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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2287 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6O-04254

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the National Galleries, in light of reports that some of its flagship attractions may have to close.

Question reference: S6W-32869

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to people who move marginally into a higher income bracket that takes them over the threshold for receipt of (a) the Scottish child payment, (b) education maintenance allowance and (c) other devolved benefits that aim to help people with meeting the costs of raising a child.

Eradicating child poverty in Scotland is a national mission and the top priority for this Government.

The Scottish Government recognises the pressure on household budgets which is why the 2025-26 draft budget continues to allocate over £3 billion a year to policies which tackle both poverty and the cost of living, ensuring that families are supported with the costs of raising a child.

This includes providing a range of support such as 1,140 hours of high-quality funded early learning and childcare to all three and four year olds and eligible two year olds. If families paid for this offer themselves it would cost them more than £5,500 per eligible child per year.

We also offer free school meals to all 277,632 pupils in P1 to 5 and in special schools, saving families taking those meals around £400 per year per child, as well as providing free bus travel for 2.3 million people, including all children and young people under 22, disabled people and everyone age 60 and over – which Child Poverty Action Group estimate saves families on the median wage £2,836 by the time a child turns 18.

Further, the draft Scottish Budget for 2025-26 preserves the social contract at the heart of the Scottish Government’s approach. This includes continuing free prescriptions, compared to £9.90 per item in England from 1 May 2024, and ensuring that no Scottish student pays tuition fees which means that, unlike elsewhere in the UK, a Scottish student studying in Scotland will not incur additional debt of up to £28,605.

In total, subject to Parliamentary approval, the Scottish Budget for 2025-26 will deliver almost £64 billion of funding, focusing resource across the four priorities set out in the Programme for Government: eradicating child poverty; growing the economy; tackling the climate emergency; and ensuring high quality and sustainable public services.

Question reference: S6W-32893

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to raise the income threshold for receipt of (a) the Scottish child payment, (b) education maintenance allowance and (c) other devolved benefits that aim to help people with meeting the costs of raising a child.

Eligibility for our low-income benefits for families with children, including Scottish Child Payment, is not based on income thresholds. To qualify for these payments individuals must generally be in receipt of certain reserved benefits.

Carer Support Payment is the only devolved benefit with an earnings threshold. The Scottish Government’s 2025-26 draft budget increases the earnings threshold to £196.

There are no current plans to increase the income thresholds for the Education Maintenance Allowance. This is on the basis that the Scottish Government has faced its most challenging budgetary settlement since devolution began – a settlement which has not been inflation-proofed, and which has subsequently required difficult decisions to be made, due to the pressures on our public services. Any future changes to the EMA and corresponding budget would need to be considered in this context.

Question reference: S6W-32872

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 20 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce an annual price cap for care homes of £87,000 per person, in line with that set by the UK Government.

The cap of £86,000 proposed by the previous UK Government had been due to come into force in October 2025, however, on the 29 July 2024 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that these reforms (and thus the cap on care costs) would not be taken forward in October 2025.

It should be noted that the proposals put forward by the UK Government were for personal care costs and did not include “hotel costs” - accommodation, food, energy bills, lifestyle and wellbeing and consumables etc. In Scotland personal care costs for adults who have been assessed as requiring such personal care do not pay for this service, regardless of their condition or means. Nursing care is also free at the point of delivery. The Local Authority pay for these elements of the residential care for all those assessed as needing them.

Question reference: S6W-33604

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 31 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve the efficiency of EV charging points in rural areas, and ensure that maintenance of these charging points is kept to a high standard to reduce any risk of chargers not working for users.

Question reference: S6W-32870

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions is had with the Scottish Ambulance Service in response to the recently implemented level four resource escalation action plan following reports of some patients waiting up to 12 hours for a vehicle, and what plans the Scottish Ambulance Service has to reduce waiting times overall.

Question reference: S6W-32871

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans ScotRail has to review Inter7city trains to ensure that carriages (a) meet their expected capacity and (b) are fit for purpose.

Question reference: S6F-03675

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 January 2025

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6W-32233

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 6 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether students under the age of 22 from outside of Scotland who are studying at Scottish universities and colleges qualify for the discretionary free bus travel card, and, if so, what the annual cost of this is to the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-32042

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 06 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that financial claims submitted to it by people who have been impacted by the building of the Queensferry Crossing are addressed.

All valid claims under Part 1 of The Land Compensation (Scotland) Act 1973 submitted to Transport Scotland in respect of the Queensferry Crossing have been passed to the Valuation Office Agency to negotiate the level of compensation due with the claimants’ appointed agents. As soon as Transport Scotland receive the reports from the Valuation Office Agency, payments will be forthcoming as has already been done in a number of cases.