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-27196

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the four-day working week public sector pilot.

Work is continuing on the 4 Day Working Week Public Sector Pilot to assess the wellbeing, environmental and productivity benefits a 4 Day Working Week could bring.

South of Scotland Enterprise are working closely with Autonomy as our expert partner on their 32 hour working week pilot. I can also confirm that Accountant in Banking (AiB) began their 12 month pilot on 15 April 2024. Both AiB and SOSE’s hours of public service will remain the same.

Autonomy will also provide support and evaluate organisations moving to a contractual 35 hour working week. This will capture valuable insights from a wider range of public bodies on different shorter work week models and be included in the 4 Day Working Week evaluation report.

Question reference: S6W-27187

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 7 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it will explore the reintroduction of a public health supplement for large retailers, as announced in its 2024-25 Budget.

Question reference: S6W-26854

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its expectations are of the Scottish Funding Council regarding monitoring fair work practices through college outcome agreements; whether it expects such fair work practices to be developed in cooperation with workers and trade unions, and how it will act in any case where fair work practices are not being reported on or properly adhered to by a college.

The Scottish Government expects the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to support fair work practices, and to monitor adherence across the college sector.

As recipients of SFC funding, in line with Scottish Government Fair Work First guidance - reflected in the 2024-25 Ministerial letter of guidance to SFC, colleges must be committed to fair work practices for staff engaged in the delivery of activity associated with public funds. Inclusion of information on compliance with Fair Work First is a requirement of the accounts directions for universities and colleges and SFC encourages institutions to be fulsome in their disclosures. Where there are institutions that do not currently meet requirements around disclosure of this activity, SFC will engage with institutions with a view to ensuring that they do so in their future annual report and accounts.

I also wrote directly to College Principals on 7 June 2023 to re-state this Government’s continued commitment to Fair Work principles. I expect both employers and trade unions to work together to ensure that the Fair Work principles are adhered to across the college sector and that staff are treated fairly.

We are also making progress with the addition of trade union nominees to the college boards to further improve governance and management and to ensure effective employee voice as one of the key principles of Fair Work.

Question reference: S6W-26857

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on any potential risk posed to Scotland's energy security by energy infrastructure being either owned or manufactured by companies that are based in, or associated with, potentially hostile states, such as China.

Question reference: S6W-26777

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any potential impact of the UK Government’s Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill on the ability of Scottish Enterprise and other public bodies in Scotland to conduct human rights reputational risk management and other similar checks on prospective recipients of grants and other support.

The UK Government’s Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill is currently at House of Lords Committee stage, and is therefore still subject to change. As it stands, it is clear that this disproportionate and unnecessary legislation is likely to significantly affect the ways in which public bodies can take human rights concerns into account when making certain decisions. We will make a full assessment of the Bill, its coverage and its impact on public bodies in Scotland when it is in its final form, and will make any necessary adjustments to our Human Rights Due Diligence guidance, and any other relevant guidance, accordingly.

Question reference: S6O-03353

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking in response to reports of potential staff redundancies at the Thermo Fisher Scientific site in Paisley.

Question reference: S6W-26255

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 8 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to reduce waiting times at the Sandyford Gender Identity Clinic, and when it anticipates that waiting times will improve for patients.

We are supporting NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to improve existing service capacity in both the adult and young people’s services and recruit to their multidisciplinary teams.

All gender identity clinics in Scotland are, however, working hard to reduce waiting times and provide support for those on their waiting lists, including through new clinical delivery approaches based on local need. The Scottish Government is working closely with NHS Boards and plans further investment in 2024-25, to help improve services and reduce gender identity clinic waiting times.

Question reference: S6W-26120

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 25 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to question S6W-25694 by Tom Arthur on 4 March 2024 and S6W-25695 by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2024, what consideration it has given to amending the conditions of grants, loans and its contracts with third parties to preclude parties that have transferred jobs overseas, commonly referred to as offshoring, from such support and agreements.

Contract terms & conditions are focused on the delivery of the contract, and are proportionate and relevant to the contract subject matter. Procurement rules require equal treatment, transparency, and proportionality in public procurement processes, precluding the exclusion of companies who conduct their business lawfully.

Grants entered into by Scottish Ministers and any public body subject to the Scottish Public Finance Manual are subject to the principles set out in the manual and have appropriate terms and conditions applied to protect public resources.

Question reference: S6W-25935

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 13 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the reported oil leak in Glen Fruin, responded to by SEPA on 2 January 2024, what information it can provide on the exact scale of the leak, including (a) how it happened, (b) how long the clear-up is expected to take, (c) when the road restrictions are expected to be lifted and (d) what is being done to protect salmon, trout and other wildlife in the River Fruin and Loch Lomond.

SEPA have been regularly monitoring the Fruin Water since 3 January 2024, following reports of a small quantity of light crude oil surfacing from an underground pipeline. They will continue to do so until the clean-up is concluded.

The exact scale of the leak, the extent of contamination and the duration of the remediation work, will not be known until the results of the ground investigation have been presented to SEPA alongside the remediation options appraisal. This is expected by May.

The Glen Fruin road (C70) was closed by Police Scotland as a precaution following the discovery of an oil leak on 2nd January 2024. However, access through Glen Fruin will remain unaffected during the remediation phase.

Minor localised environmental impacts have been recorded and a range of precautionary measures have been installed at SEPA’s request. No significant impact has been detected with respect to water quality, migratory salmonids (salmon/trout) or to other wildlife within the Fruin Water or Loch Lomond.

Question reference: S6W-25694

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the total value is of any (a) contracts and (b) grants awarded to Thermo Fisher Scientific by Scottish public bodies in each of the last five years.

A full breakdown of the total number and value of contracts awarded to Thermo Fisher Scientific for the last five fiscal years covering all Scottish public bodies is provided in the following table.

Year	Number of Contracts	Total Contracts Value
19-20	11	£1,428,668.49
20-21	22	£17,619,595.56
21-22	20	£4,016,757.72
22-23	17	£113,420,984.14
23-24	11	£14,217,082.43
Total	81	£150,703,088.34

No grant payments have been made to Fisher Scientific UK Limited (Thermo Fisher) directly from the Scottish Government in the last five fiscal years. The Scottish Government can only provide their own grant data as the information requested is not held centrally.