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: S6O-03163

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received a final report from the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee.

Question reference: S6O-03162

Asked by: Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the finance secretary last met the UK Government and what was discussed.

Question reference: S6O-03151

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to next meet with the sole director of the GFG Alliance.

Question reference: S6O-03152

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-03160

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on its financial planning process of the UK Government having Autumn and Spring statements, in light of reported calls for a multi-year budget approach.

Question reference: S6O-03157

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is on course to achieve its 2030 target for reducing emissions.

Question reference: S6O-03153

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its review of how to increase the number of co-operatives, social enterprises and employee-owned businesses, as part of the move to a wellbeing economy.

Question reference: S6O-03156

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how outcomes from the New Deal for Business will be measured.

Question reference: S6W-25056

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 28 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it made regarding its reported decision to reduce the level of general capital support to Strathclyde Partnership for Transport to zero in its Budget for 2024-25.

The UK Autumn Statement was a worst-case scenario for Scotland and confirmed that the Scottish Government Capital Block Grant is forecast to contract by almost 10% in real terms over 5 years (2023-24 to 2027-28). Capital spending pressures across the Scottish Government far exceed available funding This means that it will take longer to deliver all our capital commitments, and difficult decisions were required in order to achieve a fiscally sustainable capital budget. As such, we targeted the limited capital funding available towards supporting employment and the economy, achieving our net zero ambitions and maintaining high-quality public services across Scotland.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in the portfolio is legally and contractually committed, and the budget ensures that those commitments are met in full in this budget as well as allocating funding to support critical maintenance and renewal expenditure to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to a safe and reliable transport system.

The budget process also considered equalities and fairer Scotland duties and progress towards our statutory targets for climate change and child poverty in prioritising the budget available to me. I refer to the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment published alongside this budget.

Officials continue to engage with SPT on the implications of the budget decision along with the impact on future spending plans, and SPT are invited to advise Transport Scotland on any impacts of budget decisions on risk to service provision.

Question reference: S6W-25506

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 28 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any further consideration that it has given to excluding home swapping from the short-term let licensing scheme.

I wrote to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on 30 January to advise on progress with our work to monitor the implementation of short-term let licensing. This letter is available to view on the Scottish Parliament website at: https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/local-gov/correspondence/2024/letterfromministershorttermletlicenceapplicationlevels.pdf .

I have outlined that I expect to provide a more comprehensive update on implementation in May/ June 2024.

My letter of 27 October 2023 to this Committee outlines the scope of this work, which explains that we will not be altering short-term let licence types including home letting (home exchanges are a form of home letting). A copy of the letter is available on the Scottish Parliament website at: https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/local-gov/correspondence/2023/shorttermlets27oct.pdf