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-05424

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Due to be taken in the Chamber on 28 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the diversity and socio-economic background of audiences attending performances by the National Performing Companies.

Question reference: S6W-42790

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to ensure that outcome 6B of the Good Food Nation Plan, which aims for Scotland’s food sector to make a positive contribution to global food system transformation, is effectively measured, and what consideration will be given to using indicators, such as Fairtrade product purchasing or Fair Trade procurement through Scotland Excel, to provide independent data on Scotland’s global food impact.

The first national Good Food Nation Plan and accompanying initial monitoring framework set out how we will measure progress towards our six overarching outcomes. Scotland’s food sector already makes many positive contributions to global food system transformation. For example, the Scottish Government continues to support research and innovation in low-carbon food solutions to enhance the resilience of our future food system to climate change and contribute positively to global food transformation.

However, a suitable indicator to assess and monitor sub-outcome 6B has not yet been identified. As set out in Scottish Fair Trade’s recent reports on Fair Trade procurement within the Scottish public sector, fair trade procurement data was ‘not fully accurate nor reliable due to variations in how fair trade spend is defined and monitored’. As set out in the monitoring framework, we intend to review the Scottish food data landscape on an on-going basis and will reflect any new or improved datasets in future iterations of the Plan.

Question reference: S6O-05339

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to prevent starvation and suffering among the sheep on St Kilda.

Question reference: S6O-05122

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what assessment it has made of the operational resilience of the Parliament's information technology systems, in light of the disruption to the stage 3 proceedings for the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S6O-05192

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress of NatureScot's species licensing review, including timelines for producing and implementing recommendations for improvements alongside charging for licensing services.

Question reference: S6W-40527

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 24 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37508 by Jim Fairlie on 29 May 2025, whether NatureScot presented its final version of the species licensing review to the Scottish Ministers in April 2025, and, if so, by what date the findings will be published.

Further to my response to S6W-37508, the Species Licensing Review was sent for external review in July but the completion of this review has been delayed. NatureScot anticipate that the external review will be completed shortly and returned to NatureScot before being presented to Ministers for consideration prior to being published.

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-04816

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the proposed establishment of Great British Railways and any potential implications for devolved responsibilities over rail services and infrastructure in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04674

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact on Scotland’s labour market of the Prime Minister’s recent statement on immigration policy.

Question reference: S6O-04483

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the provision of Gaelic-medium education at primary level in the Glasgow Shettleston constituency.

Question reference: S6O-04474

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what information it has on for what reason stamps that are issued in the Parliament’s Post Office are not Scotland Country Definitive stamps by default.