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: S7W-00311

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 8 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitment in the Scottish National Party manifesto to enact a statutory price cap on essential food items, what discussions it has had with the Scottish Retail Consortium regarding the proposal.

The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport, and I, met with the Scottish Retail Consortium on 3 May. At that meeting, a commitment was made to engage meaningfully at the appropriate stage of the process.

The Scottish Government routinely engages with a broad range of stakeholders and is committed to sustaining meaningful and constructive engagement throughout the policy making process.

Question reference: S7W-00314

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 4 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitment in the SNP manifesto to enact a statutory price cap on essential food items, whether it plans to hold a formal consultation on the proposal and, if so, whether it would be subject to a full Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment.

Question reference: S7W-00313

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 4 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitment in the SNP manifesto to enact a statutory price cap on essential food items, what discussions it has had with its Regulatory Review Group regarding the proposal.

Question reference: S7W-00312

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 4 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitment in the SNP manifesto to enact a statutory price cap on essential food items, what discussions it has had with its Retail Industry Leadership Group regarding the proposal.

At the Retail Industry Leadership Group (RILG) meeting on Tuesday 19 May, a commitment was made to engage meaningfully at the appropriate stage of the process.

At the Regulatory Review Group (RRG) meeting on Tuesday 26 May, a commitment was made to engage meaningfully at the appropriate stage of the process.

The Scottish Government routinely engages with a broad range of stakeholders and is committed to sustaining meaningful and constructive engagement throughout the policy making process.

Question reference: S7O-00058

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the commissioning of a new pre-hospital critical care service for Edinburgh and the east of Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-44027

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 11 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) target and (b) current average processing time is for Social Security Scotland to recognise the legal authority of a power of attorney document when presented with it, and to permit and enable a person granted such a power of attorney to manage the Social Security Scotland benefits of the claimant in question.

Social Security Scotland does not measure the average processing time for accepting a power of attorney, and does not have a target for this.

There are four types of power of attorney that may be put in place in Scotland; however, only those that confer financial powers can be used in relation to benefits administered by Social Security Scotland.

When a power of attorney document is provided, and both the individual and the document are verified, this forms part of the client’s broader case handling. As this activity is undertaken as part of routine application management rather than through a separately defined or measured process, no specific performance data is collected or reported.

Question reference: S6W-43882

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 26 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Central Legal Office has made an assessment of the reliability of the electronic patient records system used by NHS Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-43636

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment of the condition of Scotland's trunk roads it has (a) made and (b) published since the discontinuation of the Performance Audit Group annual audit in 2021-22.

Transport Scotland conducts machine-based based surveys of the trunk road network each year using specialist vehicles to gather information on the surface integrity of the road; the friction characteristics of the surface; and the structural capacity (strength) of the underlying road construction. This is similar in nature to the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey conducted by Scottish Local Authorities and it provides an annual snapshot of the road condition across the network. Output from these condition surveys is published each year in the National Transport Statistics

The Performance Audit Group (PAG) is employed to audit, monitor and report on the performance of the Operating Companies who manage, maintain and operate Scotland’s trunk roads. PAG continues to monitor Operating Company performance, deliver an annual programme of audits and publish annual reports.

Question reference: S6W-43635

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it published its most recent assessment of the condition of Scotland's road network.

Question reference: S6W-43637

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it will next commission a national audit on maintaining Scotland's road network.

National Audits on road maintenance are the responsibility of Audit Scotland on behalf of the Auditor General for Scotland (for Scottish Government bodies) and the Accounts Commission (for Councils and local government). The Auditor General for Scotland (AGS) is a Crown appointment and both the AGS and Accounts Commission are independent of both the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament. More information including their Corporate Plan and their planned audit work can be found on their website: Our work programme | Audit Scotland