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-42215

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release, Harnessing data and technology to revolutionise public services, on 20 November 2025, on what date in 2026 it will launch its new app to “help people access personalised public services more easily”.

Question reference: S6W-42217

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release, Harnessing data and technology to revolutionise public services, on 20 November 2025, for what purposes its planned digital public services app will require digital proof of age, and what specifically the app will allow users to access by providing such proof.

Question reference: S6W-42219

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release, Harnessing data and technology to revolutionise public services, on 20 November 2025, whether installation and use of its planned digital public services app will be mandatory, or optional, following its introduction.

Question reference: S6W-42214

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release, Harnessing data and technology to revolutionise public services, on 20 November 2025, whether it has undertaken any impact assessment of how its planned digital public services app could affect (a)(i) older and (ii) disabled people and (b) people living in rural communities.

Question reference: S6W-42220

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release, Harnessing data and technology to revolutionise public services, on 20 November 2025, what “further functionality” it has planned for its digital public services app.

Question reference: S6W-42218

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release, Harnessing data and technology to revolutionise public services, on 20 November 2025, whether people not installing or using its planned digital public services app will result in them not being able to access certain public services.

Question reference: S6W-42216

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release, Harnessing data and technology to revolutionise public services, on 20 November 2025, when its planned digital public services app will introduce a digital proof of age.

Question reference: S6W-41856

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-05134 by Angela Constance on 12 November 2025, what work has been done to establish a cross-sector coalition aimed at protecting children from online violence and abuse.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that children and young people in Scotland are safe and supported in their online lives. We recognise the significant risks posed by harmful online content and the importance of robust regulation to protect children from exploitation, abuse, and exposure to inappropriate material.

We also recognise that real progress can only be achieved through partnership working, bringing together the knowledge, skills and expertise required to prevent and reduce the effects of online harm, informed by lived experience.

To help prevent violence, including online, and reduce its harm, the Scottish Government supports the work of multiple cross sector partnerships with justice, education, health and across communities. This includes the work of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, Medics Against Violence and Youthlink Scotland, who have collaborated to create a Quit Fighting for Likes campaign to support front line practitioners working with young people, to encourage conversations about their online experiences, including discussions on the impact of filming and sharing harmful violent content online.

In 2024, the Scottish Government established the National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group - gov.scot, which comprises of operational partners, including Police Scotland, and other expert stakeholders from the statutory, third-sector, academic and service delivery organisations, to review current actions and agree where additional focus is needed to better protect children from abuse and exploitation, including online-enabled harm. This group’s overarching priority is prevention and will work together to identify priorities and actions to more effectively prevent, disrupt and provide support to victims of child sexual abuse and their families, including those facing online harms.

In January 2025, I announced the establishment of an Online Safety Taskforce to strengthen our approach to keeping children safe online, providing oversight and direction to work being undertaken across Scottish Government, and identifying what more can be done to protect children and young people. A responsibility that I and the Minister for Victims and Community Safety as Ministerial leads take very seriously.

The Taskforce is currently considering how engagement on the government’s overarching approach to online harm can be enhanced further to support a more joined up dialogue with stakeholders including the third sector and those with lived experience.

Question reference: S6W-41857

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of removing peak ferry fares on routes that it supports through public service contracts, including the Northern Isles Ferry Services.

Question reference: S6W-42167

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 11 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the findings of the 2022 Scottish Government Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland that "given the risks that incineration poses to human health and the environment, and the risk of lock-in, Scotland should not construct more capacity than it needs and only some of the currently planned capacity should be built", how this aligns with its reported plans to delay the landfill ban by building additional incinerator facilities to begin operating in 2026 and 2027.