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-39702

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many offences involving air weapons were recorded between (a) 2009 and 2016 and (b) 2017 and 2024.

The following table shows the number of offences involving the alleged use of an air weapon (where identified) between 2009-10 and 2021-22. This has been split into two time periods, 2009-10 to 2014-15 and 2015-16 to 2021-22. The reason for this specific split is the introduction of an improved methodology for collating these statistics from 2015-16 onwards. As such the two time periods are not directly comparable as the earlier one is likely to contain a small degree of underestimation.. Further information on the change in methodology and the presentation of data by single years is available at Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 2020-21 and 2021-22 - gov.scot.

The latest Crimes and offences involving a firearm Official Statistics relate to 2021-22. Future updates will follow the conclusion of a further review by analysts from Scottish Government and Police Scotland into the methodology for producing this data. Unlike other crime-based official statistics, the current approach relies on the manual review of crime records to identify relevant cases, which is resource intensive and requires significant time to complete. An update on the outcome of this work is planned for early Autumn, and users can register for this through the SCOTSTAT network (https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotstat-register-guidance/)

Crimes involving the alleged use of an air weapon 2009-10 to 2021-22

Period	Number of crimes
2009-10 to 2014-15	1,394
2015-16 to 2021-22	783

Source: Recorded Crimes and Offences involving Firearms, Scotland

Question reference: S6W-39727

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 20 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, for the purpose of Freedom of Information, which public body is considered to "hold" information relating to the direct staffing and remuneration costs associated with the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, if not the Scottish Government itself.

Public inquiries established under the Inquiries Act 2005 are not designated as Scottish public authorities for the purposes of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). As the member may be aware, information held by other authorities about the work of a public inquiry may be exempt from disclosure. In particular, under section 37 of FOISA information is exempt if it has been created by a person conducting an inquiry for the purposes of that inquiry. These are absolute exemptions under the Act. These arrangements are in place to protect the integrity and independence of public inquiries.

The Scottish Government understands that key information about the costs of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry are published on the Inquiry website. It also understands that the Inquiry provided further detailed information about its costs in its Chair’s letter dated 22 May, to the Finance and Public Administration Committee. The Scottish Government would be happy to consider whether it holds any further relevant information in the event of any request for such, and would consider any such request in full compliance with its own obligations as a Scottish public authority under FOISA.

Question reference: S6W-39728

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 20 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what structures are in place for determining the allocation of public funding to inquiries.

Public Inquiries which are established under the Inquiries Act 2005 are independent of the Scottish Government. Public Inquiries relevant costs under the Inquiries Act 2005 are funded via the sponsoring Ministerial portfolio within the Scottish Government, but publication in relation to costs is undertaken independently by each inquiry.

The cost of a public inquiry varies and is very much determined by the complexity of the issue to be investigated, the number of witnesses, and the amount of technical expertise that may be required. There is a statutory duty placed on Chairs of independent inquiries, set out at section 17 of the Inquiries Act 2005, the they "must act with fairness and with regard also to the need to avoid any unnecessary cost".

All Inquiries are encouraged to engage with sponsor teams to communicate likely budget requirements in order to inform development of the Scottish Government budget each year, and to advise sponsor teams if expected requirements change or evolve.

Question reference: S6W-39705

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 20 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the reported £98.7 million core running costs for the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) to date, by (a) secretariat costs, (b) legal team fees, (c) expert adviser fees, (d) overheads and (e) other.

Question reference: S6W-39699

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 18 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many air weapon certificates were applied for under section 3 of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015, in each year since 2017.

Question reference: S6W-39700

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 18 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many air weapon certificate applications were granted under section 5 of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015, in each year since 2017.

Question reference: S6W-39701

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 18 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many air weapon certificate applications were rejected under section 5 of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015, in each year since 2017.

Question reference: S6W-39704

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 18 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the air weapon certificates applied for in 2024 under section 3 of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015, are still to be processed as of 31 July 2025.

Question reference: S6W-39915

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to support initiatives that encourage workplace policies and practices that contain the values of Equally Safe.

Question reference: S6W-39861

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38052 by Kaukab Stewart on 9 June 2025, how many secondary schools in each local authority area are still to be registered with the Equally Safe at School programme.