement spend in Scotland went to an SME, and that, of the 18,079 suppliers awarded contracts through Public Contracts Scotland, SMEs received 77% of these contracts.