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-38455

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37806 by Natalie Don-Innes on 4 June 2025, how many early learning and childcare settings have been evaluated as "adequate" by the Care Inspectorate, in each year from 2015 to 2024, also expressed as a percentage.

Question reference: S6W-38410

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what safeguards are in place to ensure that (a) academic quality and (b) student experience are maintained in any universities that are undertaking major financial restructuring.

Question reference: S6W-38395

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any economic impact of Scotland’s reportedly widening tax gap with the rest of the UK.

Question reference: S6W-38423

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency plans it has in place to support local authority service delivery in the event of industrial action.

Question reference: S6W-38402

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on what role devolved policy choices have played in any limiting of economic growth.

Question reference: S6W-38459

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the annual cost is of providing methadone treatment.

Question reference: S6W-37928

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 6 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to support partners to reduce any widespread disruptive gatherings on coastal communities and beaches during seasonal warm weather and bank holidays, in light of reports of such gatherings resulting in antisocial behaviours, violence and serious incidents.

We want to encourage people to enjoy our beautiful beaches safely and responsibly.

The Scottish Government is working with partners to promote community safety over the summer period.

This month, our grant funded partner Fearless will launch a summer safety campaign to encourage pro-social behaviour and responsible decision-making among children and young people on key issues affecting them. Campaign messaging will be promoted through social media as well as a series of outreach events across Scotland.

We support Police Scotland and partners in making full use of available resources, tools and powers available to them. Partners working locally are best placed to understand and address issues that communities face, including at coastal communities. Taking account of different circumstances and intelligence, preventative, diversionary work may also be undertaken by partners. Police Scotland can enforce the law by using a number of measures, including public disorder and dispersal powers

The Scottish Government also supports a range of targeted prevention and early intervention activity in schools, hospitals and across communities, working with partners to tackle violence. This is in addition to the Cashback for Communities programme, which supports young people most at risk of being involved in antisocial behaviour, offending or reoffending.

Our Water Safety Action Plan includes raising awareness of how to stay safe around water through promoting the Scottish Water Safety Code, which recommends avoiding alcohol or drugs if near water to prevent an increased risk-taking behaviour.

Question reference: S6W-36360

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the active travel budget has been used for that purpose in each year since 2020-21.

A significant share of the annual active travel budget is allocated to partner organisations, including local authorities. This means that not all of the planned spending on programmes and projects in any given budget happens within that year. Delays happen for a range of reasons, not least because of the pandemic between 2020-22 and cuts to capital funding allocations by the previous UK Government.

In 2020-21, 75% of the Active Travel Budget was spent. In 2021-22 76% was spent. In 2022-23, 93% was spent and in 2023-24, 91% was spent. While 2024-25 expenditure has not yet been consolidated, and we only have indicative figures currently, 63% of the active travel budget was spent as a result of urgent action necessary to balance the 2024-25 Budget, following the UK Labour Government’s fiscal statement in summer 2024

Question reference: S6W-38034

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government at what stage its ministers are involved in applications to translocate beavers; how they approach any such interventions (a) in general and (b) when an application (i) complies with Scotland's Beaver Strategy and (ii) has strong community support, and how its ministers have approached the translocation in Glen Affric.

The responsibility of the species licensing function was transferred from Scottish Ministers to NatureScot on 1 July 2011. Scottish Ministers retain an interest in the exercise of all the licensing powers delegated.

NatureScot must inform Scottish Ministers about any novel or contentious issues that arise in connection with the exercise of the delegated licensing functions.

The Scottish Government has not been involved in the licensing decision regarding the translocation of beavers to Glen Affric. The Scottish Government fully supports the decision by NatureScot that further consultation with those land managers who may be affected by the translocation of beavers in Glen Affric will be beneficial, and to ensure that appropriate mitigation measures will be agreed before any licensing decision is made.

Question reference: S6W-38078

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what accountability mechanisms are in place to monitor the delivery and impact of its Just Transition plans on energy workers.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of accountability in relation to our plans for a just transition. This is why we established the Just Transition Commission in 2019 to advise on and scrutinise our journey to net zero.

The Commission has published a number of reports which consider our approach to delivering a just transition for energy workers. These include the July 2024 publication ‘A Just Transition for Grangemouth’, which has informed the development of our Grangemouth Just Transition Plan; and its most recent report, ‘A Just Transition for Aberdeen and the North East’. The Scottish Government accepts in principle the headline recommendations in the latter report, but will take time to consider them in detail, before providing a full response.