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 482 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6O-04364

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Housing (Scotland) Bill, which two local authority areas have been identified as areas for the planned homelessness prevention pilots, in light of reports that the pilots are due to commence in spring 2025.

Question reference: S6W-34527

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it defines "Fairer Funding".

The Scottish Government recognises that the third sector needs stability and certainty in order to thrive and to help the Government to deliver on its policy agenda. The Programme for Government 2024 commits the Government to continuing to invest in the third sector across the Scottish Government, making improvements to grant making.

We have listened to the views of the Sector and have committed to progress Fairer Funding within the bounds of affordability. In the first instance this includes implementing a multi-year funding pilot and improving the timeliness of grant notifications. Subsequently we will go on to evaluate the impact of the Pilot and make further improvements to the grant making process, including consideration of reporting requirements and grant conditions in order to ensure grants make the greatest impact possible for beneficiaries.

Question reference: S6W-34528

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards the ambition to achieve Fairer Funding for the voluntary sector by 2026, and how progress towards this ambition will be scrutinised.

The Scottish Government recognises that the third sector needs stability and certainty in order to thrive and to help the Government to deliver on its policy agenda. We have listened to the views of the Sector and have committed to progress Fairer Funding within the bounds of affordability. This includes implementing a multi-year funding pilot totalling over £120 million for 2025-26 and 2026-27, making improvements to the grant making process, providing more timely notifications, rationalising reporting requirements, improving grant conditions and securing better grant management data. In conjunction with third sector umbrella bodies and grantee organisations, officials are developing a system for evaluating the effectiveness of the Fairer Funding pilot with a view to identifying learning and making continuous improvement.

Question reference: S6W-34526

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of voluntary sector grants are (a) currently and (b) expected to be multi-year as a result of its Fairer Funding commitment.

The Fairer Funding pilot consists of grants to the third sector in Scotland totalling £61.7 million in 2025-26 and £63.2 million in 2026-27. The challenging financial position means that the total volume of multi-year funding agreements is balanced against other priorities and our ability to take a measured financial risk within each portfolio area. However, the sums involved are substantial and have been welcomed by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and by the third sector organisations involved. The Pilot is an important first step to move forward with multi-year funding.

Work is underway to improve our visibility of grants issued by the Scottish Government to the third sector. The previous electronic accounting system did not reliably classify whether or not grant spend is allocated to the third sector. This therefore means that collating grant information remains a manual exercise across all portfolios whilst the reporting framework associated with the new system (Oracle Cloud) is fully developed. Oracle Cloud was adopted in October 2024 and is being used to make payments made to grant recipients. However, for effective analysis, a data set of an entire financial year or more is likely to be required to produce meaningful insights.

Question reference: S6W-34329

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when legislative regulations regarding alkaline hydrolysis will be laid before the Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-33946

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on strengthening (a) planning law and (b) national guidance to improve the provision of accessible parking spaces.

Accessible parking space provision is influenced by many regimes including planning, building standards and roads policy. It is for the local authority to decide on the suitable parking requirements in each locale, taking a place based approach. Planning law does not govern car parking provision, rather, it is for the local authority to manage existing parking in public car parks and on the road network and requirements for new developments (set out in building standards guidance).

Scottish Government funding for electric vehicle charge points now requires operators to take steps to ensure a reasonable proportion of accessible spaces.

Question reference: S6O-04304

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, 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 consideration it has given to making bereavement education a formal part of the school syllabus.

Question reference: S6O-04168

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted an assessment of the potential impact of the reported proposed budget reduction for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service on its ability to reduce any court backlogs.

Question reference: S6W-31949

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to address the decline in formal volunteer participation in Scotland since 2019.

Scotland’s volunteers make a fantastic contribution to people’s lives and our communities.

The Scottish Government provide direct funding to national and local intermediaries to support the national and local volunteering infrastructure. This includes funding for Volunteer Scotland to implement Scotland’s Volunteering Action Plan. This long-term plan seeks to increase participation and reduce barriers to volunteering for all. The Scottish Government also funds the local Third Sector Interface network who support volunteering across all 32 local authorities as well as funding youth volunteering and the Volunteering Support Fund.

Volunteer Scotland has strategic leadership of volunteering, including provision of a national advice centre and delivery of research. We very much welcome the launch, in September, of a national volunteering recruitment campaign, led by Volunteer Scotland, to address volunteer shortages. This will provide volunteer involving organisations with practical guidance and promotion materials to help attract and retain volunteers.

Question reference: S6W-31950

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Scottish Household Survey 2023 findings, which show a further decline in respondents' formal volunteer participation, will be considered when finalising the decision regarding the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) fee proposals for volunteers in qualifying voluntary organisations.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Long and short term trends in formal volunteering, including information gathered in the Scottish Household Survey 2023, have informed the development of policy options on the future of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme fee waiver for volunteers in qualifying organisations. The Scottish Government will take this into account when finalising decisions.