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: S6O-04412

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether seagulls should continue to be protected in law.

Question reference: S6O-04381

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the economy secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding any economic impact of delaying the full dualling of the A96, in light of the Moray and Inverness chambers of commerce calling for the road to be dualled in full and raising concerns that delays to delivering this are "constraining economic growth" in the area.

Question reference: S6O-04312

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the petition, reportedly signed by hundreds of Keith residents and businesses, regarding the disruption caused on the A96 by the ongoing works at Union Bridge, including the calls for businesses to be compensated for any significant losses during these works.

Question reference: S6W-32888

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-31866 and S6W-32202 by Fiona Hyslop on 11 December 2024 and 3 January 2025 respectively, in light of it not providing the numerical figures requested in the questions, whether it will provide the information requested regarding how many miles of the A96 have been dualled in each year from 2011 to date, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its previous answers.

Question reference: S6O-04218

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported concerns by the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers that falling cattle levels are leading to a reduction in beef supplies, and that gaps could subsequently appear in the red meat sections of supermarkets.

Question reference: S6T-02279

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what early assessment it has made following the opening of the safer drug consumption facility, The Thistle.

Question reference: S6W-32202

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31866 by Fiona Hyslop on 11 December 2024, whether it will provide the information requested regarding how many miles of the A96 have been dualled in each year from 2011 to date.

Question reference: S6O-04169

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will launch an independent review of the 2024 Higher History exam, in light of reports that responses to a survey by the Scottish Association of Teachers of History were overwhelmingly critical of the SQA review, that it had been described as a "whitewash", and that one respondent referred to it as "the most biased and useless investigation I have ever seen a public body attempt to pass off as legitimate”.

Question reference: S6W-31930

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31621 by Dorothy Bain on 3 December 2024, whether it will clarify whether this means that there is no official record or documentation of section 12 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 being implemented.

As previously advised with reference to question S6W-31621 on 3 December 2024, during daily routine engagement with the police, Procurators Fiscal undertake the long-established practice of instructing the police in their investigation of crime and all suspicious, sudden and unexplained deaths. The ongoing input and direction during the investigative process is not specifically recorded as implementation of section 12 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, nor is there any statutory obligation to do so.

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: S6O-04133

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the proposal from Save Our Surgeries in Burghead and Hopeman to pilot a nurse-led service in the villages following the closure of their GP surgeries.